001[Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] up your meeting good afternoon ladies and gentlemen i now call the meeting the school board of palm beach county to order at 5 p.m on june 23 2021 mrs bass please call the roll district one barbara mcquinn here virtually district 2 alexandria ayala here district three here in braille here district four erica whitfield here district five frank barbieri here district six marcia andrews yeah district seven deborah robinson she's here we need a motion to approve mrs uh mcquinn attending from home motion by mrs muitfield second by vice sherwood brill any discussion all in favor pose motion carries 6-0 with mrs mcqueen not voting on that of course mr mcquinn would
002you state for the record the reason you can't attend today home ill non-coven on antibiotics so i expect to be back ready to join all of you on our next meeting all right thank you miss mcqueen i hope you get well soon we have quorum with all seven board members present also joining us is superintendent dr donald fenoy general counsel sean bernard inspector general theresa michael and board clerk carol bass senior staff members will join us periodically as directed by the superintendent viewers and listeners can access the meeting today by either watching on comcast channels 234-235 u-verse channel 99 or by using the youtube link on our web page at palmbeachschools.org in the event in the event that the link is interrupted for technical reasons please switch over to the tv channels all board meetings
003are recorded in their entirety and post it on the district website within 24 hours we also offer a listening only option which the public can access by calling 561-357-5900 or toll-free at 1-866-9300 [Music] the meeting id is 1-561-880-1124 pound sign this meeting is being transcribed by a closed captioner so remember to speak at a reasonable pace well everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states to be led by inspector general teresa mike to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all like to welcome any public speakers who are joining us in person today while your attendance here at the board meeting is appreciated please be mindful of important safety
004protocols that the board now has in place to conform with covet 19 safety guidelines and school board policies the school district of palm beach county supports the peaceful assembly of persons to express themselves regarding matters concerning district students employees and the community however if such peaceful assembly results in a disturbance those persons may be subject to arrest or other lawful action so please be respectful of all persons who are present on school district property in an effort to keep all participants and district employees safe everyone must obey all lawful orders issued by law enforcement which may include remaining or moving to a specific area or location lowering voices for safety reasons or other safety related commands please sit only in designated seats do not move any furniture and do not move about the room unless
005you are speaking at the podium exiting to the restroom or leaving the building please maintain social distancing at all times remain in the designated areas and leave the property once your visit is complete school police has been instructed to remove anyone from the meeting who does not adhere to these safety protocols and procedures as i have outlined please respect this cautionary warning that the event of interference with the orderly processes of the meeting failure to follow the safety protocols and procedures or otherwise disruptive conduct it will result in removal of the person from the meeting or other action thank you for helping to maintain decorum and the orderly conduct of school board business we have one item we have no minutes i understand board clerk we have two items to be added for good cause
006items p3 and p4 item p3 and p4 good cause exist to add these items to allow employees to start in their new positions as soon as possible mr patek you have anything else to add nothing to add sir you have any items to withdraw yes sir e-l-r-one personnel disciplinary action um board members we have three items have been pulled bcs1 tl3 and tl4 at this point are there any other items that you want to pull seeing none we need a motion to approve the agenda as modified motioned by mrs whitfield second by mrs andrews any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries 7-0 are there any disclosures or abstentions for many of the board members seeing none mr superintendent comments thank you mr chairman late yesterday the florida department of education released the results
007of the fy21 grade 3 fsa english language arts test percent of the district's third grade students participated in the assessments was administered on campuses as a reminder there were no fsa in fy 20 due to the pandemic despite the pandemic-born challenges of the 2021 school year the school district's third graders overall results on the fsa remains unchanged in 2021 matching the state average of 54 of students performing at or above level 3. due to the executive order issued by the florida department of education the 2021 scores will not be punitive but the data captured in the results is critical and that helps guide schools administrations administrators in addressing the support of the needs of all students i am thankful that 97 of our third graders took the assessment which gives the district a clear indication
008of the work ahead as a district we are committed to improving literacy instruction i commend the district's teachers administrator staff and the community for the unwavering support during this unconventional school year i am optimistic about the 2021-21-22 school year and the academic gains that will be realized by our students and now final salute to the students who recently moved on to the next path in life the graduation class of 2021. over the past few weeks board members and i have enjoyed a front row seat to high school graduations approximately 14 000 seniors received the diploma this year and i could not be more proud of the graduates and the principals teachers administrators and support staff who played a role in their education i'd also like to extend my gratitude to the dedicated staff who organized
009and produced the graduations the majority of which took place at the expo center at the south florida fairgrounds graduation administrator eric stern coordinates graduations months in advance and he does a remarkable job remarkable job with his precision i'd also like to thank the combined communications intent team for producing and live streaming the graduations and school police for maintaining order and security so many other departments also supply behind the scene support each works in perfect harmony with other teams all graduations were recorded and are available for viewing at palm beach schools dot graduation 2021. while we say goodbye to the class of 2021 our district is hard at work preparing for current students for the new year just take a moment and give everyone who was played a critical part in our graduation round of applause
010beginning next week extensive learning opportunities will be available for students with unfinished learning in elementary middle and high school the district has leveraged federal education support funds to address learning loss as a result of cover 19 while accelerating student learning too close to pre-existing achievement gaps students will leave the summer acceleration programs when prepared for success in the upcoming grade level and will be exposed to enrichment activities this summer construction and facilities crews will also be hard at work repairing making repairs and updates using penny at work tax dollars at 35 campuses throughout the district meantime students returning to three schools will be in for a treat when they begin the new year on august the 10th addison meisner k-8 in boca raton washington elementary and riviera beach and palmosa school of the arts in
011delray beach have all been modernized and we are also focusing on subsequent school years both members and i recently took part in ceremonial ground breakings for two future district operating schools construction is just beginning on an elementary school that will open in boca raton in the fall of and a high school west of lake worth that will open in the fall of 2023 finally to parents and students joining us please enjoy a safe and relaxing summer but remember learning is an ongoing process even over the summer you'll find lots of information about summer camps literacy options by grade level and a wide variety of resources for students and parents at palmbeachschools.org summer learning at this time i would like to have our deputy superintendent keith oswald come forward to introduce the district's outstanding new principles
012thank you dr fenoy and good good evening now board members now let our fantastic outstanding new leaders come on up here and take a seat and it is great pleasure to begin tonight's introductions and we're going to first start leading the helm at woodlands middle school miss jennifer cross there we go good evening board chair barbieri vice chair brill mrs andrews distinguished board members and dr fennoy i'd like to take a moment to thank our superintendent dr fenoy deputy superintendent mr oswald south regional superintendent dr lakota instructional superintendent dr hepburn for believing in me and for providing me the opportunity to serve the woodlands community home of the mustangs i am beyond excited and i couldn't wouldn't be standing here cheat with i wouldn't be standing here before you today without the support mentorship and
013guidance of miss carlene millen mr ed tierney mrs michelle alevey dr larry ryapel dr wendell brown and lastly my first principal dr john edwards who encouraged me to explore the role of leadership in addition i would like to thank my team in professional development professional growth and the division of hr who continue to inspire me and motivate me each and every day and finally i couldn't be here today without the commitment and dedication of my husband chris who has stood beside me for more than 20 years through my journey as an educator and a leader to our amazing daughters who are my biggest cheerleaders kelsey a rising fifth grader and kaylee a rising second grader at banks forest elementary school to my family friends especially my parents and in-laws who are watching from minnesota thank
014you thank you and go mustangs congratulations [Applause] and going to the next middle school palm springs middle school not too far from here and leading that school to new heights dr pamela mcdonough microphone there we go okay good evening chairman barbieri board members and superintendent dr fennoy i'm so grateful to be here with you in this moment to share how privileged i feel to be able to be a part of the legacy miss jinx has established at palm springs middle school i would like to acknowledge those who have supported me throughout my journey and whose shoulders i am standing on today first i'd like to thank god for always protecting me from things that are not meant for me next i need to acknowledge my family who's here my husband and two boys i love
015you guys so much also both of my parents while not in attendance tonight i have to acknowledge them and the sacrifices they made day in and day out so that i could be the woman that i am today my principal miss rivera who shown me that you can be an amazing leader and also an incredible mom two of my mentors dr stratos and dr weigel who have taught me what it means to be a transformational leader central area regional superintendent and instructional superintendent respectively mrs haynes and mrs wetzel who have been the example of what it means to be a strong relational leader my forest hill team you are my family thank you for letting me grow with you learn from you and lead with and for you thank you dr lacada and dr hepburn
016for this incredible opportunity i will do my best to work hard every day to continue to tell the story of who i am and my commitment to prom springs students staff and community thank you congratulations dr mcdonough and heading up to the north and leading marsh point elementary school mr ryan scott good evening school board members and dr fenoy i want to thank you for the opportunity to sit here before you tonight to be selected as the next principal of marsh point elementary it's truly an honor but i wouldn't be sitting here before you without the leadership guidance and support of others who have shaped me into the leader that i have become today my leadership journey began as a united states marine serving as a squad leader in the 2nd battalion 5th marines i
017deployed twice with the 31st muse special operations capable unit and left as a sergeant after four years the 14 leadership traits installed in all marines are at the core of who i am as a leader i would like to thank maria bishop who's also been so supportive and offered guidance throughout the last couple of years as our instructional superintendent in the north area she has provided me with opportunities to serve those beyond the march point community mentor other aps and more also her knowledge of the process and the qualities needed to move from assistant principal to principal were helpful in being able to translate years of successful experience as an ap into meaningful scenarios to share with the committee so that i could sit here before you today i would also like to thank the
018person who has molded me into the educational leader that i am today someone whose shadow looms large in palm beach county and leaves very very big shoes to fill maureen werner has left me with a 44-year legacy to live up to and has taught me so much in the nearly 10 years that we spent together she has supported my growth and at times tempered me with her knowledge and experience for which i will be forever grateful however most of all i would like to thank my biggest cheerleader my daughter alex who will be a senior at dwyer high school this coming year she's always been my biggest supporter since my leadership journey began in palm beach county as a school-based administrator and a single dad she's given up summer family vacations for summer camp so
019i could run summer school for many many years she's given up sleeping in or had to stay late at school to help barcode materials barcode materials or volunteer to assist with functions such as curriculum nights annual 5k runs and so many other things she never complained about any of it and always eagerly jumped in to lend a helping hand hand because she knew she how important it was to me finally it isn't often that an assistant principal is given the opportunity to continue to lead the school community that they have helped build i arrived at marsh point after its third year and since i've been spent nearly ten years growing the students staffs and relationships that are necessary to serve our unique community i look forward to many more years of academic excellence at marsh
020point and celebrating those successes with our students staff and community i consider myself truly blessed to be given this opportunity thank you congratulations mr scott and thank you for your service and taking the lead of seminole trails elementary school jamila johnson good evening chairman barbieri school board members superintendent dr fenoy deputy superintendent dr oswalt and distinguished guests it is with great honor and humility that i introduce myself as jameelah johnson the new principal of seminole trails elementary home of the roaring panthers it is a privilege to follow miss judith gerard and i thank her for her 17 years of outstanding service at seminole trails as she transitions into a much deserved retirement this school year in the acceptance of this appointment i would be remiss not to mention the outstanding leaders within the palm beach
021county school district who have served as mentors and examples of excellence for me throughout my career thank you to dr monique mcteer for taking me under your wing and providing me with my first leadership experience as a learning team facilitator dr mcteer taught me how to lead with vision and purpose thank you to miss rose bacchus miss oramellis and miss laurie harbaugh for providing me with the best professional development around best practices and pedagogy thank you to dr debbie battles for the opportunity to serve as a literacy specialist and for sharpening my understanding of literacy around the reading process thank you to ms adrian howard our fy21 principal of the year nominee for exposing me to the wonderful world of the arts and the legacy of ubikenzi elementary school thank you dr gibbons dr howard
022hepburn and miss angela moore for trusting me to lead as an assistant principal in the beautiful dull glade community thank you to miss bonnie fox for reminding me of the importance of holding myself and others accountable for delivering nothing but our best work thank you to ms joe robinson for your leadership and continued support and encouragement for me to pursue the principleship thank you to mr jeff pegg for reminding me that meaningful relationships always matter thank you to miss carlene millen and the entire leadership and professional development team for helping me to prepare for the principalship as a member of cohort number one to miss valerie haynes and miss vivian greene i'm forever grateful to you for this opportunity and i thank you and finally to my family my mother who has taught me everything
023that i know about being a young lady a woman my children zaylin who is going into the 10th grade and my daughter ziya who is going into the seventh grade and most importantly my husband marate for your unwavering support and love these past 15 plus years i would not be here without you to my new panthers family and to all of the students we will continue to be safe respectful avid learners and fy22 i look forward to learning and growing with you our future is bright and we will shine our lights go panthers miss johnson and last but of course not least the new principal of aleman elementary school is miss corey ferreira thank you good evening chairman barbieri vice chair brill school board members and dr fenoy i am grateful and honored to be
024here tonight in order to be officially approved as the next principal of alamanda elementary school thank you i will keep my comments brief tonight because i know you have a packed agenda but i would be remiss if i did not take the time to recognize and thank a few people first and foremost my family is here tonight with me my husband mike two children morgan and cayden and my parents doug and julie they have been on this ride from the start constantly supporting and showing patience as i won as i run from one school event to another one of my mottos that i frequently use is that success never happens in isolation i am a product of just that i stand on the shoulders of giants and i have and continue to reach new heights
025because of the numerous people that have believed in me took chances on me and pushed me when i truly needed it i am a product of palm beach county schools a proud forest hill falcon and i owe where i am sitting today to the man that would become the very first true example of what a leader is the late mr carlos rosello my principal at forest hill he knew his students by name and never once made us feel like we did not matter or that he did not have the time to hear us he was kind but most importantly he was present it was through his example that i learned that the small things really are the big things i have used him as an example countless times and i will continue to do so
