01.20.21 School Board Workshop/Meeting (with captions)

001good afternoon ladies and gentlemen the board has just completed a risk management session we will now move into the Strategic plan Workshop followed by a regular board meeting at 5: PM viewers and listeners can access the meeting today by either watching on Comcast channels 234 and 235 Erse channel 99 or by using the YouTube link on our web page Palm Beach schools.org we also offer a listening only option which the public can access by calling 561- 35759 or tollfree at 1866 93701 15 the meeting ID is 1561 880 11124 pound sign we'll call the workshop to order at 324 pm on January 20th 2021 Mrs bass please call the rule district one Barbara mcquin here District Two Alexandria aala here District three Karen bril here District Four Erica Whitfield here District Five Frank barbier here

002District Six Maria Andrews here District Seven Deborah Robinson here all board members are present we have Quorum with seven board members in attendance also joining us on dasis superintendent Dr Donald fenoy and joining us here at the tables in front of us until the they can once again join us at the Das after social distancing requirements are no longer necessary our general counil Shan Bernard Inspector General Teresa Michael and board clerk Carol bass senior staff members will join us periodically as directed by the superintendent this meeting is being transcribed by a Clos captioner so remember to speak at a reasonable Pace Mr superintendent thank you Mr chairman today's board Workshop regarding the Strategic plan is the first of many as shared during the previous board Workshop prior to the holiday break on December the 16th

003we know our next strategic plan will take several months to develop with a final draft expected for board approval sometime in Late July or early August the chief of staff's office will share a process overview with the board today and highlight our Focus on stakeholder engagement since we know it is important to for to both the board and myself to Center the voices of our community moving forward the next strategic plan Workshop will take place on March 3D and will provide more detail on phase one of the engagement plan along with the results of A needs assessment this needs assessment will require input from all district divisions we'll inform our initial drafting of measurable goals and priorities to share with internal external stakeholders for feedback again the goal for today is to provide the board

004with a general overview of how the district will approach the development of our next strategic plan involving the school board and the larger community in this work continues to remain one of my priorities moving forward and with that I will turn it over to Mr Ed tney for today's board Workshop chairman barier Vice chair Mrs Brill school board members Dr fenoy very pleased to have the opportunity to help facilitate our first in a series of board workshops on the Strategic plan joining me at the table today is Miss Kathy Veno we'll go over the agenda momentarily I just want to highlight the main purpose of today today's Workshop is to go over stakeholder engagement and how we're approaching approaching that critically important part of the creation of our next strategic plan so our agenda today

005we're going to review the proposed strategic plan timeline you have seen that before we're going to share a draft of the planning framework again Spotlight on stakeholder engagement talk somewhat about the district subcommittee and the stakeholder mappings that has begun and then go over next steps this slide you've seen before it's a proposed timeline you saw it on the in the workshop on December 16th and that lays out the whole strategic plan planning process I'm going to call your attention to the left side of that graphic the Mission Vision revisions and the equity working definition that's what we're working on right now we hope to be done by the end of February that's really the foundational P pieces that will set the stage for successful strategic plan creation I mentioned the superintendent earlier we believe

006that our current Workshop schedule does not allocate enough time for the equity work that's so critically important to have done before strategic planning process so we're hoping that the board is open to scheduling more workshops around that piece in order to create that much more of an effective strategic plan uh and then just to uh follow up with the board uh have been working with Mary feris on the additional contract we hope to have that in place um by February 1st so that she can begin that work so as Mr Tierney said the sooner we can have the schedule of dates for you know an equity focused Workshop each month the sooner we can hit the ground running so hopefully that will be in place before February but you know the paperwork struggle is real

007um here at the district so just making sure that we uh cross all our te's and Dot all our eyes there but it is in the works and um we have agreed on a scope of work so we're excited to continue that work with her starting February 1st um so in the spirit of uh Partnerships I wanted to bring attention to uh a grant that the human resources department worked diligently um on getting through the um facilitation of an organization called the Insight education group and so some of you may remember uh Dr lukava speaking about the teacher and school leader incentive Grant program from the federal government and we we call this TSL for short um the objective of that Grant is to really look at human Capital Management Systems uh through an equitable

008lens and so as part of that work um with HR uh Dr laava Edwin Michelle the director of Recruitment and Retention as well as Karly Millan our ass assistant superintendent of professional growth uh identified that as part of that scope of work in included with that grant funding the Insight education group was willing to help facilitate our strategic planning process and the reason that that's important is because you know they're all for equity and they've done numerous strategic plans most notably with Guilford County which we'll share with you and for those of you who may remember Guilford County the Schoolboard chair there is Dena Hayes who has been critical partner in our REI work so the connection there is is very exciting I think for me and hopefully everyone else in leadership um and the

009school board as well so using Insite education group and their expertise to make sure that we keep an eye on Equity I think is a way that we can um leverage you know just that Grant partnership without taking away you know dollars and what we know is going to be a very uh hard fiscal year coming up um but that way we also make sure our our our strategic plan um again just leverages the resources that we have and so again a huge shout out to human resources for just bringing that to our attention um and again you may ask oh why is Insight going to do that you know as part of their Grant and I think they realize that Equity can't happen in isolation so in order to have this Equitable human Capital

010management system you need to make sure that you know the district at large has a has an equity driven strategic framework so again just a nod to the work that they're doing in this space and how we can leverage that um to facilitate our own strategic planning process so these are some slides um that insight has shared with me we've had a conversation uh prior to this board Workshop we'll have another one next week with the chief of staff to just see what uh level of support they can provide but again uh this slide points out you know the school board the district are really in tune with the mission and vision the theory of action and core beliefs um and then as we conduct A needs assessment this informs what draft priorities could be

011what measurable goals could be and then of course the district owns the implementation side of the house which is the initiatives and the action steps so this kind of shows how all those things flow and who owns what um but again this existing partnership with Insight education I think is just going to help us weave you know that theme of equity throughout the plan which we know the school board has signaled is something that's incredibly important during this process and so what I really like about Insight is similar to the way that we're approaching our work they're very explicit in how they're chunking things out so really looking at three phases as it relates to the development of the Strategic plan so right now and through the month of March we're kind of engaged in

012this pre-work phase where again we're going to be engaging the divisions in the different needs assessments I know the deputy superintendent and the CAO have already been working on the sasp otherwise known as the student academic support plan to really think about postco recovery as well as just repaying that educational debt that we owed to our students even prior to covid um so again really using that as A needs assessment as it relates to academics um and weaving that into the Strategic plan moving forward but also allowing the other divisions to engage in that work because I think some of the feedback that we've heard about our current strategic plan is that some of the other divisions don't necessarily see themselves reflected in the long-term outcomes so they're not entirely sure how they how their

013work kind of plugs into better outcomes for students so again I think engaging them in that work now will only make sure that the success of the plan in the long term um is it is just U maximized so again in this pre-work phase we're conducting this needs assessment um we'll also be uh putting together our phase one engagement plan which we'll hear a little bit more about today um and then Switching gears in April through June to focus on the actual design of the plan so again what are our priorities as a district what are our measurable goals keyword measurable like what what can we actually um do in the amount of time uh that the plan has a lot and then again go back to the community and really ask them to give

014us some input on that draft and I think part of those conversations particularly with nonprofit organizations um and the business Community is also how will you help us implement this plan right so making sure that they they kind of see their role in that because you know something that I've shared with leadership is that you know we're all in the same boat we all want better outcomes for kids in Palm Beach County but now we really have an opport opportunity to make sure we're all rowing in the same direction because similar to you know the approach I described for insight if we all kind of have that you know strategic notion of okay this is how my work functions for equity for kids this is how my work my work we can build on that

015and make sure we're not just entirely overlapping but building right so providing Services um that are holistic in nature is something that we hear a lot so again using the Strategic plan as an opportunity to do that and then really calling out implementation so again we'll be we'll be thinking about that throughout this process because we need to make sure that our goals are measurable in our in our draft strategic plan and and the one that is eventually approved by the school board sometime in July or August as Dr fenoy said in his comments um but really making sure we're having board workshops that are talking about the implementation side of the house to make sure that our schools who are really tasked with with this work can actually carry that out as well as

016the different division so that folks who are you know you know processing payroll or you know driving the bus just everybody can see how they play a role in this so again that will start um at in July and August more explicitly after the board approves a draft plan Mr chy so I said at the beginning that Spotlight would be on stakeholder engagement we have formed a district subcommittee uh to help us work through that with the goal of creating and implementing a community engagement plan that represents all stakeholders within the county and their tasks were that's on the slide recommending high impact locations for community events I'm going to highlight the second bullet and come back to it crafting out of thebox approaches for soliciting and collecting feedback identifying stakeholders and Community leaders to

017partner with us and then promoting participation from all identified stakeholders once the community events are scheduled to take place so that's the role that that committee will play that that committee is comprised of internal staff and they've already been assembled we've met twice with them to start thinking about the best way to do that we're defining stakeholders at groups both inside and outside the district that will be affected by the Strategic plan or have an ability to positively impact it Vice chairwoman BR has thank you I have a question on the district subcommittee members um was it intentional or an oversight that you don't have representation from exceptional student education we have on that next slide that list and a bullet is there is that we're adding an exceptional student education representative I'm sorry where

018is that on the next that was on this we were going to mention that on the next we' realized there's gaps so the subcommittee is just a wonderful group of folks who already have inroads in the community and they identified like hey there's nobody from ESC on here and so I've actually already spoken to Kevin McCormick and he's recommended someone that we can include uh that shop in there so yes uh so you're adding somebody yes you notice something that we also notice so thank you thank you and the goal of that subcommittee is to assist with that engagement plan so they won't correct it but they will represent their peers and they'll highlight ways for us to get to uh the community particularly the community has who has been underserved traditionally and then finally

019on that on that second bullet crafting out of the boach approaches you would make the argument that that that bullet and concept is bigger than the plan bigger than all the people sitting in this room and is really the lens that we're going to look to as we reflect on how effectively or ineffectively we communicate with all stakeholders and how we can approve upon that communication going forward regarding the Strategic plan and then regarding just life within Palm Beach County School District slide is a list of the current subcommittee members with the caveat that we we have reached out to the exceptional student education department it and HR when we saw that they were not represented so we're in the process of doing that and I'm going to just be quiet for 10 seconds so

020allow you to read those names Mrs Andrew and we also have a a assistant superintendent for Global education which is a part of uh what we're trying to do with our dual language programs our um Spanish International acmy so I don't see that name in anywhere in there but that's a superintendent level position which ties into the Multicultural and everything else so I would just think that we would want to be uh engaging in that person who's actually looking at the world as it relates to Palm Beach County to do the kinds of things so I would like to see that name added to the list we have esol instructional coordinator manager migrants so except the elll division is well represented and I'll just add this was was a call to action to directors and

021above to nominate folks who kind of meet that criteria that Mr Tierney said before you know has connections to the community already that we can leverage um maybe knows about out of the box Innovative um strategies to engage folks it was a call to action and it was voluntary for folks uh who wanted to be on that but we can certainly send that email again and maybe be more intentional and say you know the school board has identified this as a gap please put someone forward that we can have on there and I know Mr toury said this as well but um we want to make sure that the committee isn't too large because then it becomes a little unwieldly to manage on a Google a Google Hangout if you will um but what we're

022also hoping for is that these folks will be the connections with their colleagues leverage that that that best thinking and bring it back to us and that's something we've mentioned on our meetings many many times because it can't just be the folks at the table we really need them to manage those connections and then I know Ed will Pro Mr Jor will probably say this um but we're also going to share these plans with the board and with focus groups so that folks who aren't on the subcommittee still have a voice to even say like let me look at these plans does this look like it makes sense so we'll come back to the board in March with that but definitely will'll I know Mr Tierney and I will make sure that we do that

023call to action again Dr Robinson so just on this slide let me also suggest that you add somebody from Early Childhood yep so these individuals were nominated by peers and it was based on a good working knowledge of particular segments of the community and also existing relationships we've met with them twice already we went over this presentation with with them uh one with the interest of of getting feedback which we're we're going to try to live up to our word on and also with the interest of effective communication thank you Mr attorney uh so when we first came together with the subcommittee we wanted to be really clear that we're looking at Community engagement as a process it's not just we need this thing from you give us the thing we need and then we'll

024see you later so you know this is something that the district does day in and day out on so many levels already and so we're also using this opportunity around the Strategic plan to just refine our current Community engagement plan in general so the lessons that we learned through this process you know we're definitely working closely with Claudia Shay and her team to ensure that um this is something where folks can see the before during and after um and then I know I think I see a question so I'll pause there Mrs Whitfield thank you I just um I want to just make sure I'm really clear on on what's Happening Here the um concern that I had last time we did this um you guys have super corrected for I'm very very happy last

025time um I was felt like I wasn't represented in the strategic planning process um and I kept trying to find like where is Wellness in all this and um and now I see it it's great that you're going to do that so this district subcommittee is just to engage other people it's not um the full gamut of who's going to be represented in the process of developing the Strategic plan right it's to help us identify who needs to be at the tated with and then help identify the most effective Pathways to do that so um the only concern that I have which I would not have guessed that I was going to say this is that we may have overcorrected too much um there's no representation from the schools where last time I felt like

026we were really heavy on focused on curriculum side um thinking about reading all the time so is that going to be represented in the people that they draw in that's what's happening and I think if I can if I can just answer so before the plan is presented to the board in March we're going to bring some people to a focus group and I think this is something that I talked to Mr Tierney today as well we're trying to manage expectations schools are handling a lot Regional Offices are handling a lot so to ask them to come weekly to a meeting maybe too much however we realize how critically important they are to this work so once we have a product or a deliverable for them to provide feedback on we'll bring them to the

027table and have a meeting and say this is what we've got what do yall think where are the tweaks you know how do you see yourself in implementing this does it make sense you know practicality wise but definitely recognize that but also again trying to make sure that we're allowing people to have their own daily job responsibility as well and then they can come to the table at a more finite time to give feedback on a specific deliverable Miss and I would just add that I personally meet with the principal leadership principles and the regional superintendents eight times a month so in those meetings with those individuals we will get that feedback Mrs mcquin interestingly um hearing Mrs Whitfield we were almost on the same wavelength one of the things things that I liked on

028the um initial look at the subcommittee members is that they are managers and Specialists for the most part no disrespect to assistant superintendent or senior leadership but I like seeing the folks who are more directly working with our schools and certainly they're reporting to their supervisors and and how however whatever their organizational structure is but I liked seeing managers and Specialists for just that reason and I I will just say thank you for that I know we were very intentional capacity building is something that we recognize and were're kind of when we asked directors you know said you're more than welcome to come but think about those folks that are looking for leadership opportunities that would want to participate in something like that so so thank you m they're giving feedback in different view point

029that we otherwise would have gotten so they really paid some dividends already I'm sorry Mr chair thank you and maybe this is in the PowerPoint but I didn't see it and I don't know where when we get to this but you know we spent quite a bit of time on our last strategic plan and uh I I thought it was well done and it's it's coming to an end how will you actually work with the board you know I know all these people are very important the Committees are important to talk about how well we did with that strategic plan and what kinds of things do we need to look at before we start building communities as a board member I want to know what goals did we meet what we didn't meet that's going

030to help us to help all these people to do the kinds of things that they need to do and I know it's in a new day and time as we kind of look at our issues as it relates to the pandemic and covid and uh trying to get these kids who have lost learning but I just want to know how well did we do with all that work that we did before where are where are we and how we and we should see what we need to be working on from looking at that data I think we could get something to be presented to the board to show us how well we did in all these areas and and so when we began to put all these teams together I would think that would be

031a working document for them so that we won't make the same mistakes again and we can be at another level is that something that's in here that you're going to talk about it's not in this one but I think it's a it's a really good point and good question question and I think standing up this strategic plan the precursor to that will be sunsetting the previous one and that Sunset should include kind of an encapsulation of how did we do what did we do well why did we not do well you what didn't go well why was that so I think that's a really good point that will that go into sunsetting the previous one prior to the initiation of the next strategic plan yes because just to follow up Mr bber because I just

032think you need that when you're talking about all this that you're doing here and as a board member I really want to see that because because that would help me to know what you're talking about what these people are going to be working on and so on so I think that comes a lot sooner than later as we move through this process and I think we were very intentional about um uh doing the community engagement piece first just how are we going to bring folks around this thing that we're trying to to um collect because we wanted to make sure that we had your feedback because I think that can be folded into the needs assessment right where are we now where did we go and I know the long-term outcomes were in the annual

033report as part of the superintendent's evaluation back in September but I think a more public board Workshop of that can be done but the annual report does contain that information and so we'll make sure we schedule something so that that is a more public conversation go ahead Miss and I just think it needs to be broken down a lot I know it was in that annual report but we need to break that down talk about it discuss it so that we can not be here again so absolutely some type of Matrix so we can see what it is that we're talking about so thank you Dr Robinson thank you so just to follow up on that in addition to the outcomes um related to The Pride strategic plan I and I think Mr attorney just

034mentioned this but I think we need to reflect upon the implementation and where the missteps were um and so for me I know that I understood that there would be these um I don't remember what term was used but but Community Partners that would be matched to the Strategic initiative owners right so that there would be ongoing Community input on whatever steps we were taking relative to that particular step in the Strategic plan I don't have any evidence that that that actually happened with any kind of intentionality or Integrity right and and so and then that comes to the second part of what is the expectation of the rigidity of the Strategic plan because it seems to me that we we had that strategic plan and then we said that's it that's what we're doing

035we're not talking about other stuff like yeah yeah you can talk about that but yeah I don't know but it was it was like there was no concept that the Strategic plan could be tweaked during the strategic planning period what or the time that it was to be implemented which I think is flawed right and so I would hope I know you trying to keep us on target with the input piece but I'm just saying I can't stay inside the box at all so um I would hope that we would set up mechanisms for example the the outcome metrics that Miss Andrews referred to we set those up in this plan and review them annually with the expectation that we can improve it that we can tweak it based upon what the data saying I

036just I didn't like that that rigidity of the Strategic plan or at least the way we implemented it thank you I think I think building a mechanism certainly to review annually to to reserve the right to adjust when necessary but if we found that the last strategic plan limited or stifled conversations to a point we talked about this last time I think we consider castering our net widely on what the Strategic plan covers is it just limited strictly to to to academics or do we look at HR Finance Communications other goals so it would be a wider variety of subjects to continue to focus on I think it's important for all of us though in strategic planning process and I and I understand uh Dr Robinson's um feelings about the rigidness if we go down

037that road or when we go down that road we have to be comfortable as a team that when you start tweaking things that we're just not adding things because then it be we find ourselves in a situation I remember when I joined the district which was a couple of years after implementation of strategic plan we started receiving feedback from the board that the process that we were giving feedback was too long we were doing it too much and so the question would be if we're going to add things we have to just monitor ourselves and make sure that every year we're not just adding something new and we don't finish something because then you now you're just adding more because one of the things the biggest changes that I hope to see that at least

038I'm asking for from the committee we had 19 different initiatives last time I think that's right it was 19 roughly around 19 I guarantee you most of us don't even remember what those 19 initiatives were and so we have to be careful around and so one of the things the team said when we started talking about sunsetting the current strategic plan and moving forward was is is 19 different initiatives actually something that you can actually do so to Mr Andrew's point when we come back and really start talking about all of those different ini different initiatives I know for a fact that when I first became superintendent we started combining some of those initiatives because we there were there weren't enough employees to manage all of them and so I think that's the type of

039conversation we have to have around what can we actually do because again if we just keep having a New Year and we say oh we want to do this before you know we go from Seven initiatives back up to 30 Mrs Woodfield I think you bring up a good point though um about kind of how we hear back from uh people on how we're doing I know um it seems to have sort of fallen off in the last couple years um our reporting back I remember when there was a time when I we did have the owners of each section would come and present and so I'm wondering if as a part of this plan we could really set in some firm dates that we're going to hear back on specific TP topics like um

040the increasing reading uh on grade level by third grade that was something that I know that we never made any real progress on um during this whole time but we kind of stopped talking about it at one point too and so I think you know if we can acknowledge Midway through the plan this this thing that we were going for isn't going that well how do we reorganize our uh funding so that we really focus on it I know that something that we as a board have talked about a few times is do we really care about reading we said we do but we're not really focusing towards it and then if we can have those Reg uh report outs here I think with you guys coming and talking to us I think gives us

041a chance to say oh that's right we were talking about that it is a priority for us why aren't we moving forward and and it puts some accountability on us as well as staff at the same time thanks ice Cher brw thank you so Dr feno's comments made me remember where I had a level of discomfort the last time and that's where we were talking about the goals and maybe it's because I've done so many IEPs in my lifetime but we there was a debate between aspirational and achievable measurable and I think that we as a board are going to have to have that conversation because it's all well and good to have aspirational goals but you need goals that are achievable and so it goes hand inand I believe with having too many initiatives

042so I would like us as a board later on when the time is right to have that conversation um we can you know we for those those that were familiar with maps once upon a time where you would have the North Star and you try to reach that North Star that's wonderful but as a plan we've got to be able to measure Mr mcquinn it's actually on this slide being good here I'm making notes though for next meeting or when we address this again the very last sentence um how this is after which does address part of what we've been talking about when we say how the district ACC compens it's core business functions what do we mean by business functions yeah so I think this um has to do with you know our mission

043and vision right so I I would assume that our Core Business function is to educate children um but I also think you know for the divisions and the needs assessment really identifying what their core business functions are so that we can make sure whatever measurable goals or priorities we outline include that right so um and and then to the aspirational goals we also want to make sure that we are making progress towards you know work that we're already doing right so if we know what the the district's mission is and what we should be accomplishing we should try to look at goals that go along with that right because any goals that fundamentally shift our Core Business I would probably not recommend adopting in a strategic plan right so I think it's just making sure

044that as we do the foundational work related to the mission and vision and and a working definition of equity that we keep that in mind so just Mr chair followup what quick so I'd like to make sure though in in layman's terms when we look at business I at least want to make sure we're we are definitive about our Core Business which is educating kids thank you yes thank you for keeping us honest may I ask a question um so one of the things that we had in the last strategic plan which we did not meet was third grade reading right so I'm looking at the subcommittee that you guys have laid out for us tell me where we have somebody that's specialist in in making sure that I mean that was a major goal

045for this board and we didn't do it um and and we talked as M Whitfield brought it up and the other board members about Progressive you know giving us input so that we don't wait five years to find out you know we're we're way behind a third grade reading so first of all I'd like to know who on the district subcommittee is going to be looking specifically at that because I'm sure that's going to be one of our major goals again in the plan is to make sure these kids can read by the time they're out of third grade but um also I want to make sure that you come to us on a regular basis and let us know how we're doing there so we don't you know we don't find out that you

046know we're not outperforming the other districts like we just found out that there you know there's other districts that are doing better than us if we find that earlier on then we could probably have you all look at what they're doing differently from us to come back with some ideas on how we can fix that problem so we can make sure that that but again would you just answer my question who on the district subcommittee members who do we have on there that's actually you know going to really be involved with those youngest kids to that that group is created to help us make sure that we ident ID ify all of the stakeholders that we need to contact with a particular lens on the ones that that we may have missed before or not

047have the voice so that's that's the that's the purpose of this group us hearing back from schools and academic needs we're not concerned that we'll miss them so they're not represented here but when we do the division surveys that everyone does kind of a self assessment that's where we're anticipating finding the academic goals that we need to hit okay this group is just to ensure We we forgot about this population we didn't communicate effectively with this population they were not heard the academic goals were were less concerned about missing okay thank you Mrs Andrew and as I was saying about uh the board uh actually looking at where we've come from as to where we're going uh the community is going to be looking at us very closely too because uh we made a big

048deal out the Strategic plan we went everywhere in all these communities talking about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it and then it kind of froze on us somewhat so that's why I'm really concerned that not just the board but uh that before we kind of when we select these people from the community and start looking at our stakeholders we have a real good handle on those things that we know we really need to work on based on what we didn't do before because most of them probably still have that great book that was very glossy and wonderful and and it didn't take us to where we wanted to go so you know when I I don't know who these people are on here hopefully they're going to

