School Board Special Meeting August 9, 2021

001Okay. good morning and happy Monday, everybody. welcome to this special meeting of the school board, which was called by a majority of the school board, to meet this morning, to talk about a school opening and give the latest updates that we can to the community before we open school tomorrow. I appreciate everybody who has joined us in the room and everybody who might be watching online. but before we begin, please, join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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 first things first, before we approve the agenda, I would like to welcome our brand new brand spanking new board member. Mr. welcome, sir. It’s good to, good

002to have a full board again. Yeah, This might come in the form of an amendment. The item as printed is a community update and board discussion for school opening recommendations from the Florida department of health Manatee and the Florida department of education. and part of this agenda is public comment. Am I to believe that the public comment is limited to that, which is contained in the recommendations coming from the department of health and the Florida department of education? No, sir, we have a golden. This is, this is just art, the public comment that’s listed here as a general public comment. So anything related to school, district businesses. Okay. I just want to be clear that, that we are not excluding anybody from being able to speak and address public school business. Okay. frankly, what I

003would, I, I’m glad you asked the question because what I would like to do is get our updates from the superintendent and team from DOH. we also have representatives from Manatee Memorial hospital. The hospital system are gonna join us. I would then like to do, it’s a little bit out of order, but, I would like to give the public an opportunity to comment. And then if there are any discussion items above the board, we can do that last third again, there are no action items on today’s agenda. So I think that’s, Mr. D I think that’s fair to do. Correct. Sounds good. Okay. Thank you. Right. Okay. So that is the format that after the president, Well, we’ll get through all the presentations. We’ll do public comment and then the five of us can dress

004well, thanks. Hey, thank you for the clarification Mr. Teitelbaum and Mr. Dye, if you’d like to weigh in on this section as well. Yeah, Good morning. Members of the board and welcome Mr. Choate. on Friday there was emergency rulemaking that took place. It is under 64 D E R 2112 protocols for controlling COVID-19 in school settings. And, that particular order has been published and those protocols for school settings, basically it’s, really a one-page thing. most important thing. It is an emergency role. So there’s justification for the department of health, surgeon general, who signs the order as well as the department of education in conjunction to, to draft this. This is really an offshoot of our executive order from the governor 21 dash 1 75. So in short, basically the most controlling sentence is found on

005the second page of this order. And it says it’s under section D. So it’s on paragraph one section D it paragraph one talks about some of the protocols that are encouraging such as the safe practices of washing hands, stay home with your sick, but the, has controlling language and states students may wear masks or facial coverings as a mitigation measure. However, the school must allow for a parent or legal guardian of the student to opt out the student from wearing a face covering or mask. The most operative word in this particular order was may, were not must not shell. now for then at this point, the order goes on to tell you the three, three categories of COVID-19, direct contact is to be defined. So members of the board, you understand it’s 15 cumulative minutes

006and within six feet. So it’s not 15 minutes at one particular time. It could be 15 minutes throughout the day of exposure to a COVID positive person. Now some of the rules seem the same protocols for symptomatic or COVID 19 positive. If they’re experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or have received a positive diagnostic test for COVID-19 should not attend school or school sponsored activities until the student receives a negative diagnostic COVID-19 test and is asymptomatic 10 days have lapsed. It had no fever for 24 hours prior to that are the student receives permission to return to school from a medical doctor that is licensed in the state of Florida that’s category. Number one, pretty similar to what we know now. Number two is categories for students with exposure to COVID-19 okay. Students who have been exposed

007that has direct contact again, six feet, 15 cumulative minutes should not attend school or school sponsored activities, or be on school property until the student’s asymptomatic and receives a negative diagnostic test within four days. So basically you’ll see two options here, the worst, the we’re not, the student is not having any symptoms and four days after negative COVID test Or is the next thing The student’s asymptomatic and seven days have passed since the date of last exposure. So that’s not the old practice was 10. It’s been narrowed down to seven. And if the student becomes symptomatic, obviously stay home and you go back to category number one 10 days, or permission to return to school. Now this is the next category, which is relatively new to us. It’s protocols for students with prior COVID infection.

008now if someone, if someone has, it says a student who has received a positive diagnostic test for COVID in the previous 90 days, the 90 days is operative And who was Known to have been in direct contact. Again, they’re now around a COVID positive person. That’s within six feet for at least 15, 15, excuse me, 15 minutes throughout the day. And has That person had received a positive diagnosis, diagnostic tests. So it’s not just someone who’s been exposed of. It’s someone who’s actually COVID positive. It says the following that it can, if so long as that student remains symptom, ASAPS can be, as long as that student remains a symptomatic. And if the student has, You follow the same thing as protocol, number two, if they become symptomatic. But, if not, they are there, at

009this point in time, Mr. Dai, correct me, for purposes, you opinion on quarantine at this point for, for number three or no, they don’t have to be quarantined exactly like COVID within the net the prior 90 days, and they’re exposed with no symptoms. They will not have to be quarantined unless they become symptomatic. And that’s exactly right. They’re, they’re actually treated the same as a, a vaccinated person. Correct. And that was very operative here. And I just wanted everyone to read it with me at the same time per the interpretation. And then it talks about, testing, if anyone was at test for COVID, you need parental consent. And this is the last clause, which is non-discrimination for students whose parents or legal guardians have opted them out of a mask or face covering requirement. So,

010and that’s the extent of this particular emergency order that has come down Friday. There was one other order that pertain to, another matter, but this is the one that’s operative today. Let’s if we could, I just have a quick comment on that one, that the language about, parents of opting out, I just wanna be very clear while other counties in Florida have taken that option. That is not, we are still at a masks optional policy where we left off on May 28th. That is correct. I don’t want anybody to misunderstand that we have a mask mandate with an opt-out. That is, that’s not what we’re doing right now. No, very clear. Cause we’ve got some emails last night that folks had already run with it and assumed that that’s what we had in place, based