026i would also like to thank dr camille long dr joseph lee for working with me coaching me advocating me and supporting me and my desire to obtain the position of principle thank you to ms maria bishop for believing in me and for your genuine words of support i look forward to your mentorship and i will not let you down to dr fenoy thank you for your trust and your candor finally to the whole tribe of women that i get to call my support system mentors and friends you know who you are that have been by me by my side throughout my career thank you is just not enough and i am forever grateful and finally to the faculty staff students and families of alamanda i am honored to be joining your family i look forward
027to and creating and achieving a shared vision of success with you i promise that you will never have to walk alone through anything because i will be right beside you every step of the way we will take our community and students to the next level together thank you congratulations mr and this concludes tonight's introductions of new principles we wish the best to all of you and your leadership for these schools [Applause] board member comments mrs mcquinn yes thank you very short because dr fenoy covered the the thanks and the congratulations i want to add to that and i know he covered it all but feeling i need to do that recognizing our elementary and middle schools and k-8 etc for getting our students ready to be successful to graduate from high school and i want
028to point out for everyone something that dr fenoy said in his graduation speech which i think was his best ever by the way but in particular he said something to the graduates that we all know but i hadn't thought about in a while he's he told the graduates that they had earned their diploma and when he said the next part the every audience broke into applause he explained to them that their high school diploma was something that no one could ever take away from them and that is an important thing to remember it's theirs forever so that diploma is their gateway to whatever they can imagine they want to do next and i'm so grateful that i was able to uh be part of those ceremonies so it's a great time in spite of all
029of our differences to remember what we're all about and let's celebrate that success thank you thank you mr mcqueen miss ayala thank you mr chairman um i wanted to say just a huge round of applause to everyone for wrapping up an incredibly difficult school year um it was so heartwarming and great to be at the graduations in person i was really happy that that was able to happen for these students and i know how much that meant to the families but really i visited um every school in my district and seeing what our administrations were going through making sure that they were on top of keeping kids learning in a incredible circumstances that they had never encountered before is just i need to say thank you to everyone involved um second of all i wanted
030to give a shout out to some of the um outstanding programs i have in district two that are international spanish academies three of our schools have been recognized as finalists for a video contest that the government of spain is taking is doing for esa students and it's all over the country for programs that exist but three of our very own have been recognized here in palm beach county that's berkshire elementary john i leonard high and oke healey middle outstanding program so proud of all of you and thank you for your commitment to making sure that we understand the importance of world languages and cultural enrichment and education next i want to give a thank you to principal mcnichols at forest hill elementary i just visited with them for the first time and met with the
031staff and the team and it's a wonderful community school that has a very robust dual language spanish program and the community really is the hub there so it was really exciting to meet everybody and i look forward to coming back again and again and visiting thank you for your warm welcome and for all of your hard work over the last year and going into this next year and finally i know she just walked out with her family but i wanted to congratulate all of our new principals in particular new principal dr pamela mcdonough who is going to be taking over at palm springs middle which is where i went to school miss jenks did an amazing job there and certainly left a legacy that i know dr mcdonough will carry on so positively and it's
032really exciting to see her take the lead there so to her forest hill family too and principal rivera thank you for being such a great role model and supportive of her in pursuing this opportunity which i know she'll rock so congrats to her thank you thank you mr allen mrs whitfield thank you so much um i did want to piggyback on all the graduation excitement it was just so wonderful to be able to be around everyone and have such a wonderful celebration i have to say a huge thank you to the people who put in the 18-hour days every day for weeks what it does to their bodies is just unbelievable all that standing and working i know feet were swollen and everyone was really tired but from the perspective of somebody sitting on the
033stage and from the parents that i talked to it was just flawless and it's it was just so wonderful so so proud i do want to say a huge specific thank you to eric stern the time that he spends getting everybody ready making that graduate those graduation happen i know we had 32 of them it's just unbelievable and so we can't thank him enough for the work that he's done there also since it is the end of the year i do want to say a very special thank you to the people who made this school year happen it was just a really tough year for everyone and i don't think we can thank our staff enough we have you know over 20 000 people who contribute to make this school district happen but i do
034want to thank in particular the ones who took care of my daughter this year um because i got to see the impact that each teacher that she had her principal that she had her bus driver that drove her home every day the custodians what they did for her she showed up on september 21st the first possible minute that we could send her back to school i did and it was just such a successful year even with all of the challenges that we had so huge thank you to coniston middle school again for taking care of my child and to every one of the schools in the district who took care of everyone's children it was just really a herculean effort and i'm very very proud of the school district and what we've all come through
035and i'm very very much looking forward to things looking normal ish at least next year i think we all need it to move forward so huge thank you to everyone and and i hope you have a very safe and wonderful summer thank you thank you mr woodfield mrs andrews thank you and i have to repeat it because it's been a long time 15 months almost 15 months we've been through this pandemic and i'd like to thank the entire school district family you did it you took care of the children you kept the schools running all of you in all of your capacities we made it and now we're at the time to take a break to take a breather and take some relaxation so i'm hoping that you will take some time this summer to
036pamper yourself and yes it was great the last two weeks on the stage with the graduates oh my goodness just seeing them come across the stage and get their diploma it was my pleasure to clap for them to celebrate with them to let them know that they're so awesome and we look forward to great things from them and tonight i would like to celebrate a senior a graduating senior from pahokee high school and he has done some great things and i have a note from his principal and i want to take a minute to read what his principal has said about him he has now graduated and i'm going to play a little video about him but we had so many outstanding graduates but this is one i'd like to highlight matthew thompson is one
037of three original robotics students that started pahokee middle senior high school robotics program that is now nationally known mr thompson while in eighth grade led the pahokee robotics team to an 11th place state championship finish in the program's first year because of the original team's success the robotics program has grown and expanded throughout the school the top robotics student at pahokee middle school currently receives an award named after the original three students in which as stated earlier mr thompson was a part of recently mr thompson continued success in achieving his pilot license proves what administration tells students every day on campus that we are more than just athletes we are scholar students and scholar athletes mr matthew thompson's mother is currently a math teacher at pahokee middle senior high school mr thompson will be attending
038liberty university aeronautical program on a full scholarship in the fall as he takes another step closer to achieving his dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot go blue devils go glades region go principal the nod and certainly go matthew thompson please play the video a superstar graduate of the palm beach county school district pahokee middle senior high school [Music] hi my name is matthew thompson and i'm a proud graduate in the class of 2021 at pokey middle senior high school my love of aviation actually began when i was in elementary school my mom got me involved in several different aviation programs the first time i flew a plane was when i was 13 years old i worked hard to get 40 hours of flight time to get my pilot's license i mean as a mom
039you want the best for your kid whatever your kid tells you you know we'll get it done whatever it is we'll get it done from an early age he said i want to be a pilot so i was like that is awesome that is great so you know you you try and put your kid in a position for opportunities to you know to happen i want to thank the teachers and staff of polka middle senior high school my math teachers and science teachers for giving me the skills that you need to be a pilot with weather and planning out flights my grade point average was a 3.95 gpa i was involved in the air force jrotc program at pokey middle senior high school i feel like i've learned a lot of my decision making skills
040in rotc being the oldest in a single mom house you know i made sure that i did what i needed to do to get better in my aviation journey at the same time helping my mom with my brothers and sisters matthew is a gift from god he's truly remarkable [Music] thank you mrs andrews dr robinson thank you oh yeah that that was heartwarming um so i just want to add a couple of thank yous to the list um this has just been such a horrible year in many respects um but i do think in many respects we we rose to the challenge um with a lot of help from our friends so to speak right um i want to specifically um thank our chief academic officer and our deputy superintendent who i know like work
041like with without end in sight to to respond to the needs um that this this pandemic created i am particularly happy um that we have the summer program for students who are not doing as well as hoped and it's actually a program that i wish had been in place 20 years ago i wish it was just how we did business but fortunately you know we have dollars from the federal government to help support that and hopefully we'll be able to enrich our school year programs to the point that we don't need to have such summer programs to any great extent but but i do want to thank them because um just just the effort that's been put into understanding the needs and to outlining a plan um i appreciate i also want to thank mr
042um harvey oaxaca because he has he has um dealt with my advocacy and in turn the advocacy of members of the haitian community and so in the fall we will have our first haitian creole dual language program which will be at rolling green elementary and i think that that is really an outstanding um step forward and so um though i am very concerned about a number of things um the pandemic and academics amongst other things i will i did want to take this moment just to say thank you to named and unnamed individuals who helped us make it through this year without true catastrophe thank you vice chair bro thank you so there is a disadvantage to sitting at this end of the dais because by the time you get to me it becomes redundant
043but i'll start off by saying that i am not going to subject you to my singing voice if i could carry a tune i'd be singing it's the most wonderful time of the year graduations and groundbreakings what a welcomed reprieve it was these past weeks to celebrate our students and begin construction of two new state-of-the-art schools thank you again to eric stern thank you to the school police and the crew from 10 that were at the graduations and thank you to the sign language interpreters who were at every single graduation at the fairgrounds the excitement of the students and families filled the fairgrounds one thing i learned at the graduations is that fist bumps can be as painful as handshakes when you get through the first thousand students i will say congratulations again to the
044graduating class of 2021 we look forward to all the fabulous things you will accomplish thank you to everyone in the district who got us through this atypical difficult school year to the superintendent his senior cabinet members principals teachers district staff thank you and a special thanks to the bus drivers maintenance workers and school food service workers the school food service workers did double duty preparing and distributing curbside meals to families without complaints out in the elements so thank you thank you thank you everyone and as mrs andrews said try to take some time for yourselves i know that summer school is starting next week but we want you all to try and take some time with your families with your loved ones and we just want to express to you how extremely grateful we are
045to all of you for being part of our district family so thank you again thank you mr pro typically at these meetings we uh we recognize employees who have passed away we have two that i'd like to recognize today uh yvonne chapel a teacher english teacher at atlantic high school she was born in 1963 and she passed away in may of 2021 jason white a teacher substitute in the district substitute pool he was born in september of 1970 and passed away in february of 2021 if we could have a moment of silence to remember those employees and their families thank you at the florida school board association meeting in tampa two weeks ago mrs andrews was recognized for leadership the florida school board association has asked me to present her with their recognition at this
046board meeting i ask that the superintendent and board members join me on the floor with mrs andrews shoes mrs andrews on behalf of the florida school board association has asked me to present this to you and for exemplary leadership at the 2020 equity committee in education there's a golden triangle of quantity quality and inequity you can't ignore one while strengthening the other thank you for strengthening florida's education in the equity space signed by jane goodwin president of the florida school board associations thank you mrs andrews you make us all very proud thank you all for joining me down there i'd like to i'd like to now give you my comments i'd like to take a few moments to discuss a troubling issue that i feel is causing animosity among board members and therefore threatens the
047integrity of the true mission of this board to stand as trusted representatives of the district who address differing opinions professionally and respectfully doing so is in the best interest of our most important stakeholders the students and staff who are here to serve during my nearly 13 years serving on this school board i've been involved in spirited but respectful debates with my colleagues though we may not always agree we are all passionate in our convictions the differences that we bring to the table make us stronger advocates as a whole that said there is a line between debate and disrespect recently several board members were maligned and their reputations assaulted by a colleague who spoke publicly outside of this forum regarding decisions we made while i acknowledge that free speech is a constitutional right i am disheartened
048at the level of unprofessional disrespect that resulted from a difference of opinion a divided board cannot make decisions in the best interest of the children it is a my hope that moving forward we will maintain respect decorum and professionalism as we critically engage in all topics including those that stand to divide this community and this board we'll now move to committee reports first is construction oversight and it's attached it's attached to the uh to the agenda we also have this district diversity and equity committee i believe there's the chairs here to address the board and give the report for that committee ms postal good evening turn the microphone go ahead okay good evening chairman barbieri board members superintendent dr fenoy everyone and everyone in your respective places the district diversity and equity committee met may
04927 2021 in the board room had we had several presentations one of those presentations highlighted the employee resource groups um that presentation was presented by katrina gaither dr edwin michael dr lacava the presentation highlighted employee research groups that will start within with four major subgroups one of the recommendations that came out of the presentation by the ddc committee was that the was to include the opportunity for employees to inform other groups um such as african-american lgbtq allowing the employees to select the groups that were necessary to lead those um employee research groups and there those two specific groups were trend and named um in african-american groups and the lgbtq community as those were two groups that were left out of the potential start of this program in the program for employee resource group so on
050behalf of the ddec committee we first would like to thank ms carlene millen and jessica seals and everyone in the professional growth office for the commitment work and support to the ddec they are transitioning out of the meeting and we look forward to mr keith oswald and susan haskell on the committee on joining the committee and also continuing the work the ddc committee is also thankful of mr brown knows um i know yesterday the 23rd i'm losing track of time and date today was the kickoff of the african-american summer institute and i may be saying this wrong but the summer institute he did give those presentations so we do want to thank that office as well as the hispanic presentation that was given yesterday the next edec meeting is scheduled for tomorrow june 24th at
0519 00 a.m and just want to highlight what this committee is about as on behalf of the committee we receive a lot of requests for presentations but we just want to remind remi remind the body that this committee served to assist the board and superintendent regarding diversity and equity issues in academic and operational programs of the district the ddec was created as an advisory committee to the board and superintendent we represent the district's stakeholders with a membership that reflects the diversity of the student population so thank you so much for your time and have a great evening and a great summer thank you chairman postal general counsel do you have anything you'd like to report to the board no report inspector general michael yes good evening board the office of inspector general is currently wrapping