049be representing uh all all these different Arenas here that we're talking about but I think when we start looking at the community piece people really don't have the time if we're not really sharp and crisp about what we want them to do and right now as I look at the pieces that we're doing now as a board member I don't feel Chris because uh I need to kind of know what happened to the other one and all the pieces maybe it was in Dr feno's uh annual report but we got to break that down better but we got to break it down for the community people that we want to help us to get the other community people out there to give their voices because they're going to say what did you do with the

050the last strategic plan so I just really want us to kind of know that we got a lot of work to do with them too as well as this board yeah and I think as it relates to the needs assessment when we come back to the board in March and I think we're we're being very intentional about putting dates out there for accountability purposes um as well so y'all know we are coming back to you and I know Dr fenoy has just been adamant about making sure the board is involved on the ground floor and I'm I'm glad we're having this conversation today to inform that um when we go out to the community um which again as Mr Tierney said the goal of this group is just to talk about how we're engaging the

051community they're not drafting the plan or any of the goals or or looking at where we are and where we need to go but we can include in when we go out to the community to talk about some draft you know goals and some draft priorities sharing with them that update this is is where we end it off and this is where we need to go and having that honest conversation I think that would be a great opportunity for us to bundle those together and leverage any other opportunities where we're communicating with um with the community about anything right we know that we're missing some students we know we need to go out and reaffirm that this is the best school district the best option so how can we also bundle that with our Communications

052campaign about getting you back right and part of that is that that transparency so I think again you know under Dr feno's leadership trying to be very transparent and intentional with those engagement stake uh stakeholders and and points so definitely hear that and want to make sure that when we come back to the board in March y'all can see a draft of that and what that will look like so that you can provide input I think again in talking with Mr Cherney y'all are our board you are the representation of the community we need to leverage you and that's one reason why we're stating you want to share this plan with you and the list of stakeholders and get your feedback and make sure that this looks correct because we're going to we're going to

053rely on you to help us with this you know and as we go out and host meetings or co-host whether they be virtual or small in-person Gatherings whatever it looks like right in March will'll have that conversation because again we need to involve y'all as our school board and as representatives of this community on on as elected officials so thank you Mrs Woodfield I just um realized that my mother would be very mad at me I forgot to thank you all um for your work honestly I know this is a ton of um effort on your part and I and I do think we should recognize the the task you've taken on and I just want to say I appreciate everything that you that you're doing um for us right now to try to get

054us through this process so just thank you Dr Robinson thank you so okay so let me first try to focus and then I I just have some editorial comments because my brain's catching on fire so the first thing is so the the other groups that we think need to be heard as prior this process do you want us to tell you or tell the flo by these committee people like tell us what's the information flow there so will um I think the slide just tells us why stakeholders are important I think we're all in agreement that that we need to leverage them for the success of the plan but this you know we'll have a conversation I'll let you you know finish your your question questions and things like that but this is a product

055a matrix that we will share with you through the chief of staff so that you can see all that so again being intentional about your time um giving you something to comment on and give us feedback on I think you know in hearing Mrs Andrews comments this is a different strategic plan you know when our previous superintendent came on board he was new and he was doing listening sessions it was part of his 90 or 100 day plan and said he was going to come up with the Strategic plan we're in a de very different place now you know Doc feno is you know in March will be his third year as superintendent right we got a lot going on with covid we know what we need to do um and so again it's going

056to feel a little bit different but I do think you know we heard with the work that we've done with Mary fakis so far we understand the importance of centering voices student voices parent voices and so this plan is really going to try to attend to that and make sure that again we are managing expectations so we don't have unlimited resources in staff so where do we really need to focus our time and energy and so the information flow will you know we'll come back with this just list of stakeholders make sure there aren't any gaps there and then we come back in March we'll show you the actual plan which has suggested dates for events as well as strategies for engaging folks when we'll do a survey you know how that will go out

057um when we'll do some focus groups what that will look like and then y'all will give us feedback on that deliverable and we'll make tweaks as necessary to make sure that it kind of meets that standard that the board has okay so please excuse me because I think that I'm having a post inauguration High crash okay okay I'm feeling a bit I know it's hard to hard to meet those expectations y okay so so who do I give my list to so we'll give you a list okay at the end end of this month okay and then whatever is missing you let us know okay thank you so then absolutely um just a couple more things so I I believe that we as a leadership team need to do more study now that is my

058opinion right which is why I started giving data and don't be taken aback by the however many slide PowerPoint you have in front of you that I'm going talk through a little bit tonight but but we need to we we are told things through through the um Through The Eyes of career Educators who yeah they had experience but but we were elected to bring our Viewpoint and our our community's Viewpoint to and look at these things through through those glasses and so we have we have got to look at it I just don't I don't think that this timeline gives us enough time for this leadership team to collectively study the current status I think that the point Miss Andrews made about the data related to um what we the outcomes we hope to have

059from the pre previous strategic plan are important but you know I think that disaggregating a lot of different data and and showing it and having the board discuss it is also important right so I'm just I I I would just like to see some um that pre-work part take longer um and I don't know I don't know what the downside is for a delay in the creation of you know to the the roll out the announcement of the Strategic plan but now let me say this and here's my editorial comment and I'mma Be A little Doric here but I don't feel like hearing about the adult problems anymore I really I'm I'm I'm you know pretty over it right so we are here to educate and serve children right and to to engage their families

060and other uh members of the community in that process and I hear that clearly in the comments um but to say that we can only focus on a few things how many standards is any grader is supposed to learn I mean I I'm just having trouble with that and I'm also having a great deal of trouble with what appeared to be the way I heard it and maybe it's just the way I'm looking at things at the moment but the way I heard it the that aspirational goals are different than measurable goals right aspirational goals are can be measurable you can have some aspirational goals that are not measurable but I am not interested in creating goals just so we can check that we accomplished it right our children are suffering right they continue to

061suffer right we know that they are suffering more now right now in the midst of this National crisis right and so please don't say anything around me to suggest that we're going to lower our expect ation or narrow our Focus so we can check that we did it I'm not I'm just not I'm not going to I'm not going to accept it and I'm not gonna be quiet when I think I hear it if I misheard tell me but I'mma just tell you right now right now is the time right if we not g to step up now then you know what shame on each and every one of us I'm just I'm done I am done with the pity Pat talk if we going to do a strategic plan let damn it slam it

062on the table and do one that meets the needs of our children not the adults that are here to getting paid to serve them nice chair bro thank you so actually part of my comment is yes you maybe I misstated or You misheard but what I'm talking about is having aspirational versus realistic so yes you can have an aspirational goal of all children in third grade will be on 100% will be on reading level at the end of a certain period but you need to have there's a difference between goals and objectives right so I'm not saying you have to do things that are measurable but you have to have something that is going to be realistically attainable and have steps so yes you can have that aspirational piece but you need to have goals

063that are realistic so we just want to clarify that I do agree with Dr Robinson though about the timeline um I'm thinking that because we're still in covid you know people are still getting the vaccines I think the world hopefully I'm feeling very optimistic we're going to look a lot different at the end of this school year than we're looking right now so I think that if we can build in some flexibility um on that timeline and because clearly we need to have more discussion also as a group as to what our expect ations are thank you Mrs mcin I'm not suggesting that we hurry a process nor am I suggesting that we put adult needs before kids remember that schools are required I don't remember the date that they have to submit their school

064Improvement plans that again some of some schools perhaps it doesn't drive what they do but many it does so however we decide on a timeline for the district strategic plan knowing we cannot expect schools who work with their constituents their school community members to come up then with a plan that does what we tell them to do they just have to decide how they're going to do it for their kids so we either have to tell them you're not going to have our our district plan and time to do your own I just want that in people's minds yes I don't know if we can get more feedback from the board Dr fenoy on the timeline because I think you know we have we have some time before the board meeting starts at 5: and

065we need that direction I think you know I had this conversation with Dr George suly the other day when we were talking about adding someone from it to the subcommittee for engagement and he was like what's driving the July August approval and I think it's very much the beginning of the school year but there is nothing in theory um you know that is driving that and so again if that's a conversation the board wants to have you know let us know so we can go back and address those timelines we just want to make sure that that's a conversation that everyone can participate in and and let us know you know once weighing all those things what makes the most sense and we can make adjustments for when we come back in March Dr Robinson

066thank you so I think the U Point Mrs mcquinn makes is is a good point I had not thought of it um but I still think that it's more important that this leadership team truly digs in and evaluates the issues um I think this I mean because what we're we're not we're not going to change I can't imagine that what we would come up with would be contrary to what a school would want to accomplish but what we're talking about really is what we're going to focus on so even though I can see that if we postpone the roll out of the Strategic plan uh it would not be available to to make manifest in school Improvement plans I don't see that they would be in conflict in the meantime right so I just think

067that our study of the issues is critically important and again that's what I've I've started trying to do with my um my data um at the start of the board meeting because I just don't think that we understand the issues deep enough I mean maybe those of you are walked in those shoes have a much better idea right but but systemwide to see what's going on so that we as a leadership team can can direct resources to the places we think are most important that I think that requires study and study takes time Mr um Dr Robinson and to the for the board so I I understand Dr Robinson's point I think the question is more of the process is this something that we just send you information and you study on your own or

068do you want to have a discussion with it at a board table we must discuss it there's I mean listen I'mma tell you what flip through them 16 pages that I just sent you and see how long it take you to figure out what that really means right so we have to we have to have the conversations and I'm sure when we look at data people going to see things that other people don't right and so then we need to say well and what's the cause of that and what do we like we have to had a collective thought process Mrs Andrew I do see where you're coming from Dr Robinson because I think from what we did in the past we didn't spend the time to really study our strategic plan to look at

069what where we were and what we were doing by the end of the year and we were evaluating somebody you begin to look and say oh my gosh we have a move because that's when the annual report came we can't wait for the annual report and during Dr fenoy or any superintendent evaluation but you know this Co has been bad this um this uh situation that we're in right now but we really learned how to work from home and so we may not always have to be in a board meeting we can click in now and have some discussions right there on my table where I've been meeting with you all for six months before coming back here I mean I think that you know when we're discussing data I enjoyed the data you gave

070us on the graduation rate because we just got our graduation date but you know what I remember that data you gave me and then I wondered about it because we hadn't looked that deep we didn't have that deep dive until you gave us that information so they're graduating and we're looking great but guess what when we looked at what was going on we saw that people weren't reading so I think we can put a schedule up if we can't be in here I mean I'm willing I'm you know I can put my computer on to do meetings uh virtual meetings put put a package together so that we can have deep Dives and we can talk to one another I'll come in here too but you can put a combination of things together because I

071think you're going to the community is going to want to know the board is really on this we we're really committed because we're asking them for their time so we're going to have to put the time in it uh people aren't going to be bothered with us because they say you did it before you didn't do anything and it's just kind of halfhazard again so I as a board member would like to have more sessions to uh to to delve into it deeper so that we will know we're out in the community and they're asking these kinds of questions so we need to kind of put together some kind of plan of action Mr jery I think the points are really good one of Dr Robinson the concern on time I think on the third

072slide I mentioned that we did not think we had enough Workshop scheduled to get everything done and my you know my closing comments here in the last one I'm going to reiterate that I I was hopeful that the board would agree to a meet agree to meet more frequently because I share the same concern Miss mcquinn comment is a good one if it's not rolled out prior to the school year Well there would be nothing counterintuitive that any school staff would do they wouldn't organize their kind of day and Personnel to support the goals so holding people accountable for a plan that we rolled out after the school year started I don't see would be a feasible a feasible plan and then just the only the only other thing is built into what we're briefing

073today is Miss faka doing a root cause analysis to try to determine why we've fallen down historically in this District so so part of that is already built into this plan and Sir again I just you know I love strategic plan stuff so uh and my school staff and I would always get together soon as school was out and you know we're at my house and we're mapping out next year our schools are fully prepared to do that right now I don't even know if they could act on our leadership level right now because they're in the weeds as they have to be I'm very comfortable with our schools having direction from Dr fenoy about this is what I want you to focus on and they can move forward with their plans for next year

074and meet all of our fdoe deadlines for whenever they have them to get stuff in I'm very comfortable with that I'm just really pleased that we have had the discussion I would hate for us to get into the next full-fledged strategic plan that I came into that was the plan that had just been adopted when I was um elected four years ago I love the fact that we can take time to do this right with what's happening in our world and in palich County right now superintendent yes if the board doesn't mind I think I would instruct Mr tyy and Miss Bass to start working with the board on a potential calendar because again I know some of you have jobs and you have other commitments so I would if if the boards the chairman

075of the board's willing pleasure I I will instruct staff to start working with the board beginning this week on creating a schedule for additional workshops board okay with that we're going to meet more frequently I I think one thing that Mrs Andrew said that I'm not sure I heard her correctly but suggesting that staff should meet with us individually to go over all this stuff that's too much I mean I think we're asking too much to have staff meet with seven board members to go over seven board members issues on a regular basis um they've got to do their job and part of their job is of course talking to us but having to inundate them with having to meet with each one of us individually for hour two hours whatever I don't think it's

076fair to ask of Staff especially if we have the opportunity to have more workshops and get together more often which we do on Wednesdays when there there are anything scheduled we should take advantage of that so that staff can hear from all board members at the same time Dr Robinson you let me just correct that Mr Bobby er no I'm not saying meet with us individually I says we have learned to work remotely now as a team that we did for the last six to eight months before we came back in here and we can have uh remote sessions for those who may not be able to come into this building as a group all seven of us are we talking about the board I'm sorry are we talking about the school board or are

077we talking about just meeting individually remotely with staff oh no that's the board excuse me I apologize but yes um under the current statutes we are not able the board members are not able to meet virtually but you can obviously meet with staff virtually individually Dr Robinson thank you so yeah thank you for clarifying that Mrs Andrew that's actually how I heard it and and at least I think it has to be a collective conversation so even if we were to meet oneon-one it doesn't serve the same purpose for me right um and so I think it's part of that scheduling that we also start talking about well what are the areas that we want to dive deeply into right they it might be guided by the metrics from the previous strategic plan but you

078know what do we need to dig into and the and the data behind I mean the the actions behind the data like what were what were the roadblocks where did things not get implemented with Fidelity and why and I think at least at this point we have to quit saying like what a good school district we are we need to just say we're trying to get better than what we are because that's what I'm hoping we're trying to do I don't like the little song about how good we are and you know a rated school district for 3,000 years in a row and all that I don't like that I want because I want us to do right by children and so I'm I'm thrilled with this conversation that that we will as a collective

079start looking at um some of this data that I drive myself crazy with over time and talk about together what we do about it and so I will just add um as Mr Tierney said you know as soon as M ragus comes back on board you know I still have conversations with her but you know want to make sure we pay her too just um when she comes back on board that was something that we talked about in December with the school board this root cause analysis to really try and understand you know what are the barriers as they relate to equity um you know I think that conversation if we have it sooner in in February maybe the second week can drive and inform conversations about the timeline for the Strategic plan right then

080we can say you know based on this we feel as a board we need to back that out a little bit more and then as staff we can again come back to you with you know if you make that decision this is going to be the consequence of that decision as long as you're okay with pushing it back and knowing that there may be some misalignment with you know when school starts then we all just know that right and so we make an informed decision so I think if we can put a pin in the timeline conversation until we have Mary back to do that root cause analysis and you know she and I have talked about how you know she's going to push you and it's not going to be funding because it's not

081funding that's the problem I know I know we are under funded but that's not the barrier for equity in in any District so again we'll we'll have that conversation with Mary and see where that leads so hopefully that's I know it's not closure but it's something to get us um to the next meeting and then you know thank you for agreeing to work with that additional day which I you know had conversations with Mr Tierney about labeling it as Equity day right to bring attention to the fact that y'all are in this work right and and want to specifically say it's it's Equity um so again we'll use that extra day to do you know the the equity working definition the root cause analysis and some of the other things yall have identified and we'll

082be with Mary through the end of April to to engage in that work and use that time as yall feel appropriate so does that feel okay putting a pin in that timeline we'll just keep proceeding right now with the community engagement piece and the needs assessment for now and I think when we come back to yall too y'all can see that's only superficial data give us this instead so all right what members you have nothing else I think we'll just um if I can just finish the last slides is that okay I'm sorry I have the light last slide on my screen already and I thought we we were no words I will say sometimes I'm like I forgot to do my last slide and I go home and I'm like oh man that slide

083that was my favorite slide so just quickly um the the stakeholder analysis Matrix again is just being intentional about codifying our relationship so um you know sometimes we we kind of just do things word of mouth so we're really trying to put pen to paper with the subcommittee to compile um the stakeholder list this includes student organizations so you know I know about Latinos in Action I know about you know the student government Association things like that but what other organizations are there in the district that we could leverage to have some of these conversations and again not just with the Strategic plan but perhaps moving forward yall want to continue with student voice so that other things that come out of the district you could utilize these groups to give you constant feedback so

084again we'll inform our larger communication strategy not just that as it pertains to the Strategic plan and then also putting together those innovative ways to engage the community no surveys are great focus groups are great we'll do that but is there anything else we can do low cost or no cost um you know technology wise to involve uh folks and I know there's a group that Lee Colbert uh project manages around something called flip grid you know I'm 38 but I have no idea what flip grid is but maybe that's a way that we could engage students and that's technology we already leverage as a district so again looking at those opportunities and I know they're doing separate work but connecting the Strategic plan to it I know uh Janine Rizzo who who a student

085wellness coordinator um has been invited by Santiago Alvarez our student board representative to come and speak at a student government rally for all of Florida um she's conducting a survey as part of that and has uh graciously you know agreed since she's on the subcommittee to put a a question in there about hey would you be interested in participating in a focused group or you know something to help inform the next strategic plan so again we know it's voluntary but it's another way that we're connected um to to the kids that we actually serve as a district and then she's also again as part of her student wellness work she'll be speaking to some middle schools and again we'll put that in the survey so that we can have that information to then engage the

086students and again this was something I said to Mr Tierney today but as much as we love Santiago he has a lot on his plate too and to then ask him to be the connector to all the students um so as much as we can identify those different groups out in the different areas of the county and then engage them that way and then use um you know Santiago's other relationships but again just spreading it out so that nobody feels completely overwhelmed so I know there was a question Mrs Andrew thank you and I love this the engagement and getting the stakeholders involved and we really do know where our critical areas are you know your lgbtq uh kids we know where the problems are Maya groups in our neighborhoods and so we can't do

087things the way we've done before by just having a meeting out somewhere and then you're gone the next day and nobody knows what's happening so I'd like to see whatever we come up with and maybe this is something you're going to bring back with us with some out of the box things that you're going to do that we really truly are going to be committed to connecting with the uh these different groups and the people that live in many of these areas that are disenfranchised because we don't want to spend the time or don't spend the time after work CU people are working and how you going to get it done I mean we say we're going to do all this stuff and I'm just just not happy because sometimes I I don't see this

088the district out there and I'm on the ground a lot and I don't see you out there at the times when people are there to get the kinds of things done so this engagement piece I know a lot of people will be engaged because they have the resources to be engaged and they they it's different but you know where the problems are so I really want to see what what are you really going to do to engage people who've been disenfranchised thank you yep and I think that's um why we want to bring this the list of stakeholders to the board at the end of January to see and then again in March we're coming with that phase one plan for yall to see oh are those really Innovative are you getting those disenfranchised folks

089so March will be the time when y'all will see that and can give us feedback on whether or not we are filling those gaps or where we're falling short and I think what I appreciate about coming towards a board I I joke that this is my hobby I love doing board workshops because we can have this conversation and y'all can say you know this is what I see and then as you know working in the chief of staff's office and through Dr fenoy what can we do and if we're not meeting that Mark have saying you know we we're doing this right now is this where we should be doing that if not I need to take away from here to go there and then y'all can can know that and understand that and again

090make those important Deion decision so this Matrix is intentionally set up to also leverage current touch points because we do know our Multicultural Ed folks and other departments you know student wellness are doing a lot of this ESC as well they've developed a lot of great strategies because of covid they've been in the trenches so again to Mrs MC Quinn's point about involving managers and Specialists making sure that we leverage those opportunities so that when we do have that captive audience we can share the Strategic plan with them in addition to you know the other the things that we normally communicate with them on so again bringing it all together and then also thinking about their involvement how can they contribute to the development of the plan so they again see themselves and I think

091that will lend themselves to Dr Robinson's point about implementation you know focusing on oh this community partner can help us but doing it up front and mapping that out you know as part of those implementation conversations when we come back to the board whenever the final plan is approved if it's not in July and August so that up front they understand understand what we need to ask of them and and this is a conversation I had when we were working on the student academic support plan we have funders in the community who are giving out money and grants you know I think about the United Way about student outcomes wouldn't it be great if they could align some of that to the work we're doing or we could you know again a whole system that's

092kind of working for all the kids in Palm Beach County I think is the ultimate goal so again you know this Matrix is one step in that so that we can just continue to have those meeting informed conversations with the board and the community Dr Robinson thank you um so even with my my critique let me thank you um because I see your intentionality in terms of trying to reach out to those that we don't traditionally listen to so I do want to acknowledge that um I think for me um the point that I want to make now is we that we have we must appreciate that um some people have not had the experiences um to know what to dream of for their children right and so what I I saw this District do

093in the past was to say we'll just ask parents what they need right and I mean that's a good question you don't know don't know I want to say this how about if I show what I dream of for my children you want that for your children like because cuz some people because of the structure and circumstances have not had the ability to dream right and so part of this has to be to inspire them to dream too right um and so with that it seems to me that the portrait of a graduate is part of this this this plan like somehow in my head if we can if we come up with what the the portrait of a graduate is for palmach County Schools then we can essentially shop that to the groups and

094say what do you think about this would you how would you improve on this as the vision and then how do we get there together for your baby and everybody's baby so I I just need to hear where are we going to do the portrait of a graduate because it seems to me that that's early on in this process so so I think right now like it's interesting when you say that because a lot of people in on staff still don't really understand what that looks like so you not that's actually I'm i l to talk to you about the idea of a portrait of a graduate because is it something that you want us to create does the board want us to do does the board want to create this idea or do you

095want us to present ideas and then say okay I like that part take that part out put something together well I think it's always more efficient if you put something on the table first cuz otherwise we're starting with the noun and the verb right all but you can like Google it and find the portrait of a graduate and other districts have different names but I think if we can just I think it will help for me it helps us with our mission and vision too but if we can just figure out what what are the characteristics and experiences that when they walk across that stage we we want them to have had you know what is it we want to pour into them and then I think that that also is kind of a um

096a equal a equalizing point for communities who have everything and communities that don't that they could all say I want that at the least for my baby right so yeah I need you to bring it bring some thoughts to us help us dream the the big dream about what we're trying to accomplish here that that portrait of graduates really backward design I think what what do we want it to look like and then work back but that to your earlier point the subcommittee was created to not only identify the groups that that traditionally have not been identified but then also help us communicate because if we found those groups and then we went and said what do you think the district should look like the context of that question would probably make it meaningless so

097that that was really the purpose of that subcommittee was to not only identify but then to help communicate that very question I think to build on that you know I love Mary um we had talked about how portrait of a graduate may fit into the vision work um maybe using that as a framework to drive the conversation around vision and so I think where we left it on December 16th was you know the mission um seemed a lot easier right because it's shorter and um I know Mr Barbary said we had a preference for one so perhaps you know we could we could take one of the examples we saw and and maybe use that one for this District I know it was a joke but you know I think that's a little bit more

098tangible and then the vision is going to take a little bit longer um because it's you know it is how are you going to accomplish that uh Mission so we're we're gonna you know I think rely on Mary for some of that because again I think it's intimately tied to the topic of equity and she brings that expertise um and the facilitation you know chops to kind of lead us to where we need to go so I think we'll you know we'll work with uh Dr fenoy to see what that looks like and what the next steps are um to make sure that you you know that's the conversation we can have for that Vision superintendent yeah also I think what I would also like is you know since we're this is a workshop I