011on the news that’s happened over the last 48 hours. And Mr. Kennedy of significance to that is our current stance right now is very consistent with this order that students may wear masks. If I may, Mr. Chair, based upon this particular order, as long as you do not discriminate and make it optional again, I agree with Mr. Di completely, but from my read of this particular order, as long as it’s not discriminatory and you get the parental choices, then I don’t believe that that would necessarily come into play. But again, Mr. Dyes, correct, this is one lawyer and God knows there’s a lot of us for the purposes of interpretation. Okay. And I just, Ms. Messenger, I’ll come to you one second. And Mrs. Foreman, I do, again, just as a reminder of the community,

012our, our strategy for, you know, since May 28th has been to offer parents as many choices as we can. And, you know, again, just a reminder, I hope we will all be respectful of the choices that each other make, whether we are adults or we are students. So, but we can, we can come back to that, Mrs. Messenger, and then Mrs. Foreman. I had a question for our attorneys since there’s just so many of you, We have seen in the executive order after the executive order, part of the executive order said, Hey, we’re going to have rules from the department of health and the rules from the department of education, or we got all those on Friday. and in the rules from the department of health and in the rules from the department of education

013that were received, there’s the same sentiment, maybe even the exact same sentence. And it refers back to the parent bill of rights. the sentence that in this, the department of health, one says that this the order, which is incorporated by reference directs that any COVID-19 mitigation actions taken by school districts comply with the parent bill of rights and protect parents’ rights to make decisions regarding masking of their children in relation to COVID-19. And I guess what I’m trying to ask is, you know, we’ve had the governor now we’ve had the department of education and the department of health, also now department of education and department health are not only giving their own rules, but they’re also referencing law, the referencing a law that’s, what’s put on the books. And I looked back, this was just

014put on the books this past year. So I guess I’m asking, is that your understanding of the parent bill of rights? I mean, it’s stated here that that’s part of that law and I know it just got put into place, but you’re the attorney. So I’m going to ask your feedback on that. Ms. Messenger is an excellent question based upon what was stated. And I go ahead and bring you, bring you back to paragraph D this and I point my annotated version of it is consistent with the governor. He did not, this does not state mask mandates. It states if anything, students may wear masks. And if so, the freedom of choice, we have a brand new section this particular year that give parental rights. This order is consistent that that students may wear masks.

015So they’re not, so they’re not necessarily saying the right comes from the law, but they’re saying that this is consistent with the law. This is consistent with the executive order, what was stated, But they’re citing a specific law As well. So I guess my question is, how does this relate to that law? The, the overriding theme on the parental Bella rights statute with regard to this issue is that the parent gets to choose healthcare decisions for the child. And with that being the case, I would say that, the, these orders do align with that. It’s the parent that’s making the decision of wearing having the child wear the mask or not wearing the mask, not the state or the local government. So I think it is consistent with the parental bill of rights. Okay. Thank

016you. Yeah, this is fine. Mr. Chuck, do you have your, your boardroom software? I just wanna make sure if you’d like to speak you, I’m not sure if you haven’t at any time, just give me a signal. I’ll come to you, Mrs. Foreman, and then red and gold. You can throw something at him, just throw a highlight or something. Okay. the, well, a couple of things, one, you stated that we are, that it is prohibited to establish a mask mandate, is that correct? Both of our opinions is correct. Okay. And you got that from where on the, I received, my legal opinion is one, the executive order from the governor, which is 21 dash 1 75, and also section D students may wear a mask or facial coverings as a mitigation measure. It says, may

017it doesn’t say they, they must, it doesn’t, it, it gives the flexibility. And therefore, if students may wear them, it, it would prohibit a mass mandate. Again, that’s my opinion. And Mr. D has expressed that same opinion as well. But if I masked mandate said, students must wear that. That would be a mandate and not necessarily prohibited by saying that students may wear a mask, As we’ve already stated, if we were to, if that would have stated must where it was stated shall, and there’ll be a must. In addition to impose a mask mandate would be a violation at this point of law, not only the statute with the parental rights as Mr. Di eloquently explained, it would be a violation of the executive order. And it’d be a violation of what the department of

018health in our surgeon general with the department of education together had agreed to, which would, which would be in the best interest of children. Okay. does the, the legislation about parental rights, does that override and local parenthesis In this particular instance, it’s a combination. It’s certain things with, with part of the education, it gives parents greater rights that have been acknowledged, but in particular we’re, as we’d say in the best way, this emergency order is the law of the land. Right now, we must follow it. And this confirms parental rights and freedom of choice to mask or not to mask. Okay. I just, I just, I’m not clear on your response on that. local we’d have w we have in local parentless, and then we have the parental rights Executive order specifically stated. Okay. Could

019you first, anybody that may not know, can you define in Loco parenthesis please? Okay. And local print is means, the, the best way to describe it. We, as a school district, when you drop off your particular child is for the health care and welfare of that child. We sit in the, we sit in the parental shoes. However, there are limitations to what we can and cannot do. For instance, we cannot make decisions pertaining to immunizations religion. We are there to, to, to stand in the parent’s shoes, that particular at that particular time, but it’s not all encompassing powers. It’s limited by statute. And the parental bill of rights actually tries to define a greater this year of what we, what we can do and cannot do as a school district. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

020oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, I had, I had a few, this, this rule, the emergency rule does not affect staff in any way. That was something which was excellent because as you, and I’m not even going to quote it school setting, it did it didn’t mention school setting in, in particular. So that w that was one thing it stated they did not differentiate between staff and, and employees. However, within school setting, it would affect probably the largest group of our, our people, which is our teachers, our paraprofessionals, it would in school, same would also include our, our bus drivers in our food service workers. I’d go on and I don’t want to embellish. So you’re saying that this rule would apply to everybody on school property. I would say to you, my, my opinion is

021it’s all encompassing for school settings. I don’t think it, it doesn’t draw the line. Oh, students only. Okay. Mary, can I jump in with one second? Just real brief on this point, however, the role came from the department of education, which has jurisdiction over K through 12, we as an employer and correct me if I’m wrong. We, as an employer, it’s a different set of rules. When we, as an employer are dealing with her employees, correct. And our home role under Home rule, and by statute, your statutory powers are as a school board, as well as the superintendent would be the day-to-day operation of the school district, as well as the conditions of their employees, subject to the collective bargaining agreements for our two unions. But however, bear in mind. And I, and again, the