052up our fiscal year activities and preparing our annual report for publication concurrently we are conducting our annual risk assessment which will be used to help develop our audit plan for the upcoming fiscal year i'm in the process of speaking to each of the district's advisory committees as well as executive management and individual board members to obtain the feedback which is vital to ensure comprehensive audit coverage of the district's programs i look forward to speaking to all of our stakeholders and i thank you for your continued support thank you madam ig that'll take us to elected officials and delegates president katz cta president good evening thank you my name is justin katz i'm the president of palm beach county classroom teachers association so i raised concerns to to each of you recently regarding the souring relationship
053between cta and our counterparts at the district as a consequence of that i would like to thank the superintendent for facilitating a meeting between cta and our counterparts with the district that we had been requesting for at least a year to try to resolve some of these conflicts that we made clear we're going to brew into bigger and bigger problems so that meeting did take place today i will characterize that as i'm optimistic but cautiously optimistic about what it means for the future and addressing some of our concerns so we'll see how that unfolds what i also want to convey is that while moving forward efforts to reset our relationship and make it better and make it function properly do not absolve some of the concerns that we've expressed this year and by virtue of
054a cta board of directors vote unanimous vote of 20 of my 25 board members who are present there are concerns that we raised this year to our counterparts that we did not get answers we liked we did not see resolution to and my board has authorized me to exercise any and all options to find out more and look into some of these concerns i won't bring them up here but i have raised them with some of you the last thing i'll say is that sometimes staff have a problem with me reaching out to the superintendent or reaching out to the school board and i understand their position uh they view that as going above their head the problem is that that is my job when i see things going wrong that i believe are not
055being done properly is to go to the next level whether that's the legislative branch of this government whether that's the chief executive of this government i'm not going to be stifled by bureaucrats who i believe i have evidence might not be doing the right thing or might be violating the rights of my members because they don't like me going to get an objective third party to weigh in who is not motivated by internal mechanisms so i want to make that clear that i'm not trying to hurt anybody but nobody is going to tell me that i cannot speak to the superintendent or the school board when i believe that something unjust is occurring in the bureaucracy within this district i need to make that clear and i also want to make clear that i have
056been asked by board members and the superintendent to speak to them when there are serious issues so this isn't just me going above people's heads this is me establishing relationships to try to solve problems before they elevate into disasters which we are trying to avert because that is not good for the students it's not good for the teachers it's not good for any of you it's not good for me so i'll leave it at that again i am cautiously optimistic that some of the issues between our parties this year will be able to be resolved because that is what was conveyed to us at this meeting from district staff that they are willing and open to having discussions but i will never cede my right under the constitution in the first amendment to speak when
057i see problems i'm not going to accept a bad answer and walk away from it because somebody on staff tells me to thank you mr mr katz i just want to tell you that i can't speak for the other board members but you're welcome to call me anytime irrespective of what you're told by the administration we have amazing teachers in this district that need all the support they can get so if you ever need to call on me feel free to do so jen martinez president of florida pta okay maybe she's going to come in a little later james gravillos presidency over the education foundation good evening dr fenoy chairman bervieri i just want to take 30 seconds i'm going to read something uh and i'm directing this to the seven of you and dr
058fenoy as well who sit there and just perform heroically and yet no matter what you do someone in palm beach county is going to complain about something theodore roosevelt once said it's not the critic who counts nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better the credit belongs to the one who's actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly who airs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error or shortcoming if he fails at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat the seven of you school board members and dr
059fenoy have been in the arena for 15 or 16 months now and i just want to know there's a whole lot of people in palm beach county who want to say thank you you're doing a hell of a job keep it up don't listen to the people who just want to criticize the one in the arena and not my report florida has more designated license plates than any other state in the union you can get a license plate to support everything from fishing in golf to plant-based restaurants but let's never forget the education license plate it is our hope that everybody in palm beach county would support education by getting that license plate because every dollar of those funds then goes to support our go teach pla grant program as i shared with you last
060month we're expanding that program even more than we have done in the last couple years this year there are three levels and i'm glad justin's here justin help us get the word out to your teachers regional superintendents help us get the word out the good news is with still a month to go in the application process we already have 40 teachers who have submitted a go teach grant teachers if you're watching us tonight education educationfoundationpbc.org backslash go teach 21 all the information you need is there including seminars to teach you how to write a grant we don't want anyone to ever not submit a grant because they don't know how to do that and jennifer etheridge and and becky youngman who you all remember well who's working with us now have been conducting grant writing
061seminars for our teachers we want to give away as much money as possible this year as i shared with you last month we have three levels of grants for our go teach our regular go teach grants between a thousand and fifteen hundred dollars with funding from the deluca foundation the go reach grants up to three thousand dollars and then the funding from david nicholson and the styles nicholson foundation go teach financial literacy at elementary middle and high school a five thousand dollar grant and go teach stem another five thousand dollar grant at each of the elementary middle and high school i stand before you month after month and say we're here to give money away but it's more than that we're here to do exactly mr barbieri what you said to show our teachers that
062we love them we support them and we want to support their innovative work and their unbelievably create their unbelievable creativity so school board members if you can help us out reach out to your district and let the teachers know we're here the application process is open it closes on july 16th which will give our team of community leaders and a huge shout out to our program and grants committee we have some amazing community leaders who will then score those grants so that way in september we can award this year we hope over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars and go teach go reach and go teach stem grants help us do our job thank you for doing your job thank you for putting up with us and being the one in the arena we are
063your education foundation serving the needs of students teachers and schools and the finest school district in the state of florida thank you thank you president carlos for an outstanding job supporting our teachers and our students dr gabriela mendes the hispanic education committee coalition good afternoon superintendent of finale and members of the board i am dr gabriela mendes professor at nova southwestern university parent and a member of the hispanic education coalition equity statements are necessary and useful when followed by the implementation of measures to promote equity since its inception in the heck has been advocating for equity in the school district today we reiterate our call for equity on the following issues one in 2016 the nyu report highlighted inequities and included recommendations to address this problem since then the hispanic education coalition has been consistently
064asking this board which of the recommendations have been implemented and evaluated and what the results were so far we have not received a response two as stated last month by dr carlos diaz acting chair of the hispanic education coalition latinx teachers and principals are underrepresented in the district where 37 percent of students are latinx in addition the percent of latino principles have been down one percent and latinx teachers and district administrators remains terminal the heck will continue to make you responsible for this inequity till the recruitment and hiring practices have changed and the promotion proportion of latinx professionals increase it three since 2020 when the doj reached a settlement with the school board of palm beach county for the claims that the district discriminated against work authorized in non-us citizens employees the heck has been
065asking for a public explanation an accountability measure to discipline those who were responsible for these discriminatory practices the hispanic education coalition also asked for the implementation of strategies to revert this pattern of discrimination so far we and the general public have not received a response therefore we will continue to request explanations and measures for change four the head is hugely disappointed at the decision to eliminate the office of global education and community outreach an example of the work um that this this office was doing is working to obtain visas for international that we demand that the district continues to work on the goals and achievements of this office and report all right board members there are no more delegates or elected officials we have no agenda topic speakers three items have been pulled from consent
066so far bcs1 tl3 tl4 unless anyone who wants to pull anything else will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda mrs whitfield made the motion seconded by mrs andrews any discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 7-0 that'll take us to new business mr superintendent that'd be bcs1 yes sir mr chairman i recommend the board approve the 2021 comprehensive safety inspection report questioned by mrs whitfield second by miss ayala any discussion vice chair bro thank you so every year as you all know i comb through this report very carefully and i have to say that i was enormously impressed by the reduction in the number of items that were identified and in particular what was classified as maintenance serious is down to six out of all our schools five of those were mo it
067was mostly locks that weren't very significant and hardware um but i and i i wanted before i tell you there is one item i want to find out more information on i also looked at the operation serious and the capital serious and they really weren't that serious so i just want to say thank you thank you thank you to um juan de paul and her team you've done a phenomenal job all of you in facilities so thank you um and you don't usually hear me say that when i go through this report so um but i did want to flag one item the one item that was an outline outlayer for the maintenance serious it's pahokee middle senior high the item is repairing an emergency escape window to open properly the window didn't open it
068was targeted for completion on june 30th 2019 so i wanted to find out um well first i wanted to request if at all possible that that be repaired before the start of the school year in august and if it can't be or if there's some other you know perhaps you can tell us what it is or follow up with us on what the reason is i'm gathering it's probably not just the balance so whatever they call it that's in the window that helps you open it but if you could give us some information because that seems like something that really needs to be addressed i just got a thumbs up from my team that it has been repaired i'm sorry i couldn't hear you they just got the the team just called they repaired it
069already they repaired it already yeah dave dolan is in the back well thank you thank you thank you thank you again um hopefully next year there won't be any issues on this list but you've just done a phenomenal job so thank you any other discussion all in favor opposed motion carries seven zero p three mr superintendent mr chairman i recommend the board approve the personal demands this minute motion by is what field seconded by miss ayala any discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 7-0 p-4 mr chairman i recommend the board approve the personal addendum number two as submitted wishing by mrs whitfield seconded by miss ayala any discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 7-0 tl3 mr superintendent mr chairman i recommend the board accept the grant for financial literacy from the board of
070trustees of the mary and robert pugh public education fund to support the personal financial literacy initiative in grades k-12 public schools from july 1 2021 through june 30th 2022 and authorized the superintendent our designee to sign all documents and contracts related to the grant motion by mrs andrews seconded by vice chairwoman brill discussion mrs anders as i pulled it and i pulled it to thank mr oswald and his team and also the mary and robert pugh foundation fund for always supporting the school district of palm beach county this ten thousand nine hundred dollars will help us with our financial literacy initiatives and they have always been super in making sure that we not miss a beat i want to thank also louise grant who has been with the foundation for so many years making it
071happen for the children of palm beach county with the mary and robert pugh foundation thank you mrs henrys any other discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 7-0 tl4 mr chairman i recommend the board accept the grant from the social studies transformation project from the board of trustees of the mary and robert p public education fund to support the creation and additional social studies materials for k-12 public schools for the period of july 1 2021 through june 30th 2024 and authorize the superintendent or doesn't need to sign all documents and contracts related to the grant motion by ms ayala seconded by mrs whitfield discussion yes i pulled out again because it it never fails me to say thank you to people who are so loyal to the school district of palm beach county again the
072mary and robert pugh foundation have been with us throughout the years and this 99 828 grant is going to help our elementary and secondary social studies department again to mr oswal and your team it's going to make a difference as we think about our african-american latino studies holocaust gender studies it's going to really make a difference for getting extra help there so that we can make sure that we have programs in place and people to teach our students so thank you again to louise grant i don't get a chance to see you often but you're working behind the scenes taking care of the school district of palm beach county students teachers staff to make sure that we don't miss a beat and especially to mary and robert pugh they have been leaders in educational support
073for the school district of palm beach county thank you thank you mrs sanders for recognizing that mr superintendent possibly when we start recognitions again in the fall we can contact louise grant i'm sure that it must number in the many millions of dollars that they've given us so maybe we get a total of what they've given to the school district over the many years they've been supporting us and then recognize them through with mrs grant here at the uh the first opportunity we have for recognitions in the fall absolutely mr chairman we'll take care of that all right any other discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 7-0 that is the end of the agenda with respect to items that are listed there now we will go to non-agenda speakers discussion items come after non-agenda
074topic speakers on the agenda we'll start with i'll call you three at a time dennis foley joey soto and richard masella would you please come up to the podium in whatever order you get there and state your name and please watch the clock you have three minutes good evening good evening i am richard micella 46 year county resident and taxpayer a number of high school graduates of color earned valedictorian honors bravo to them and palm beach county schools may these top students return to their schools to mentor younger students state law now prohibits teaching critical race theory but many educators politicians and media moguls are wild about critical race revolution is nationwide under many names revolution is full speed ahead on critical race the cry white evil top law officer u.s attorney general garland just
075said quote whites pose highest risk of violence and terrorism in america painting people as evil encourages hate it targets people isn't 20th century holocaust example enough this meeting caused me to abandon the remainder of my remarks in favor of my appreciation of this meeting public perception driven by media and politics is racist crushing of life opportunities in america that america fails people of color routinely and that american education routinely fails people of color in my humble opinion this meeting brought a dose of academic reality this board academic leadership this meeting from what this meeting has revealed the american system appears to work as it should it offers multi-racial opportunities for students to achieve darn good lives this is the model of success i thank you for this opportunity godspeed thank you dennis foley joey soto
076chelsea packard jennifer show also before i start i just want to let you know that i've sent you a copy via email of both of my excuse me both of my speeches from earlier today and the one i'm about to give you all right thank you janae please i'm jenn showalter discussing the board's crt laced vision mission and equity statements as a non-agenda item the state banned crt yet you have not re revised your statements let's be honest you're the ones focused on race and judging others based on their skin not the students or parents mlk junior said i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character dr evita