099would say to Dr shefield and Deputy superintendent Keith oswal let's put that on our next one1 to start thinking about this portrait of a graduate because obviously you know our principles and and leader educational leaders will have a lot of you know I think it's an interesting conversation because I think what we what we want to present to the board is this sort of Northstar right right this is this aspirational goal of what we would like to see from all kids in Palm Beach County and so I think but I think we have to kind of go back to miss Andrew said and then and I think for me personally as who who has never worked solely on the academic side of the district I think we all have to have an understanding of of

100of our history like what what what what have we done in the past you know where would we like to go um I think you have to I think part of this portrait of a graduate is is this the acknowledgement of the period in history that we're in and what kind of like what kind of jobs like what you know all the things that that this District does you know does do well our career and choice acmy whatever but we we've been in enough meetings to hear out loud from our community members that soft skills is something that they feel like this generation is really struggling with the the the the ability to engage another adult shaking hand you know I'm again postco but you know engaging themselves standing up for themselves using the right

101language and the appropriate settings etc etc and what skills can you know I think a personal thing for me is I would love to see more kids develop an entrepreneurial Spirit especially children in communities of poverty right so I think there's there's this reality of we need to talk about it in a way that that is aligned to obviously what we're held accountable to from the state and feds but this conversation isn't I really needed to hear this idea of what do we really want to go because ultimately what has been said but not stated in the explicit fashion that I want even we talk about school um Improvement plans the whole goal here is an alignment like literally so so in my vision a a a principal supervisor who evaluates a principal who then

102evaluates a teacher whatever the language of the evaluation shouldn't be that much different from mine the the the whole the whole alignment from from a bus driver who has to get those kids on time they have to understand that getting a kid to school on time equates to this you know again if you miss if you miss you know 50% of your first period class 100 times that then is a problem for that those kids in that first period class right so I think so I so I'm just talking out loud because I needed to talk out loud to try to figure it out of my own here but if we could uh Dr shefford and next time we talk about it let's start figuring out and getting a group of our of our people

103together to start thinking about that so we can present it to the board when necessary yeah and I would just add if the way we approached our our entry point into Equity was kind of with that deep dive I use that term loosely it wasn't very deep but it were some things that y'all looked at individually Mary came in and kind of said what do y'all think here are some questions we came back as a collective looked at that and then it that informed where we needed to go I would say you know that's that could be an organizing structure as well where you know the deputy and the CAO kind of put some things together get you to think about it you know whether we leverage Mary again again to have those one-on ones

104and then bring it back may be a good organizing structure for that so our next steps you see the dates in front complete the stakeholder analysis development of the phase one engagement plan the needs assessment and then begin that phase one engagement plan and then just to follow up we heard Miss Andrews really highlight the need to Sunset the last strategic plan in detail support that completely and we'll do that we heard from a number of board members the desire to be regularly updated on strategic plan so we'll work on semiannual quarterly scheduled Workshop to kind of to continually give feedback to the board so you know where we are it was not explicitly said this evening was alluded to a couple times but I'm going to mention it now and throughout this process is

105accountability we have to have an expectation of accountability once we create this plan or I'm going to submit that there's it's not going to be worth the time and effort that we put in so as we create goals we have to understand people will be accountable to meet those goals and and then we have to understand within the organization everybody here cashing a paycheck is have to be accountable for for achieving those goals or or else I'm going to I'm going to submit it's it's just not going to be worth the effort so that wraps up the workshop unless there's anything else Mr board chair I'll just add I know Mr Mr Bruce Harris is in my mind we have a policy on strategic plan from like 1987 so perhaps when we come back in

106March we'll bring that forward as well because that will just help us in staff you know I spent a lot of time with Bruce so I would be remiss if I didn't mention that so if we bring that forward with some revisions perhaps then we can you know kind of go from there and set that expectation as part of this larger conversation so so thank you all right thank you we have a motion to adjourn motion by Miss Whitfield second by Mrs Andrews all in favor oppose Workshop is adjourned we can't start the next meeting until 5 o'clock ladies and gentlemen the board has already participated in a closed risk management session and a workshop I will read these reminders again for those who are just joining us viewers and listeners can access the meeting

107today by either watching on Comcast channels 234 and 235 Erse channel 99 or by using the YouTube link on our web page at Palm Beach schools.org we also offer a listening only option which the public can access by calling 561 35759 or tollfree at 1866 93070 one5 the meeting ID is 561 880 11124 pound sign I now call the first regular board meeting of 2021 to order at 50:4 pm on January 20th 2021 Mrs bass please call the RO district one Barbara mcquinn here District Two Alexandria aala here District three Karen bril here District Four Erica Whitfield here District Five Frank Barbary here District Six Martian Andrews here district 7 Deborah Robinson here we have cor with all seven board members present also joining us onor deas and superintendent Dr phoi and since we can't

108fit them up here during our covid separation social distancing requirements um we have with us also out there General Council sha Bernard Inspector General Teresa Michael student council president Santiago Alvarez and our board clerk Carol bass senior staff members will join us periodically as directed by the superintendent this meeting is being transcribed by a closed captioner so remember to speak at a reasonable Pace will everyone please stand for the pledge to be led by President Alvarez I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the board welcomes public speakers who are joining us in person today while your attendance here at the board office is appreciated please be mindful of important safety protocols

109that the district now has in place to conform with covid-19 safety guidelines please respect this cautionary warning that in the event of interference with the orderly processes of the meeting failure failure to follow the safety protocols and procedures or otherwise disruptive conduct this conduct will result in removal of the person from the meeting please abide by these protocols so Palm Beach County School police officers do not have to take action thank you we have no minutes to approve today we have uh three items been added for four items have been added for good cause err2 2021 modifications of the collective bargaining agreement with the service employees International Union Florida public services Union regular supervisory ECP pair PA professional 2 P3 Revis salary schedules for school-based administrators P4 revised salary schedules for non-bargaining unit employees including

110administrative professional managerial miscellaneous confidential good cause exists for adding these items to allow for timely processing of raises for affected employees item P2 Personnel addendum good cause exists to add this item so employees can start in their Ren new position as soon as possible Mr superintendent do you have any items to withdraw Mr chairman I have nothing to withdraw at this time we have three items have been pulled so far by two items been pulled so far by board members plr1 and p o l A1 board members at this point do want to pull anything else seeing no we need a motion to approve the agenda is modified motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Mrs mcquinn any discussion on favor opposed motion carries 70 disclosures and extensions board members seeing none Mr superintendent comments yes

111sir Mr chairman although we still have five months left in this school year our academics team are actively preparing for the 2021 2022 school year I would like to remind parents who haven't done so already to submit their choice program applications the school district of palmbach county is proud to offer more than 330 choice and career acmis in G in grades K through 12 these Innovative learning programs engage students and contribute to their academ iic and postgraduate success the deadline to apply for Choice programs for the 2021 2022 school year is quickly approaching you have until January the 29th you will learn more about our programs and the application process on the district's website for those students and parents thinking about college check out an initiative currently underway called Allin on HBCU from now through

112January 28th this event connects students and families with information about 34 historically black colleges and universities all sessions are virtual free and open to anyone who is interested in chatting with the representative in real time you'll also find information about this on our website and now for a quick update regard regarding covid-19 and the vaccine we have expanded the district's covid-19 web page to include information regarding where vaccinations are being administered in Palm Beach County who is eligible and how to make an appointment this we web page was created for your convenience so that you can see all of the vaccine locations listed in one place Place demand for the vaccine continues to outpa supply although I have appealed to Governor DeSantis to prioritize School District employees who have direct contact with students that has

113not yet happened however I will continue to Champion this priority status meantime I want all District employees who are 65 or older to know that they are eligible under the state's guidelines about 1100 members of staff are over age of 65 nearly 500 of them are teachers you will need an appointment again all of this information is on our website I'd also like to remind everyone that this is not the time to let down your guard any students or employees who are not feeling well should stay home we all need to work together to combat the transmission of this virus and finally those of you who know me well know that I am extremely passionate about student literacy literacy is a fundamental Cornerstone of academic success for children and motivate students to be lifelong Learners

114the Florida Department of Education is designated next week as literacy week Florida this year's theme is Humanity tells a story what's your chapter the division of teaching and learning has created a web page with grade level specific resources you'll find that information on the Hub which is the district's intranet as always I encourage parents to share a love of literacy with their children at this time I now call our Deputy superintendent Keith Oswald to the to the front table to introduce our forly introduce our wonderful new principal at HL Johnson Elementary School thank you Dr fenoy and good evening board members it is with great honor to introduce you one of our new talented leaders that will take the home of HL Johnson Mrs Crystal Amar kucharski Crystal thank you and good evening board chair

115Frank barbier Vice chair Karen bril and board members superintendent Dr fenoy Deputy superintendent Keith Oswald central region superintendent Valerie Haynes and central region instructional superintendent Vivian green I sit before you today extremely humbled and grateful for this wonderful opportunity as a former resident of the village of Royal Palm Beach an HL Johnson student and a 14-year teacher and instructional leader at Royal Palm Beach High School I know I am privileged to be a part of the HL Johnson family and Community being principal for me at HL Johnson is both a professional and personal dream my grandmother moved to the United States with her four boys she instilled the quality of hard work and service within them my father and mother they met in high school and they continued to ensure hard work and service was

116instilled within me so I want to thank my family for giving me the strength to believe in myself and know that with hard work anything is possible I want to thank my friends and co-workers who have always been my cheerleaders I want to thank Dr Jesus armis my mentor for showing me how to make my vision and turn it into a reality and finally I want to thank my husband he's over there uh Nick kerski thank you you are my rock and without your support I would not be able to do everything the way I have dreamed of so I want everyone to know that I am committed to supporting every child every day and I will bring the enthusiasm energy and thoughtfulness needed to continue to make HL Johnson an exemplary school I recognize

117the opportunity to lead a school with an extremely dedicated staff devoted families and a supportive Community is a privilege I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of the school and to support all stakeholders most importantly I believe that students are at the center of every single School decision again thank you so much for this opportunity I will make you proud thank [Applause] you congratulations M Mr chairman those are my comments board member comments Mrs mcquinn thank you my comments tonight are regarding um a consent agenda item that was not pulled and had former Schoolboard chair and board member Mr Chuck Shaw had it been pulled he would have been absolutely appalled so I don't want it to I don't want this to get lost though and for members of the public and perhaps staff

118members employee members to not see this honor that has been best bestowed upon and earned by Mr Chuck Shaw so I'm going to read the um the item to you I've got to find the item the new adult Dead Center building that I have not yet seen I'm very anxious to I hear it's incredible the new building is being named at the recommendation of the adult Dead Center School advisory council members they are renaming the school to honor Mr Chuck Shaw this recommendation was made for his 55 plus years of service to the school district of Palm Beach County and Mr Shaw's lifelong support for adult and Community Education programs along with his extensive community service so I want to take this opportunity to personally congratulate Mr Shaw on this well-deserved honor thank you thank

119you Miss mcquin Miss AA thank you Mr chairman I'd like to start by thaning and recognize recognizing living skills in the schools their CEO Dr Suzanne Spencer and project manager Dr Billy Gyra who is here with us today in the audience uh lsis is an accredited and licens District partner that brings credible age appropriate and proven Substance Abuse Prevention programming to students in our K through 12 classrooms since 2000 they have reached over a quarter of a million students and this school year alone lsis has already reached over 24,000 students and held near nearly 1,00 virtual presentations of programming and education after months of planning and anticipation and through a very successful partnership with principal Patterson and her team at Johnny Leonard High School my alma moer last Wednesday January 13th a drive-through family box

120distribution was held on the campus and we fed and educated nearly 300 students and families I am grateful for this opportunity that was afforded to John families and I look forward to continuing to work together to bring forward even more opportunities second second I had the pleasure to visit with the palow elementary Panthers and the grassy water owls these two amazing District 2 elementary schools have adjusted to so beautifully to the difficult conditions we're existing in and are working overtime to ensure that our students have the absolute best opportunities Grassy Waters boasts a biomedical and veterinary sciences program and paletto offers an IB primary year program and even semon Fusion thank you so much to principal Harris and principal gindo and their teams for their warm welcome and their enriching tours your leadership and efforts

121keep our district running every single day finally I wanted to share that I participated on a Facebook live put together by alians for Progress a nonprofit organization that seeks to transform Florida by organizing and empowering our latinx communities through voter education Civic engagement and issue advocacy the conversation centered around ensuring success for our elll students or English language Learners when it comes to the upcoming testing schedules it was an honor to be a panelist list along with a growing number of Hispanic or latinx Schoolboard colleagues currently serving our students throughout the State of Florida that concludes my comments thank you thank you Mrs Whitfield thank you I just wanted to take a quick moment to recognize the inauguration today um I think it was a a wonderful moment to see our youth poet Laurette speak

122um I've U was so impressed with her poem the hill we climb and I am hopeful that we will when um the book comes out have it within our schools I felt that her message of Hope and unity was was just absolutely wonderful one thing that she said in her in her poem was a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished and I feel that way about the school district um even when we go through some challenges this district is strong and growing and changing every day and so I'm very proud of this district and I'm proud of this country and um really just getting to see at a 22-year-old um speak and so just really everything that I was feeling just meant so much think for this nation Amanda Gorman is her name uh

123the second thing I wanted to mention is um a thank you to Lakeworth Beach Boon Beach Lantana and Del Reay um I have had an opportunity to speak at Lakeworth Beach and Boon Beach um last night and the week before um to their City commission and last night was also joined by Dr Robinson which I was very grateful for um this opportunity I've used to uh reach out to the cities to let them know about the challenges at our schools right now the struggles that we're going through with children who are not currently um in the building or are trying to participate via distance learning and maybe having some challenges uh in their education and just the struggles that we're having as a school district so I want to say a big thank you to

124those cities and we have um commissioner Catz obviously here today um with us in his other capacity um but a huge thank you to the commission for allowing me to speak and um the resounding support that I always receive um for our schools from our city commissions thank you Mrs Andrew and thank you and good afternoon I just want to say again I know I mentioned it last week we're celebrating the national mentoring month our Tak stck and children mentors continue to dedicate their services to all of our student mentees it's a great month with a whole lot of activities to honor the mentors virtual mentoring for almost a year did not slow down the mentors mentees are very thankful and the school district wants to thank take stock in children for all that you

125do for our students and today it was my pleasure to see and listen to principls and sponsors of the international Spanish Academy and the Dual language programs here within the district several board members were on the uh Zoom call with me and it was impressive to hear all of the exciting work that's being done in our dual language schools and our International Spanish Academy programs wow I continue to appreciate the work that's being done in our schools during this pandemic it hasn't slowed down and we are not missing a beat and yes I continue to appreciate the Wellington elected officials the Wellington education committee for the financial contributions to each of the schools in Wellington we continue to work so hard with Wellington as a partner for the school district of Palm Beach County and

126the funding through the key Spinelli Grant has helped our schools so much many of you may remember key she was beloved here in the school district of Palm Beach County and her Grant helps so many students in the Wellington schools it shows that it takes the village working together educationally and financially thank you Village of Wellington elected officials thank you to the education committee thank you to the principles all the parents and the students of the Village of Wellington for all you're doing working together to help our students and I want to tell you that I've been working really hard on several projects that you may not have known about I was selected to be the chair of the Florida school boards Association Equity committee and I've also been selected to work with the state

127of Florida as an advisory committee member for the lgbtq state Advisory Group and I will be presenting and I want to thank two people here in this District you've helped me so much to get ready for these two new jobs Pete Stewart and Diana Federman when I was selected I picked up the phone and I called them and I says tell me what I need to know as it relates to lgbtq and they've been working with me all along the way as I present at the uh conference that's coming up all together the state conference I will be inviting you to maybe check in and see what we're talking about but more than anything I'll be getting information to you of all the work that we're doing with the Florida school boards Association Equity committee

128as well as all of the work I'm doing right now for lgbtq students and tonight I did make sure and I think all of you have these uh badges that you wear within the schools or wherever you go it's a way to let the students know that we appreciate students all over Palm Beach County and everybody deserves to be recognized thank you thank you Miss sers Dr Robinson thank you so first let me just say um thank you to miss Whitfield for inviting me to the Boon Beach City commission virtual presentation your presentation yesterday uh was was very good very outstanding I think actually inspirational um I also want to thank Dr feni for responding in a positive manner to my request to figure out a way to make the covid vaccine available as soon

129as possible to our student facing staff that's 65 and older hopefully we can we can work that out um Dr feno mentioned the virtual HBCU tour um I shared with the board uh an article from brookens Institute about how HBCU do more with less um you know we inaugurated our vice president today who is a Howard grad um and so it's just HBCU love from me and then I also want to make mention of an outstanding presentation by Brian noes uh who told a more expansive story about the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr on Monday that presentation is available on the Coalition for black student student achievements YouTube channel um and it's a very interesting look so let me move to my data and I'm hoping that in the near future I won't need

130to present this data the staff will bring all this kind of data to us and we can have this Collective conversation about what to do but in the meantime let me thank U Mark Howard and the IR team for pulling this data together for me for verifying it um because I was going to present it last month but I wanted to double check it and for providing these bar graphs to show the data so I want us to deeply study the acquisition of foundational reading skills in kindergarten in third grade for the purpose of improving the work of adults this data comes from the I ready assessments done in August of 2020 for children in kindergarten and third grade this is not cohort data um and so and I do intend to present the kindergarten

131data to Early Learning Coalition the Coalition for black student achievement as well as Children's Services Council because we have to improve these foundational skills and um this data actually proves some of what I've been saying for a very long time and so I will be waving it around trying to get people to respond um to change how we govern ourselves so if you go to the second oh I guess I'm supposed to do this uh okay if you go to this slide and I'm only going to do five slides so don't be overwhelmed by your print out um if you look at this so orange is black is black students the turquoise is Hispanic and gray is white that's the color coding you was males have a black rim around the bar graph and the

132socioeconomic status is represented by the Bolder shade of orange turquoise or gray um being students on fre reduced lunch and the lighter shade being those who are not offering reduced lunch okay now I am going to skip to slide 8 and I have to coordinate myself here so this is this very busy slide um shows acquisition of high frequency words in kindergarten in third grade sorted by race and soci economic status so girls are on the left and boys are on the right half of the slide so you will see in each set of of of bar s the first set the dark orange is black students on free reduced lunch the next set light orange is black students not on free and reduced lunch or excuse me girls not on free and reduced lunch

133so and so on so you will see um that each group increased by 58% from 58% to 71% the lowest increase was for black males not on free and reduced lunch the highest for was 71% for white females on free reduced lunch so um now we're going to move on because I know I have limited time so yes Dr Robinson in your out of that time so please wrap it up you told me four minutes Mr barbier the clock was running up there on the screen and it's down to zero it started on four it did start on four okay so do you want me to end if you want want to go through one more slide for us go ahead okay so so we do understand I would not be showing these slides if

134people people were studying the data and it was being presented to us so um let me just okay so this next slide is phonics so it's the same thing K and third so the point here instead of focusing on the kindergarten what I was trying to show you and each of us was who was gaining in our system and who was not right so um this tells me that somehow engaging and accelerating some of our students in the early years we manage to do and others we do not um so I ask that we you know continue to look at the data and I am going to if I can get ah head KN from the board members I want to show one more slide because I had cut this down to to a grand

135total of five board members yes or no we made it we made an agreement that we were going to live the four minutes Dr Robinson really this is something you can certainly bring to board discussion we'd be happy to look at all this stuff because you do bring us valuable information but board comments is really oh I'm sorry I forgot the board comments was the happy talk okay so I'm just going to ask the board to please pay close attention to slide 16 right which shows you this is vocabulary and so two sub two subgroups actually decrease their Proficiency in vocabulary from K to third in our system guess which ones they are thank you so much for your Indulgence Mr Barbary you're welcome Dr Robinson miss m Vice chair one MCU thank you so

136good evening everyone and what a historic day this has been a socially distanced presidential inauguration as we all held our breath for a peaceful transition and our teachers use today as a teachable moment in history I have just a couple of comments tonight first some of you may have read on the district's Facebook page that Chief Operating Officer of Palm Beach mask Mike Ericson donated 32,000 three ply disposable fa face masks to our district I'll say that again Palm Beach mask donated 32,00 th face masks Mike is the same person who donated face Shields and masks to our food Ser School Food Service employees this past summer these masks were made right here in Riviera Beach I cannot thank you enough Mike for your generosity as we continue to operate in this new normal and

137to my friend former colleague and now budget committee representative Chuck Shaw what an honor it is for me to sit on this day as we vote to name the new adult education center building the Chuck Shaw technical education center your selfless dedication for the past 55 plus years to serving our students of all ages and our employees has not ended you continue to serve our community and I cannot think of a better way to honor your legacy and that was the end of my comments but I just since I have a couple seconds more um just to the superintendent if we are going toing bring back data like this which I think is good for us to look at I would just ask Mr superintendent that the data include elll ESC and also break out

138the Haitian students thank you so much thank you Miss bro board members my the Chairman's report is attached to the agenda but I wanted to point out one thing as all of you know I attend the construction oversight committee meetings as the board's representative for the last three months cork has been unable to meet corm requirements as many of the cork members are in their late 60s and 70s are not willing to come into the meeting with 14 adults plus staff plus the public as all of you know cork reviews all large construction project that those meetings questions staff as to concerns and then votes on whether to recommend to the school board whether they believe we should approve the project and the results of that vote together with their comments are brought to the

139board before we vote on the project cork oversees capital projects which in most years to in the hundreds of millions of dollars I've asked the administration and the general coun council's office to explore the Alternatives available that would allow cork to meet and bring those Alternatives Alternatives back to us as soon as possible and also to review the situation with the other board advisory committees to determine if any of them are also having Quorum issues due to the pandemic as we customarily do at this meeting we recognize those of our employees who have passed away so um I'd like to start with Vana DVA the teacher ese autistic Discovery Key Elementary born in 19 60 died in November 2020 Sylvia Garcia a facilitator Esau Community language Spanish River High School born in 1959 died in

140December 2020 Carrie Kelly District architect facilities construction born February 1961 died December 2020 Shanty Kirk teacher Elementary C certified school counselor Palm Springs Elementary born October 1971 died November 202 20 Ralph Mitchell worker maintenance maintenance and plan operations born July 1960 died November 2020 and Judith Moore assistant Food Service one at Village Academy born January 1960 she died November 2020 if we could have a moment for these employees take a moment of silence for these employees and their families thank you uh we have no presentations while we're in the pandemic U Student Government report president Alvarez thank you good afternoon everyone I hope everyone had a safe healthy and happy holiday season I can 100% say I speak to you guys on a historical day today with I've I've only seen a few elections um

141but I can definitely say that this one has been historic and I was glued to the TV all throughout school today and my teachers weren't very happy about it but I think it's an exception for today since we returned from our break the County Council has continued our work towards making this new year the best year possible student governments across the county are continuing to plan school and community- based projects our student governments are also continuing to get their committees ready for the upcoming District 5 rally convention in which student governments across Palm Beach St Lucy and Martin counties meet and share project ideas and run for elected positions additionally student leaders have continued to keep all our students informed on school run social media accounts they have been providing up-to-date information about school events

142Sports and College and Career Information the senior class executive boards from each School are continuing to plan and organize special events for the last semester of our high school as I have mentioned multiple times before racial equity and student representation have to be at the top of our agenda does I am excited to soon introduce a new idea that I have been working on to allow for students to be more well represented and help us put us on the right track to this goal as always I would like to thank everyone on this board for your efforts to better our education opportunities and for making our students your very first priority thank you everyone thank you Mr President uh academic advisory committee we have a report play the report Forman Barbie G school board members

143Dr fenoy and staff my name is Laura Felman I'm honored to speak with you tonight as the chair of the academic advisory committee since the requirement of meeting in person has been back in place we've had some difficulty with attendance at our meetings due to a lack of attendance in December the meeting was cancelled we held our January meeting this past Monday even though we did not have a quorum again during Monday's presentation we heard an overview of the implementation of the spring 2021 education plan and insurances including the enhanced Outreach to students who have not been attending school virtually or in Brick and water we also discuss a dashboard that is used to view um this information and um how the district is looking at instructional gaps through the District student academic support plan