022best way to say it is, yes, we have, we have the rights to choose our certain determinations for our employees. However, the department of education makes it very clear mandates that our employees must meet. For instance, certifications is one example. It’s not just blanket authority dropped down to the districts. Okay. yeah, I have, just one more point. and I would have something in here that I found I was not comfortable with, and that is that the, that the rules says that we should encourage routine cleaning and routine hand-washing. I hope that we are doing more than that. okay. I just want to, to emphasize that, so, okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for the superintendent, at our last regular board meeting. we had quite a number of public comments, with respect to

023a survey that had been sent out, extensively, memory. The, the question was, would you allow your child to come to school or would you require, or would you send your child to school if mask were required? that was two weeks ago. we are here today in an emergency setting on the circumstances that weren’t contemplated even two weeks ago, let alone in may, when we made the decision to revoke the mandate that we had put in place, the year before, is there any efficacy to be derived from another survey that would be inclusive of all of the parents in the district we’ve heard from the governor. And we’ve heard from the department of education we’ve heard from the department of health. We have not heard from the parents. We’ve heard from the parents in this room,

024but as we can all agree, that’s not all of the parents in this county. And so, before we get into a whole lot of legislation here in itself, I want to know, do we even have enough information at this point to properly comply or to attempt to properly comply with these orders? I know they were issued Friday is just Monday, and I’m just trying to figure out the best way forward, given what has happened since we last met, Again, we’re not mandating anything. This would be parental choice, but if there were enough students to compose a classroom in an elementary only setting, could we do that? If it were allowed within the context of the order department of education’s feeling was it is allowable. I did not speak to legal yet. From there. I spoke

025to our own, Mr. Dyer, I believe kind of referenced that we do have a call into the legal counsel of DOE waiting on their faults as well. But if you’re looking at the parental rule and the law that Ms messenger had spoke of it is choice. We’re not, we would not be imposing anything. So I think what you’re asking that was done a few weeks ago, things have changed, limitations have come out, that we’re regulated by. Would it be advisable to now go back and survey all 18,000 elementary parents. Now that schools come back, things have changed and everybody’s attention is on school. could we do that? I think we could, I think we’re within, we make changes within 10 days anyway. So I think legally we can, And that’s something we could pursue if

026that’s what the board would like. Yeah. Can I just say one thing I’ll come back to, I would like to come back to this during our discussion, the S the survey question, because that was on my mind as well. but, but I would like to come back and get through the presentations, and then we, as a board can discuss that. I understand that. And I, I, I respect that, but this is part of his presentation. This is the presentation from the lawyer about what this order says. I just asked the superintendent, if the order prohibits us from additional, information, she says, no. And she said, and I think I need to check with the lawyer, which is my next question when, whenever we finish. Okay. All right. Now, attorney, at this point in Manatee county

027is the only school board that matters to me, Manatee county. Not that not Dade, not Broward, not what they’re doing and Osceola, what we need to do here for these parents, what the superintendent just lifted up for us. Do you agree with that? Or do you think that that is something that would be an exercise in futility at this point? No, I do think it could be helpful. The, a lot has changed since the last polling was done two, three weeks ago. as far as the status of the infection rate and all that hospitalizations, that information I think, would be useful, both with Manatee county and to share with the state, thank you. And it gives the parents, the ability to, to, voice with their opinion, is that consistent with the parental bill of rights?

028Thank you, Mr. Chair, with that being said, I would now, defer to hearing what other parents have to say, because I do have, some recommendations as to the wording for this survey that we all agreed might be permitted, but I want to wait and hear from the parents in terms of the possibility of me not being the smartest person in the room, overlooking something that night need to be helpful to them, to those parents. Thank you for the opportunity to speak Or golden. I appreciate it. I appreciate you setting up a legal foundation for that conversation later. Well, this is Todd di golden. As Ms. Messengers pointed out, we got a bunch of lawyers up here. They got a bunch of lawyers up there. Agree with, with Mr., the, the executive order pretty much says

029exactly what it says. but I would love to hear what parents have to say. Excellent. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Diane, I just have one quick question. there is a case in the, that went to the district court of appeal and Alachua county, correct. And the basis of that appeal and the district court upheld that, the found for the parents bill of rights, but there’s a conflicting case in another district court in south Florida. And it’s, it’s on this very question of, do I have this right? I just want to check with you. Well, I know generally what you’re bringing up, but I think what makes this situation different is, is we’re in an emergency and this is an emergency rule. I mean, it won’t, this rules only last 90 days. So I think with that

030being the case in they’ve laid the foundation of it being an emergency. I think we, this is what we have to follow like Mr. Teitelba sorry. And even if, even if that would be many months before that question was decided, but it’s apples and oranges anyway. Yep. Okay. nobody has left to speak. So, superintendents, superintendents, owners, I’ll come back to you if you, There are a few other things. The main thing on the order really was how we are to make adjustments in terms of quarantine and exposure, from last year that is different. And they did take into account those that are vaccinated and those that might have already received COVID in the past and have immune. So I think that is going to make a big difference because exposure, you could have students out,

031you know, for periods of time that may never get sick. they’ve also allowed you to get a, COVID test and it’s negative to reduce those days to four. So I think that really is going to be helpful for, lessening, the disruption of students. they also talk about attendance procedures for this. so we will outline those and, pretty much the order being that mask are optional. So I do know that at the end of today, we will be, compiling all the information from our board, as well as these documents. And we will be disseminating them to parents of what our protocols are, as well as, posted on all of our websites. So, all of these things that are in the order, even though we’ve posted the order, we will put them all in very clear language

032so that everyone knows, the, the expectations and operating procedures. We will also be having a principal meeting today at five, so that they have the most up-to-date information from. So everyone knows how to operate when our 50,000 students arrive tomorrow. Okay. Absolutely just as pre COVID. we would have students and, or teachers ill in cases, but students will be given the opportunity to continue with their work, whether they’re home, if they’re too ill to do it, they will be given time to make it up. And we will this year give multiple different ways for students to get their assignments. Where last year we were, we had the e-learning platform that everyone was on and everything was presented really in that format this year, we will give multiple different ways for students to get their work