077king said critical race theory is racist we are all part of one human race cj pearson said crt won't make america less racist it'll just create a new generation of racist anti-white racism is still racism you're not only rejecting their teachings but pushing the very ethnic and racial discrimination they fought so don't talk about them when february comes around when you're working to rebuild what they tried so hard to tear down how do you how do we know your statements are pure crt crt says the most important thing about you is your skin color and defines you as a person your statements all revolve around race crt says there's no absolute truth only competing narratives lived experiences matter most more than facts your statement reads quote elevating underrepresented voices and embrace and honor their unique
078cultural histories unquote but where is italian-american month scottish american month or celtic french german or swedish american months crt says you're an oppressor or victim if you're white you're racist if you're a minority you're a victim of a rigged system this is clearly defined in your language even with white advantage scrubbed from the text funny how you ignore that according to florida doe whites only make up 28.9 of our district's student population which makes them the minority or the fact that asians score consistently the highest when the students who score the lowest aren't even a particular race but english language learners with students with disabilities only slightly higher applying your new policies will violate a multitude of american civil rights laws by treating people differently according to race the bottom line is this the educational
079failure is all you you have been in charge of the hiring firing investigations budget policies procedures and curriculums for years if not decades you're telling them that they can't do it on their own and only you can fix it the vision statement includes quote the school district will take ownership for students academic mastery emotional intelligence and social emotional needs unquote you're telling us that you want our kids to be useful idiots not responsible adults you want them to be dependent on the state and redistribution not self-initiating and self-sufficient you want group think not critical thinking you want conformity not individual expression true equality happens when you increase your ability to be self-sufficient you say that we have a systematic racism crisis when in reality we have a corrupted leadership crisis thank you chelsea packard mark
080pentel nicole from coulee wolf they may be in the non-mask room they can hear us over there if they're there they'll come up to the podium danielle underwood megan bell julia sanderson evening board members and superintendent my name is danielle underwood and tonight i'm here to address the board again and will continue to do so until you show action you all work for us people and need to do what's right by we the people as a mom and an advocate of special needs kids with a teaching degree i'm appalled at this board and the district as to how esc students are handled about 16 percent of this district are disabled students in the esc program as an advocate i see and experience many of these kids being left behind and overlooked they are not given
081a free appropriate public education as outlined in the law of ida why is it that parents and advocates have to fight to obtain the services these children are entitled to why is it that the school teams in the district don't listen to the parents and the medical providers and those that understand these kids needs on a daily basis why is it that when the team comes to a determination of eligibility of services it's always the school team versus the parent team we are outnumbered and that's not fair if you're going to make it a popularity vote be prepared for us to bring in more people than you can handle for a meeting because we will just do that my point here is it shouldn't be a popularity vote the educators are not specialized in every
082disability so you should be taking the medical professionals diagnosis and recommendation seriously when determining services and exceptionalities our dyslexic population is far more than you guys think it is we need to start providing the appropriate services for these students so that they can be successful we need to bring the scientific research-based methods of training that work for them and stop leaving them behind i ready and memorizing sight words is developmentally inappropriate when teaching a child with a learning disability to read and write delaying and denying the services is detrimental to the children who are behind in reading this sets them up for a third grade retention when they can't pass the fsa the school board should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the esc process to fail our disabled population why is it that most
083of you board members don't even understand nor do you choose to understand and learn the esc system or the laws of idea but you'll gladly focus on equity and education which is critical race theory your mission statement alone says it all you're more focused on indoctrinating our children and teaching them to hate each other versus teaching the critical thinking skills and the reading and writing skills that are needed you receive state and federal dollars in addition to the fta per student for your esc students but you don't provide the services with those dollars many parents just like myself are forced to pull our students out and go private at our expense even though you receive our tax dollars for doing nothing for our students yes there are scholarships in school choice but families like mine
084facebook face a heavy out-of-pocket expense all because our school board is failing our kids we have to come out of pocket for tuition transportation and much more our students don't get the opportunity of sports or traditional school-based activities in essence our kids are segregated from the traditional schools the idea act is a law that makes available free appropriate public education eligible to children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures the special education and related services to those children as a mom and an advocate i'll continue to fight for my kid and other kids you were elected to do this and you're proven not to be doing this so it's time that us parents and community members step up and start locally making these changes thank you robin nolan pardon me nicole wolf guess your next
085door would you come up to the podium over there please all right good evening my name is nicole francini wolfe and i'm a parent to palm beach county school system fifth grader are you aware that the cdc just stated that vaccines and children should be halted then i see palm beach county schools setting up vaccine sites for children as young as 12 years old why is there such a disconnect of information have you seen the uptick in cardiovascular events in the 15 year old boys deep down inside you have to see some things awry if the school board chooses to ignore these warnings it makes me wonder whose best interest they are concerned about it makes me wonder what your union asks you to support it makes me wonder if you only have one voice
086based on political favors it makes me wonder if you're only worried about your pensions and your retirement i'd love to believe that you really care about all the children but it's your responsibility to show the burden of proof show that the mass really work that the vaccine is not experimental and prove its efficacy and that social distancing works there will be a nuremberg trial of 2021 and you all will not be immune to it i heard dr alonso and others discussing the fall term 2021 and wanting to segregate vaxxed unmasked and unvaxed mast why would this even come up these discussions of segregation and division is so disheartening so much disinfo based in division fear and propaganda you need to fix this please look at history especially the chinese communist revolution and the takeover free
087thinker society in china review if today's steps are being taken with division and segregation and hate are reflective of the department of education's goals maybe we should abolish the department of education and start over dennis foley joey soto chelsea packard mark pintell megan bell julia sanderson robin nolan quinlan stewart christina manolas molly harding grace greenberg george perez glad sir state your name for the record all right my name is george perez i'm here to discuss the potential removal or at least a group of people trying to remove the gay straight alliance gsa i'm an honorably discharged navy veteran turned middle school history teacher i would very much like to thank the school board members for supporting equality and the rights of straight and lgbtq students just like when i spent my many years defending our
088country i'm here defending the students rights to assemble in a relaxed peaceful welcoming no judgment zone outside of school hours students deserve such a space on two separate occasions i've had the honor of students coming out to me in confidence they're afraid of what some students and even family members might say and or do the gay straight alliance provides a place to meet other students just like them or even different than them but who won't judge or harm them if a straight or lgbtq student wants a bully-free and relaxed friendly setting to help better each other and their school and in turn their community who are we as educators to stop that our governor recently deemed it acceptable to cut funding to lgbtq mental health and shelters and even start attacking them being able to
089play sports let's not add this tragedy with taking the gay straight alliance away from them on top of all that gay and transgender bullying and attacks have recently been on the rise with several recent cases in south and central florida children should be able to learn and play without worry about about worrying if today is the day that some ignorant anti-lgbtq individual will harm or bully or god forbid kill them these are real thoughts from multiple students that i've heard from the gay straight alliance provides a place and a group provides a place and a group of people where these students can be among safe and supportive friends and teachers that's all thank you thank you [Applause] alana manat suzanne bittiscombe edward dalazzo hello hello we can hear you state your name please oh okay
090good evening my name is alana monath congratulations on receiving all your grants this here is a pocket constitution which the the your grant money should go to for each and every child we have all been lied to about our nation's history first discoverers of america native americans and indigenous people the civil war the original 13th amendment birth certificates aka chattel property child welfare purposely admitted historical events and figures like hannah winthrop mercy otis warren james fortin crispus atticus and penelope barker what happened to in-depth teachings on our constitution's federal codes like 18 usc 1031 and what to do when public officials overstepped their oats of orifice and overreach into the lives of sovereign americans like we see today our constitutions in history need to be taught and talked about without the use of crt or
091any derivative of mental programming disguised as education public education was created based on the industrial system designed to remove children from the home so they can be molded and brainwashed by corrupt governmental programs to one day be obedient workers making money for the corporation it's time to do and provide better for the children parents agree to disagree with others but see who continues to incite division all must know what is happening in this institution and how children your property are being used and exploited look for the following pornographic materials in the school's recommended books make sure is reported to the administrative administration and law enforcement as there are laws against disseminating pornographic material to minors curriculum programs funded by bill and melinda gates grants computer programs designed for data collection mining and blockchain then we
092have 5g infrastructure in and around schools which has not been tested then we have the health care district and school board partnered up to distribute copin 19 vaccines at school locations yet they are not being transparent about it's emergency use only it is experimental people are taking part in a trial what are the potential risk factors and no long-term studies one reason we have the nuremberg code i did not consent to this no consent no contract maybe it's time to dismantle public education and recreate a new way of learning we are a constitutional republic our declaration of independence says governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the govern that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or
093to abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on principles and organizing its powers in such form if you allow yourself to be controlled you are not sovereign thank you reverend cindy falco allison rampersad ronald chris groves william rizzo good evening my name is suzanne vitisco i'm a mental health practitioner and a resident of palm beach county i'm here to talk about the access for all mesh wi-fi system currently being rolled out in palm beach county today's classrooms are filled with high wi-fi systems laptops tablets smartphones and other devices were you aware that each of these devices embeds radio frequency radiation and that the exposure is cumulative our children teachers and support staff are already exposed to it in the school eight hours a day but once they the current rollout of the
094access for all wi-fi system is complete all our children all our citizens in palm beach county will be exposed to its cumulative effects 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year u.s government studies have confirmed what many other studies have shown that decades-old theory that non-ionizing radiation only causes thermal effects is wrong exposure to rf radiation coupled with exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields are shown to cause biological harm it is recognized around the world as a public health problem wireless technologies like the one being rolled out in palm beach county is deemed by scientists worldwide to be a silent weapon that wages a war on the bodies and central nervous systems of every person that is exposed to it these include carcinogenic effects due to tumors issues with dna replication ties
095to autism atd depression anxiety and the list goes on when i heard that palm beach county wanted to help our poorer students our disenfranchised students have equal opportunity and learning and that's why they were installing this wireless system it caused me to pause because i wondered why the potential health and safety concerns of such a roll out were not considered first then i learned that here in palm beach county in a very wealthy area this wireless mess system was not going to be installed yes they're upgrading their technology but they're making sure it adheres to safety standards while being effective they're using fiber optics why wouldn't this cost-effective safe alternative be used to benefit all citizens throughout palm beach county i understand convenience and staying competitive what is equally concerning is the cost of care
096estimates given by researchers scientists and insurance companies to treat the toxic effects of wireless technologies the costs are astronomical and these costs will be passed on to our residents i urge you to reassess and protect our most vulnerable assets the ones you say you care about our minority children our vulnerable adult in this community there's still time now to reassess what you're doing take charge change course and provide safe tech which is fiber optic cabling thank you megan bell i understand you're in that room over there if you want to come up to the podium please megan bell megan bell hello my name is grace and i'd like to say the executive order from ron desantis banned crt for the fall and put in a new curriculum with civic literacy perfect another eo state of
097emergency shall be removed on july 1. great vaccines are to be forced in those areas deemed necessary to prevent communicable diseases and which could be prevented with a vaccine supposedly on july 1. why the say on the same executive order no vaccine passport required in florida that was the trade-off in that bill i think it was hb 2006. also the palm beach county school district and the health care district of palm beach county are in contract to provide four vaccination centers on school campuses which started up on june 5th and through august 8th since there is no state of emergency after july 1 there should be shut down on july 1. well these two entities are locked into a contract until august 8th when schools return to teaching what are the chances that we could
098have a new state of emergency declared just in time with delta variant hitting florida as we speak in grave numbers and i mean that literally vaccinations only serve the pharmaceutical industry and those who make money along the way in the delivery system a pharmacist on the news today said giving vaccinations is down and surplus is going to expire on that same broadcast maria sacks said those who want to take the vaccine have already done so so who's next who fills in the gap from eating that 70 for herd immunity kids 17 and younger it's not fda approved and does not qualify for several more years if taken seriously this experimental drug is dna altering because of the splicing to use messenger rna to instruct dna to produce a spike protein that produces antibodies against a
099coronavirus and which also attacks cells that are similar in composition which is most of the body and this reproduction continues without a shut off valve and you want them to take boosters every year no wonder we have become antibody dependent on drugs because we will no longer be able to do it by ourselves these kids can even become sterile most importantly if we are no longer in a state of emergency by july 1 then that should apply to the eau of these so-called vaccinations or be because they will there will be no need this program should be null and void who will bet with me about a new state of emergency on tap targeted are our children because the school board is attempting to make it easier for those parents to trust the school district
100with their children we are here to expose you as being not trustworthy your questionnaire on screening and or parental consent forms are not legal contracts and there is so much more you have been served a notice of liability cease and desist by s time's up you're welcome [Music] i'm glad to state your name for the record please am i on yes yes you are uh good evening my name is ed dolezal i am actually a grandparent so i'm correcting this sign which says we the parents but i'm actually a grandparent i've got eight great great eight grandchildren five in the school system uh this is my third time here so i guess repetition is very important to you and here are some demands no masks no vaccination no crt no sex ed change the curriculum
101to improve county scores and ranking you violated your own oath of office and if you don't understand it ask the attorney on the board if you don't correct you'll become personally liable do you understand what that means and now the most important thing is worth repeating is that we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and pursuit of happiness that to secure those rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent i repeat consent of the government that's us we the people that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish and to institute new government
102laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness so here's some more demands terminate dr fenoy immediately yes yes we demand the resignation of the board and all its members for failing to carry out their fiduciary responsibility to educate the students to be competitive in their future pursuits and the loss of public trust yes so with that said we expect some action immediately i yield my time [Applause] go ahead ma'am state your name for the record please reverend cindy falco i wanted to talk about your curriculum about a year and a half ago i was asked by a group of ladies and gentlemen to read through some of the um books that were acquired by the school board
103for uh the reading in the summer so the book that i read was called tricks i've said this before i think but this book was disgusting appalling pornography it had every abomination to mankind sexually for a seventh grader it's a disgrace that a school board would recommend these books for summer reading i want to also state that as a school board what part of school is not being addressed or you're not doing a school is to teach and educate not doctrine and not indoctrinate our children do not know how to do cursive our children do not know history our children do not know science you have done a huge a huge discredit to mankind and this separation of of a sexual preference or color of a skin or anything else is evil first of all
104as we just read in the constitution you just heard all men meaning mankind are created equal why is all this segregation what are you really all about why don't you take your masks off let's peel back and open the the blind and let's see what's really going on what's really going on is you're trying to create a world of hate of darkness of unlovingness and just to try to control us this is what this has all been about with the masks let's get past the mask let's look at the real deal this is why you're bringing back these mask situations and parents you need to know this you need to really do your due diligence in that vaccination they call which is really a biochemical shot they have in there sar 2 i believe and
105that's called a luciferian look it up for yourselves don't take my my word it actually says luciferian what that is is there are chips and particles inside these uh biochemical shots that you're putting into your children or into your own bodies and what's going to happen when 5g is turned on they are going to control you you will not even have any control over your own mind they say mad cow i was with a group of educators and doctors and scientists this last weekend and i'm going to tell you and i'm not trying to scare you but this is the fact they said you only god can spare you if you already did this you're going to die it's a given fact you're going to die within five years is that what you want for
106your children are you going to believe something that's not even fda approved that do you realize it's not fda approved do you realize that you are the guinea pig do you understand what you're doing now i know people who probably get cancer or another disease let me tell you when they're looking at medicines and even on television they tell you the side effects time's up reverend time's up thank you there's one more over there in that room would you please come up to the podium if i called your name what's her name chelsea packard chelsea packard now i'm going to speak on the curriculum and the passing of the recent equity statement and mission i want to know how exactly this is going to be rolled out in the elementary school and how my first
107grader is going to be affected by this our elementary school teachers already have their plates full with this new standards and new curriculum for literacy and now we're going to throw this on them too and force them to contend to attend continuing education on these sensitive topics if they're so sensitive leave them out of school okay i don't want my child brainwashed with all this okay you talk about equity which means fair or impartial that's not the case then bring religion in that's not represented okay that's not fair it's not impartial yet many of our students have religion as a huge part of their lives if we're going to continue to leave out religion um then leave out sexual orientation plain and simple or just add religion back in i want my family's values represented
108just as much as everyone else and i'm not alone in this now to crt we're going to simply teach that a power struggle is oppressor versus oppressed not what mlk wanted at all if i'm white i should feel guilty about my color my skin i can't even control that teaches us to view the world in a in a lens of race and group identities which can lead to tribalism you want that it teaches you how to fight for discrimination with more discrimination does that even seem logical it teaches that all systems in america are irredeemably racist and should therefore be completely dismantled and rebuilt what do you think the democrats are trying to do crt is completely anti-american at its core because it teaches equality of outcome which is not equal opportunity there's nothing more
109racist than targeting an entire ethnic group or racial group for a collective crime and a collective guilt that we didn't do this type of hatred should not be part of a training for anyone especially for our children we are awake and we are watching we are going to be a part of the next strategic plan and i myself am going to look into everything from first grade to see what my daughter is being taught we should all be well informed parents wake up to this read history read our constitution our founding documents let teachers be teachers teach reading writing arithmetic which we're obviously not doing very well on but vaccines be voluntary you are on notice you will not vaccinate my child without my consent and i am awake to what you are doing and
110there are more of us coming thank you go ahead sir if i called your name please state your name for the record yes william rizzo good evening school board members most of you know me my name is bill rizzo i'm a proud teacher at polo park middle school i want to begin by thanking you all for protecting us our families and the students it was a crazy year but we survived thanks to all the protocols that were put in place and the masks i have heard so much nonsense today and it is very disheartening to see so much anger and hate being displayed i will be one of the people advocating for your re-election as long as you continue the hard work you put forth this year i'm here to talk about the importance of
111our gsas and our schools and the inclusion of the lgbtq plus community in the curriculum our school district policy protects all of our students that's why it's called we're all in my school established the gsa in the 2019-2020 school year within one week we had over 40 kids we created a much needed safe place for them this year after dr fennoy's workshop on equity i went back to the students and informed them of the outcome of the workshop ms andrews attended our gsa the next friday morning and asked the kids what they would like to see they asked for the students teachers and parents to be educated and for their concerns to be heard do these kids need our support some of my students sent me thank you letters after school was over um i
112got two here of course i also want to thank you for everything you've given me in terms of lgbtq plus not only did you give me a lot of history on it but also made me feel very proud for who i am for so long i've been really scared to come out even trying to convince myself that i'm straight obviously that didn't work i'm really hoping to tell my parents eventually as weird as it sounds you've inspired me your story wasn't the best but it made me laugh and realized it is okay seeing how you made it all work out while staying true to yourself meeting you shed a new perspective on it all and then another student sent me an email which i'm gonna try and pull up right now okay this club is
113very important to me it is a place where i can feel welcomed and safe sometimes schools can be a difficult journey it is nice to have people to talk to that can truly understand how i feel when i'm at gsa i feel like i'm a part of something like i'm normal i walk into school feeling excited and proud because i know that i have a group of people that will always be there for me uh as a student i feel it is the utmost important that this club stays running without it i don't know what i would do ever since i have joined my eyes have really opened and i started feeling satisfaction in who i am i also heard comments today about the human growth and direct development curriculum and it's a representation of
114the lgbtq curriculum the only way to teach respect and acceptance is to educate people i taught human growth and development for many years i was very happy to see the lgbtq plus community included in that students have a lot of questions and i was confident in my ability to answer them because of that inclusion so thank you for all you do i feel like we've only just begun we are way ahead of where we were a few years ago but with all the negativity it feels kind of like we're taking a step backwards so i'd like to ask you to keep moving forward i'm here to help and support you however i can [Applause] ma'am if you're at the podium over there state your name please and go ahead hi how are you my name
115is christina manolis and i have two students in palm beach county and i am here today to speak on behalf of parents to have a right to know what our our children are being taught in school and i don't agree with pushing whether someone is gay or whatever their background is i want to start off by saying that i have a lot of wonderful friends that are gay and i love them and they're wonderful and i teach my children at home no matter what someone is whether whatever they are or who they want to be represented as that's fine that's their choice and we show love and respect to everybody but there is a time and place for that and in schools is not a place children need to learn these things so i just
116feel that it is up to the parents to teach their children things at home just like i teach my children about christ and i don't expect you to do that in school because people have different backgrounds and different values and beliefs i do not think it's right that it's okay for certain values and beliefs to be pushed on children and not others so i am asking you as a parent we have let things go over these years and that is why we are here today slowly slowly things have been more welcoming to the gay community and i am happy for that that's great you can believe and be whoever you want and i will show you love and respect okay slowly it has now creeped into our children's schools it has been in every single
117tv show every movie every commercial you see is about gay pride and enough is enough you have crossed the line and there are too many people upset and i'm not scared to stand up and say it is not okay anymore i will be loving and kind to you i will welcome you but you cannot teach my children that there are more than food vendors okay god created man and female and a story if you want to think differently go right ahead but you do not teach that to my children in school okay they have slides now teaching children in school about gender identity definitions okay there's gender non-conforming gender fluid non-binary what the heck is this this is not school okay you do not need to teach my children your thoughts that you believe are
118okay without my permission one you come to school to learn about writing to learn about math maybe to play some sports and have fun okay that's what you go to school for you don't go to school to have something pushed on you that you know what you might not be a boy you might not be a girl it's up to you it's how you feel it is not how you feel god made you a man or a woman okay and if you think otherwise that is okay i will hug you and i will show you love but you don't tell my children otherwise okay so again make it our choice you don't put these things in schools this has nothing to do with school it is something that should be taught outside of school [Applause]
119alison rampersad ronald chris groves philip lynch josie mckovic go ahead ma'am thank you i believe my name was called earlier i wasn't here that's fine just state your name please stephanie wright okay erica whitfield you testified you wanted to keep masks on children through the end of the school year have you received funds to vote on a particular side of the aisle public health should be about the people not about a political party what about all the positive covet cases and their natural immunity a recent a couple of recent studies performed by the cleveland clinic and world health organization actually question vaccines in children does this change your position is your science based on politics or health we had three cases or patients two weeks ago whose elective surgical procedures had to be postponed these
120were three fully vaccinated patients who tested positive for covid dr robinson you testified at the last meeting that you were against opening schools in september do you believe in vaccines you also test about testified about your anxiety you also reference teachers anxiety to returning to normal have you looked at any specific studies related to children and the harm of masking and lockdowns we are all here because of the children shouldn't children be the number one priority they do after all represent 20 percent of our county they are the reason we are all here is there a study recall that compares teachers to say health care workers or publix workers or cvs workers you voted no to make mass optional when outside for children you voted to remove the mass of teachers when outside but not
121the children i'm not sure your of your position on this by the way most mass do not prevent small particle viruses such as covid the families you said you represent who you stated were higher risk is that because of their lifestyle choices i would remind you that conditions such as diet obesity diabetes heart disease and copd are often caused by lifestyle choices and these may lead to greater health risk factors but are often preventable miss aiella you want to keep masks on our children citing unknown variants are you aware of the psychological harm mass and lockdowns have created on our youth are you aware of the skyrocketing suicide rates on our youth nationally do you live in your district what policies have you implemented that benefit children mrs andrews you testified that over 6 000
122students have left the district due to mass mandates and fifty two thousand in unfinished learning yet you vote the opposite in your own direct district you attended a mass meeting with parents concerning your child's child's health and well-being as it relates to mass mandates yet your testimony does not match your voting record mr barbari you testified to leave mass on children for the remainder of the school year what evidence did you base this on is your science based on emotions or science given all the counties in florida without mass mandates you testified that the cdc guidelines change as often as you change your socks are you following what's best for our children or simply following a political party have you at any time received financial incentives from the teachers union mrs brill you testified that
123our children might time's up ma'am time's up [Applause] dennis foley and allison ramperstad i understand you're in the other room would you please one of you please come up to the podium my name is dennis foley and i'm the co-owner of sports time summer camp uh we have met at the independence middle school for the last 20 years have paid over 600 dollars in rent to uh lease the facilities for either our summer camp uh christmas or spring break camp i'm just here today just to make an appeal uh to the board regarding a policy change that took place one year ago that uh resulted in a dramatic increase in our leasing cost until a year ago if you leased the gymnasium for three hours you pay for three hours if you lease the cafeteria
124for three hours you pay for three hours if you lease the outside fields for three hours you paid three hours but now with the new policy you have to pay for an entire day our campus meets for nine hours so we would have to pay nine hours for the fields nine hours for the gym and nine hours for the cafeteria which would result in a 500 percent increase to our camp our camp has provided a service to our community for as we said 20 years we've had a hundred thousand camper days uh over 450 families have availed themselves of our camp we've tried to keep it affordable uh our model's been safe fun and secure but with this uh policy change it has dramatically uh increased the leasing costs to the point that this summer
125we are not uh able to afford uh or to be able to have the gymnasium uh which is a difficult which is difficult and all i'm asking is that the board please look at that policy and see how that impacts uh leases like ourselves we provide the service during the summer when the students are out of uh out of school and also provide summer jobs for those within the district and have provided what we believe to be a good program with an excellent reputation in the jupiter gardens area and we just asked the board if they might either change that policy or allow those at the district level to be able to amend the policy for particular circumstances that come along we want to pay our fair share we understand that and we understand that
126there are costs involved with leasing a facility with air conditioning those things but we're just asking that we pay for the amount of time that we are actually in the facilities and we appreciate your consideration thank you go ahead ma'am state your name for the record please alison rampersad recently retired university professor palm beach county good evening many parents are now finding out about critical race theory and they object to having their children indoctrinated how many of you sitting on the dais and how many parents out there tonight know about the objectionable materials and flat out pornography in your children's classrooms identified nine novels in many florida school district libraries these novels violate existing anti-pornography statutes florida statute eight four seven dot zero zero one paragraph three six eight and ten florida statute eight four
127seven dot oh one two paragraph three a three b paragraph five in paragraph six listen up these laws require a third degree felony charge but they're being blatantly ignored in many of our account in most of our florida counties in 2019 a joint task force of volunteers put together a list of 44 novels containing porn and lgbtq content being used in florida schools this list is by no means exhaustive most school districts refuse to give residents access the library materials which happens to be required uh by hb 989 which was signed into law by governor rick scott uh in 2017 or they charge a prohibitive fee to gain access guess what palm beach county is one of the seven counties that requires a significant fee uh so i have a list of the 44 novels