144stff is looking at instructional gaps for all students and how to fill these gaps there creating this plan to include all students whether they are performing below at or above grade level and during the meeting we also heard an overview of the methods that the district is using for Progress monitoring we heard about the planning coaching and monitoring process we'll see examples of the process through the dashboard we also learn that it is up to the schools and teachers whether the fsqs and usas can be Stu considered for student grades and as the fsqs and usas are used in ela math science science and social studies courses uh we also had a discussion about how progress can be monitored for other courses and that schools can develop assessments and put them on the scoreboard and

145then they too can be analyzed through this dashboard um which keeps the information at the fingertips so to speak so we also heard a presentation about the best standards in implementation timeline and the instructional materials adoption for literacy that had a rubric developed with input from the community it was very exciting information and we're looking forward to the new roll out in our next meeting will'll be reviewing the district's data in edud dat. fldoe.org thank you very much if you're listening Miss Felman thank you the audit committee report is attached and uh I understand chairman post's here for the district diversity and Equity committee meeting please come up to the podium Happy New Year's everyone um board chair members and everyone of your respective places student Alvarez um I too was glued to my my

146TV all day today lot of Tears a lot of smiles and repeat the report is for the work from the ddec for October and November as there was no meeting in December can you hear me clearly perfect yes thank you to the board for approving the contract the REI and continuing the equity work in this District I had the pleasure of attending REI Phase 2 along with 39 others virtually of course Miss Millan and Miss Starks also gave us an update on the cultural responsive teaching for teachers and leaders there was 496 teachers enrolled 382 teachers enrolled in culturally responsive teaching track in addition 236 teachers leaders enrolled in 168 completed which 66 expected to have completed in December for leaders at a glance we're preparing for future principles program 26 out of 33 people

147interviewed made the cohort to we were impressed with 15 out of 26 are females 11 out of 26 are males 14 out of 26 are of color 12 of 26 are white five Hispanics four latinx Colombian Brazilian Peruvian five black eight Elementary assistant principles six High School assistant principles and seven principles in the middle school with three in regional office administrators the concern with respect to Haitian leaders and how we are preparing them to become principles seeing the growth of our Haitian population as previously advised the DDC had two committees one dealing with the work the equity leader position um which that committee had have completed their task and we will be meeting with the superintendent and his office the second was with respect to the diversity and business partners there was diversity studies completed

148in 2005 based on that data to 2009 between 2009 and 13 findings were under utilization and over utilizations 39 Live Events and 49 virtual events so some of the things that we are looking into is engaging other business businesses and doing the work with the district and how do we ensure other businesses are aware of businesses that are not in their language but they are qualified the challenges is what are the barriers preventing the teachers to become principles and the clarification of the actual covid dashboard um which we did get clarification through an email after our meeting today during the inauguration the amount of diversity and cultural differences on dis play demonstrated the importance of continuing to fight for diversity equity and inclusion and everything that incompasses Di and as Amanda Gorman reminded us there

149is always light if only we are brave enough to see it if only we're brave enough to be it thank you thank you it'll take us to elected officials and delegates James gabrillo president CEO of the education Foundation good evening Mr President good evening sir I'm looking for my clock I so just throw something at me when I hit three minutes um superintendent fenoy chairman barbier members of the school board and respected members of the staff and honored guests over the the almost four years that I've been here you've heard me say repeatedly our basic mission is to be be the Nexus between the business community and the world of Education um this was made very Stark to me early on I think I was only here about 3 weeks when a hurricane came roaring

150through and I had driven a truckload of school supplies out to the Glades one of our board members Jim Moore who's a senior executive with United Healthcare met me and and here's this executive for the healthcare industry helping me offload pallets of school supplies we got to KC Canal point and there was this very tall distinguished gentleman took his tie off and he's helping us throw boxes around and I I looked at him and I said you're amazing I I have to tell Dr hibler how how hard you're working and he patted me on the shoulder and said I am Dr hibler I say that because these are the kind of principles in leaders you have Dr fenoy next Thursday night your Education Foundation is pleased to sponsor the annual principal of the year and

151this year it will be also the assistant principal of the Year celebration we'll be honoring both a principal and an assistant principal from the four regions who have each nominated uh one of their incredible leaders on Tuesday night we're going to have a special reception and I hope many of you uh on the school board could come because our business partners just want a chance to meet you uh they want to share with you their passion for public education in Palm Beach County and get to know you um on Thursday night at 4 o'clock we will have that celebration thanks to our great Partners at the education Network and the communication Department uh people can participate virtually just go to the education Foundation website and you can register and get the link to be able

152to watch that and that again is next Thursday the 28th at 4:00 who are these people uh from the North Region your principal of the Year nominee is Philip Deo from Watson B Duncan Middle School and your assistant principal nominee is Andrea Walker from Lincoln Elementary from The Glades region there's there's that good gentleman Dr hibler Derek hibler from KC Canal Point interestingly enough the assistant principal of the year is also from ke Canal Point Al to Henley some good leadership out there at KC Canal point the central region nominee for principal of the year is Adrien Howard from UB Kinsey Palmview and the assistant principal nominee is Justin arnone from Palm Beach Central High School finally down south your principal of the Year nominee is Rachel Capitano from Don estrid high-tech middle school and

153the South Region assistant principal of the Year nominee Jeanie plel from banan Creek Elementary that's the education side the business partners we can't think Comcast enough who underwrites the entire event the breakers Coca-Cola beverages Florida Dell computers HBK JP Morgan Chase Kaiser just listen to these business partners who love our principles Kaiser University Miami Dolphins Moss Construction Office Depot PNC Bank scansa construction song and Associates TD Bank tickets at work United Healthcare verdict construction and the whites company these are companies who are putting their dollars into educ ation to honor the incredible principles and assistant principles in Palm Beach County members of the school board senior Administration staff who've been invited we hope we see you next Tuesday night for the reception at Red Apple Supply get to know our business community and let them

154get to know you they love our teachers they support our principles and they will be there as we Forge in to whatever this new normal is going to look like ladies and gentlemen this is the work of your Education Foundation to bring these amazing business partners and unite them to our incredible principles assist assistant principles and teachers we will see you next Thursday night online as we honor the great leadership in Palm Beach County Dr fenoy chairman barier thank you have a good evening thank you Mr Gilles Dr Billy jir living skills in schools sorry if I mispronounce your last name giveing my best shot there pretty good okay good evening Schoolboard members and superintendent my name is Dr Billy Gyra and I am here on behalf of Dr Suzanne Spencer CEO of living skills

155in the schools living skills in the schools is a substance abuse prevention program that has been serving Palm Beach County schools with free programming since 1999 we are licensed by the Department of Children and Families and accredited by carf last school year alone living skills in the schools reached over 50,000 students in grades K through 12 in 76 schools throughout Palm Beach County and delivered over, 1500 live presentations in times where schools may be at home or brick may be in times where schools may be home and brick and mortar our mission Remains the Same to build each child's resistance to substance abuse through age appropriate education reassurance understanding peer support and access to help we are here today to share with you a collaboration that occurred with Schoolboard member Alexandria AA and Johnny Leonard

156High School Dr Spencer created the family box for Substance Abuse Prevention to support families through these times of extraordinary challenge living skills in the schools knows that families are worried about their kids and the long-term impact of social isolation on Mental Health challenges with coping scales and increased risky Behavior we wanted to assist families and help them reduce and prevent substance abuse by teaching kids the skills and perspective they need to resist substance abuse and addiction together we step in where parents families neighborhoods and schools may be overwhelmed out of their death and lacking resources the family box for Substance Abuse Prevention is based on the research that suggests that regular family dinners with teens have been showed to help reduce substance abuse risk whether families already gather for family dinner meals or not we

157wanted this kit to help families have what for many is a challenging conversation we also hope that it provides resource support when and where a family may need it and ultimately increasing resilience in the Next Generation the 500 boxes were funded by the health Council of Southeast Florida on January 13th in partnership with Schoolboard member Alexandria AA and the leadership and faculty of Gite Leonard High School family boxes for Substance Abuse Prevention coupled with family meal kits were handed out at a drive through distribution event I would also like for you guys to know that currently lsis is in discussions with Miss El elerson from Florida paror and light to explore providing boxes to substance abuse for substance abuse preventions to schools in Riviera Beach thank you thank you Chuck Ridley from fpsu SEIU superintendent

158board members Happy New Year to all today actually was a beautiful day um and these pearls and Chucks I'm not quite sure what that's that's all about but I'm seeing some beautiful pearls going around so I'm here to talk about a couple of things first I want to talk about the um collective bargaining agreement on behalf of SEIU I want to make the board and superintendent aware that even in the middle of a pandemic while difficult it went quite well for for the most part I believe our leadership will say that this election cycle was fair particularly given the uncertain times we were in and this could not have happened if it was not for the support of you Dr for and for this board so on behalf of the employees we want to say

159thank you now I want to shift to an item on your agenda that will look at revising your school calendar as you know SEIU represents some of the hardest working employees you have many of our employees as a result of the job they do are placed at extreme risk examples bus drivers yet they do their job why because they really believe in the value of your mission statement a statement that stress commitment to providing a worldclass education commitment to providing Equity commitment to making sure each student reaches his or her potential a commitment to effective staff it is the commitment to effective staff that I will want to discuss now the economic hardship that will be placed on our bargaining unit if you delay the start of the school year we'll place them in a

160position that can't square up with that mission statement if you really do mean those words that you have in that statement the group affected the most by this will be par professionals school um Food Service workers and managers bus drivers and bus attendants please realize only a small percent of these employees are um are able to get any summer work to make up for the economic shortfall they experienced during the the summer months now this was in place long before the pandemic so you can imagine how this impacts them now many could be in danger of losing their houses or their vehicles or unable to even feed their families because of the cash flow issue that will be created by this decision EMP employees in our bargaining unit are dependent on their check coming at

161the usual times and like me many live from paycheck to paycheck it will be completely irresponsible for the school district to change their pay schedule without good reason and we've heard no good reason in the past and I don't really anticipate hearing a good reason now so if you decide to reverse or revise the calendar in a manner that places our workers at hardship then find ways to minimize the financial impact our Union and staff and member leaders stand prepared to help you work through this process again thank you thank you Mr really Dr Peter Cruz executive director Leroy Collins public ethics Academy at FAU that's a recorded please play it good evening school board members uh this is Dr Peter Cruz I'm the executive director of the leway Collins public ethics Academy at Florida

162Atlantic University and I'm speaking on a non-agenda item I'm just wanting to remind you all that on February 1st 2021 uh the National High School ethics Bowl will be held here in Palm Beach County this year virtually on zoom and uh the school district and FAU are entering their second year of uh our partnership in providing this wonderful service to our high school students here in Palm Beach County uh the National High School ethics Bowl promotes respectful supportive and rigorous discussion of Ethics among thousands of high school students Nationwide uh the department of teaching and learning with within the school district of Palm Beach County has partnered with the leeway Collins public ethics Academy at FAU as the regional organizer for Southeast Florida um I'd like to thank uh Diana Snider and Tara Hughes at

163the school district along with Diane's ederman um for helping uh pull this uh activity off this year and I'm looking forward to a number of the board members uh serving as judges and again thank you very much goodbye by thank you Dr Cruz Laura Felman president of pal Beach County PTA good evening chairman barbier school board members Dr feno and staff my name is Laura Felman and I'm speaking to you as president of Palm Beach County Council of pta's ptfa as part of our advocacy efforts County Council is advocating for the prioritization of school Personnel for covid vaccines as part of the learning First Alliance National PTA along with the National Education Association the national school boards Association the American Federation of teachers and the national associations of Elementary principles and secondary principles sent a

164letter to the CDC emphasizing the importance of vaccinations for school Personnel also I would like to take this time to share with you about upcoming County Council and community events our general meeting will be on January 25th at 7 pm via Zoom our virtual Reflections Awards program will be on February 11th through the reflections program PTA shows the importance of including arts in our schools and our students lives we hope you will be able to join us for this virtual celebration of the Fantastic artwork our students have created County Council is also looking forward to participating in Florida pta's upcoming virtual legislative conference on March 21st and 22nd where we will continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of all students for more information about the conference and to register please go to the programs and

165events page at floridapta.org We are continuing our letters of Love program where students can earn community service hours for writing letters to the elderly and nursing homes for more information please contact Sharon Luen at wellness. pbcc PTA gmail.com also please check out our Facebook page for information about community health and wellness events such as Joe demaggio Children's Hospitals free virtual Spanish epilepsy Spanish support group meeting on February 2nd at 5:30 p.m and basic life support provider courses at the lak Worth Campus of Palm Beach State College which will be held in person and cost 6925 $69.25 you are all invited to celebrate pta's Founders Day with County Council by participating in a safe scavenger hunt for more information please contact communication. pbcc PTA gmail.com thank you for listening and have a good evening thank you

166president Felman we now have agenda item speakers come up to the podium when I call your name and please remember watch the clock you have three minutes Mark black and then Scott Simon my name is Scott Simon I am a parent of a freshman and a junior at Spanish over high school before this horrible pandemic I attended watched and spoke at multiple board meetings regarding the 2021 school calendar with the proposed start date of August 10th 2020 at that time the board received significant opposition to that very early start date and was largely opposed to it or at least seriously concerned with it however despite many valid reasons to push back the start date the board ultimately approved that calendar primarily and understandably because it wanted to avoid a further pay gap for all employees

167in the district now for the 2122 school calendar that logic no longer applies there is no pay Gap issue because this upcoming summer starts a full three weeks later than last summer on June 19th this year as compared to May 30th last year nevertheless the calendar committee has once again proposed the earliest permissible start date of August 10th 2021 why why cut the summer down to just 7 weeks I understand 10 weeks may be unrealistic this summer but why not at least eight weeks I would question whether the calendar committee has some ulterior motive in starting school on the very first permissible date every year what's the logic I also understand the board may want to complete the first semester before Christmas break so do I but the proposed calendar already has an excess of

168days in the first semester for example the proposed 2223 calendar on today's agenda has 85 days in the first semester but the 2122 calendar has 87 days why do we need those two extra days next year also as chairman Barbieri stated at a meeting last year no other industry in the world gives a full week offer Thanksgiving why do we continue to do it shorten the break to just 3 days like it used to be for so many years and if necessary shortened Christmas break by another day or two between ending school late on June 18th and starting early on August 10th Palm Beach County students would be hardpressed to have a productive summer my daughter is a junior at the top of her class interested in medicine she wants to attend a six or

169seven week summer Science Program one that would quote look good on her college applications however with this proposed calendar it would be impossible so many programs in the country either start before June 18 or end after August 10th take the Young Scholars Program at FSU for example it's an amazing six- week summer program for Florida high school juniors with significant potential in the fields of science technology engineering and math and it's free my daughter would love to apply but it starts Sunday June 13th 2021 or a full week before school ends here or take the pre-ol science program at NYU as another example it's another great program but it ends August 14th or a week after school is proposed to start here there are many more programs she would love to attend however simply because

170she is a public school student in Palm Beach County she's shut out of those programs I would urge the board to push back the school start date at least to Monday August 16th thank you thank you Mr Simon we have three recorded agenda topic speakers em Emily ballop Terry Lopez and Lisa Reich with the IT department afternoon my name is Emily boff I'm a parent of second grade children who um attend Marsh Point Elementary School I calling uh regarding the meeting that will be occurring on January 20th uh meant to discuss the 20 21 22 uh calendar dates I'm strongly urging the board to consider extending or rather giving our teachers students and parents a normal summer we're already extending the school year to June 18th which is three weeks longer than it normally is

171and if we start school back up on August 10th then our children will have less than eight weeks of summer break um I'm an 80s child I have never experienced a summer that short in my lifetime I'm sure there are many others who can agree with that sentiment teachers have been taxed this year uh impossibly teaching to on uh students um via two different platforms students have had their lives turned upside down parents have been dealing with the brunt of multitasking and turning their homes into classrooms workspaces and homes uh for the last year and a half and all of us need the Break um so if you're going to end the school year on June 18th I am strongly encouraging not starting school until at least the end of August and if necessary the

172first week in September Miami Dade is not starting school until August 23rd they're ending their year on June 8th as is Broward County we will be cutting summer short for everyone who has endured this year and a half and kids need to be kids teachers need to connect as do parents please if we're ending the school year on June 18th please push forward the start of school to at the earliest the first week in August to give everybody at least two months to regroup reenter so that we can start the 20 2122 school year strong and ready thank you hello my name is Terry Lopez I'm calling in regards to topic elr1 regards to this proposed school calendar for Palm Beach County the discussion item is the expectation is that they would like to propose

173a longer school year um I have a fundamental issue with that specifically because children and teachers are struggling not just this year but last year um the volume of work that these students are being assigned as it relates to schoolwork as well as homework it is outrageous my child specifically was formerly a honor roll student from kindergarten up until this year um the sheer volume of work it is excessive so to hear people talking about extending the school year when there's so many things that you all need to mitigate you need to figure out how to get these School kids back into the buildings safely you need to figure out how to do it safely for your teachers you need to figure out how you can better to support your teachers because a lot of

174these teachers are being put in an awkward situation where in some cases they are assigning probably too much work that they probably can't even grade quickly timely they're being asked to support students that are in person that are online um and then children that are in the classroom and it's a lot that you're asking people to adjust um I'm just asking for you guys to really stop and consider what your intent is what will you guys gain from a longer school year besides making these children and the teachers be even more fatigued than they already are one of the other main things I feel like you guys need to mitigate and you're not doing a really good job with is just mental health issues domestic violence certain things that and people's homes have escalated as

175a result of covid-19 and there's so many other things that you guys need to prioritized that is not being prioritized the school year does not need to be longer you guys have taken away extracurricular activities these children are stressed making and and now on top of it you want to extend it to take away time that they have over the summer to debrief and just breathe it's too much you guys really really needs to stop and see what you're doing to these children children should not have the level of stress that they have thank you good morning my name is Lisa Wright I am a mother of three children in the pomes county school district um they're all elementary students I'd like to speak with about um elr1 I believe it's a referring to the

176calendar the um upcoming vote you're having today I also own a travel agency a local travel agency and I'd like to give you a perspective from what I am seeing I have booked over 300 families to travel spring break 2022 they were all booked on the old calendar now I know I'm not the only one that does this I know you know I've spoke to other colleagues as well these people are going to lose a lot of money by changing the spring break week and moving it one week earlier I'm sorry I'm moving it as you have proposed to do from the original calendar that was approved in July 2019 um this change in the spring break date is really going to be detrimental to not only my business but to so many families again

177that have already paid and um booked for a specific week um in terms of booking for um Christmas I and New Years that also is a big issue because people travel the two weeks um they go one week because they need one week for a rental a lot of house rentals are week to week so Saturday is Saturday so although you are keeping about the same amount of time what you are doing is cutting it off and not doing Saturday to Saturday you're doing it on Thursday to Thursday which inhibits many many many property rentals vacation rentals Resorts and such um I really strongly request recommend men beg for you to go back to the original calendar um that was proposed um and not change that spring break week by one week uh Spring Break

178by one week earlier keep it the week of the 20th if you could that would be huge to so many families um and I'm seeing it every day um all right thank you I really appreciate your consideration one last call for Mark black are you here all right we'll move to um board members the uh three items been two items have been pulled from consent elr1 and P A1 does anybody want to pull anything else at this time seeing none we need a motion to approve the consent agenda motion by Mrs Whitfield seconded by Mrs mcquinn any discussion all in favor post motion carries first item under new business is a BRD item so I'll read that one maybe the computer will cooperate there it goes I recommend the board approve the proposed greater Florida

179Consortium of school board's 2021 legislative program as submitted motion by Mrs and second by Mrs Whitfield discussion Mrs Whitfield and Dr Robinson I just wanted to bring this up as it's uh the item um that I'm bringing forward today um based on you all having me as your representative for the greater Florida Consortium um so the way that this works um with the list of everything that we have right now in front of us if you choose to remove anything from this list um the president Jane Goodwin has agreed that if it is not accepted by the entire all of the members from the greater Florida Consortium that it will be left off of the list so keep that in mind as as you're going forward on your comments and if there are any concerns

180I will definitely bring it back to the um Consortium thank you Dr Robinson thank you so I just have two issues with the language here and maybe I'm misinterpreting so on the page two the expand the use of turnaround School supplemental Services allocation to include all Title One schools for wraparound Services um I'm do you know what their intention is there I mean they use the term wraparound but they also use this turnaround school so the turnaround School language triggers me to think it's just to like expand the school day to just do the same thing you were doing the school day and just more of the same that was already causing children to disengage so um do you know what they mean I do not um I'm not specifically enough if there's anyone from

181staff that understands it better if you are concerned about it I'm happy to just take it out and we can talk to them about it um and I believe if we do take it out they will not have it as a part of their legislative platform okay so I I guess I don't I don't really know what I think because I'm not sure what they mean right so wraparound services are good but I just I don't know if it's really wraparound Services hidden in the turnaround name you know so yeah I'm sorry I don't have more detail on it unfortunately and then the other one is on page three um and again this is kind of what do they mean too but I could this enhance the state investment in development developmentally appropriate high quality

182volunt prek full day programs right we already have developmentally appropriate right and and that's what is giving us the poor School entry outcomes that we have right and so and what these longtime early um childhood Educators have convinced me of is that the the phrase developmentally appropriate prevents them from really teaching children to the higher standards that's needed to to walk into our schools and hit the ground rning so because of that I am opposed to that language um the turnaround schools I don't I don't know with without more information I guess I can't stand firm in opposition but I'm definitely opposed to the language developmentally appropriate because I see could I just take out those two words and keep the item would that be acceptable that would be acceptable to me I think that

183would be fine by me if that's okay with the rest of the board board members we we need an amendment to modify it then is that your so my motion is to remove the words developmentally appropriate from page three under kindergarten Readiness a second by Mrs Woodfield any discussion on the amendment all in favor post motion carry 70 now on the main motion to approve it as amended Miss BR I had comments I'm sorry yes you did have your hand okay so just as the former president of the greater Florida Consortium um I do have one suggestion and that is for next year that they that you ask um the them to send the proposal before it goes to the school districts for a vote because those two items that Dr Robinson identified could have

184been addressed typically in a normal year they wouldn't let us change the language so once it would come to us like this um you know if Dr Robinson wants to remove the developmentally appropriate verbage they would just strike it I know when I was President there were often items that were on their platform that we already had but some districts didn't so that was really the rationale for it but just you know as you move forward with them I would suggest that they give us lead time as districts to massage it so that it fits us better absolutely all right any discussion then oh I need a motion no we're back to the main motion all in favor oos motion carries 70 Mr super superintendent C1 Mr chairman co1 I recommend the board Proclaim Wednesday

185January 27th 2021 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day motion by Mrs Andrew second by Vice chairwoman bril Miss bro you have a thank you so I am going to read this Proclamation tonight for international Holocaust Remembrance Day whereas Wednesday January 27 2021 is international Holocaust Remembrance Day and marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the awit concentration camp and whereas just days earlier the shoot stael commonly known as the SS forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to evacuate the concentration camp and embark on the infamous death marches which took thousands of innocent lives and whereas on November 1st 2005 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to designate January 27 as International Day of commemoration in memory of Holocaust victims the day upon which the world will remember the Holocaust and its victims each year and

186whereas on this an iary the school district of Palm Beach County must recommit itself to combating the global rise in anti-Semitism and should always remember the terrible events of the Holocaust and remain Vigilant against hatred persecution and tyranny and whereas the school district of Palm Beach County should actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of individual freedom in a just society and whereas the commemoration of this unprecedented event reminds us all of our solemn duty to keep alive the memory of the millions who perished during the Holocaust and to ensure through education and mutual respect that acts of genocide shall never again occur now therefore be it resolved that the superintendent and School Board of Palm Beach County do hereby Proclaim Wednesday January 27 2021 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the victims of