033could be that way. It could be a textbook assignment, could be packets of work that their parent picks up and brings back. So we will give the teachers will work with those families so that they’re able to give them whatever work is needed to keep them aligned, so that they’re not missing their education. And then from the, from the teacher perspective, a question that’s common. If, if a teacher is forced to quarantine, that, you know, HR and benefits question has come up about, you know, using sick time, if you’re forced to quarantine, you know, we had Sr money or federal money last year to cover that, that, that pot of money has gone. so how do we handle that from an HR perspective for the teacher, this force, the quarantine, or as positive. And again,

034just as we do with illnesses, if a teacher is required to quarantine, yes. they will be, their sick time that they will be leaving. And, but again, just like with students, if they’re vaccinated, and they’re exposed to someone, they will not have to quarantine. And again, if they had had COVID in the past 90 days, they will not have to quarantine. So those are two things that I think are real important for employees to know if you are vaccinated and you are exposed and you’re symptom free, you will not have to miss work Quick, nuts and bolts question. How does the, how does the student, or how does the parent prove that for their student, or how does the teacher, The wonderful thing is we have a great partnership with the department of health. They

035will have a full-time epidemiologist and a contact tracer on staff. As a matter of fact, they already are, and they have all records, all health records, if, of any Manatee county resident, if they have had COVID, they have a record of it. So they are able to determine that, and they also have the record of those that are vaccinated. So we will work. We don’t have the records department of health does, so they will be communicated. That’s why it’s real important to have that partnership so that they can help. I want to, and Mrs. Former promise, I’m kind of just one more quick question that came in over the weekend is about, you know, we had an issue with sub coverage last year. And so I’d imagine we probably will again, this year. So what,

036how do we handle, and we don’t have to have this discussion now. I just want to acknowledge the question and let our employees know that we’re thinking about it is that how will we address teachers covering subbing to cover for other teachers who are out? So we don’t, and you don’t have to answer that right now, but I want to, I think the thing that I’ll say is I would like us to do quarterly updates to the board on where we are, in regards to that, I will also say that at the beginning of the year, you tend to have a large pool of subs, th the biggest pool then, and you also have the biggest pool of staffing. we’re, we’re real fortunate right now. our, in terms of our staffing and hires right now,

037we’re in pretty good shape comparatively, but it is something, again, we’re in another COVID year that we’re going to have to monitor and to manage and to make sure that, we have all protocols in place so that we have proper coverage if needed. Well, the rule that we in, they did give us clerk vacation Friday because we saw it in two different places. but the rule is six foot. that’s what we’re having to follow. That’s what came from, the, the presentation to us. So unless it’s changed, we will go by six foot And are we making that change and setting up our school schools? You know, I understand that the plan w when I talked to principals, the plan was that like in lunch rooms, they were going to get, allow them to be a

038little closer, is that changed where they have to maintain six feet in the lunchrooms. They will do their very best to have social distancing, but the fact that all students are back, there’s no way that we will be able to spread students in cafeteria and so forth six feet apart. So, you know, last year, not all of our students were on the campus, either. What they’re going to do is give other areas where they can eat so that they can spread kids out that way. But if you’re talking about sitting at a table, if that was the only space, it would be very difficult. They’re going to allow courtyards and some other places so that they can spread, students. So they’re working on that, but the, we originally thought we were going by three feet

039because that’s what some orders said, but, Friday late, it was conveyed that the expectation is six foot. We cannot mandate any mask requirement in the state of Florida where it’s tied to public education. We can strongly recommend, we can recommend, we cannot mandate it on the bus either. Wow. Okay. then, let’s say there’s a hoard outbreak in a school. Okay. at that point, do we have the option or the ability to close things down until we get everything cleaned up and on the infection out? Okay. Absolutely. And the fortunate thing for us, just like last year, we have our learning platform in place. We continue, we can continue with proper education with that platform. So we have enough computers to make sure every child has one. We have wifi hotspots to give out for those

040in need. We can easily for a short term, if the health department deems that that’s what’s needed, we can close things down if there’s, an immediate threat because of spread, clean it up and then bring them back. So we do have that ability to do that if need be. Thank you. Okay. I don’t see anybody lit up to speak. so pretend it’s honors. Did you have anything else that you wanted to address? Okay. so what I like to do now is go to the department of health department of health Manatee, Dr. Betsy and her team are joining us via Microsoft teams. so while we are transparent to them also, Dr. Oftener is going to join us. Dr. Oftener is, a infectious, disease, MD here in Manatee county. I’m not sure if Dr. Rovner is with

041us in the room or he’s also online, but, but we’ll get connected on teams to the department of health. there we go. Dr. Betsy, I’m coming in one sec. There we go. Dr. Benson, good morning. And thank you for joining us. The floor is yours. Great, good morning. Thank you for allowing us to join you this morning. I’m actually here with Carol Peters. She’s our director of nursing, formerly over our school health program, and also my team, from the department of health. See if we can see them or maybe not. I don’t know. I don’t think you can. Anyway. they’re here, our communications director, Chris tittle, our operations, director, Dr. Edwin Hernandez and, Jeff cords, our disease control director. So people have a lot of questions about the data and, if I don’t have it

042right in front of me, they will be able to assist. So that, that is our plan. I believe that you will be controlling the slides. Is that correct? We want to begin. Yeah. Dr. Betsy, we’re also working on getting your volume up a little bit because you’re coming through a little bit low. so give us one sec. We’ll get your slide up and we’re going to work on that volume issue for one second. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. can I see them? I’m not seeing that. There we go. Perfect. Okay. So, next slide please. Okay. Next slide please. Great. So as we tell everyone, if we’re looking at COVID from a global perspective, we recommend the Johns Hopkins university website, at the, national level, the CDC, and in Florida, the Florida department of health. Next slide,

043please. So this gives you some information from Johns Hopkins and what’s happening with COVID around the world since we’ve had it in our midst in the last year and a half. as you can see, numbers of cases over 200 million worldwide, over 4 million deaths and, over 4 billion vaccine doses administered around the world. And I’m sure you’re going to hear from the hospitals later on very few side effects from vaccines are being presented in emergency rooms. So that’s great news. Next slide, please. Okay. As we talk about what’s happening in Florida, you can see, from last week, July 30th to August 5th, how many cases we’ve had in the state versus cumulative again since, March 1st, 2020, in terms of deaths, this week and almost 40,000 deaths in the state. And in terms of