128included in the project some of the lgbtq novels are in our elementary schools but most are targeted for pre-k and we had no way to confirm their use the lgbtq books for ages 12 months plus to eight years promote gender self-identification and same-sex marriage which violates florida's constitution and they infringe upon the rights of almost all citizens let me give you several names mom and dad look out for these it's perfectly normal by robbie harris guess what that's number one on the list uh fifty shades gray by j of email james dreaming in cuban by christiana garcia the bluest eye by tony morrison i could go on but i won't uh this is not education students are learning crap they don't need and they're not learning what they do need to take their places in
129society this school board each one of you failing our students shame on you the job we hired you to do you're not doing it at my company you'd be fired out the door right now save yourself the embarrassment it's time for each of you time's up ma'am your time's up ronald chris groves philip lynch josie mckovic shirley joy jackson good evening board chair barbieri board members and superintendent dr finai my name is ronald chris groves a fourth grade teacher and i've been teaching at lincoln elementary school for the past year i'm an immigrant from the philippines and have been in the us for over a year now this is truly my dream to come to this amazing country for a better and more fulfilling life and very passionate about teaching children and i choose to
130teach in palm beach county where opportunities seem abundant starting a new job in florida was not easy for me especially during this pandemic i'm a certified teacher in the state of florida and have received an overall effective rating on my evaluations during my first year i quickly learned how to integrate irrita celsius maker and google platforms were which were all new to me to help my students grow academically i even collaborated with my principal and fourth grade team during plc to utilize iranian success maker data to provide individualized instruction to help my students master standards my team received the highest average cumulative gains on success maker in north region as i constantly tried to find ways to engage my students i received little to new support as a new teacher to this district i was
131placed in an esb program and was assigned an esb contractor only engaged me in one to two virtual meetings for the entire year it reminded me of due dates to complete my assignments i was on my own and figuring out crossing management techniques and best practices to support my students i even attempted to ask my fourth grade team for help but was only criticized made to feel made to feel intimidated and even discriminated against due to my accent and not being from this country i was afraid to ask for help due to the way i was treated which made this year even more challenging to me i've always been loved by my students and done my very best to make a difference in their lives despite being a non-native speaker and a new teacher trying
132to adopt a new and very intimidating work environment in may my principal spoke to me about my performance as where i felt it would be in five years and to discuss my letter of termination i felt devastated and discouraged because i was not given a chance to fix any issues that administration absorbed instead i was made to feel like i don't deserve to become a teacher in the united states i felt so bad and thought about how i came to this country for a better and for a better life and to support my family back in the philippines i'm saddened by my experience because i didn't feel i received the much needed support in order to succeed i am asking for you to reconsider me for a teaching position in the district during this challenging
133time where there's a teacher shortage so that i may continue to grow as a teacher and show you how passionate i am about educating students thank you very much for the opportunity to speak before you tonight good evening my name is phillip lynch i'll go ahead and start good evening distinguished members of the school board my name is phillip lynch and i'm an 8th grade u.s history teacher here in palm beach county i have come here today to ask the school board to push back against the rhetoric and the legislation coming from the governor and the republican controlled state legislator over the last few months politicians have been creating a boogeyman this boogeyman is called critical race theory some seem to think that this is taught in our schools the same people believe that communist
134indoctrination is taking place in florida schools both of these notions are false as we all know critical race theory is not included in any florida standards i know those standards like the back of my hand there is no mention of crt there is no communist indoctrination taking place in our k-12 schools nonetheless governor desantis signed house bill 5 which directs the state department of education to come with come up with a curriculum that pushes a right right right wing ideology in an attempt to fix a problem that never existed the people who will be impacted by these laws are the educators and the students of the great state of florida i stand here today as a concerned educator community member and parent board members please stand up for us we do not need politicians in
135tallahassee telling us what we can and cannot say in our classrooms we know our communities we know our curriculum we can teach it in an ethical manner i hope the following message reverberates throughout this board meeting and all the way up to tallahassee stop politicizing our curriculum as educators we do our best to nourish our students brains on their journey towards the american dream we do not indoctrinate them we do not push false narratives on them we give them the truth and we will continue doing so the overwhelming majority of teachers love america they care about their students and they care about education i respectfully ask the politician and tell politicians in tallahassee to stop disparaging us teachers and let us do our job which is educating the future generations of americans thank you hello
136my name is quinlan stewart did you know that sperm goes to sleep at night so you can't get pregnant if you have sex at night did you know that there are teenagers that actually leave this statement someone who worked with teen moms was once asked where does the baby come out she was nine months pregnant and 17 years old i support education evidence-based and inclusive sex education in schools for several reasons eighty percent of programs sex ed programs cover stds and how to say no to sex yay forty-five percent cover no information about birth control fifty percent don't even tell you how to put on a condom and less than six percent cover lgbt topics at all so when it happens and it will happen what am i supposed to do how do i to
137protect myself and if i get pregnant where am i supposed to go these are the questions our students are asking number two evidence shows that comprehensive sex education delays sex debut promotes healthier relationships avoid stds and pregnancies reduces number of partners and increases contraception use abstinence-only programs do none of these i think it is more impactful for a student to have all of the information and make a choice themselves because if you tell a child no you can't have a lollipop or no you can't stick a knife in an electrical socket without explaining why they'll only become curious and do it anyways number three restrictive information doesn't make good kids it makes sneaky kids as of 2010 78 of lgbt students were looking up information online about sex education and up to 19 of heterosexual
138kids because they felt they were not being represented in their sex education programs and as you know everything you read on the internet is true hence the sleeping sperm number four withholding of information or providing stigmatizing or medically incorrect information has been deemed a violation of human rights if we want to support equity and equality in our school systems that means supporting and providing correct information to our lgbt students as well as our straight students other friends drop out of college because they got pregnant based on false information in sex education classes i've had relatives die from and friends unknowingly spread stds based on also false information i have had family members in the lgbt community considers suicide because we are not being supported in our schools i respect a parent's right to opt their
139own child out of uh sex education i respect a parent's right to make a appointment and go into the school district to see the curriculum but no one has a right to take away me or my future child's right to inclusive correct and supportive information including sex education thank you shirley jackson good evening my name is shirley joy jackson and i'm a palm beach county resident i was a research project manager and a safe schools coordinator miss jackson do me a favor try and keep your mask at least up around your mouth i'm sorry i asked i asked and he said it was okay sorry might we start over yes go ahead reset the clock mark go ahead ms jackson my name is shirley joy jackson and i'm a palm beach county resident i was
140a research project manager and a safe schools coordinator for the district before i had to retire early due to a condition called electromagnetic sensitivity what was my favorite job to keep the schools alert to high risk conditions that were caused the causing problems for our students so that we could intervene with supportive services so that to prevent failures to prevent problems well tonight i am here to alert you to a high-risk condition that could cause you great regret and fiduciary liability and to offer supportive resources you have been misled the county and the in wireless industry have convinced you our students are safe this wi-fi mesh network and the extenders you plan to put into homes yes they are compliant no that does mean not mean they are safe they are not you must understand
141the fcc has exposure limits for adults it has no exposure limits for children do not take my word look at the resources that i sent you today you can accomplish your mission in a way that's massively safer for our kids please peer into the future and into the homes of thousands of low-income families that we know have more health vulnerabilities the immediate effects could they could experience could include increased diabetic add like hyperactivity and disruptive behaviors cognition sleep and concentration problems over time this exposure could prove has been proven to cause cancer i must ask you don't you have a fiduciary responsibility to promote the health and safety of students in this district do you want to risk being liable for running an experiment that would not pass an ethics committee approval do you want
142to subject over a hundred thousand vulnerable students from families with health disparities to an experiment a large increase in microwave radiation for 24 hours a day seven days a week regrettably this is what you are proposing to do without any precautions that would specifically monitor and call a halt to this experiment when the problems multiply obviously parents are concerned about the health of their children i fervently support your good decision making about these immense changes please check your email for resources to help you ensure the safety of our community i am at your service it was a joy being in the department of safe schools at this district thank you angelique contreras patsy davis gabby fox go ahead ma'am state your name hello board my name is anjali contreras good okay um so i'm sitting
143here once again in the palm beach county school board segregated room with the unmasked individuals of palm beach county i don't even know the words to say to this board anymore because i feel as if our words go on deaf ears we continue to give you facts and data on mask we continue to tell you that when you took this job you were meant to follow the constitution but everything that you have done is against the constitution and our rights i'm sorry for the individuals that are here speaking to the board that feel as if they are victims in this society i don't know where you were told that you must be the victim but this is what's happening today when we continue to share critical race theory and we create committees for minorities and
144the lgbtq community we are making people believe that they are less than their neighbor and we are not we are all equal we are all one race and that is a human race we have educators that are wanting to indoctrinate our children and not educate and this is not about politics this is about common sense and it seems to me that we no longer use common sense we no longer are critical thinkers we go with the mob and we go with majority i myself as a woman who came from a family who lost everything to communism in cuba will not allow that same ideology to be forced and pushed on our children in america i will not stand for it i had to pull my 11 year old out of school because i would not
145subject her to wearing masks for seven hours a day for five days a week i had that choice and as as a hispanic woman i have never been oppressed i have never been told that i cannot raise my children the way that i want my children to be raised in america my family lost everything to communism in cuba and we came to america because we know that there was plenty of opportunity for us to grow something for my family to create a legacy we need to stop creating a victim mentality i want to know how much of our school money and our tax dollars is going towards these committees and paying for equity and paying for critical rate theory instead of focusing on the education of our children to better their reading time's up ma'am
146time's up your time's up sean rabaccini abriana johnson go ahead ma'am my name is patsy davis and i have children attending palm beach county schools i'm here to touch base on a couple topics quickly i'm speaking to make sure that masks remain optional for the coming school year those who want to wear them wear them and those who don't don't we're all aware that masks don't necessarily stop the actual spredakovic that children are the least likely demographic to probably get it and spread it and i think having the mass this whole entire school year that just went by was wrong and going forward it needs to be optional period in addition along those lines the idea of forcing a quarantine on an unvaccinated person because they've been exposed i think it's ridiculous obviously if they're
147showing symptoms they should stay home that's common sense it's what we've done you know since i was in kindergarten that makes sense but to use the idea of a vaccine that doesn't have a long-term study or fda approval as our litmus for who gets quarantined and who doesn't to me is a blatant push to force the vaccine and let me say this like personally on thanksgiving my 21 year old had a cardiac arrest and was put on a ventilator because he had an unknown heart condition we had no idea he had that and and he died for those few minutes and they brought him back and he now lives with an implanted defibrillator it's in his back to shock him when his heart stops because it could happen at any time any day with no
148notice that condition can be hereditary and there's nothing you can really do to screen for it i've had my other kids screened they've all had ekgs but that doesn't always show up until your child has that cardiac arrest and given what we're seeing about the heart problems that are starting to pop up with some of our younger people i i can't in good conscience have my children vaccinated and and know that that it could do serious damage to their heart which already almost killed one of my children so if someone is okay with the vaccine or okay with their children getting it fine that is up to them but to put that pressure on me when my goal is to keep my children safe healthy and alive i just think it's completely wrong um anyway
149that was not actually part of what i was going to tell you but um and the last thing is i really do hope that what we are teaching our children in our schools right now is how to do their true civic duty be hard-working citizens respect others hard work and others drive that we're not trying to put ideals in their head that cause any division or any hatred that's not what we're supposed to do with those children we're not to divide our children we need to unite them and teach them how to lift each other up always thank you [Applause] go ahead ma'am teach your name please hi my name is abriana and it's not okay what you are teaching to kids like me i like homeschool but i want to go back to regular
150school but i will have to wear a mask and not be taught real history it's just not right yet you think it is this needs to stop now not next year now please now i personally don't like wearing masks i want to go back to regular school and you guys are just doing so many wrong things what you want to teach to kids is just horrible and you guys think it's right i should be taught real history and being taught real science and political not political or democrat stuff i am proud to be a patriot and be with all these amazing people and i love my family and my mother is such an amazing person and i love her so much and i am just happy to be here today it's not easy for someone
151like me to be taught fake stuff and then if i'm told by my school not to tell a parent or there's no real parent permission to be taught any of this then it's just wrong thank you for your time this is the last call for joey soto mark pintel megan bell julia sanderson robin nolan molly harding angelique contreras gabby fox and sean rabaccini if any of you here come to the microphone now all right board members that's the end of the in person speakers we have now the voice recorded speakers there one two three four five six seven eight nine ten of them would the i.t department please play the recordings good evening superintendent school board members my name is carl mohammed i'm a non-general speaker and i wanted to um think of at least
152trying to do the best that you could for the school year that we just previously uh ended but i'm also much more excited about the opportunities that we have in front of us to move everything forward for children in the state of florida but one of the things that i know that is still continuously happening i'll tell you about a incident we just celebrated the juneteenth for the first time in the history of the united states as being a national holiday and i went to a celebration in west palm beach in a celebration in riviera beach and didn't see a red black and green flag nor did i hear of any kind of conversation as it relates to the reality of the miseducation that our children are still receiving so the problems still continue but
153i do want to encourage the school district and the school board member if the governor of the state of florida continued with his opposition to knowledge being given to the population i think palm beach county is in a unique exemplary position because we have had these challenges before and we know how to deal with them so i'm hoping that y'all would take on the challenge of on behalf of our children to ensure that we do have the conversation and nobody just dictate to us what they don't really have a knowledge about but as we continue inside of the adolesce community the children of the space community we have a lot of rigor that we're putting inside of our community efforts and we want to uh just make you aware that we still need your assistance