187the Holocaust and in honor of the survivors as well as The Rescuers and liberators and further Proclaim that we should work to promote human dignity and confront hate whenever and wherever it occurs done this 20th day of January 2021 in West Palm Beach Florida thank you is there any other discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 70 C1 Mr Super Mr chairman I recommend the board approve the revisions of the 2021 legislative platform and issues of continuing concern for Palm Beach County Schools motion by Mrs Woodfield seconded by Vice chairwoman bril any discussion all in favor oppos motion carries 70 elr1 Mr chairman I recommend the board approve the revised calendars for school years 2021 22 and 2223 motion by Miss aala second and by Mrs Whitfield discussion Miss bro you pulled that yes I

188did so I have to say I'm very disappointed you know for the last few years we've had very contentious discussions we've received H dozens sometimes hundreds in the past couple years of emails from parents from teachers from members of our other un unions regarding the the calendar um I'm just I'm really shocked that that we are looking to start as early as we are that's the main thing that I'm hearing from the people that are reaching out to me I still propose that we start no earlier than the third week in August at the earliest I thought we agreed to that maybe I'm just dreaming I thought that was in one of our prior meetings but I don't understand why we're not directing the calendar committee to start with the end in sight and work

189through the calendar with those parameters um I know all of you have seen the same emails that I have I've heard from parents but also many CTA members and a few seciu members who are distressed regarding the shorter summer break because they've been working so hard over this past school year but I do agree with Mr Ridley and I'm sure Mr Katz feels the same way that we absolutely have to minimize the the pay gap for our bargaining groups but I will not support this calendar my community does not support this calendar I would hope that my board members would agree that we send send it back with an end inight and ask the committee to creatively work on this because the last two three years of this contentious battle over the start of the

190calendar shouldn't be happening we serve our community we serve our employees we serve our our union members and this has been the most atypical year they have ever had and I just think that it is unfair of us to expect them to shorten their time not only that but as one of our speaker said it also precludes some of our students from being able to access certain programs and certain educational opportunities so I will not support this C this um calendar um I did have a conversation with the superintendent saying that I'm not even sure that I support having a calendar committee anymore because I'm so frustrated over it thank you Mrs Andrew then Mrs Whitfield thank you and I spent quite a bit of time uh talking with Dr laava as well well as

191Vicky Evans and I hear you um um unions of all the CTA SEIU I just know that we've got to make sure uh for SEIU the lowest paid people that do the hardest work in Palm Beach County the physical work that we don't want them to lose any money I I really want to take care of the teachers so when I see the committee uh and and I've been told the committee feels that this is a good thing it worried me a lot because this is the same thing we're back at the same place and we haven't gotten anywhere talking about the same problems from year to year to year and my questions to um Dr laava that he answered but he can certainly answer in public here that I wanted to know how does

192Dade and Broward County do it and they have more people on staff than we do as it relates to uh bus drivers uh uh teacher assistants and others how do they get by with move not having the same issue that this problem that we're having each and every year and then I did ask the question about the urban 7 because I always want to know about the urban 7 school districts and it sounds like the big seven most of them start around the 10th the way we are they're I worried this year I know it's been a bad year for everybody and they want some time off but then I'm worrying about the students who have lost learning uh when I hear uh Dr Sheffield talk about the student academic support plan we're going to

193have to figure out a calendar for some of these children who have not made it uh throughout this pandemic and it may not be this calendar but it's going to have to be some supplemental support in the summer as well as some additional days and money put in place to catch these children up because it's going to take more than one year to get these kids where they need to be and then I worry about our top student students who may be doing remote work that don't have the necessary uh teacher in the classroom to give them that instruction that they need to get them where they want to go so there's a loss at every angle so it makes me worried and then I just feel like uh if we didn't pass this calendar

194tonight what would happen Dr fooi maybe through the superintend I mean through the board chair okay well you know the calendar is a sensitive issue every year and this is especially true this year as students and staff have adjusted to the changes that we've made to our schedule due to covid-19 but let me be clear as superintendent it is my responsibility to mitigate academic loss and address learning def deficiencies and historical educational debts so my recommendation that you will vote on this evening is the culmination of a tremendous amount of thought and my conviction that it is what's best for our students my recommendation is based on the starting point for all calendars Florida Statutes you know Florida Statutes and Florida Administrative Code that dictates the earliest start date the required number of hours and

195the maximum number of paid holidays that the board May authorize which is six next we examine what is in the best interest of students we're all aware of the traditional summer slide as well as the new covid slide we are all concerned about the achievement gaps created by educational debt exacerbated by what is this extended Interruption of traditional instruction I feel strongly that we need students back in school principles and the leadership of the CTA are firmly in favor of exams prior to winter break and the maximum number of instructional time again this is a thought process that culminated in this recommendation so now I will permit staff to answer questions about potential pay gaps which is okay and the nature of the support and the Cal committee has for this recommendation but after I

196reviewed last year's meeting and you know saw the work of the team today what I will not permit however is that we will have a this this this this debate but please please I'm asking you don't criticize staff don't criticize the committee or any individuals because they when I watched that video and if you did they put their best foot foot forward to bring us this recommendation today and then when I looked at it I saw some things that I didn't necessarily agree with but overall I support the recommendation of the committee Mr superintendent before I call any other board members do you mind telling the public who serves on that committee so that it's it doesn't look like it's just yeah so um Vick if you can come she facilitates that for us Miss

197Evans parade and she can give you all the the members of that particular committee but for the public I want you to know that the the actual committee meeting is on our website and you can view it when you feel like it all right the number of of committee members varies from year to year of who actually attends and who doesn't but every Union is represented so SEIU CTA PBA asop all have members of their bargaining unit at the table we also have staff miscellaneous we have principal um usually at least one high school one Middle School one um Elementary principal we also have um staff here within the the district offices so we have individuals who work with um the the and I'll get the the nomenclature wrong but they're the ones who count

198the number of hours and minutes that the students are on campus to make sure that we get the maximum number of instruction we comply with the law so and then we have people from payroll so we have people from Mike Burke's team and finance to make sure we're covering all of those bases it's usually about 20 or 30 people we always invite the PTA to attend they don't always attend but they're invited um I'm trying to think if there's anybody else I've missed um we usually have um other members of Staff involved as well thank thank you m pre the next speaker board member the one to speak is Mrs Whitfield and Miss AA thank you so much um I do want to say that I appreciate the work of the the calendar committee I

199think it's very important that we get the voices of our um of our community heard during this process so having a calendar committee that is represented by all of the unions and that talks about our um you know has our principles involved has staff members involved I think it's very important to hear that and so i' I'd like to keep the calendar committee and I'd like to respect their decision on this item today um I completely understand the issues that have come forward from our community members that are upset about this however um my priority right now is really these kids that are failing for the last two weeks I have gone to lakew worth Beach and Boon Beach I have presented on their data on the data that's in those schools and I have

200to tell you that at the high school level for both of these communities they have 50% of their students that are currently failing a class 50% half of the kids in two of my communities are literally failing right now mid year this is up about 20 to 30% from last year at this time so the reality of Co slide to me is with us now it's here and so the idea of pushing back the school day the start day for our students when everyone in the state has to take the same tests at the same time we would literally be handicapping ourselves here in Palm Beach County against the other urban districts who have decided to push their date to the date to the same date to August 10th so I I totally respect the

201lack of Summer it's awful I have children so I know what this is going to do I me my daughter's furious at me she actually went and talked to all of her friends and tried to figure out how they could come up with a way to create a longer summer um so I completely understand from the parents perspective and how difficult this time has been but the long-term impacts that that we are going to have to deal with as a school community and as just a community in general for our children um that worries me even more um and I just want to say I know that there was a lot of concern last year about payroll Gap and that was something that I was very worried about and this would be an opportunity for

202us to miss less of a payroll Gap I do get that um but I still think we have too many issues on the table to to push back the start day of school unfortunately I wish we could I I absolutely wish we could I wish that I had the opportunity to go on vacation this year with my family um obviously we're all hindered by the pandemic and we're really um dealing with the repercussions um the last thing I want to say is the only way we can deal with creating a shorter fall semester is if the teachers and the staff and everybody uh the principles are okay with us testing after um the winter break for some reason that's the culture here everybody likes to get their testing done before winter break so that is

203something that I think the calendar committee can discuss with the principles can discuss going forward um if they would like to change it by a couple of days that is a way that we could do it in the future um but right now I think you know this is what they have asked for we did it this year we saw the impact on the grades of the kids because they lost their momentum going forward um from you know taking two weeks off at the winner and taking tests afterwards um I don't want to see that happen that completely uh makes me nervous and finally I absolutely do not want to take away Thanksgiving I will always vote against taking away Thanksgiving I think it's one of the best things we've done in this District so

204as we talk about the calendar I really want to stand firm and protect Thanksgiving um because this year I have to say for everyone that I'm looking at right now it was the first break they had all year so I just I know they needed that week off and so I'm very I'm very passionate about trying to keep that especially for all of our super hardworking employees thank you so much Miss AA then Mr Alvarez then Vice chairwoman Brill and Mrs mcquinn so missa first thank you Mr chairman uh I would like to ask the superintendent could you were your team shed light on the pay schedule gaps that will be impacting our employees who are not with us 12 months out of the year with these calendar proposals so we we've heard that a

205lot up here I just would like some clarity on that for everyone watching and listening I honestly with your mask on I couldn't quite hear your question there was something about the payroll Gap yes could your team shed light on the pay schedule gaps that our employees who are not with us 12 months out of the year will face with these calendar proposals this year and next year yes ma'am we'll have U Mr Burke than to that okay thank you uh yeah this always gets complicated every year uh the calendar recommendation in front of you uh there's there's one group of employees actually the the recommendation in front of you does not cause any payroll Gap we have one group of employees that are on 226 Duty days and they're going to experience a pay

206Gap next summer I'm sorry summer of 2022 and it has nothing to do with the start date of the kids it's just the the evolution of the the calendar and they will not be work the way it falls they will not work within the pay period uh at the start of July there so this this recommendation actually limits the pay gaps to the greatest extent possible um if we were to shift a week later as some people have discussed then then you start adding to the pay Gap challenges uh and then the the group that would be impacted is our 206 Duty day employees and and those those people they usually report uh about 10 days before the teachers and this year they've got to start by July 15th in order to avoid a pay

207Gap and and we can make that work with the August 10th school start date but if you if you start pushing that further then it's it's not going to it's not going to line up and that that Gap is at risk uh the 206 Duty day employees that includes our assistant principles many of them are on that Cal calendar the uh so that that's really would be the next shoe toall if we if we start pushing the date out later and then the gaps the further you push it out the more groups of employees I have to that will experience A disruption in their payroll Mr Alvarez thank you um I would just like to give my opinion on this and um I understand that there are a lot of Logistics that I may not

208understand at this point about this however the idea of cutting this summer short of all years and I would also like to thank the committee for all the work that they do to get this calendar set up but from a student standpoint we have to look at this not just based on our students academics but their mental health mental health has become such an important thing and has always been at the top of anything that I talk about because without mental health our students aren't going to do anything in school their mental health needs to be at a good level and summer plays a big part in that it is their break from the countless work that we do on the daily I have at least three hours of homework after this meeting and I'm

209okay with that because this is my passion and I come here and I enjoy what I'm doing here but there are a lot of students who have those countless hours of work and they don't get a break until that summer and cutting this summer short for those students after the year that they've had whether it's virtual whether it's brick and mortar whether it's them simply not having a normal year I just I I couldn't get behind that if I if I had a vote because I simply don't agree with us taking those weeks away and I understand that there's payroll Logistics there's academic Logistics where I don't understand that as much but from what I do understand I understand that their mental health is important and that break is their period to kind of get

210it back together and then come back fresh and start again the next year thank you thank you Mr Alvarez Vice chairwoman Brill thank you so I don't want the calendar to committee to think that um that I don't respect what they've done I really do I just feel very frustrated um because at the end of the day the calendar committee does not make the decision we do and the calendar committee makes a recommendation to borrow a phrase from our superintendent I'm going to say let's be clear we are not asking for to start school a month later what we're talking about is five work days later and do you really think that you are causing great harm if you start five days later and massage the vacation days do you really think that's going to

211change the covid slide students that have experienced a slide because of the pandemic many of them are going to be working over over the summer but I want to thank Mr Alvarez for your input because I did forget how many teachers and how many employees have reached out saying that they have worked so hard and how many students have reached out to me in my community saying we need a break we had to just shift the way we learned we had to go online then we're back in the classroom some of us are still online and so yes I know there's going to be an impact I think that we have the best CFO in the state of Florida perhaps in the nation who can help us figure out how to minimize the pay Gap

212but we are not going to change that Co covid Slide by denying five days break to those hardworking employees and students in our district so again I will not support this calendar Mrs mcquinn I'm going to start by saying that I'm hoping that people won't just just tune me out I know that those who work the calendar committee can't tune me out but for the rest of you um who won't agree with the fact that I am going to vote to support the superintendent's recommendation because ultimately this board holds him responsible for student achievement that is the reason that I'm supporting his recommendation but I have a question and then I have another comment um the question is do we have to vote for both years right now so if the board were to make

213a recommendation to bring back the second calendar then the answer to that would be no but as we have presented it we were asking the board to look at both calendars so someone will tell me when I finish these comments how we would do that I don't I don't know I used to be in charge of Robert's Rules of Order now I never remember because I don't have to so I have a few things to say about the calendar that I had prepared I will frustrate the secondary teachers and really the principles too but they're just they're doing it for the teachers um I don't agree with them that we need to that it's in students best interest to end uh to end the first semester before winter break I was a math teacher before

214we did that and frankly we'd have to get the research I think I've said this before but I don't really want my students to cram for an exam that I have quickly hurried them through so I can finish by winter break those who want to study over winter break will those who don't won't but I found when the kids came back that now I can review them it sticks in their brains better so I truly I I don't see that having to end by the break I realize it takes a little mental pressure off I don't necessarily think it's academically sound to do that I think it's convenience for the adults that having been said so how many former colleagues have I irritated that's okay the other is that I've had several High School teachers

215contact me that they want their students these are the ones I don't I'm going to get the exams wrong so I'm just going to say ace but I'm probably wrong but there are some exams that go into June and they don't know how to keep their students involved and do what they need to do for those exams so it's not the end of the world to go into June I am totally opposed to starting school barely into August I think that's appalling I don't really care about the Thanksgiving break whatever people want to do for that I'm totally okay with it let me see if there's anything else okay oh the one thing though and I do I do appreciate U Miss Evans Pere and Dr laava for spending the time and answering questions and

216one of the two things this summer is a one-time deal we know we're making up three weeks we know we started late so it's a one time time thing that's why I can live with this year um the other piece that they brought up is this winter break is different because Christmas falls on a weekend so you're and New Year's fall on a weekend so you have that piece falling in in terms of needing to have a paid holiday um I think that's for most of the country but als I'm almost through but also um in terms of preparing for standardized testing we know I've said it for four years I am so opposed to the accountability that we have for FSA but as Miss Evans parade pointed out to me right now dollars are

217attached to it it impacts our literally our teachers budgets so I I have to yield to that that our teachers want more time to prepare students before FSA but honestly I think I think we could work that out so I think what you're hearing for I I hope that what you're hearing for me is I would love to have this calendar for this year so that maybe we could have some dialogue about the things that we have set in stone we have to do do we really have to do that thank you thank you Miss mcquinn if you want to make a motion to amend after all the board members have um and superintendent will accept the motion to amend it to consider one one calendar at a time tonight we can do that um

218Dr Robinson you were next thank you well my notes are not so well organized I'm not even sure if I can read them but um so to me this is almost this is an example of taking an issue in isolation right because there's a lot of things that the calendar impacts and that impact the calendar so for me like I really part of me I know this is is not realistic but I don't really want to talk about the calendar unless I I had a good idea what the status of the pandemic was going to be in August right and when vaccines will be available for everybody who wants them I mean because I'm still stuck in that wait a minute this is we're still hiding from the virus right so um okay so I

219gotten that out of out of my mind so then um I to I want to say I do appreciate the calendar committee to me they remind me of the boundary committee there's all these different details that they're juggling um but they're advisory and I thank them for doing that but as um Miss Brill said like we're the ones who gonna vote on this thing right and so just because we want something different or we might vote against it doesn't mean we don't appreciate all your hard work and I so appreciate their hard work I do not want to disband them I do not want to sit in this meetings having the seven of us trying to figure out all those things they're juggling I don't want to do that um I want their expertise on

220it first but I agree maybe we need to at the beginning of the process kind of give our the things that we would consider non-negotiables are close to it um but okay so that's that so um so it has been said but I just want to reiterate this this one week or two week or whatever it is is not going to make a significant difference in um in the whole covid slide uh acceleration and I've talked about accelerating postco slide like at nauseum and to me that means I think miss Andrew said it that's part of our priorities in terms of how we allocate funds because if we're going to see it and know it and acknowledge it we need to do something about it which means we need to put together some vigorous creative

221exciting programs for our kids over the summer so that they can um get their you know get their minds back on the whole learning process and but it has to be fun it can't be the same stuff that we do Under Pressure because the high stakes accountability system makes us beat and flog children with the standards and that is not how children learn okay so that's um that part so we need to add to the calendar committee students that's who we missed right and um and I appreciate the the note about reaching out to the PTA but we had to find some other par par groups because we do need to have the parent uh voice in there as well as the students so now I want to keep Thanksgiving to I remember the first

222year that happened that was just such a relief to have a full week right um I I want I and I want us to look at not not today and this is not gonna uh make me vote one way or the other but I do want to see how Broward and dve does and I Know da something I understand what D has to do with year round year classes not semester classes I don't I don't know the details of that but I think that we need to put that on our list for exploration as far as I'm concerned this whole thing between the experiences in from Washington and and and the pandemic this is like a reset year this is like the somebody just threw all the cards up and now we have to rebuild

223the house right and so let's rebuild this right and and so let's just put it all on the table including whatever that is they do semester versus year because it apparently impacts the calendar too um but it's part of that we had to figure out if children learn better that way um that's where we must start so now so here's here's my my bottom line so two things in terms of the academic piece so yes we know that it's like we live and die based on the FSA so if if I could wave the magic wand the school year would end right after the FSA and we would back it up from there which would mean we probably start school earlier so I don't have that magic wand but um the issue of those of

224what we do with the calendar and the impact on the APA IB FSA industry sech I think that's real that's something that has to be considered and so cuz in my heart of hearts I want to postpone the start of the school year I want to delay I think it's been a horrific year it's just been horrible it's just been absolutely horrible and people need a break like they just just need as much of a break as possible um which is why we have to we and we have to say Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is going to be the first time a lot of people going to be able to see some of their family right and then and I also would like to preserve the winter holidays as much as possible ideally and you know

225I appreciate um Miss Evans Pare and and Dr laava you know juggling all these facts um for me but ideally we would have a three- weekend winter holiday I'm I think I'm willing to sacrifice that but Thanksgiving is is a is a nonstarter for me we have to keep that so but this is the bottom line I need to really understand if we post pone a week or two what does that H what happens with our lowest paid employees and not just what what would automatically happen what what magic do you have Mr Burke we like what can we do if we postpone it because we're balancing all these things we've got we've got the social emotional needs of young people and adults in the in the balance if you ask me right um so

226I really want to postpone the start but I need I need some some creativity put on the table for how we pay our LS paid and employees who would lose a paycheck and you know and be added possibly to the list of homeless people added to the hunger you know like people already experiencing all these traumas from all the things going on I don't want to add to it so I I need some some creativity somewhere um I have a few thoughts to share uh first I just want to clarify so this past August when we made the decision to sh shift to start a school 3 weeks forward to August 31st many of our employees had already reported back to work and we actually sent them home and then we we had them work

227intermittently within pay periods so they would avoid a pay Gap now the downside of that is we we basically were paying people their full checks you know every two weeks where they may have only worked a few days within the pay period so there's the risk of overpaying and staff increases tremendously right so we we we we kind of bit that bullet this year uh to make things work in these you know trying times uh but that normally that's not something you really would want to do as a general practice um the our lowest paid employees are work either 180 days or 182 days you know their days are pretty closely aligned to when the kids are in session and this summer is unique uh normally I know we always are concerned about that group

228and they they normally go eight weeks you know they're paid 22 paychecks and they're accustomed to going about eight weeks well exactly eight weeks without a paycheck from the end of one school year to the next uh this year they're actually in better shape they're they're going to only go six weeks between paychecks because the summer has been condensed and we're going later into June um so that group actually's got some cushion there that you potentially could move and they'll they'll go longer you know they'll no longer get it have that six week break but they may have now they'll go back to their kind of customary eight weeks between checks U so I I hope that makes sense so the bus driver or bus attendants uh they're going to have they'll still have that

229traditional uh Gap in their paychecks where the if we went with the August 10th date they'd actually start getting paid faster than they normally do um the there's there's no real magic the the creativity comes in basically kind of jockeying around and shuffling the work days so that people work at least one day within the pay period U the and that's that's what we did last year the the other downside though of doing that is we'll have employees working this year that are going to be working they're going to get their last check before they even kind of earn it they're going to have to work a few days after we give them their last check for the year because we we paid them so early um so you know the the magic has some

230consequences it's not ideal uh we we did it to you know make the best out of a bad situation it's not something we want to perpetuate uh so I I hope that helps you know and then the the all the academic reasons that people spoke to tonight is I think what carried even greater weight than the than the payroll people's input uh so anyway there's any more questions I'll try I'll try to answer them got to follow up that Qui so Mr Burke I just need you to know that like your your laptop helps us fund the academic program which I need for the summer to address the co slide so you're not off the hook with the academic connection okay just so you know right this that's another challenge of the short summer you

231know how big a program can we run and those some of those same people are going to be asked to come in and work you know that may be tired M all right thank you so much and uh thank you Mr Burke because you did make it happen uh last year throughout all of what we were going through and I do want to thank Miss Evans because we were fighting hard for the Veterans Day and you've been working hard on that piece so we've been putting some pieces together one of the questions I did ask is I'd like to see the Miami Dade and the brow plan as a board member because I think I would like to see how do they make it work I know you kind of in ated some things how

232they do this or how they do that I'd like to see the piece of paper of their calendar and what they're giving up and what they're taking now I don't know if the committee had an opportunity to see that do you know uh through uh the board chair to the superintendant to Miss Evans uh did you all look at the Miami dat and Broward information uh to see how it impacted them to be able to start late no because Broward just adopted theirs Miami dat adopted theirs last week so we could see their planning but we couldn't necessarily see what their board was going to do Miami date has a different pupil progression plan than we do they operate on the hund and I'll probably get 135 instructional hours so they do yearlong courses they

233do have semester exams but the semester exams are not weighted any more than any other test that the students take so they don't worry about the fact that second semester you know begins later in January right so it it would for us to do something like that we we jeopardize and and this is out of my swim Lane it's a it's more of a um PJ deou and his group's thing but it's 67 and a half hours is what we operate on per semester so my understanding is that the half semester classes that we have at some of our choice programs would have to go away they'd have to be year-long courses we couldn't do those kind of survey classes where you have a semester and a semester that's part of the whole pupil progression

234plan you would need to change that in order to facilitate what Miami day does now what Broward is doing is very interesting Brower is just moving their exams backwards um and they are getting out even a day later than Miami Dade um I don't know whether they operate on the semester model I believe they do but their exams are later in January to mid to end of January and their students end but for the urban s that you spoke you asked about um I just wanted to let you know that Duval is starting August 10th Hillsboro is starting August 10th orange is starting August 10th and penel is starting August 11th so as the other and outside the urban 7 we have a scambia is at um the 11th of August seminal is August 10th

235Martin is August 11th and St Lucy is August 10th really prom Broward and dat are the outliers for the rest of the state the rest of the state starts in August 10th they're trying to get the maximum number of instructional hours and minutes in prior to FSA testing and so that's what the other districts are doing you can I follow up Mr B thank you so much and so you know I do agree with Mrs Briel uh because I got a lot of phone calls I'm sure all of you received them and then I hear our student council representative who represents children I know we're in a in a mental and emotional state with this pandemic I I recognize that and I recognize uh the co slide and some kids are going to have to