044vaccine information, the numbers still being vaccinated in our communities. Next slide, please, as it relates to Manatee county data. and the reason I said that earlier, there’s a number of ways to present it, because we have to, go in ourselves. Now, if we don’t get the weekly reports or daily reports, excuse me anymore, from Tallahassee, that stopped in early June. So our team is responsible for going in and looking at the data and, being able to present it to you. So information, obviously that’s extremely useful, a number of cases in the county, since, March, 2020, over 46,000, unfortunately, number of deaths, 7 55. And these take a while to come in. The medical examiner has to verify these deaths. So sometimes you’ll see a jump, and sometimes you’ll see where none have occurred for a

045while. So a lot of, again, dependent on the medical examiner and his team, in terms of variants. So we have, seen 513. However, those are the ones that we have requested that the CDC check for variants. So not every positive case has a variant tied to it automatically. You have to take a next step and do another test, to determine if it is a, what variant it is. So the original variance, the alphas is the one from the UK. Now there is, beta there Gamma’s, and obviously everyone is hearing about the Delta variants. So we have all of those in our community circulating. the greatest still is the alpha in Manatee county. we have not seen the Lambda yet that we have tested for, or, but we will continue to monitor particularly outbreak situations, unique

046situations where we suspect there may be something going on related to a new variant. So again, not all cases are automatically tested to determine the variant, A board member question for you. Yeah. Yes. My question was really about the percent positive in the last seven days and set last 14 days. And I guess I was curious of how many people have been tested in those timeframes. And I guess it was also curious how many people can you test in a day. Okay, great. if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to go through the presentation, that information is in there. and I will talk about testing sites because they’re changing daily. so if that is okay with you, I’d like to continue on. And, we’ll, we’ll, approach that, on, on other slides, the percent positive since

047last year is 16.93. So the goal here is 10% below. So this is all the people that have been tested in the community. What is the positivity rate, Ben, in terms of the percent positives, as you’re saying in the last 14 days, last seven days, it’s been hovering around 16, 17%. The goal is to be below five, and we were at 3% at the end of the school year in June, 2021, total numbers of persons tested. as you can see there, almost 267,000, and that represents about 66% of our population. This means that a person has been tested at least once it’s not how many times individuals have been tested. It’s the number of individuals who have been tested at least once we continue to see the highest positivity rates in Palmetto, the two, one

048zip code and the east Bradenton, oh eight zip codes, the median age continues to fall slightly. It is, at 40, now, however, in terms of, the, the recent data for the last few weeks, we, we will see some changes in that information in the next slides, in terms of the bottom, can you go back to the previous slide? There’s a little bit more information there with the bottom. So, in terms of the county population versus first doses, second doses. So, those who’ve completed series totals vaccinated is, 53 plus percent. That’s includes the zero to 12 who aren’t eligible. So we’ll, you can break it out in different ways. Dr. We have a board member question for you, please. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Betsy, is it fair to say that the total unvaccinated number of people

049in Manatee county at 189,797 is skewed the site that there is no vaccination for people under the age of 12? So the what’s queued is the percentage, not the number, the actual number that have completed are correct here. All the numbers of peaceful who have had at least one dose or completed their series if they were Pfizer Madonna. So that information is correct. The number it’s percent vaccinated here is total population. So it’s higher in those that are eligibles 12 and above. And I have more data on a future slide on that as well. Shouldn’t I’m asking though, is that the total unvaccinated obviously includes every child under 11 in Manatee county because there is no vaccination, correct? Is that correct? Yes. All right. Thank you. And what we run and remember here also, like

050we talked about last year, the school system is not a bubble. Whatever happens in our community is going to be happening in the schools. So again, I appreciate the partnership that we have our team already at the district operation center, being able to assist you as we move forward into this school year. Next slide please. Okay. So here’s the number of new cases in our residents, since July 1st. So we had a 4th of July holiday in there, as you can see the numbers continue to climb. and the one at the, at the end is not a full week. So we, we pull our data now, a few times a week, but in terms of presentation, you can see the numbers there. About 6% of these cases have been breakthrough cases in the county. And

051those are the ones, persons who have been fully vaccinated, who are now, showing, COVID again in their systems. Next slide please. So here are the new cases by age. So the adult are, 18 and over a pediatric is under the age of 18. And most cases that we’re seeing now are between the ages of 20 and 49 years old. I please note that the 360 there, from the last doc, we can, delight early, August. Okay, next slide please. So what I wanted to emphasize again, what I mentioned earlier, the goal the state has been using since the beginning, the positivity rate for all cases that we’ve had seen here in the community since March 1st, 16.9, 3%, almost 70% of those tested. and in terms of the positivity during the last week, same thing. the

052question came up earlier, a board member, a messenger about, how many can be tested. We’ve we currently have a site in Palmetto at the bus station. we had, we did 550 on Friday. So as they come, we test them because it is getting very crowded there, issues related to parking and, and, the heat, and, and tents and capability of spacing individuals we have since moved the, testing capabilities as of this morning to the Bradenton convention center. So we want to thank the county government for offering us that site. So we’re back there, as well. a company actually is going to be performing those forests. They will be there seven days a week. The hours should be seven to seven. And also as it relates to the, our Palmetto, we are going to continue that for

053at least another week, because we’re also doing vaccines there. Unfortunately, the highest number we’ve done in a day there since June early June is 10. So again, we’re doing 550, a day as it relates to tests and very, very few vaccines, to, to take it a step further, the amount of tests available is infinite basically. in addition to coming to our sites that we just spoke of here, we also have, MCR, the federally qualified health center sites, and we still have the private sector. And I’ll show you the locator at the end of that. the end of the presentation, how to access that information as well, Two board member questions coming for you. Okay. I had one and it was really about the testing. how do at home tests, how effective are at home tests.