154in trying to get some community alliances going on for our children and we know that you have our children in each one of the different districts that are located in palm beach county and we're praying for your success i pray that everything that you're doing with the strategic plan and everything else is successful because that we know that if you're you were successful then our babies will be successful and i just like to always say continue to be palm beach county and don't let nobody or nothing um um break us up divide us i think we have a good team but lastly from the adores community we always we got a new slogan it says nothing about us without us and we're trying to break the silence and we're trying to come and help those
155who are trying to say that they're helping us inside of our community thank you be safe and god bless ezekiel is the third black educators caucus non-indigenous speaker um central to the education of people of african-american especially the adopts community we have established a voice one that is more progressive than in this time by asking several controversial and thoughtful broken questions we raise questions such as are adam's children uh and other children the same is the ado's child's ideas and bodies mainly you know white ideas and values and child happens to be black are these are there any significant questions or differences in the mental and physical growth and development of edo's children white children and esau children in reference to their education what effects does race awareness have on the mental and personality development
156of adolescents uh are such leisure activities that is playing certain games watching television going to movies and listening to radio hazards with the mental health of patos black children um do adoles parents black parents socialize their children to be inferior to white and other children and why have integrated schools and businesses filmed so many children while we know intelligence is grounded in experiences in terms of the past presence and future and we realize these can serve as true precursory material out of which intelligence is dynamically constructed we have questions and we define uh concepts of education and many in a manner that makes it more diverse and complex than just a you know an iq test or standardized land test designers in our society usually provide empirical data that reinforce the notion that african children
157are intellectually intellectually uh inferior but we think otherwise uh we approach that intelligence of adult children and other children from a culturally different perspective one where neither cultural deficiency nor deprivation accounts for low iq scores or low standardized festivals edo's got children have a different cultural orientation worldwide view and that those are the things that uh are different from the the basis of the standardized test while many black educators have attempted to develop education and as a practice of freedom to provide answers to the educational developments additional questions are also serviced uh there's a need to investigate these questions through research and look beneath the surface of the problems that face people of african descent especially those familiar members and dig deep into the structure of african-americans reality problems too many of us look through
158the lens of a lens that expresses education as essentially the preparation for this is a board meeting non-agenda message my name is connor hartman i'm a resident of wellington florida and i'm a 9th grader at wellington high school i'm a part of the lgbtqia class community and have been a member of the gsa clubs in both middle school and high school it would be devastating for me if you rejected us by canceling gsa clubs i have found so many accepting friends through gsa and have learned better ways to handle homophobic discrimination from peers and others also research has consistently shown that gsa's improved school climate and students develop a stronger connection to their school community by denying access to a gsa the school board is sending the wrong message that lgbtqia plus students are undeserving
159of the same opportunity to a quality education from the school's district from the school district's own lgbtq plus critical support guide it says that under the federal equal access act a public school permitting any non-curricular club must also allow students to form a gsa in addition according to the equal access act the schools must treat the gsa the same as it does any other non-curricular club in terms of access to facilities resources and opportunities to advertise please keep gsa clubs available to all and support the lgbtqia plus youth community thank you connor hartman board members i'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules so we can continue with the other six recordings at 7 30 and typically we would we'd hear them after the discussion items do we have an agenda do we have a
160motion which my dr robinson seconded by mrs andrews any discussion on favor oppose motion carry 7-0 what i t continue with the other six recordings please my name is carlton cartwright and this is a non-agenda item racism and racist keep sliding towards the conclusion of things my critical race theory teaches some fallacy that white children are somehow associated with being bad automatically racism like getting dressed in the morning is learned and taught neither occurs automatically without the intervention of a teacher parent or so-called friends slavery cruelty human trafficking are not issues of color they are issues of power over another person having that power and using it for profit is directly related to greed and wealth we are one human race and a variety of ethnic groups that have practiced these inhumane acts on their
161own on their own ethnic groups and others since the beginning of the existence of men in the case of regions of land named by europeans called the americas the african slave was purchased or kidnapped and transported in grotesque fashion to the insurers and forced to cultivate wealth for their captors by any means necessary lynching beating rape etc with their wretched lives kept in human bondage meanwhile the indigenous or native indian was subjected to massive genocide with the demise of approximately 100 million souls the parallel between these two ethnic groups and the horror of their fate is unfathomable the thought of this diminishes the term low self-esteem critical race theory shows or makes examples of what these inhuman practices and cumulative damages have resulted in how the practice has damaged human beings for life or overly
162extended periods of time mentally and emotionally destroying individuals case after case crt begs to ask the student what if that was you and how would you feel the trauma of these acts has been passed down from generation to generation the country of germany made the effort to cover up the holocaust however circa 1979 when the holocaust series was televised globally the world was reminded of the genocide and mass murder that had taken place hence if it was a failure these crimes against humanity still exist in the form of war human trafficking continuous poverty and over racism through world history the aftertreatments remind us not to continue these atrocities against mankind and teach us how to be how not to abuse one another please reference on the internet experiment the boots of viral pack conversations with
163jane elliott and recent articles uh washington post mentions a student by the name of uma who states through critical theory and debate i learned that i could merge my social justice advocacy with my academic interest to seek real solutions to the problems that play our world today i learned that racial justice was intersectional that every issue whether it was the morality of plea bargaining or the fairness of standardized testing had different impacts on marginalized communities contributed to structural racism conservatives have long extolled the virtues of free speech and this this ban is the most tangible attack on free speech and education by banning a particular perspective especially one that focuses on marginalized voices defenses further impedes and previously my name is holly stewart and i am speaking as a non-agenda item person at the board
164meeting i'm a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience working with families and children in palm beach county including pregnant moms and their babies i'm extremely concerned that a small group of parents are trying to deny comprehensive inclusive sex education to our children we know from research the comprehensive sex health education that includes not only sexually transmitted disease but pregnancy prevention including both abstinence birth control and condoms is successful in delaying the onset of sexual activity decreases teen pregnancy decreases instances of sexually transmitted diseases including hiv and decreases other high risk behaviors including substance abuse my name is holly stewart and i am speaking as a non-agenda item speaker at the board meeting i'm a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience working with families and children in palm
165beach county including pregnant moms and their babies i'm extremely concerned that a small group of parents are trying to deny comprehensive inclusive health education to our children we know that comprehensive sex health education that includes not only sexually transmitted diseases but pregnancy prevention including the use of condoms is successful in delaying the onset of sexual activity decreases teen pregnancy decreases instances of sexually transmitted disease including hiv and decreases other high-risk behaviors including substance abuse alcohol use tobacco use and dating violence in addition we know that the six percent of children in our schools that identify as lgbtq are at higher risk for depression anxiety mental health disorders and suicide it is important that all of our children's needs are represented in all areas of curriculum while i disagree with the parents decision to up out
166of this curriculum i respect their right to do so however to try and deny other people's children access to this information is willful ignorance i can think of no greater example of the abuse of privilege and systematic oppression than to deny the very existence of those with less power and influence in our community in our educational institution it is not just a violation of school district's equity policies i believe it is both hateful and inhumane thank you very much for your time and i apologize deeply for not being available to speak in person have a good evening good afternoon superintendent and members of the board i am dr gabriela mendes professor at nsu parent and member of the hispanic education quality sorry hispanic education coalition equity statements are necessary and useful when followed by implementation
167of measures to promote equity today we reiterate our call for equity on the following issues in 2016 the nyu report highlighted inequities and included recommendations to address the problems since then the hispanic education coalition has been consistently asking this board which of the recommendations have been implemented and evaluated we're still waiting a stated last month by dr carlos diaz acting chair of the head latinx teachers and principals are underrepresented in the district where 37 percent of students are latinx in addition the percentage of latino principle has gone down one percent and latino teachers and district administration uh remains stagnant three since 2020 when the doj did a sentiment with a settlement with the school board for the claim that the district discriminated against non u.s citizen employees the heck has been asking for public explanations
168and accountability measures to discipline those who were responsible for discriminatory discriminatory practices who are still waiting four the heck is usually disappointed at the decision to eliminate the office of global education and community outreach we request that the district continues to work on the goals and achievements of this office an example is the working on the visas for international teachers to address the teachers shortage five the check also requests that the district immediately implement specific strategies to address the um inequity created by the new use misuse of the vector act by which the district was sued this week the report that the southern poverty law center report explains how this happens in the district even five-year-old children are baker acted eight times in this district and that is unacceptable this the executive board of the
169head contained doctors in education who would be glad to support the district in the design and implementation of strategies targeted to eliminate rampant inequities in our school district we'll continue to raise our voices to call the district accountable thank you non-agenda item hello my name is ann margo cannon last month i asked the school board of palm beach county to establish safe technology limits in deploying its 40 million dollar access for all wi-fi mesh network being it installed over our neighborhoods as we speak as an update i verified with staff that the school board and palm beach county are equal partners in this project therefore i'm speaking to you today as you are custodians of the public trust adverse health effects from rf radiation have been reported for the last 20 years and longer the
170telcom industry is doing their best to scuttle the evidence just because the fcc decided not to set any health standards because they were strong because they were strong armed by the industry does that remove the liability for any harm caused by this project i think if you ask any attorney that is not the case so two things should be forthcoming number one due diligence of the health effects safe technology standards should be adopted and followed number two a risk analysis should be done to protect from future lawsuits and any other liability for safety and health by the way major insurance companies are advising they will not cover wireless radiation claims in their policies you may ask yourself why is this the case it is because is it because they believe there aren't any or do
171they believe there are so many potential claims they would not be able to pay out on them if they believed there were no claims why would they be writing these exclusions a further piece of due diligence would be a legal analysis of the risks we the taxpayers are not interested in footing the bill for these potential claims since there are confirmed significant health risks then the very population the low-income communities that will be exposed by this project have the least access to health care in other words those you are championing to help are the very ones who will be hurt the most by this project we need to give them a safer better product we need to know our kids and our vulnerable populations good afternoon my name is cecilia dufet and i am calling
172for the school board of palm county or palm beach county with regard to access for all wi-fi mesh network plans i like most of you perhaps did not know there were any considerations around health and safety with wireless technology in fact i spent eight years bringing wireless technology into the ashland public schools here in massachusetts and then one night at book group an engineer friend hit me off that there could be biological harm and i'm a technical and professional writer by trade so i began to investigate the peer-reviewed independent non-industry funded science and i was simply astounded to discover there are literally thousands of peer-reviewed published studies indicating great biological harm and especially to children and fetuses the elderly and anybody with an existing health condition so working with my school committee we became the
173first in the united states to begin taking precautionary measures and i then worked with our state senate president and introduced legislation i went on to help pass a critically important bill in new hampshire that led to a law that required a commission be formed to investigate the health and environmental impacts of today's wireless technology that commission put out a report on november 1st of last year and that is available and i urge each of you to look at the first 17 pages with their documentation of corruption between the wireless industry and our federal agencies and the legal risks that all of our schools assume by letting wireless technology in so the good news is is that there are many here many experts around the world willing to support palm beach county as you migrate to
174safe technology please use the stimulus funds from covid to ensure broadband doesn't just go up on a poll and then spray wireless out to your community that's a toxic solution instead use that funding to bring fiber to the premises where folks can simply hook up with an ethernet cable and there are adapters that can be bought for short money about twenty dollars each to hardwire from your router to the device and then you simply turn off the antennas and all the devices so you have an incredible opportunity i will follow up with an email so that you have my contact information but please do not allow your community to be further penetrated with wireless radiation it is toxic and as you look at the science you'll make that discovery for yourself so thank you so
175much again my name is cece the honor and i would be honored to come and give additional information thank you hi my name is theodora scarado i'm executive director of environmental health trust and i'm speaking for the board meeting today our organization's website is ehtrust.org that's ehtrust.org where you can learn more information i wanted to present and share with you that there are many resources available to mitigate wireless radiation environmental exposures in schools and i'll be sending them to you the collaborative for high performance schools which is the united states first green building rating program designed for k-12 schools developed best practices for low ems classrooms back in 2014 and that criteria is available in 2017 the maryland state children's environmental health and protection advisory council i'm sorry 2017 issued first recommendations by a state
176body for how to reduce wireless exposure in schools the new jersey education association has an article minimize health risks from wireless devices and guidelines for safer use of wireless tech were developed for new york state teacher unions in addition the united educators of san francisco passed a resolution recommending that the california department of public health recommendations on how to reduce cell phone radiation which i hope you have a copy of and i will be sending to you be posted in every classroom so students and staff can be aware of how to reduce exposure i will also add that former director of the national institute of environmental health sciences dr linda bernbaum has documented in several letters information about the national toxicology program study which found clear evidence of cancer and she along with dr chris
177poitier who's a former cdc expert have called for the italian government to have stricter limits related to wireless radiation now italy has much more strict and uh stringent limits about what's allowable and the united states has among the highest the highest allowable permissible levels of wireless radiation compared to a lot of the world actually so that information is on our website at ehtrust.org many scientists hundreds of scientists have called to reduce wireless radiation because of the published credible body of research that has found non-ionizing radiation linked to cancer dna damage memory damage reproductive damage tumor promotion impacts to the endocrine system and brain damage and oxidative stress so these effects could be irreversible with grave consequences for our children's future thank you so much and please go to environmental health trust for more information thank