236be going to school this summer and we'll have to start back early and we have to get a plan of action for them but I guess you know at this point in time Mr Burke I go back to you because I just remember sitting seems like I was sitting right here and you made it happen for us last year you did you did you really did whatever you did you got it done and I just would like to see us kind of hold off for a while and let Mr Burke look at this because you're the master you've been here a lot of years I've been here a lot of years but you've been here a lot of years Mr Burke and you know how to make things happen for us and I'd like this

237board to kind of if we don't have to have this done tonight for Mr Burke to look at this I I I love the calendar committee because you represent everybody and I do believe and people having a voice so I do love the work that you do and I don't want the uh the uh people not to get their monies the the gate the uh the gap for our lowest employees and I worry about students in the mental health piece and I don't know just like Dr Robertson said we don't know where we going to be in August as it relates to all of this we're just trying to get the vaccines out and that's been uh not so good so we don't know what's going to happen to us and so right now if

238we can find a way of people are feeling that they're so stressed out the children are so stressed out and we know we're going to have to come up with a plan of action for all of those children who have lost learning if we can do something to help to eleviate this stress that they're talking about and all these emails and calls that we're getting and the students are upset Miss Mrs uh Whitfield and your daughter if we can come up with something Mr Burke and come back here and talk about that at at another meeting and it doesn't delay anything at this point in time other than more conversation and indepth uh check and balances to see what we can do this is what I'd like to see this board ask Vice chairwoman bril

239and then Dr Robinson thank you I'm going to make a motion in a minute um to to table um this discussion to our next meeting which I believe will be February 3rd our next special meeting um but with the request that Mr Burke look into well just not look into but figure out how we can start a week later um and if we need to send it back to the calendar if they calendar committee needs to reconvene but if we can get agreement as a board that we want them to look at the end in sight um I'm hoping that Mr Alvarez that that extra week will at least be some some some benefit I mean my preference would be two weeks or after Labor Day but I know that's not going to happen and

240I do know that people will be happy if they at least get one more week so I will move that we table this discussion to February 3rd M BR would you hold that motion until Dr Robinson sorry I didn't realize you were going to speak and keep in mind board of members I don't think we're going to get this done before 7 but in three minutes we have to start non-agenda speakers and there's 27 minutes of those speakers I don't know how long the recorded statements are but nine times 3 is 27 and we have nine speakers so we may not be able to finish this because it sounds like you all want to have more input so go ahead Dr R I have faith we will finish it so all I want to say

241is I I am I think we should get a little bit more information I actually would like for us to look at one week and two week while we're looking just I just want to know just want to know but I but I really need to understand if there is any at all flexibility with the APA I and that dog on FSA like can we put can we get a waiver for the DAT that FSA I just I want to I know I know the first answer is no I want to get the second and third and fourth answer Mrs Andrew okay the general council's advised that it's not a motion to table it's a motion to postpone um is there discussion on a motion to postpone there can be there can be all right

242so we have a motion by Miss bril seconded by Mrs Andrew to postpone until February 3rd but under discussion I haven't had a chance when I came in the room tonight I was all prepared to accept the calendar and I thank Mrs Evans pre and and Dr laaba for spending the time um but I've heard a lot of things tonight so I'm not so sure that I want accept it at this point um I know I know where Mr Simon's coming from I mean I didn't realize you you stop to think about it there's probably a lot of programs out there for kids that have missed a lot that are not going to be able to participate in those programs because we're shortening the summer so much so I had told the superintendent that I

243didn't care when the calendar started as long as we had a a robust summer school program for kids so that the kids who were behind could catch up um but I hadn't given a thought to what Mr Simon saying we can put our own programs in place but there's probably lots of other programs out there that are scheduled for the summer that kids would normally be able to go to and they're not going to be able to do that um I also understand we did it this year we didn't have exams before beginning of beginning of the holiday season I don't know how that I don't know how that the kids fared on their exams afterwards and I understand that we're faced with an FSA so we can't push it too far this year I

244guess we didn't have that issue because of the pandemic but um I too would like to see the administration take a look Mike Mr Burke if you could tell us whether we can move it back a week you know I hadn't I thought that you know that get them back getting the kids back into class as soon as possible would help with the co slide but I'm hearing from my colleagues that really is a week going to make the difference if we have summer school programs in place for those children that are behind and we can get them into those programs really then it doesn't matter whether we start the 10th or the or the following week because the kids that need it we can put in class um in classes during the summer which

245I hope we're going to be able to do and I know that the administration's working on that so um with that said Mrs Whitfield that's my discussion on on on this item Mrs Whitfield since we're asking for crazy things I want to ask for a crazy thing um I want to know is it possible to quantify how much learning takes place or what kind of slide we that occurs when we take a week off and we decide not to come in for that week because to me the FSA happens at the same time no matter where you are in the state so our kids are taking at the same time as somebody who shows up on the 10th the same time as somebody who shows up on the 23rd so how do we quantify the

246amount of learning that takes place in a week and we have to as a board decide that we're willing to sacrifice that amount of learning for our students whatever it is and I think what we're also asking our teachers to do is lift a bigger Mountain we're saying to them you have less time to accomplish the same things as your colleagues throughout the state are doing so we have to quantify that we have to say as a board we're willing to accept that amount of loss from our students whatever a week is so if everybody's okay with that I I'm fine with with it but to me I don't want to postpone this vote I want to do it tonight I want to move on from it because we have other things to do but

247if that's what we're going to go that's what I'd like to understand I'd like someone to explain to me how that how that is quantifiable in in the amount of learning that takes place in a week because if a week's not worth it then I mean it just I find it very frustrating thank you we need to finish up this discussion because we're already past the 7 am so let me let me take a vote on the motion to postpone all those in favor of the motion to postpone until February 3rd I'm in favor of that opposed so the motion passes four to three for postponement until February 3rd Mr superintendent can you try and get get everybody to give us all the answers that we raised tonight to by February well before we do

248that there's a couple of things all of you said something different so what what do you want us to do like what days do you want do you want to take Thanksgiving or not Christmas like there have you have to give us some direction because if not going to bring back basically the same thing and then you're going to get mad at us I I don't think that's necessarily the we want to know from Mr Burke whether he can make it work so that the pay Gap goes away figure out a way to do that we need to know whether or not there's a huge learning you know difference between starting on the 10th or starting on the 17th uh nobody's talked about changing at least I don't remember changing I think we all agree

249that families this is the first time ever that families are going to be able to get together in the last 18 months so holiday the holidays are important Thanksgiving so the families can finally go visit Grandma and Grandpa wherever they live and people by then hopefully the old folks will have vaccines so they can have their families come and visit and certainly the holidays at the during the Christmas break in December I don't know how we can shorten that anymore we we only have off the 23rd and 24th School the semester ends on the 22nd you can't take away the 23rd and 24th because people that are flying away for the holidays need to get on airplanes and get there so I don't think we're looking at that I think basically we want to know

250can you fix the problem with the the pay Gap and uh and and but what I'm hearing you say is that you want us to see about adjusting the pay Gap but not eliminate any of the holidays during the school year you're going to push the Year back you're going to start later but don't touch any of the holidays is that is that what is that what the board collectively is telling us to do Dr Robinson if I can try um what I think I heard was that there's there's some sense I think overall that we we want to really look at the pros and cons the possibilities if we postpone the start of the school year I didn't hear anybody say anything about changing anything inside it I heard a couple people say they

251want to keep the full Thanksgiving I didn't hear anybody say anything about shortening or um the winter holiday I dreamed of making it longer but okay I can sacrifice that so I think that what we asked for was more information we understand okay I understand the calendar committee worked hard and considered a lot of different things but be before I vote to support this calendar that I know has some downsides I want to know the the downsides of postponing it in in in totality including the high stakes testing well some of the questions I'll let Vicky speak to now in terms of the some of the consequences we already identified we we we have to break down and go to the non-agenda speakers and then Mr superintendent if you you can have staff address us

252afterwards we have we'll wait we'll wait until you're done okay so we're going to stop at this point and take the non-agenda speakers uh we have three that are present if they're still here Kathy Wilson Julie little Rubin and Richard Georgio would you please come up to alternate podiums wherever you're at um in whatever order you get there just watch the clock you have three minutes please go ma'am Mr chairman board members Dr fenoy my name is Julie litkey Rubin I am the chairperson and the co-founder of the we are DWI Foundation we are here tonight because we want this District to invest in the media center at William T dwire high school we in 1987 when your predecessors named dwire high school after a man instead of after a tree or a city they

253did so because Mr DWI embodied certain ideals that the district really believed in they were public education and Racial equality Mr DWI himself was the founder of the Education Foundation and he was also the one of the co-founders of the Urban League of Palm Beach County Mr DWI believed in public education and he believed it was the Great American equalizer we at dwire high school believe the same thing one of the greatest aspects of our school is its diversity which is appr propo and aedit to Mr DWI himself when we are looking though at the the weaknesses at our school hidden in that data that supports all of us is a very unsettling reality that there is racial inequality at dwire high school that if you were to compare the white students and the black

254students who are on free and reduced lunch the grade of William T dwire High School for the white students in that cohort would be an A but in the black students it would be a d this is clearly unacceptable and this is something that this district has to start stemming the tide of so what can you do you can start to show students at our school and in North County that you believe in them that you believe in their dreams that you believe in giving them the tools to make their dreams a reality that you believe their school is a place where they will be nurtured and their interests will be developed and they will explore and all of these things are such an important component of any high school and any high school media

255center in this day and age is clearly a hub of this kind of activity all you have to do is go visit sunos Palm Beach Gardens or the the program at Glade Central those media centers have transformed those schools especially the students who are minority students and don't have access to the resources that many of the other students have there we are asking this board that we must take a stand that you must invest in Racial equality in students of North County this morning I was watching our new president give his inaugural address and one thing he said is that that the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer I would ask this board to stop deferring the dreams of the students of dwire high school and to please invest in that

256School in North County and in the essence of racial equality thank you thank you Kathy Wilson or Richard Georgio goad Mr Georgio hi Richard Georgio um I'm saddened that I'm find myself here once again addressing this board with regard to miss Alexandria aala as all of you have read in the newspaper in multiple stories and seen on the Evening News Miss aala no longer lives in the residence area she was elected to represent in violation of Florida statute the students the parents the teachers and the voters of District 2 deserve to be represented by a board member who lives in their District Miss yala has now hired an attorney to help weasle her way out of this predicament I think it's time we put an end to this shade as a taxpayer I'm also concerned

257that the district is opening itself up to potential liability by allowing miss a yala to vote on board matters when she's not eligible to be serving as a board member the district has been aware of this issue for several months months now and yet she continues to vote that furthers your liability for failing to take any action to correct this situation anyone who might be unhappy with the way a vote turns out especially a close vote like three to four would then have a reason to challenge it legally I am once again going to ask Miss aala if you have any inte to please do the right thing and resign your position here tonight if Miss aala doesn't do that then I would ask the district to take action it's not appropriate to Simply continue

258to turn your head look the other way pretend like nothing's happening and allow the residents of District 2 to continue to be disenfranchised so I asked this board or the district to take action ask the governor's office to intervene to conduct an investigation and let's get some answers thank you Miss Wilson are you here Kathy Wilson all right for the IT department please start the uh recorded messages yes Carl Mohamed non-agenda speaker for palmes County School District on January 20th um um teach and blessing school board members superintendent administrators and teachers you know as we are looking at education in the pandemic and how things are are moving about as it relates to the education experience of all of the children uh We've discovered that we well not discovered we've always known that we've done

259a solid group inside of the educational process here in pales county and we're kind of focusing on ourselves uh we want to uh from our community we want to thank M uh M Erica Whitfield and Mr B Frank barer um for their efforts and looking at um the silent groups that exist within the culture of the school district and we have hopes that the rest of you will um take a look at um the standardized uh uh test that we developed as a result of a communication with M Whitfield and see what you can do possibly to assist us as we prepare ourselves for uh Black History Month uh this year 2021 and with the pandemic we're going to try to do some new creative things in the community and we're going to focus on

260Florida statue 13428 uh for that month and we want to ensure that everyone understand that that um flaw of law exists and how important it is to the educational process of our children so we're going to be asking those of you who are in leadership at the school district if you would assist us in this journey as we continue to try to uh help you to help us inside of our community um thank you for your time and once again brother Carl mahamed from the um P County uh area thank you good afternoon Dr feno and school board members I am Lori Landy co-president of the K school counselor Association I calling to thank you for recognizing a national school counselor's week February 1st through 5th our elementary middle and high school counselors continue to

261service students in tiers one two and three by providing whole group comprehensive school counselor lessons individual and small group counseling academic advice and crisis management we know that targeting our interventions for students who need Social and emotional support is working unfortunately our time analysis data shows that a significant varage to supporting students is too much of our time is spent in duties otherwise assigned we want your help as we plan for the future to focus on safeguarding our time to deliver direct services to our students we want future school counselors to want to join the Palm be school district and retain our professional school counselors we won't be able to do this if we don't follow the state and National guidelines providing school counselors with a Balan job with appropriate duties I became a school

262counselor because I wanted to help students maximize their potential and support them in their emotional social and academic success I love being proactive providing all students the critical needs skills that they need as well as facilitating tier two and three services to students during the pandemic my students were supported with online coping skills in Munch group I supported teachers by reaching out to students and families who were not participating consistently a highlight for both my students and myself were visits that to their students homes where we socially distance and provided check-ins favorite book drop offs and provided printed Choice applications these were some of my best days my specialty is Rea Mo my tier group this year consisted of students who lost a brother Uncle mother father grandparent and a neighbor these students count on

263me to give them a safe place to share their memories breathe in a place that is safe and carefully bring them back to rejoin their classmates I have to tell you it makes me so sad that to have attended the prepare training sessions one and two and have completed my brief and loss course and not be permitted because I'm a school counselor versus a psychologist to be part of the rotating crisis team this is not just my experience this is the experience of all school counselors how can we keep our skills sharp if you do not allow us to participate in supporting the district when a crisis arises out of our building teachers are permitted to attend all kinds of trainings all the time school counselors have interested need to be experiencing these situations as

264awful as they are to assist and improve their skills as for time away from the building it seems on a rotation of basis it could be provided finally I want to remind the school board that our state and National guidelines have changed our title to school counselor research has shown that the title of guidance Council refers to older more limited responsibilities the school counselor today provides a broader spectrum of services we ask that the board help staff understand that not using the title of school counselor can create barriers to facilitating the Direct Services and can bring up old image and stigma of the past guidance counselors please help us have all literature and schedules moving forward reflect our current title again we appreciate all the support that Dr feno and the board members have provided

265us we look forward to celebrating all of our colleagues and administrators during national school counselors thank you again for all of your support good evening Dr fenoy and school board members my name is Chris Connor I'm a school counselor and the co-president of P Beach school counselor Association and I am a non-agenda speaker I want to First say thank you for highlighting National School counseling week coming up the first week in February through your bulletin it means so much to know the District values The Professional School counseling program and school counselors in addition school counselors are more than appreciative of the change in their title finally being changed to school counselor rather than guidance counselor which was more of a reactive role and solely would focus on few students compared to all students this leads

266me to the theme for the National School counseling week all in for all students personally I all in for all students because I want to learn more to help students to involve parents and also build those relationships with teachers why because the comprehensive school counselor program is evidence-based it's a program that involves all stakeholders students teachers parents admins with their input help and support just like any physician in the district it cannot be done alone or in isolation for example when I did small group sessions of students in the fall we focused on their areas of need not mine those goals were goal setting career choices coaching skills and organization and study skills it's the facts and data after the small group sessions that Prov the need for more focused groups these students that I

267met and taught they increase their knowledge about all of those topics I just mentioned by 25% and only in two sessions unfortunately school counselors in the district who have been thoroughly trained in mental health such as coping skills empathy skills grief skills and closing the Gap are not being utilized as they should be we know this because the data that was collected in December from all school counselors at all levels showed we are doing more non-counseling duties rather than counseling duties data showed that we are back to being a guidance counselor which is more of a reactive role and not a professional school counselor which is more proactive I'd like to sincerely thank you all one more time for allowing me to voice my concerns but also for your support as we celebrate and honor

268National School counseling week and our colleagues and what it means all in for all students thank you hello my name is Jay overball I am in my fth fifth year as an employee with Palm Beach County and I am a professional school counselor at William T dwire High School in Palm Beach Gardens home of the Panthers where our motto is leading with love I am a member of CTA and the Palm Beach County School counsel Association I'm also a part of the advocacy advocacy committee the reason for my call today is the exact reason I am on that advocacy committee other school counselors throughout the years and today have expressed my exact viewpoints on this matter matter of not only seeking the true definition and role of the professional school counselor in Palm Beach County

269being recognized and acknowledged but I also seek to have our role protected once it is defined my main personal and professional goal is not to seek this protection for myself or other counselors per se rather the support for existing and underutilized professionals on every school campus who are already there on site to help our children for years years now we have been essentially a wasted resource already on campus for our children I implore you and our parents in the district to research other states who have had countless successes with their students their children academically social emotionally and where the overall well-being of all children has surpassed the data of our great state of Florida due to the dedication competence and diligence of their professional school counselors I can name two states where you can start

270your research Missouri and Kansas for decades now they have acknowledged recognized protected and always promote the role of their professional school counselors the payoff has always been the success and happiness of their students I would love for our students to reap those same benefits as we lead them and help them with love thank you good evening I'm speaking in behalf of a non-agenda topic my name is Lance gondik a middle school counsel for 24 years in Palm Beach County now more than ever the school coun has work diligently to meet the needs of all of our students as a Marine Corps veteran I chose this profession as an Avenue of helping guide and assist children and teenagers in reaching their full potential as time has evolved school counselors have become expected to meet more and

271more needs not only for our students but for our staff families as well when a child doesn't complete his or her homework the school counselor have to figure it out why when a child is hungry the school counselor has to find them food when a child is being bothered by another student the school counselor has to access a situation intervene with all parties when a child suffers from test anxiety the school counselor is expected to make it better when a child's father passes away the school counselor works with thegreek school counselors are expected to educate students on social etiquette how to make friends sex trafficking drug abuse study skills personal hygiene and coping strategies School counsel are responsible for the academic monitoring of all students on their case load which in Middle Schools exceeds 500

272students per counselor school counselor are responsible for doing everything in their power to ensure each student is meeting people progression goals and requirements we are responsible for being the liaison for school to home communication and educating our community and families we provide all academic advising to all students making sure that all students are placed appropriately for their future educational Endeavors school counselors must do all all that while it's sometimes being responsible for administrative tths such as lunch duy for 90 minutes per day supervising a bus duy Carline Duty Hall Duty running daily parent teacher conferences coordinating District tasks such as school-based team standardized testing volunteer program School acceleration developing the master schedule additionally counselors are mandatory members of the crisis team the threat assessment team and are the school-based First Responders that support the School

273nurses School coun must do all the secondary to meeting with students on a daily basis to address any variety of student Needs school counselors do all this without receiving daily interrupted lunch without planning period without additional compensation this is considered expectation of a school counselor and now since Co has disrupted the world school counselors are also expected to address the needs of 70% of students who don't come to school this is the same concept as a dentist being expected to provide Dental treatments such as cleaning and filling a cavity when the patient won't even come to the office yet we have to manage to the to the point where we coordinate home visit and collaborate with Sheriff's offices on our virtual students and all of this is done for all of our students School counes

274must be supported the job itself requires a minimum of a master's degree and the daily expectations far exceed the scope of a work day without School C is the infrastructure of public schools especially in these new times while I wish I was able to share this information person my job as a school counselor does not permit it I had been assigned to do the after school program in regards to the Middle School graded Cy hello hello this is rosn Young I'm the school counselor at Palm Beach Gardens Elementary I wanted to say hello and thank you for um supporting us and appreciating our job more than ever um during these times this is very important for us to connect with our students and to make sure that they're supported and head them to in the

275right direction so thank you so much and um yay for school counselor thank you board members that was the last U speaker that we have so we're back to the discussion on the motion to postpone I remember somebody's hand was up M mcquinn then Mrs Whitfield I believe we voted on postponing until next week yes and then superintendent had some questions on that's right superintend had some questions on what exactly we wanted him to bring back to us well that go ahead let me just restate that so and I have Vicki speak to the the analysis they've done about pushing the time back for you but for me to give direction to the staff I want to be clear so the board doesn't want us to touch any holidays to include Thanksgiving Christmas or Jewish

276holidays um the board wants us to to go against staff and pushing and looking and exploring pushing exams back after the holidays and then we want from Mike whether or not a pay Gap can be avoided yes or no are those the three areas M mcin so what oh I I'm so tired of people starting sentences was so I can't believe I just did it okay what I was going to suggest when I was so rudely interrupted Dr fenoy is that he's right as a board we need to come to consensus in some way about what our Direct ction is to the superintendent for direction to the calendar committee we every year I've been here we continue to go through this and I also would like to suggest that perhaps remember that we look at

277just next year because this has been an extraordinary year um if I have to bring that as an amendment next time I will but how can he go to staff if we don't tell him if we don't agree thank you Vice chairwoman Brill thank you so I'm very clear that we need to start I agree with Dr Robinson I'd like to see what it looks like if it was two weeks later but I think one week five days is realistic um you know I know we have to have consensus I I have heard from a lot of constituents that are concerned um that are willing to give up certain days of the holidays I apologize to those that want a full week for Thanksgiving some don't but one of the concerns from my communities and

278I don't have the original proposed calendars that we moved spring break up a week and they're wondering why we did that so I don't know if we if it's too late to get a qu that question answered I have um but I think that the first step is to find out if we can Mr Burke work his magic for us to start five days later and then if he's able to we send it back to the calendar committee and have them work and then we'll just have to have consens I'm willing to tweak the holidays I mean I think that it's far more important to the people that have spoken to me that they start that week later for the students mental health and I know that Miss Woodfield has asked you know if we

279can quantitate give a quanti quantifiable amount of learning that's lost if they don't go back that week well how do we quantify their mental health you know because they really that that to me is just as important and if they go back stressed and if their mental health isn't good they're not going to learn so I think the main question is you know can we start a week later without really having a huge pay Gap what can you do to make sure that we don't have that Dr Robinson then Mrs Wickfield so maybe there's something about this that I don't understand but I think we ask for additional information which I think staff can provide I'm at least in my mind I was not suggesting that the calendar committee be reconvened in my mind when

280we get the information we come back we either vote the C the recommendation up given the additional information or we amend it so I'm I'm just asking for information this isfield one item that I think I would really love to know uh for next week is to to hear from our CTA and from our principal Association on the issue of um having testing before winner break because that has been a Crux of this for a long time um and for me I was you know respecting their opinion um on on that um I know Mrs mcquinn expressed um you know that she could go either way on it as a former teacher and principal um but I would love to hear from them so if if we are coming back with more information I would

281love to have those two groups specifically represented and then as far as the mental health issue um I do want to address that you know our counselors were just on um public comment time and I think you know having students in school with our mental health Representatives counselors Behavioral Health people is a wonderful is a wonderful way for us to be able to deal with some of the issues of the pandemic and one of the challenges we've had during this year has really been students not in school and not accessing those services to the level that they normally do so um you know maybe we should have a conversation with them as well about you know the mental health impacts um of you know being in school versus not thank you Mrs Andrews and thank

282you and just to reiterate that I certainly Want U Mr Burke to bring back what he can do for us as he did last year but you know I've been around for a while and I remembered us uh having semester exams after the holidays I remember when we didn't have the full week of Thanksgiving so I remembered all of those but right now we're trying to figure out what we can do we're in a pandemic and we're having our employees tell us that we need to be considerate of them and I know I heard the counselors but guess what they're being overworked through this process is here trying to help all of these children that are home as well as in the building so everybody's going through something and this is why they're reaching out