054And, and my other question is about the department of health. The order that we read mentioned diagnostic test and having the diagnostic test results, will the at-home tests count as the results that would be necessary for, allowing the student back, I guess, Okay. Thank you, Mr. Joe. Sorry, I don’t have the, the green that’s. Okay. Dr. Betsy dive question on the last slide that you just, we just had up there with the seven day, percentage, and I believe it said a 5% goal. Where does that 5% go? Where does it come from? Is that something that was from the CDC? W where did that goal come from that number? You would have to ask them we are in touch with them, but, they have told us that the majority of their facilities do offer, at

055least one or the other. So I would ask you to, to reach out to them, or we can get them to provide that guidance to you. we also are know that they have, your sites at Southeast high school and at Manatee elementary. so finding out what services they’ll be providing as well, there will be important Well, and I will follow up with them. I just thought maybe you knew, but I will, I will check with them. thank you. I say, oh, Mrs. Foreman has a question for you, please. Yes. Hi, Dr. Vinci, is there, do you, are you able to pull out the pediatric numbers from the number of vaccinated individuals in the county and the number of cases? Yes, ma’am. I’ll be, presenting that in just a few slides. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

056you, Dr. Benson. Thank you. next slide please. So, I know we’re going to have someone from the hospitals speak next, but this is just some information that we have based on, the last six weeks, roughly from, July 1st from the hospitals. So there have been, 117 adults, who have been hospitalized, and one, child. and so out of all of those, hospitalized to date so far, you can see, I’m sorry. during the weeks there were, 4,721 total hospitalized. I’m sorry, since the beginning and 1000, pediatric ACEs, since July 1st, since July 1st. So a total of, I think the earlier question was how many persons have been hospitalized in the last six weeks? We have the 5,771, and most hospitalizations have been though in ages 40 to 69. Next slide please. Okay. So the importance of

057vaccination, that’s what we have been promoting since they’d become available to us, at the end of 2020, we want to reach out, we were one of three health departments in the country actually, who received a grant for a vaccine hesitancy coordinator, someone who goes out into the community, to really find out where we’re lacking in, information, related to, the importance of vaccines. Why are people not choosing not to take them at this time? How can we assist in clarifying that information? So, we do also reach out into the community, we know high risk populations, the homeless migrant populations, and take our mobile units out there and provide, vaccinations at different events. and we continue to ask also anyone who has a request for a vaccine event to call us, and we can formulate that with

058them. Next slide please. So here is, I believe the question you were asking about, groups receiving the first dose by week. So you can see the numbers. There are the 12 to 14 year old are sorry, 12 to 14 in the, in the blue, at the bottom, in terms of the percentages, and then going up to the 15 to 19 year olds in the orange, and then the rest following that, in general, over, a 85% of the 65 plus age group in our community has been vaccinated. And then the numbers go down as you get the younger in age, Okay. If I don’t need it now, but Dr. Vinci, if you could, before we finish, if we could, if we could just get a percent of 12 to 19 year olds vaccinated as of today,

059or as of August 6th, 14% is what we’re seeing as of this morning. That’s the data here that just came in first dose and then 30% have completed their series. So total percent vaccinated is 44% in well, the 19 population. Okay. Thanks very much. So if we could continue on to the next slide, please. So again, early on, we started with vacs up Manatee, our mascot, Manatee. We still have those masks available. We encourage people to use them when they are in public because of the numbers that you’ve just heard about. we also now have the backstop Manatee campaign with our many partners and offering many, many sites, to, to offer, testing and, vaccines. again, we are concerned because we’re not having the same mitigation measures in place that we did last school year, obviously

060masks not being in schools, and, six feet glad to hear it because that’s, that’s key. If, if what they were, available, the plexiglass divider is also extremely important. And the isolation rooms, we have a lot of children coming into our clinics on a daily basis at the schools with many different types of, symptoms and medical needs. And we want to try to separate them as much as possible, so that, we’re not exposing, children to a COVID potentially in the clinics. So, we will continue those discussions, with the, the, a school board moving forward, to make sure that that is something that we, have, appropriate, guidelines and, be able to keep those children safe in the clinics. I’m going to turn it over now to Carol Peters and she is going to go through the new

061protocols here. Okay. Well, thank you everyone for having me. so in my role, as the director of nursing here at the health department, we work very closely with all of our nurses that are situated throughout the school district and with our contacts in the school district, to look at the strategies and the protocols that we have in place to help keep our students and our school community safe, when we’re dealing with COVID. So in the last few weeks, we’ve been looking very closely at how we can proceed. So as we’ve already been discussing on Friday, the Florida department of health with a consultation with the Florida department of education issued, the emergency ruling, which specifically, gave us very clear, specific guidelines on how we can look at these issues, protocols for controlling COVID in the

062school setting. So what I’d like to do is to review some of the basic components of this ruling, and then present how we see this being applied, Directly in the schools, as we deal with students and the different scenarios and situations that we tend to see, Yes, Charlie, we actually, at the beginning of the meeting covered the, the update from the state department of health. So if you just want to skip that part and go straight over to your recommended protocol. Sure. We can do that. So if you want to skip the next two slides And you can skip over that and this one, so Let me, so, Mr. Teitelbaum for a bit, presented kind of an overview of the guidelines and how they pertain last year, when we looked at, uh COVID and how

063we deal with COVID in the sentence school setting, we try to summarize a lot of the recommendations and the protocols into a clear and concise tool that we could use to communicate to our nurses and to our partners at the school district, so that they could, consistently, deal with the issues related to when kids present. So we created a, what we’re calling a school health decision tree, which is basically an algorithm that presents a visual flow of, the various scenarios that we use, when students present. So what we have done is update this tool to incorporate some of the specific provisions of the emergency ruling. And that’s what I’d like to review right now. So on the left-hand side of this document, you know, we start with just a reminder that, parents or caregivers should

064strongly be encouraged to monitor their children for signs of infectious illness every day. And of course, this is not unique to COVID. This is something that our school health team focuses on with parents. this is an educational measure that we’ve always had in place, children, presenting with COVID may have some of the common signs and symptoms of COVID. And we do spell them out, they’re general items like fever, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and one of the challenges of course, in dealing with COVID, and how it presents in children is that the sense signs and symptoms are very general. there are particular symptoms though, that we have associated research has shown that when children present with these symptoms, it’s, we need to pay particular attention to these centers because they are strongly linked with