178you so much bye-bye board members that's the end of the non-agenda speakers they'll take us to the last section on the agenda which are board discussion items the first one is bd1 mrs mcquinn thank you i asked that we have a discussion or really it's me talking to you about um permanent substitutes and for those of you who have not been around forever permanent substitutes were substitute teachers who were assigned full-time to specific schools i co-stand the financial rationale for eliminating those positions over the past several years they were very very very tight budget times however it's my observation from looking what schools have experienced this year that we need to at least look to this coming year and the following year to do something about getting some permanent subs back in schools i don't
179know how we're going to catch up academically when we continue to do what our schools had to do this past year and if you haven't worked myself included if you haven't worked in a school center during this past year you cannot know what they have all been doing and i'm talking high performing schools so i i want to this is it's not intended to cast blame but i don't want to be where we were when we opened school this past year to brick and mortar we were assured that we had a deep pool of substitute teachers waiting to come back to our schools we know that didn't happen so not only did our teachers teach simultaneously so they're teaching the kids in their classroom and the kids doing virtual learning but when there was no
180warm body adult to cover the classroom of a teacher who was out then they literally had to double up so now i've got twice as many students i don't even know what the lesson plans are for that other class and i'm managing too and this is not isolated folks this happened over and over again guidance counselors are important positions they couldn't do guidance counseling they were covering classes media specialists covering classes even esc parents were covering covering classes no wonder we had so many things out of our control with people being ill all kinds of situations but at least let's put some certified teachers and and substitute teachers i believe still that's the two years experience i just know that we can't afford to do coming into next year what we did this year we
181we stumbled and so i'm just asking that seriously i realize all these budgets are in place and everybody knows what they want i'm asking for you to put yourself in the position of a school center and let's at least look at bringing on some permanent subs for next year and also remember in our at our highest priority highest need schools they can't get substitutes if you can't get them at our highest performing you sure can't get him at our lowest performing so thank you for letting me get that off my chest appreciate it miss go ahead miss pearl and then mrs whitfield thank you so i i happen to think that's a very good idea but i do think we are going to have a problem regardless because of what we pay our substitutes i
182cannot remember the last time we've given a pay increase to substitute teachers they've reached out to me many times this year included i think that's one of the main problems that we have we we pay them a ridiculously low low amount so i think that in conjunction with that we need as we go through this budget process we you know we we go through the process and then there's nothing left for them and we need to address that mrs whitfield thank you i was thinking along the same lines of the pay i was wondering if um you know following up on mrs mcquinn's idea if we could have a a sub pool where a substitute teacher is paid every day and then roves through the county where they're needed so that they're a permanent teacher
183they just are filling in as a role for a sub so that way they could be paid as a normal teacher salary just a thought but i think it's a great idea and i think we should definitely look into it thank you mrs anders and thank you and yes ms burrell as well as miss whitfield the fees the the uh the pay has always been an issue and uh when i was back in the day we had to really work on upgrading the pay for permanent subs to keep the quality pool there that's needed but i'm really worried because i keep hearing that we have this shortage of teachers and i know we did at the beginning of the year but i'm worried because i'm sitting here and i don't know how it really looks
184for summer school and i was sitting on a recording uh a zoom meeting with some people just yesterday and they were talking about that we have this shortage of teachers for summer school and all this work that needs to be done i think as a board we need to be kept informed now more than ever before of where we are with the summer the summer school and how it's looking at each one of these sites as well as for the teachers there are we using subs what are we doing when we have those vacancies how is it being handled as well as as soon as we get into august we we really need to be looking at that that's why mrs mcqueen this is a ideal time to talk about trying to come up with
185some options i.e permanent sub subs increasing the pay whatever is needed because it's not going away and people are a lot concerned about whether they're coming back to the district to be a sub for many many reasons and so we know it's it's critical right now so i would like for us to get some type of report to show us how well we're doing right now with with summer school starting and with all this uh homework assistance and tutoring that we're supposed to be doing i really don't have an idea of how well we we're doing with the quality of people the teachers in place to help these children and we know we have a lot of need here over 50 000 with uh unfinished learning so uh i want to know if we have
186the people in place and i know you're working at it but we need to have we we need to have that data and we need to look at the finance summit san jose as it pertains to summer school i can speak for what i know at this moment so if you have if you can share with me after the meeting in regards to the group that you met with that have some staffing concerns i definitely would reach out to them because we did have two schools down south that i would i became aware of last week they worked over the weekend that matter has been resolved and this morning the only remaining issue that i am familiar with was that we had um a short of of ell teachers and as we were sitting here
187i just finished up with dr oaka and he said that we are now good because we so i'm assuming he found some additional teachers this afternoon as i worked with him this morning on some teachers that i were able to assist him with so i will get with you immediately after this meeting and i've said to you know the regional offices um the principal supervisors principles everyone know i'm to reach out so that we can assist but i don't have i'm not close to the schools to where i'm doing that direct hiring per se but we've been here um assisting so i'll get with you right after this meeting to make certain that we have those um gaps and i'll uh work with mr burke um to see i'm not familiar with the permanent sub
188process i don't know if it has the does the union have to be involved like yes okay it needs to be negotiated okay so we'll i'll get with the team um and we'll and we'll we'll research that for you ms mcqueen and the board thank you mr barbary i know you can't see me and so i apologize for um i can see you i could say okay so just a quick follow-up um so thank you for the heads-up about negotiations can't imagine that any teacher is going to be upset that they can have a classroom covered but so well um to be negotiated i did have in my notes so i so much appreciate miss andrews you're starting and then everyone else referring to the pay for substitute teachers because i know many of us
189have been contacted and i know that substitutes who've been working since they retired who this year have said i'm exhausted and i'm not getting paid any more money than i got paid in much easier time so thank you for letting me um add that in thank you mr mcquinn the next four discussion item is dr robinsons thank you yes this is a follow-up to something that was mentioned in i think one of our strategic planning uh meetings and and actually if i i don't want to put words in his mouth but somehow i think it was dr fenoy who made some mention of it but i i would hope that as when we complete this uh new strategic plan that we realign the evaluation instruments for our employees to align with that that strategic plan
190i'm not sure what level to start at definitely directors and above i would imagine um you know i don't have any details written in concrete but i just wanted to take this opportunity to remind the board and and leadership of the comment that was made dr robin has been on board you are absolutely correct we've already started the hr team has already created the tool we actually use it with my direct reports this year and so we will be rolling out to the reports directors and above for next year yes ma'am there's no other discussion on that one dr robinson bd3 thank you so this is uh the same old issue i'm hoping that we can revive um what i think was a commitment that the board made several years ago to move to a
191minimum of fifteen dollars an hour for all of our employees i know that there was a um i'm losing the word it was a a state give me the word mr burke knows the word i'm looking thank you a constitutional amendment um in that regard but i think you know i think a palm beach county school district as leaders and i would hope that this would be one of the the areas we would lead in since we maybe not all the same board members but we made a commitment some years ago that we were going to move that direction so i would hope we would move that to the to-do list mrs andrews yes dr robinson i remember that and i really uh would second that that we need to do this as we look
192at employees now they can be particular based on where they work and we need to show a respect for the employee 15 an hour is not anything grand but it's better than what we're doing right now so i second that mrs whitfield i also remember this i know we talked about it with dr avossa when we gave the bus drivers the raise a few years back i'm just curious if we could get a report to see how far off we are on which positions don't make that much and and what it would take to get them there i think we need to understand it a little bit more i agree we we need bus drivers i had a lot of days that i couldn't get my daughter picked up at a reasonable time because they
193were dropped off because they had to double up on the routes which i completely understand but i i you know i wonder about these positions that we're trying to fill so i think it's a great idea and we should look at it you know for the next year thank you any other discussion miss bro thank you so yes we did discuss it and yes we discussed 15 an hour um being the minimum that we would be paying hourly and the problem again it's just like with the substitutes is that we go through the budget process and there's nothing left over at some we always we know that we're always not going to have enough money but we've got to start at the front end we do need to get the figures to see where people
194are i know it's going to be very costly i know the states that are enacting the minimum are gradually increasing it but you know i'm more interested in making bigger jumps it's very very difficult i know you know there are so many of our employees in maintenance and food service that work two and three jobs just to be able to put food on their tables so i completely support that mr superintendent can you get us some information on where we're at compared to i guess the private sector on some of the jobs that match up yeah we can probably do a little bit better than that mr burke can probably show you the actual cost over time to get to the 15 if that's the minimum so we already have it all worked out so
195we'll just share it with the board at your leisure all right thank you any other discussion next one i put on before you probably all know that the there's a statutory change with respect to the advisory committees starting july 1st i believe advisory committees can meet virtually but the problem is we need to change our board policies i'm most familiar with cork so some of you might be familiar with the other but currently the court policy that we put in place which is a permanent policy because the you all remember that the emergency policy had to be replaced after 90 days says that there's you know there's there's seven uh voting members and seven non-voting members um we can't go back and do what the with the new statute says until we change that policy
196unless any of you have an objection we can ask the the administration the general counsel to get that policy to us as soon as possible for the advisory committee so that we match up with the new statutory law requirements mr chairman we are scheduled to bring that back to you on the 14th of july 14th okay great all right the other last item is bd5 dr robinson surveying parents regarding masks i'm sorry did you have a comment yes i'm sorry so i just wanted to get clarification from general counsel because when i made my comments regarding the school advisory committees she advised me that that was actually the i'm sorry when i said about the the sacks that it was really at the board advisory committees so to general counsel is it both or is
197it just board advisory committees it is only the board advisory committee sex are dealt with under a different statute so it does not extend to sex so so then just to revise my comments earlier today um asking that the school advisory committees be you know when they meet virtually be recorded that's not a change in statute and i don't want to mislead the public so thank you thank you mr pro dr robinson bd5 yeah thank you so this is a request that we consider surveying parents about mass concerns and maybe other um resumption of school activities concerns it just dawned on me i mean i'm clear about i'm stuck on my metrics now so i i don't want anybody to think that i'm i'm throwing those away but uh but we hear from from some
198parents but not the silent majority as it were right and in my in my thinking that we should have the options to have masked and unmasked classrooms which is the um the the clearest reason that i can verbalize at the moment for a survey it would benefit us to have an idea if most parents have the same level of concern as i do or if i'm the outlier i mean just if we can get some sense um as we did you know earlier in the pandemic of what parents thinking is i don't i don't know that i want to ask parents will you keep your child from attending school if this happens but i do want to hear um what level of concerns parents have this is with you thank you i just want to
199say i'm i'm really not on board with surveying people anymore um i kept thinking last year that we could get it right and we did i think three surveys and every time the survey was invalid within a week of asking the questions that we were asking the questions were never asked appropriately even though i tried to look at them and even thought that i could put my spin on it i didn't do a good job so i just don't think that we can do a good job and i i i hesitate to put this out there because i just don't think that this state is willing to allow us to go any further than we've gone i think we've gone as far as we possibly can in trying to protect people so um i i'm
200really not into the idea of more surveys thanks vice chairman bro thank you i agree with ms mrs whitfield and the other thought i have is it would be very disingenuous of us to survey parents and then not take action based upon the results if we had results that were not what we expected but i i agree with mrs woodfield i would not support that at this time mrs andrews i do support uh miss whitfield and miss braille because we can't keep sending mixed messages to people this is what i'm concerned about those were the questions i had early on when dr fenoy put the paperwork together we're sitting here talking about what we want to do and now it's going out to communications is this is how we see ourselves for the opening of
201school so we can't keep asking for more information and changing because as ms burrell said when we send the survey out people will want you to do something based on what they've said it seems like we've observed we're following the rules the governor has made a statement here that we have to get back to work all the children have to get to school we're looking at what's happening with the medical pieces and so we made the best choices by sitting here talking today based on what we all said we could live with so i don't want to keep going back and forth without being consistent now you know as we move forward we can continue to talk here because we're meeting and if we have something to say we can say it but i don't
202want to keep going back and forth with the parents getting more information knowing that we've already said one thing and and then we're just jumping back and forth i don't feel comfortable with that dr robinson so clearly everyone has a right to their own opinion but um in my experience though people want to be heard that doesn't mean that you must do what they said that was a that was something that um i think impaired progress in the past um but i think we can have honest conversations if for example if 65 of the parents said i have no concern about any of that right and i'm completely fine with the reopening plan as presented today i would respectfully disagree with them but i would understand that i am in the minority right but i
203think it is very important that we hear our constituents i mean i hear i hear some with some degree irregularity but i don't know who i'm missing and without essentially going almost like door to door um i don't know how to get that and so i thought that since we say that we want to hear from parents and and respect them in their critical role um that we that this might be a tool if you have another tool to understand you know a lot a wider range of of hearing from the parents i'm fine with that survey is just my best idea at the moment but i do think it's important that we um understand how our parents are viewing our move to to normal because i i hear mostly from those who are worried
204right so mrs mcquinn i'm sorry why not um for me to send out a survey that asked if they would like that option of separating out the mast and the unmask it gives them at least the thought that we could perhaps do that we can't do that then we decide which teacher is going to get to teach the mass or the unmasked again in administering a school center it's close to impossible so we're giving them a thought that we can do something that we cannot for the most part accomplished any further discussion on this item all right that takes us the energetic mr superintendent do you have anything to add mr chairman i have nothing motion to adjourn motioned by mrs andrews second by vice chairwoman brill in the discussion on favor posed motion carries
205the meeting is adjourned you