283to say we need more time we need a break we don't know what we're going to be feeling or looking like as we move forward in August so I'm just open I'm open if we have to tweak something here or there we're only talking about a week and if we can save uh the situation from our lowest paying employees suffering if Mr Burke can handle that then we can maybe tweak here or there but right now we have a lot of our employees saying look at this again help us because we're in need and so I'm willing to uh come back and look at it again but I want some other options Mrs Evans pre is ready to answer some questions for us I know Dr Robinson you wanted to speak so I well personally

284I would just like to enumerate the issues um and then have staff send us the written answers so we can cuz because we're weighing things right there's not like there's not a yes or a no there's we have to weigh all these various factors as I know the the calendar committee already did so I'm not personally I don't mind if she speaks but I'm personally not interested in that right now but I what I would add um to follow up on Miss Whitfield is in addition to people's opinion I would like to see if there's any research about the semester exams being after a two a two we break right um and and maybe find out from other members of the council great City Schools what their experience is I would like to see if

285there's any um any any way we can make it more objective than just people's wants and observations Mr superintendent would it be possible for the administration to bring back to the board four or five different calendars with the here's here's the here's a calendar here's the advantages and the disadvantages to this calendar with each one of those because we have some people don't want us to I mean I'm concerned about cutting the spring semester so short that the kids don't have the teachers don't have enough time to teach the kids for the test but I'm also interested in seeing if we can move the exams after the first first of the year so if you could bring us back some Alternatives based on all you heard tonight on different calendars that kind of it's hard

286to get a consensus on the board of exactly what we want but if you can bring us some calendars back that you know this calendar does what M Dr Robinson wanted to say this calendar would do what M and then with the in us these are the advantages and here's the disadvantages uh again Mike would have to chime in on that and tell us you know which one of those would cause U well if we can just go with the premise that we want to start a week later s bring us some calendars with a week later to see um what the board wanted to do with that if we know what the advantages and disadvantages are to each one of those calendars or now when you say bring back multiple CH calendars but do

287you want those options to take away Thanksgiving take away like I need to know like like what are the par parameters if you want five different models at some point something's going to have to like you if you want everything to stay the same but just push the exams back then why does that take five different models I I think what the board wants to see is a week later so I mean I don't know how you do that you bring us a calendar that shows us a week later with all different Alternatives showing a week later whether you move the exams after whatever you have to do it looks like majority of the board at this point would like to see a calendar that starts a week later so whatever you know you have

288to bring to some of that mror M PR we we brought a calendar to the calendar committee one of the mod we bring models to them so they don't they don't operate in Silo we bring models to them we brought a model to them that started on August 16th with school start date it was it was rejected by both the principles and the CTA because it moves the exams into January you can't just move the exams back a week you have to move them back two weeks because you have to have that week review when they come back they can't just come in exams so so the exams would start on August 14th second semester with the Martin Luther King holiday and then the PD day the second semester would begin on January 19th so

289we modeled that but it was rejected by the teachers union and the principls by having those exams later you can move this calendar that we have back four days but I have to pick up the four days the only four days that are available are there their two fall holidays which we know we're not going to touch then we have we can remove two days or three days at the Thanksgiving break move Thanksgiving to the kids get Thanksgiving and Friday off or we can take the 23rd and 24th off of December so you you either have to move the exams into January which the teachers and the principes do not want or you have to shorten Christmas break to being six days instead of what we usually get of 10 with three weekends because there

290you have to pick those days up in order to maintain the 0 90 split to have the number of instructional minutes so we're kind of limited in where we can take it up Thanksgiving alone does not fix it you have to take away some of the winter break as well so let me ask you a question if I may we did it this year what was I guess we need to see the results of what happened with the exams after the after the break and and and my only concern with moving it after the break is having enough time during the second semester so I'd like to know why the principles and the teachers don't want the exams I've heard that they're worried about their you know the kids are not going to do as

291well um because and that'll affect their pay raises whether they're effective so I guess we need to know was there a difference this year with the children taking the exams what they take them two hav had them yet the exams haven't occurred yet we're three weeks behind so we're g the exams will be I believe next week the other issue you have to look at is Elementary trimesters because and that's the other thing that Broward and D don't have those are two days during the year that we have off for students for those teacher planning days because of the trimesters for elementary if you look at when that would end the trimester would first hold on the second trimester would end very close to the FSA Test's beginning so that's the other issue that doesn't

292help by moving it back is that the students are going to their last day for second trimester is going to be February 25th if we move it back to the 16th Mr Oswell could speak to whenn the pom performance assessment start for third grade but they start very close to that and that was the concern of the elementary principles was that we're hindering we're going to try and cram two-thirds of the curriculum for elementary or a full year of curriculum into 23ds of a year in order for them to be able to test so that's the other piece and I know you don't like the FSA I don't know any kids who like it or teachers like it but the teachers pay is attached to it the school grades are attached to it there's a

293it's very high States we need to wrap this up with something here miss bril thank you well I was just going to reiterate what Dr Robinson said I'd like to see what the Council of great City Schools does but to the superintendent with all due respect this is your advisory committee so you can bring us back other models um you know I'm willing at at some point to vote if we have to on certain holidays but other districts do it and as far as seeing whether the students had any losses this year when they did take their exams it's really not a fair year to look at because this is not been a typical school year so I don't think any data we get from those exams is really going to be true data um

294but I think just you know as Mr Barbary said the main thing we're looking at right now is that week and if we have to to vote on taking a couple days here and a couple days there from holidays then then so be it is that is the will of the board to us to bring back calendars that take away the holidays and which holidays you want us to take back no I I need for you to tell me the direction to say if we want Thanksgiving gone then then I will write that down if that's what the board wants if you want chis Christmas days to come off because what because what when we went through this last year and I watched it we brought back the same recommendation so remember I am telling

295you I support this recommendation so this is this you want the change this not me okay so that's why I just need you to tell me what do you want us to take off the calendar to meet your needs what is what is the minimum number of days we have to have during the first semester are do we have more than we need right now no we do not the calendar L we have less than what we need we should have 9090 this is an 87 and 93 three Robinson thank you I somehow in my mind we're making this way more difficult than it needs to be I think that maybe if we can just get our questions answered and and maybe the the the draft calendar that was presented to the committee that starts

296on August 17th show us that right with the pros and cons you know there um the everybody's opinion whatever the research that we've asked and I get it's your recommendation you could put your recommendation back on the agenda we G to have that conversation again but we will have it with more information Dr fenoy no no no and I I totally agree but I I what I'm really trying to get to the point of I you often criticize me for listening to one person I want to know what you as a collective body want me to do that's that's all I'm asking I don't think we can come to an agreement of what we want as a collective body Mrs mcquinn thank you I've had my hand up for some time sometimes we there hey

297Mr board chair you wanted to be a board chair this is part of it this is a tough part remember please that we three of us I realized what we as a board did but three of us did not want it brought back so for me all I'm asking I since we're talking about it all right now is could we at least since clearly we're bringing it back to next week could that just be for the 2122 school year could you bring them back to us as two different agenda items when you bring them back so that we can no I can agree to that yes I will do that so okay for for the purposes so we're now going we're going to present to you the calendars that have already been established meaning the

298different variations that the committee worked on and for clarity for the team could you tell me the exact questions that you want given to you in written response this week if I can get those questions then we'll we'll go from there Mrs Whitfield can you also bring back this calendar too this one that we currently have I think we need to be able to see that one in comparon that I'm that that's still my recommendation so you'll have that as well okay thank you Mrs Andrew and I'm uh definitely looking for one week pushing back one week okay then I'm open to working with a few days here and there Dr Robinson well so I yeah we could get this out of the transcript but I'll see if I can summarize um is there any

299flexibility with APA IB and FSA in terms of the scheduling right um if there's no flexibility is there any consideration of um what's the word like loss of the high stakes accountability uh portion of of the FSA okay and then we I think we consistently talked about the pay what would be the impact on different groups if it got moved back um and then we talked about the data related to the semester exams if they were given post winter holiday and we talked about how um our Educators feel about that right um and that's that's what I have in my summary notes so I don't know if there was something else so I have um information on what it would take to push the calendar back one week um the reality is around testing for

300our high States testing and if there are any consequences to that and post I can't read my own half oh post- winter holiday T um exam schedule and and resch search associated with whether or not so for the council grade schools you just want or or whatever source so we have some districts that do it before some districts after you want to know if there's any reliability to whether it happens before or after if there's any educational benefit to one or the other right I get it I I get it sounds good like I said I remember when we made the change right um so I get it sounds good I also remember studying a lot over my Thanksgiving break when I was in college to get ready for my finals I mean I that's

301my recollection right but um so yes so just something objective and I think that what what I'm saying is those those are the parameters and we want to know if we push it back a week what is it I'm G say two weeks to I I get that I'm walking into pie in the Skyland but two weeks too um as opposed to the calendar is represented okay so miss Pere if you could be responsible for taking care of the one we push information all the count of information be provided to the board uh and the academic team uh Mr Oswell if you can decide the testing and then working in Mr T if you could work with the associations uh to bring um did I hear that you want them to come to a to

302a meeting to discuss this they can just send a message somehow through staff say that they spoke to gather some information about pushing the exam schedule back and research on whether or not it has any academic impact whether we do it before the holidays or after Mrs Andrew you know I continue to ask about Miami dat and I know they haven't done theirs for but they have a record of the past few years where they have started at a later start date there should be a way for us to get that information so that we can see what they're doing and they've been doing it consistently without having maybe this kind of uh back and forth so if we could see how that works I think that would be fine if somebody could tell us

303how that work I did ask the question when I met with Dr laava and Miss Evans and they didn't have that so I would like to know what that looks like one thing we know for sure is the Miami day does not allow the the same length of Thanksgiving holiday that we do so there's three days right there that they pick up miss m and for this coming year we can't revise our pupil progression plan in time to not have semester courses so with Miami dat having they don't have semester exams because they don't have semesters so I don't see how we could possibly revise our people progression plan and have it approved for next year Dr F do you know what the Broward calendar they start they have the Thanksgiving break excuse me m

304m pre may know more about that I can tell you right now with um my chicken scratch here so Miami date is starting on August 23rd they have a um two-day week at Thanksgiving the students have off Thursday and Friday they have two full weeks of Christmas um their end of semester is um January 20th there are no trimesters for elementary so that picks up extra days and their last day is June 8 for Broward they have um the full week at Christmas because they piggybacked off of us because it was a huge recruitment tool for us and we were stealing their teachers so they implemented the two week the week at at Thanksgiving they have uh two weeks at Christmas the end of the first semester is January 10th they don't have I they

305didn't look like they had trimesters they had all quarters from what I could see but they have early release dates as well like we used to have the the late start early dismissal that's how you can pick up time as well and if you're interested Martin county has a they're starting on August 10th but they have a two-day Thanksgiving break they have no teacher planning days so that's how they pick up extra days to start stop at the same time as we do they also have early release dates in all quarters so every District does it a little bit differently so it does require a change in people progression if you want to start picking up extra days like with the trimesters you got to move those back to quarters so everybody's on the same

306marking periods um early release late turn late starts we had them for a while but the the attend the the absenteeism was really high so we got rid of those that's how they pick up those extra instructional minutes they don't do the teacher planning days like we've given our teachers so those are all things that we could um maneuver around but there are costs to all of that um I don't see our teachers accepting the taking the way the their planning um the I don't see the academic team going back to the late start early dismissals or the the um getting rid of the trimester so it's a balancing act there's all these things that you have to balance against each other and different districts do it differently if you go to other districts as

307you get further north they don't give fall holidays or they give just one they either give Roshes Shan or yankapur they don't give both so there are days that other districts can pick up that we've made the decision to honor those commitments that we have to our teachers and to our population so we can come back with any means of calendar you want but it's at a cost um like I said moving the days that to keep the exams before winter break winter break then becomes instead of what the teachers are used to with two full weeks and three weekends becomes two weekends and it's six days one week plus the day on the next week um so it significantly shortens winter break we've already shortened it already if that's the will of the board

308we can certainly provide that proposal one thing I would add out to communic with both superintendents and d and Broward they also keep their calendars aligned because they have a large plethora of employees that work in both counties so that's something that they do combin a lot of teachers in both communities work in both districts Mr Alvarez I just have a simple question I've had throughout these throughout this year and the past year have had a lot of students ask me about half days and why we took that away and I've never really known the answer to that but I will say that or the half days or the early dismissal days a lot of students like those days because it was a little it was a little break in their week where they could

309look forward to that day and they didn't have to go the full day so my question is why were those taken away was it because of those absences that we mentioned and then if we were to if it were to be a more simple solution to do the start date of August 10th but then bring those days back which would allow for those breaks and in between how however many days we were to give in the past for early start dates I just I don't I don't I don't I I never knew the answer as to why we took away those early early um or late start days I'm sorry Mr superintendant would you have somebody on staff to respond when you get a chance to just follow with Mr oswal as soon as meeting

310over to tell you the answer Mr mcquin I believe that that was a tradeoff so that we could have the full week at Thanksgiving so that took away the half days and please let me just throw in a little history of those half days um many many years ago 23 to be exact at pich Gardens High our school advisory Council wanted to have time to work with our parents to plan how we were going to do things differently so we asked to spend our school advisory money for the buses to take our kids home early now this is high school Child Care wasn't an issue and because we did so well then the district said well and other school said well why can't we do it and then all of a sudden everybody did it

311and we know one size doesn't fit all superintendent do you think you have enough yes sir I think team we have everything all the questions cap and then we're good to go we'll bring it back all right thank you I know it's a difficult situation to try and please seven of us that are on different pages but you've done it before so possibly you can do it again um me see what else we have here we need to stop this discussion because that gentleman has three hours of homework and he's got a discussion item on here he wants to wait for so we gotta go ahead Dr Robinson yeah that's fine I've had a headache for an hour and a half about this but so I just wanted to make the point um about the

312the Miami date and the Broward and they have they don't have semesters y y y and yes that's not something that we could do now I don't even know if that's something I think we should do but I do think that what this points out to me is that we have to look at the calendar in a more holistic way and so I suspect that that at least one board member is going to want to postpone the [Music] 2223 calendar and maybe that give us time to actually study those things to see if we would want to change the student progression plan if we Center the students and their well-being and achievement then how do we need to change and so I think we have time to do that for the 2223 Miss AA thank

313you Mr chairman um I just want to for the benefit of the superintendent who requested a Vibe on the collective decision obviously the motion and the vote was made um I do not agree that we should have to kick this down the road there was there's a governance process the superintendent comes forward with recommendations there's a committee he selects to do that which is in his right we receive it and there's I think ample time upon watching the discussions the deliberations every single group that's at that table has made their voice heard on what they believe is the best thing for their group for their team for their different schools and there is a lot of people in that room making those decisions when this comes to us so going over this exercise every single

314year we're going to review the calendars isn't exactly productive um I think that there the the the number one focus should remain the educational benefit that drives our decision on what a calendar looks like and then we should look at how we take care of our employees and our staff so with that Mr chairman I'd like to ask the superintendent if there is a way to in the future when we're analyzing this process we can put a workshop in between committee uh deliberations on calendar recommendations as they're being finalized and this meeting where everything mounts up into a tension point and we're all having different ideas when we had I think ample time to do that beforehand and I just want to move forward with this because people need to start planning now if they're

315not going to have those additional days they're asking for would that be possible let me um let me take the idea back to staff but at face value I don't see an issue with that but let me talk to the team and see if there's any logistical issues about that but sounds like a good idea to me if the board is willing thank you yeah I think we should we should have an opportunity to discuss all this before we get to theight we have to vote and and this is an issue every single year every year we Face the same issue from the community of starting the second week in August and if my Amy Dade can do it and we can figure out a way that makes it work for us if brard can

316do it and we can figure out a way to make that work for us then we should do this because we talk about this every year and we get into these discussions every single year on the start date we usually have a room full of people I guess because of the pandemic they're not here tonight but we certainly heard from a lot of them so we should probably have a workshop before the calendar is brought to us so that we can ask all of our questions and get answers and before we have to make a vote instead of trying to do this at a a board meeting Mr you could arrange that for the next time the next item on the agenda is I'm sorry to do if I may interrupt I wanted to ask

317legal if if what you're asking for is a workshop before the February 3rd no okay so you mean for next year okay okay LR2 sure I recommend the board approve the revised calendars for no that's the alert one we don't want to do that one again for God's sake superintendent you recommendations is I recommend the board approve the attached tenative agreements pending ratification by the Service employee International Union Florida public services Union regular supervisor ECP per professional 2 to be effective January 1st you agree that's your recommendation oh yes uh yes Mr bar thank you for reading that for me yes sir okay motion by Dr Robinson second by Mrs Andrews discussion all in favor poos motion carry 7 zero P2 Mr superintendent P2 Mr chairman I recommend the board approve the personal addendum as

318submitted motion by Mr Dr Robinson second M Vice chairwoman BR any discussion all in favor oppos motion carries Z P3 P3 Mr chairman I recommend the board approve the salary increases and Revis salary schedules for school-based administrators that submitted motion by Mrs Woodfield second by Dr Robinson any discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 70 P4 P4 Mr chairman I recommend the board approve the base salary increases and revised salary schedules for non-bargaining unit mbu employees as submitted Commendation by Dr Robinson seconded by miss aala any discussion all in favor oppos motion carries 70 P A1 P A1 I recommend the board approve adoption of proposed revised policy 8.01 promotion placement graduation student progression plans motion by Dr Robinson seconded by Mrs Whitfield any discussion Miss Allen thank you Mr chairman um I Mr chairman

319I'd like to ask the superintendent a question on this uh by implementing the student progression language what will the options be for our high schoolers who work while they are students in our district or who have extenuating circumstances in their day-to-day lives yes ma'am I have Mr Oswell come forward and answer that question well I I'm going to defer to Dr Sheffield um good afternoon well good evening board um in regards to um of course the 2021 um pup progression um plan that we have here as it pertains to your question in regards to our high school school students that may need to work while they are in still in school there are many um opportunities there and the opportunities that we have and as we talk about and you look in the plane where

320it says that our seniors should be taking at least six courses or Junior taking a full seven courses it's important to understand that those seven courses is not necessarily all there on that campus Because as a as a junior or a student period where they may be taking seven classes two of those classes could be on the campus three could be through Florida virtual or Palm Beach virtual where they are allowed to leave during those periods to take the courses or what have you and also our students that are dueled androll students that are working also have the opportunity to participate in what is called OJT the on the job training that's very beneficial to the student if they are working and they're enrolling in OJT because not alone not only are they working but

321they are also um um receiving um high school credits for that and the teachers are also working alongside where the students where they could provide that mentoring and coaching working also with the employee and just continuing to support that student so those are the kinds of opportunities that are indeed available for our students and not just OJT but we also have the DCT which is more on the Career technical side but it's another opportunity for those students that are indeed working while in high school and again with the old JT um OJT DCT um those students will leave campus during the instructional day um to of course go to work or what have you so they are indeed opportunities thank you Mr chairman can I do a followup sure Mr superintendent I'd like to uh

322ask again the what's the flexibility that our counselors who make the schedules for our students um when it comes to a accomodating circumstances of the difficulties that our students have so um you know the the student that drives their siblings to and from school or who um may have a child of their own while they're a student in one of our high schools that's the students I'm I was particularly concerned about taking the any flexibility away but if that's still there then that's great absolutely that is still there because what we realize is that with the pupil progression what it does is set the guidelines and the guidelines aligned to statute and to give guidance and we understand it's not a one-sized fit all but it's giving our school counselors and our principles our leaders

323those that are working with our students a guide um to help plan excuse me plan that road map for them during that instructional year um for their success so if that student is needing to have say as you indicated say a first period um or end of the day so particularly you know it would be more about Juniors and seniors or what have you um then that you know that free period or the extra you know that free period of that Florida virtual period or whatever period that is um it could be at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day um so there is flexibil flexibility there are also um extenda circumstances and we do work with our students and the families um you know one of our and as

324I was sitting hearing the board at the initial discussion with the board Workshop you know we talked about you know our strategic plans and our goals our desired outcomes and so forth and one of it is around the postgraduate success so the pupil progression I mean it's allowed um it's aligned I should say with that because our ultimate goal is wanting to of course graduate our students you know out of high school and set them up for some kind of success rather it's postsecondary are going directly into you know the workforce and then those students we also have to remember you know we now have what is called the 18 credit option so if we have students that really need to go um to go and work um for various situations then they work with

325their counselors work with their principles and they look at that's another option that they could look at as well thank you so much I'm very proud that we're creating conditions for success as students face all sorts of different challenges thank you thank you Mr superintendent any further discussion all in favor post motion carry 70 that'll take us to board discussion items bd1 Miss AA thank you okay so I'm excited to bring this idea um forth for discussion and to hear from all of you um at the request of many students throughout the district during my time before being a member of this body and after uh and as well as after a very thoughtful and meaningful discussion that we were all mostly all a part of with our current student representative at a workshop we

326held in December so the idea that I'd like to um propose is a regional student committee made up of a number of students from each of our County's four regions so North Central West South selected by a diverse and representative Coalition of counties Community leaders Educators principles and other stakeholders on a yearly basis to gather and provide student-led recommendations as well as review policy proposals that will come before us as a board for votes the goal would be to give a voice to students who are often voiceless those who are otherized and do not always have the resources and ability at their disposal to share their thoughts and concerns with us before we make important decisions I believe that um to best accomplish this leading with our District's deag disaggregated data will allow us to

327implement an initiative such as this one equally and equitably for example I would like to look at numbers such as graduation rates discipline rates uh nth grade course failures Dropout rates attendance and special education and gifted programs offered throughout the regions ideally the student committee would create additional opportunities for students to express their ideas recommend policy changes interface more closely with us as board members and actually understand our role so that we develop an environment where diverse student voice is always part of our decision-making process reaching all students not just those who have already found their purpose and their group is a critical part of ensuring equity and those we hear from in my research I found that Nationwide student advisory councils already in place engage students as partners they Foster youth leadership Community involvement

328and a democratic school and District governance which is so critical especially today student has really never been more essential to the success of our work given how much has changed for them in a matter of a year I want to take a quick moment to read a quote from a graduate of our district who is one of my mentees right now her name is Shayla Gomez I strongly believe that would be an amazing committee to implement students would have the opportunity to elevate their voice in education especially as they are enrolled in the schools and can share their perspectives um they would be able to address any of their concerns on what is going on in their region this will also Al be a new type of exposure for them concerning the school district giving

329them the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding on the importance of our board's decisions I foresee this bringing hope to our new generation of student leaders in Palm Beach County and Shayla is a Maya mam student from Palm Beach County Who currently attends Florida State University and in in closing among many other goals I think some of the main goals I would hope the creation of a committee such as this would accomplish include uh providing a space for additional support of students emotional cognitive physical and interpersonal safety incre an increase in trustworthiness and transparency through connection and communication among students themselves and also with us as a board and as a district promoting the collaboration and a sense of ownership that comes with sharing Authority and decision-making with our students empowering student voice and enhancing

330Choice by identifying student strengths and helping them build on that in a space they feel free to do so further educating ourselves as board members on the import importance Singularity and intersectionality of our students cultural historical and gender identities and imparting on our students the importance of having a sense of purpose and doing our mission to focus on the prize and assist them in helping find that so that's my um proposal today I really look forward to hearing the discussion and introduction of new ideas from all of you today Mr Alvarez then Mrs Whitfield thank you uh I would first just like to start off by thanking um Miss aala for your ideas and enthusiasm in having more of a student voice um I actually did introduce this at The Retreat because I do feel

331that this is absolutely necessary for the work that we do every day um and that you guys do more so than I do because I come here once a month but I think it's absolutely essential however as a student in high school the student representative to the school board and a school board member my idea for how this student committee should look is a little bit different I understand that this idea and its many parts are going to take time as anything we do does we just had an agenda item that lasted a pretty long time but I want you all to remember what we all heard and agreed upon during our retreat with um Miss Mary ferus from Washington State we want to ensure racial equity and equal opportunity for all students and that