065COVID and we have those listed here. And then that person, those two staff member are overseen by a professional registered nurse and our secondary schools. We have, a full-time registered nurse in addition to the staff person in each school. In our elementary schools, we have one nurse visiting two to three schools, but they are there every week. They provide a lot of the training and, the, expertise to the local students, school staff and how we apply, our protocols and our procedures. So in a typical school year, we will provide upwards of 300,000 student visits. And typically about 90% of those visits will result in the student being returned to class last year, during COVID of course the numbers of students in schools were a little lower and we had less visits the number of students,

066however, that were returned to class only dropped by about 3%. So about 87% of our students returned to class. And I think this kind of a test to the protocols and the procedures that we do have in place. So even though a lot of the symptoms that we see with COVID in children are general, our nurses are trained in a standardized assessment procedure, that they’ll go through if a child comes in and they’re coughing, you know, we’ll look at the medical history, we’ll reach out to the parent, to determine if that child has a history. Is it related to asthma allergy, or is this a new onset that we really need to be concerned about? Once it is determined through that assessment, that the child does need to go home, the parent will be contacted

067for pickup and the student will be separated from the other students. And when they begin as Dr. Bensi just stated, you know, our goal is to keep that child safe and to keep the other children that are coming into the clinic for other routine things such as medications or procedures, to keep them safe. When the parent comes, they’re referred to their provider or follow-up and possible testing, if that test is done and the test is negative, the student can return to school when they’re feeling better and their symptoms are gone. So this is how we have always proceeded in our program, with student illness, when they’re feeling better and their symptoms have resolved, they can come back to school. If that test is positive, or if the test isn’t done, they can return to school

068when they either have a negative test and their symptoms are resolved, or if they present a doctor’s note, from a physician or from a nurse practitioner stating that they can return to school, or that at least 10 days have passed since their symptoms began, where they received their positive test result, if their fever free for 24 hours and their symptoms are improved. So one of the things that the emergency guidelines, or their emergency ruling did give us were more options to return that student to school, in an earlier timeframe. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m not so sure that, my question shouldn’t come at the end of this part of the presentation, but, there’s Peter’s let me just go ahead and ask in the protocols that you’re talking about today. Are there any, vagaries that

069arise because of a households that have intergenerational membership B households that have children who are spread across the spectrum of public education? I E elementary, middle and high school, and third, the director of health, indicated earlier that, there was a skewing of, of testing in two zip codes, Palmetto two to one, and in Bradington, to Lloyd, to eight to eight. And I want to know whether or not you all, skewed to try to deal with the vagaries that arise because of those zip codes, which are decidedly, black and brown people, more heavily than any other part Manatee county. And in intergenerational households where you have grandparents, parents living and where you have children who are across the spectrum of public education. So I admit that might be a premature question, but that you’re giving this

070protocols that you, that, that the department of health will follow and children. And I just think that there’s a big difference between Anna Maria island elementary and Manatee avenue elementary in terms of being prepared to deal with, with the children. Thank you. Thank you. I think those are very valid questions. what we’re presenting are the steps that, we’re taking that have been basically spelled out in the emergency order that we received on Friday. I think the specific applications in the schools, to look at, maybe some of the specific issues that are, presenting within those schools and work very closely with the administrators in those schools and our partners in the school district as we move forward. Would it be helpful if we received input from the parents, particularly in those, zip code, that, that, most

071affected by the latest variance of the virus? So we do have, you know, my understanding is that while there might be some leeway in how we apply the emergency ruling, there are certain parts of it that we, basically are part of the emergency ruling and we are required to follow. So I think that would be a discussion point for leadership probably at the district and at the health department. Thank you very much. You’re welcome. So if we could go back to the slide. Okay. This is Charlie again, I just had a follow up question, not about the, the flow chart, although I hope you don’t mind if we steal your flow chart and put it on our website for parents that come to our page. So I would have to go over to my team

072always where the person resides. Yeah. So I’m at the feedback I’m getting is that it’s based on their county of residence, right? Thank you back to you. So, the other common scenario that, you know, we deal with in the school setting are those students who have been identified as close contacts, meaning that they have been within six feet or greater than 15 minutes, a cumulative in a 24 hour period, and they’re asymptomatic. And as we’ve already discussed, some of the guidelines related to the quarantining of those students have been relaxed, trying to balance the, the challenge between keeping our students in school and keeping our school community safe. So, in general, as has been pointed out, students who have had COVID within the last 90 days, they have a confirmed, they’ve had a confirmed positive

073case within the last 90 days will not need to warranty. Of course, if they’re asymptomatic and those students who are fully vaccinated, meaning that they have their two weeks past their second dose for either the Madrona or Pfizer vaccine or the single dose of the Johnson Johnson vaccine, those students will not need to quarantine as long as they’ve remained asymptomatic. If they do develop symptoms during that four to seven day period, that they are home, we would ask that they get tested, and if they test positive, then the, they would follow the guidance that we previously discussed, when it can return to school after they test positive, if they do not develop symptoms, they can return to school after they receive a negative test, that’s performed, after the completion of the fourth day from their

074exposure, or if they choose not to test a test, they can be turned seven days have passed since the date of their last exposure. So our goal and, this tool is to try to provide kind of a comprehensive algorithm that we can use to standardize how we’re dealing with students when they present with these various scenarios in our school year, in our school setting. And our goal is to finalize this draft within the next day or two, and then to distribute it to our contacts in the district and our school nurses. So thank you. You’re welcome. I’ll turn it back over to Dr. Van sleek. Thank you. In closing, we just have two more slides, please. Great. So there was a question earlier about where to go for testing, where to go for vaccines. So

075we encourage you to go to this website, www dot Florida health gut, COVID-19 gov. And, it will be able to tell you on a daily basis, where those, locations are for testing and vaccine, by vaccine type. Next slide, please. Great. And again, please remember that, COVID is a vaccine preventable disease, like rubella, mumps, measles, all those others that we, have the, children particularly Vaccinated against every year so that they don’t get ill or worse. this is the same situation now with COVID-19. We do have these vaccines available. And as I mentioned at the beginning over 4 billion people in the world have had them, and we have seen very few, concerns, around the world with, any side effects. and the risk is much greater as our numbers continue to increase, particularly based on those daily