332starts with giving each school from every single part of of our district equal representation this has to be at the top of our agenda and I hope that we can understand how important this committee is not only to me but to the future of this board I would first just like to start off by explaining how I would like to see each High School represented and ensure that this is a process that is going to last a while after I leave because I graduate this year and I would like for this to continue years after I have left a student committee um this is basically going to be a student committee run by the students I have been in student government for the past three years and I have come to understand one thing we

333as students put our mind to something and we will get it done so the whole point of this committee is for it to be student run we want to give the students a voice and that is why the representatives from each school so that each school has a representative not just specific ones from each section of that each one of you represent each school from our district should have a representative my way of implementing this so that each school has a representative is simply just allowing for the president who is already an elected official at each School represent their school on a committee the school itself votes every single year to elect a student who is their representative that student will be their representative on that Committee just as the public elects each one of

334you to represent them on each one of the matters that you discuss so this needs to be student-based I don't agree with this being picked by a committee of adults because the students need to be the ones electing their representatives I was elected by students to come here and represent them which is why I believe that this needs to be elected by students furthermore we need to um understand that while this has changes here it we also want to make changes to our um constitutions at each high school because each High School does have a constitution in their student government and our count County Constitution which I'm the president of and the president of the county my position would also who is also the student representative my position as well would be the chair of

335this because I get to give this report every month and my intention here is for the student representative to essentially gather a report with the committee if the committee were to meet monthly or twice a month they could gather a report and if we look at items that we've discussed today such as the calendar or even just the the dwire the dwire discussion these are all things that students could give input on they could give their ideas they could give their opinions not just my own so that's why we need more of a student voice the student representative again will be the chair of this committee it is a position that is already in place by the school board to come here every month and give their ideas one of the main jobs of the

336committee is to give the Schoolboard their opinion on specific items that are going to impact students and teachers directly that is one of the main things this isn't just for students to meet and discuss what goes on on their daily lives this is for them to sit down and look at items such as the calendar or look at items such as the dwire discussion and say what do we think what could we say in a report to the the school board that would give them our opinions one of the main things that I want to say in this is the significance of student government and what that's had what that the impact that that has had on me and why I think it's so important that it is a part of this I understand that

337student government in some schools may not necessarily be representative of the entire school as the student representative and a very involved member throughout my high school career I can wholeheartedly say though that the Student Government students do their best to impact the lives of every single student in their Community my position I am an elected official by the students to come here and represent them and I'm a student government person who is here representing them I understand that there are some stereotypes of student government whether that may be that they have clout or that they get special treatment but the majority of student government students do work on a daily basis and I can pledge to that because I do it on a daily basis to benefit our communities and schools so it gives each

338school this committee it gives each School a representative who they have already selected as their representative and allows for the committee to continue into the future because if you think about it each school is going to have to elect a president each year to continue their Student Government which allows for a representative to be a part of this committee and allows for this committee to continue into the years once I'm gone and the next student representative is gone and it allows for those issues of how we choose and if we have a committee of adults choosing which I completely disagree with um it kind of resolves those issues and and I think that that's the main thing is allowing for the students to have a voice giving them the opportunity to do so and allowing

339for them to report this to you guys monthly just as I do not just not yearly not semesterly monthly because their opinions matter to the decisions that you guys make on the daily thank you thank you Mr Alvarez Miss Whitfield and then Vice chairwoman Brill thank you um I just wanted to say to miss I love this idea I love that you brought this forward to us so thank you so much um this is something that I've been um interested in as well as how we get our students to be um more engaged I actually I was thinking similar to Mr Alvarez around the ideas of um would it be possible for us to engage um existing groups to help with this work um because I obviously they're already there and they're representing students so

340um I think that's a great idea to try to use people that are already in place um my biggest concern is how it would impact our staff um because I obviously they need to somehow bring these items forward um like for instance with the discussions you just mentioned some of those items um you would need to hear from staff members so they would have to attend your meetings to be able to present the items for you then to discuss and then come back to us so um I I would actually like to see if um Dr fenoy could take this idea back to staff and and discuss it with them and see if it would be um you know a huge burden on them um and if we do have um staff members to participate

341in this um which department it would be that would be assigned to that because I know when we start talking about all our other advisory committees it has a logical Department assigned to it so I wasn't sure which one this would actually work with but the general concept of the idea I think is absolutely wonderful and I'd love to hear from our students more thank you doc do miss BR and then Dr Robinson okay Dr Robinson then miss BR okay thank you um well thank you Mr Alvarez I am really um pleased to hear your voice and I appreciate the way you are standing up and and speaking your mind because we need to hear it so the concept of hearing from students is not new the how was always the problem at least for

342me right and so um so I'm glad that um Mrs a put this um miss a put this discussion item on but that was the question is the how right I agree with you entirely it should be student Leed run created everything I also agree that you know that you I would expect that you would be asking questions that staff would need to provide information so so the students can weigh in in a more informed manner right um at the council grade City Schools the the breakout that they had for student voice they made it crystal clear that the so-called leaders in the district would stifle the student conversation and thought right and so I clearly like don't want to do that um and so I think that you've proposed a mechanism that that we

343can at least uh start working with and I would like to I'm going figure out how to share the video from Council great City schools with you um to get your feedback on that I I do want to add though and maybe this is just a stereotype that no longer applies and that would be a lovely thing um that the student current student government they're the K they're the successful kids they're they're the kids that are embracing the system and the system Embraces them for the most part right and that's fine so I just want to make sure that we work with some intentionality to get the voices and I'm good with your your method of of getting it but that the the school-based student presidents that we figure out a way to help them

344make sure that they're getting the voice from the students that normally they don't hear from or may like may not have agency and feel that they can speak their truth to their school-based president so yeah I I think it's absolutely fantastic um yeah and I want to I want to support you wholeheartedly in that thank you to uh follow up on Dr Robinson remarks I worked with Mr Alvarez on the student subcommittee that the city of the city of bokeh set up a an education advisory committee there was a student subcommittee formed for the last couple years I went to those meetings with the students and I know what they did they had invited kids from all the other high schools those kids would show up and there was rows and rows of kids who

345would raise their hand and ask questions so I'm sure that you know what I've seen from the student government people you know they're in the student government they will get the input I think Dr Robinson you're looking for because they'll encourage those students to come forward and give their opinions because I saw it work I saw it work at at the Crawford Center in Boone with you know 40 or 50 students from different high schools showed up because the subcommittee invited them to come and you know I heard about the toilet paper was never there in Spanish River bathrooms no offense Miss castalano because I know you fixed that uh but you know they brought up all their issues about you you know not enough time to get to class and they were worried about

346other things and and all those items were discussed at those meetings so I think it would work great student L I think you know the the student council government in each one of the high schools will certainly uh I would believe that they certainly would invite input and have children other students come to those meetings to to give their input and ask their questions uh Mrs bro you were next thank you so I want to thank you Mr Alvarez thank you Miss aella for putting this on the agenda but I am so impressed with what you put forward and in listening to Mr Barbary I guess there has been some format what I really would like to do is ask the superintendent to have someone from staff help to organize this but I really don't

347have interest in in the um staff running anything other than being having someone be a Lea on if you need information but letting you run with it because this has to be as Dr Robin said Robinson I believe said student run um it should be students thought thoughts and and I think it's fabulous I just would like to ask the superintendent to move forward and work with Mr Alvarez on on bringing this to for fruition before we do that let's make sure we have some other comments Mrs Andrew thank you Mr Alvarez and Mrs Ayala this is absolutely fabulous and I must say the Village of Wellington uh they're out there they're Forerunner they have a committee a student advisory committee that attends board meetings gives input about what's happening in their City makes recommendations

348and tons of activities that tie into the leadership the elected leadership of the uh Village of Wellington so we it's already out there in the city so this is something that we truly need I certainly want it to be student run because many times when I'm sitting and listening to students they want to tell you exactly what they think and what they feel and we have to hear from them so you know we do need District people to help us with the coordination piece but I certainly don't want their voice dampered at any time or at any uh situation I would like for them to be able to express honestly what their thoughts are their opinions so that we can take that information to build a better school district because it truly starts with our

349students excellent the uh one thing that you didn't mention Mr rarez that you and I discussed and when we met at bokeh high school was the idea that the student council your position you would stay on next year as an advisor so that there's continuity because the new president the new guy that's going to sit here the new gal is going to sit her next year she's not going to have this background so even if you're away at College you could join these meetings by zoom and make sure that there's some continuity and then there has to be a faculty member when you have those many students together so your suggestion was whoever this the uh Student Government person is like you your faculty uh you have an adviser for Student Government whatever high school

350that happens to be that year that would be the adviser that would be with the students when they have these meetings so that would have to be worked out with the with the schools but that was some suggestions that you had made that you know you didn't mention yeah thank you and I there were just some things that I that I didn't really get to actually mention and that was one of them is all of our student governments have advisors and um I this report and everything that I've done and everything all the work that I put into this I I couldn't really do it without my advisers they're such a big help and they they always help me with anything that I want to do any election that I want to run for all

351of it they're always there and they're amazing people so I can say wholeheartedly I've met tons of advisers at every convention that I've been to for student government that these advisers would be more than willing the adviser of the student who has my position next year will most certainly I can say um be willing to most likely attend these um these meetings and one of the things that I did leave out that is pretty significant that I would like to add is we are the youth and we run the social media world and that's one of the things that we need to do a better thing about with our school board is adding more of that social media component because in no offense to the school board at all we use Facebook but I don't

352use Facebook people my age really don't use Facebook and this is no offense to anyone but we could use Facebook for the parents and for the adults but we have things such as Twitter and Instagram and even Snapchat which would we would have to that that's just different but these platforms that we can use and it even works with with this committee is allowing for students say to give their ideas to such committee via social media platforms and and we've we've done um I don't know if you guys remember um during that Retreat where we had that interactive app where you could scan something and you could go answer questions or even give your opinion on something things like that that we can use that technology has given us we could have a virtual option

353for if students can't come to the meeting they could join virtually so many things that we've been taught throughout these past months that we could Implement into this committee and that I'm sure the youth will have no problem helping Implement and going through all of the logistics of it Miss a thank you Mr chairman uh I really am enjoying the conversation on this um but I I do want to make my intent very clear on what I Envision a committee of this nature looking like as a district we've all taken a commitment and embarked on a journey of equity and inclusion and how we as individuals become better and how we as a district become better um and in that vein I think that placing opportunities where they are most needed should be the goal

354as much respect and admiration as I have for our sgas and as much as Santiago blows me away every time he's in this room with us those are the kids the system works for and those are the kids where they're going to be fine as Dr Robinson noted I'm looking to hear and partnering with groups is an absolutely fantastic idea we don't need to reinvent the wheel when I thought of this idea of course I thought of Staff time and dedication that would have to go into maintaining something like this so I thought of our other groups where we have excellent students who also accomplish great things but maybe don't have the space or the agency yet to go and be able to make those comments to us or be able to contact us directly

355our Latinos in Action our Coalition for black student achievement our Grace trade alliances are different groups of students that are typically not at the Forefront of what we think of when we think of the ones that are always the superstars and they are they just need their space and their place to be able to come into their own and have their moment and I'm I'm hopeful that a committee of this nature would create that space because from what I understand SGA has the structure in place to allow students to already participate in those discussions in their own structure they have everything at their disposal to do that and yet there are students who are missing from that participation and so my vision I just wanted to make that clear again it is the collective will

356of the board that will go into creating whatever comes out of this discussion but I thought it was important that I bring it back to to that piece of what I where I see the needs being the most evident and that's why I made my my comment and my statement very clear when I said made up of a number of students from each of our counties four regions instead of specific number because we all know the reality that in certain areas of our County there are students that need more than in other areas of our County so we they deserve representation equal to the needs that they are facing that's my that's my two cents and I needed to get that out thank you thank you Dr Robinson thank you so I think that the

357point that you're getting at Miss A is what I was trying to address when I made the comment about working with the school um SC School government presidents to make sure that they are working with intention to get the voice of students that might not normally be heard with even even at the school level right because I mean I agree there's some voices we tend not to hear but I think it's so very important that if it's going to be student voice that it's all student Le like we in my opinion and based on what you know I learned from the student session at C great great City Schools is I might have thought of this if I had spent time thinking about it but they made it very clear we need to keep our

358hands off and listen right and let them do it now I think if we can always make suggestions about how they improve their I'm G call it inreach as opposed to outreach right but um and and the pull those opinion leaders in the school who might not plug into the formal structure of student government right uh but I think it's just critically important that that we keep our hands off of it my shair one BR thank you so I think the start because I understand what M Mel is saying but I think the start is to formalize what Mr Alvarez is talking about and have him charge the representatives from each school to try to reach in to those students that are not participating um I think that's the first step I think that we

359get this in place and then we see where that goes because I also Envision later on maybe getting younger students not just high school students involved Middle School would be wonderful and that's something outside of the student government and although my elementary one of my elementary schools I go help swear in their Student Government so I see it expanding but I I would really like to start um formalizing Mr Alvarez's suggestion and and leaving him with that charge so Mr superintendent can you have Sab obviously if they're not here tonight they can hear that the comments from Miss A and the rest of the board and and can you work have staff work with Mr Alvarez to come up with Mr Alvarez do you have this stuff written down like in the business proposal as

360in like how we're gonna do all of it yes okay so what I need is I need it written down so that I know what we're going to be doing to assist you and I I have everything I just said like I have that written in a document but if you mean like actual policy as in exactly how no no no no no no no and this is this is from this is for me and you I need you to write something up I have a two-age report with your specifics then I will take that information review and me and you might need to spend some time together because I'm you said something that I need to correct you on not correct you on but let me tell you what my daddy's always told me

361that we were all children at one time everybody at this dies we've been in your shoes so you know and and my father used to tell me this there's nothing that you will do that I haven't done and there are many things that I've done that I hope you never do and so and I say that to you because and I hear the board saying we want to be hands off and let the kids do what they want but if we don't give them any guidance we gonna have some problems so I will work with you you but I need it written down that's part of this process it's one thing to say something I allow to put it on Twitter but we need something to formalized if if we're going to because remember my

362time the time of my staff cost money period so I need to make sure I don't overwhelm them and blah blah blah blah blah so get it written up get it to me and then I'll start working with you on these pieces and I do I have I thought you just meant like actual policy like as in the very specifics of it but no yes I have all everything I said is all written down in like steps and how that would be done and just that's I that's why I I wanted that's why I was reading off of this and I wanted to be very specific in how I I know I know it's difficult and I know that we have to also take into account the the staff and just so many other logistics

363of it and that's why I began the whole statement with this is an idea that takes time I know it doesn't happen overnight but at the end of the day it is something that we need and just one of the things that I will stress and I I'm 100% for working with you and any other member of the school board but this does need to be student run and I understand that 100% there does need to be an adult there needs to be staff who inform us on things that liais on like Mr barbier said I've I've worked with um him and other liaison on the youth subcommittee in Boer Aton and they've informed us on such things and I've done all of that and I've understood that that is necessary but the main thing

364about this is it needs to be student run thank you thank you Mr El if you want to go home because you got three hours at Homework maybe the superintendent will give you a pass for tomorrow so you can get out of the homework tonight I don't know Mr superintend I will not as long as we have to be at work on time tomorrow he has to be at school in time tomorrow okay okay Miss are you okay with this now so far so we can move on to the next discussion item it was your discussion item I I just want to um I guess say I was not in student government in high school or college and I'm here and I want to give a chance to our students who haven't figured out what

365their thing is to find that through a means of that we provide them and that we give them agency to do so uh Mr superintendent and Mr chairman I'd like just to for staff to keep that in mind because I know that's a shared goal we all have making sure that we're being Equitable while we're being equal because equality and Equitable are not the same thing so it's very important to me that the original intent of who we're trying to reach here is is actually reached which is why I initially straight away from making it an extension of SDA because they already have their structure but but if it's the will of the board to move forward in this direction and to honor the wishes of our student representative I understand I just want to

366make sure that we understand the possibilities and the consequences of not going a little deeper and not going a little Beyond at this moment in time and having to come back and re rework what we're looking at thank you Mr Woodfield I was just going to say would it be possible during this process for missa to work with Mr Alvarez to really try to find a common ground um to be able to draw in those students I also was not in student government and I completely understand you know not being a part of uh being represented through through the exactly who those people are so um would that be okay with the board I know we don't want to put our hands completely on it but at least they could work together could can I

367make a recommendation let let me start working with him first and then let me you know create some guidance some structure and then obviously I'll talk to each one of you every week and so we'll Ed and then we'll create an opportunity for that but let let me get it all in order first all right next word discussion item is Mrs Andrews thank you and I can make this quick um this is the uh cohorts from the Council of great City Schools one uh for the board chair and what we need to do tonight is just support this maybe some of my fellow board members may want to apply for the uh board chair Cort now remember the Council of great City schools has 76 member districts I think this uh cohort has up to

36824 people that can participate and the deadline for actually filling your application out is uh uh January 30th and uh it just you know it doesn't have to be the board chair it can be the board chair who applies for this but it could be any member of this uh School Board they do look for senior uh board members to try to go for this but you don't really have to be the board chair it is a a nominal cost uh to if you are selected of a ,000 and that covers your supplies and other kinds of things so um it's a uh in inaugural this is new they've never done this before it's been asked for by the members of the Council of great City Schools to do this training uh this cohort training

369for board chairs uh those who may want to be board chairs and your time is uh almost up if you really want to do this but what we need to find out from all of you is if you're interested in in actually uh filling the application out is it supported by this board that some of us may want to fill the application out and apply for it this is for the cohort for the chair and the other one is the governance Co cohort it's similar 16 participants will be selected the application again is due on January 30th uh again working through uh Team Building knowledgeable skills uh working with how to uh understand governance as as your role as a board chair but what's so good about this is you're working with these big Urban

370school districts these not the small ones this is like PM Beach County where we're the 10th you're working with districts that like are number one New York City is a part of the council you know uh Los Angeles Miami Dade Orange County So you you're going to get trained on what it's like to be a board chair or be a a governance coach for the big urban districts that's why I'm saying it's 74 members uh I don't know if every body's going to apply but I would hope that we would say that we would want some of us here to apply for it even if we are not selected we need to put our names in there but either one of these uh discussion about it sandrew I I I I agree with you I

371it shouldn't be me I mean I I think you know i' I've served as War chair for quite a while and you know I've learned by being in the firing squad seat so you know it's one of you should take it because you're going to be the four chers you know in the future so I I think you know because many of you that want to apply should apply for it Mrs bro I do think that um as many of us that want to apply should because you don't know who they're going to pick I would like to apply for the board chair Co cohort I've been wanting to get involved anyway with the Council of great City Schools I haven't been as involved um this past year especially with covid um been able to

372make you know the calls because I've had a lot of conflicts with the calls but I'm I'm going to starting to put them into my calendar and and I'd like to apply so I would do that one okay quickly because our deadline is next week so if that's something that you all want to do uh is that the consensus of the board that we can any one of us can do this that's that's what they want can be more than one board member right from this board ABS app to be all of us okay Dr Robinson so okay so then I guess the reason that you're actually asking it that way is if there's consensus that if somebody gets selected that the money will be allocated to pay for it is that why you're asking

373it that way because otherwise why do we need to ask each other yeah I was thinking that you know you have a budget and so you can utilize your budget I just but I think that the uh Council of great City Schools wanted to know that uh your board actually uh supports this activity sponsored by the council and if you all support it then any of us can apply for it I just want to make sure it was in the open that uh in this public meeting that you supported this idea this is great for the Council of great City Schools the first time they've ever done this and so I would love to see a lot of people from Palm Beach County applying for either one of these or both you got to followup

374Dr Rob yes so yeah I plan to apply I just want to make sure that that the the ,000 will come not out of our Board office cuz like I already burned all mine up with paper and ink so you know I think that's the question for me you will need to pay that ,000 if you're selected right and so I think that I'm going to ask the superintendent if he would look if one of us or more of us is selected if where that funding might come from okay yeah we can yeah we'll look at it all right and the second um the second part of this discussion item is the master board the 2021 uh 2022 masterboard program many of us sitting up here I think have gone through the uh masterboard training

375with the Florida school boards Association now this is totally different from the Council of great City Schools if we decide to participate in this this is not about somebody being selected it would be all of us and they do require that we have a majority of the board members participating I think Mr barbier Mrs br and Dr Robinson I was on it and I don't know if uh the others of you were on it we had the training and and the part of that is when you get new board members your training usually needs to be updated because it's about working together focusing on Collective uh governance uh performance and how we uh work together as a team there is a cost for this uh the member districts have to pay uh $4,500 uh and

376we are member district of the Florida school boards Association it requires a lot of hours we went to uh I think we went to uh St Lucy county of Miami uh not Martin County when we did our training so uh it is a commitment if we decide we want to do this and you have the sheet that tells you all the things that you'll be learning it's it's in service too sort of like what the council is doing but it's from the Florida school boards Association you do get the big plaque uh I think we have the plaque somewhere in here that we received but it is not uh it's it's not valid once we uh get new members and you have to update yourself with the master board program because it will give you

377uh information as to how you can be a better board member working together collaboratively like we were doing tonight and discussing issues and and Leadership of governance uh so this is something I think we're overdue we go to the uh Florida school board meetings uh every uh twice a year and a lot of the school boards are getting this training or and when new members come they've actually had some additional training and it's been a long time since we've had our training with the Florida school boards assoc Association so I recommend that we have to think about it because we all have to really be committed to it but we need to do it Mrs withi thank you Mrs Andrews I I absolutely love this idea I think um we all need refresher training in

378everything that we do and I wasn't around when you all did the masterboard training previously so I think um I think it would be wonderful for us I think it would help to build our skill set as a board and just make us more effective um and so I totally completely support um doing this I think it also goes to um the conversation we had um right before the holidays um about continuing that education um for all of us and making sure that we're on the same page with governance so I love it and thank you so much for bringing it up Miss bro thank you so as I mentioned last um last time we discussed this I fully support the idea um my only request is that we we use Andrea mesina who was

379a longtime School Board member who's worked with this board before who has seen this District Through The Good the Bad and the Ugly in the past um and I just think that she's she's tough you know she's tough she tells it like it is so you know I would hope that you would all agree that we use the executive director Andrea MSA superintendent if I remember correctly Marsh maybe you could fresh my memory I think you participate in this too the eight of us have to do it together yes right yeah I'll be honest I was sitting over here like oh that should be really nice for the board until my good friend Carol bass said oh you got to go too absolutely yes the the superintendent is included and when we did it we

380actually uh went with another group another school board came on with us when we traveled to St Lucy County or Martin County uh Mr bobier if we decide to do this I think you would actually be working the agreement with the Florida school boards Association to go through the uh requirements of how we move forward if this is something we decide to do tonight you know Mr chairman I do support it and I think also I would note that I my last personal conversation with Miss MSA the only reason she didn't participate with us last time is she had a previous engagement so she'd be more than willing to VI that person for US general Council we can't we can't make a decision on this tonight so we'll put it on the agenda for February

3813rd to to get the board to vote to go for the master board training yeah the deadline uh for this time is March 1st so if we do it in February we're Within deadline great I'll make sure it's on there miss bass would you make sure it's on there yes Miss bass before I adjourn the meeting the board will meet tomorrow morning for our annual joint meeting with the Palm Beach County legislative delegation we will be here in the boardroom while the delegation will be joining us virtually this meeting is open to the public however there will be no public comment the support team is asking the board to please leave your computers up when you leave today and plan to arrive by 10:15 tomorrow morning even though the meeting starts at 10:45 to make

382sure all of our equipment is up and connected the virtual SL side of the meeting I participated Tuesday Tuesday with I was up here with staff and the county was on the other end and we definitely need to get her a little early to make sure everything's working because it was kind of carried it so if you can all make sure you're here by 10:15 tomorrow morning Miss bro so I don't know if I'm going to get into trouble I shut my computer off so to the IT people please come check my computer okay I guess we can log off though right we can log off just leave the computers on or you want us no don't log off okay you're going to log us all off okay all right okay we yeah nice gone

383Miss bro we need a motion to adjourn motion by Miss Whitfield second by Miss AA all in favor oppos motion carries the meeting is adjourned