076positivity rates that I mentioned earlier. so in closing, these are some of the places where you can go to get vaccinated, but also with your relationship with MCR, I would ask that again, you reach out to them and, find out, their locations as well, since they are such a strong, community partner and to have such a, a broad presence in our county. And I believe that it all, if you want to finally have the final flight. Okay. Mrs. Hornbeck. Okay. Dr. Benson, the number I’m trying to get at is how many of the PD P pediatric population have either had COVID, which means they have the antibodies or have been vaccinated. is there a way to get to that number? Yes. So we’ll, we’ll follow up with you during this, as we listen to others,

077and then we’ll bring that information back to you, just to make sure it’s accurate as of this morning. Thank you. Yes, sir. These two gentlemen that are about to speak are not making comments, they’re making a presentation, is that correct? Okay. we’ve heard from the lawyers and we’ve heard from the doctors as to what they were going to present. at this point we don’t have anything. I at least I don’t have anything in writing. I don’t have anything that has been presented from this gentleman, other gentlemen, on the phone. So, could we at least have at the beginning, some kind of an idea as to what is going to be, presented? Cause I don’t have it. I’m sure that none of the other people have yeah, Nope. Dr. Offer, if you could, introduce yourself and

078then give us an overview of what you’d like to talk about. So My name is Dr. Stewart. Oftener, I’m a board certified infectious disease specialist. I work at Manatee hospital. Kevin Delilah had reached out to me on Saturday, asking me to come to this meeting to speak about out to you. Kevin Delilah, the CEO of Manatee Memorial hospital. After talking with Mr. Kennedy, I would, I believe, in terms of talking about masks. So, I’m the medical director of the infection prevention committee at Manatee Memorial hospital. And I sit on many other committees at both Manatee and liquid ranch hospital. I’ve been practicing in FA With, with all due respect. Our agenda says we’re going to discuss the Florida department of health guidelines and the department of education guidelines. Those guidelines give really specific. Okay. That’s

079a fair point items guidelines on, on masks. I understand you have a different point of view and I respect it. I’m sure that you have a lot of information, a wealth of information. I’m not looking to argue with you. I’m looking to stay on the agenda that we have been given today. That is my only request because it’s not about anything other than these two items, which we have publicly noticed that we’re going to talk about. That’s fine. I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m trying to be very respectful, but this is what we publicly noticed. Yeah. I, dug around for, if we could just focus on to that point where golden will come to you in one second. the, and the board can talk about this later. We we’ve already cleared up earlier. We

080cannot have a mass mandate. so if you could talk about, why you as a medical professional, think it’s a good idea since they are, it’s an option. And you could talk about why you believe that’s a good option. and then talk about what you’re seeing, in your hospital. Well, I can tell you I was on, Do I have an opportunity to speak Truthfully, because I don’t feel like that’s what we publicly Noticed the community doesn’t want to be Okay. And I, I agree with Mrs. Messenger, because there are other people who have signed up to provide public comment, a doctors, pale Shaw, and some other doctors and some are, and who were not contacted by the chair or the president of Manatee Memorial hospital to come and make a presentation here today. I think that’s,

081that’s that, that patently, tilts the scale against the objectivity that we said we were trying to arrive at. I have the utmost respect for his opinion. Everybody has a right to an opinion, but the bottom line is this. This is the way we give opinions with respect to the agenda that we have. Now, we’re trying to tilt the scales in time. We can do anything we want to do, but in all fairness to people who have a different opinion about mass, whatever, the, I don’t even know what his opinion is. He, he may be one of the most ardent supporters of bass mandates in the world. I don’t know, but that’s precisely my point. And I don’t think it’s fair to put him at the head of the line or the gentleman that’s waiting on

082that. So, you know, we can reduce it to a legal argument, but fast is just fair. That’s okay. It feels more like a public comment. What’s up. That’s okay. I understand. And we’ve got three members objecting, so I’ll, I’ll defer to that. Well, no, the argument holds Dr. Often, right? I apologize. you waited through this Now. There was another gentleman, who is online and maybe we need to hear from him also as to whether or not he has come to talk to us about mass, that they have to talk with us. Well, he, he is the CEO of, of, Manatee Memorial. So that’s the guy that asked this guy to come. Perfectly welcome anyone that wants to speak, but I just want to be transparent. I don’t think that was transparent. All right. This is

083for me to understand that we’re not even going to recommend mass, is that where we, where we are on this Week? That’s if I could, I think that’s a discussion for after we get through public comment. Cause I noticed on the agenda is community update and board discussion. So I’d like to get to that because I’d like to go to that road too, that we had minimum are strongly recommending. And I’ll talk about why I think we should do that. But during the discussion later after public comment, For clarity, it says community update in board discussion of the opening recommendations of the department of health and department of education. It is only those two topics. It is a community update and discussion of those documents. Yeah. Okay. So that Document clearly states that they may

084wear masks mean? I don’t understand. Yeah. It needs to be a discussion about it. That is what it says. Okay. We need to have a meeting about whether we want to let the messenger join the law firm on that. What’s the hourly fee for Pro bono. Okay. I’m going to pass it to you for public comment. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s the chair. Before I read the comments relative to public comment that we do at every meeting, I would like to point out we have 47 names that have signed up for public comment at this time. If each of them has given three minutes, we will have set aside two hours and 21 minutes, for public comment. If each of them has given two minutes, we will have set aside a one hour

085and 34 minutes, for public comment. And, before I start reading, I thought that the board ought to weigh in on whether we were going to do the three minutes that we have traditionally done, or whether we’re going to consider modifying that. Obviously if it’s cut down to one minute, we’re only up to 47 minutes. So, I, I haven’t, I have an opinion on that, but I’ll defer to the other board members first. What is the chairs? Which, what I would like us to do is I really don’t feel comfortable changing our rules, in the middle of the meeting. But what I would ask the public is that, is that if, if somebody who has gone before you has already said, what you’re coming up to say, then just say, I believe with the PR I

086I’m here to say and just keep it brief, because I’m sure there’s going to be some overlap and comment. So I’m not comfortable changing. I’d rather us leave it at three minutes, but ask our public comments. There’s two, please. If it’s been settled any, please just make that reference to the previous comment. Keep yours brief so we can keep it moving. Okay, good to go. All right. I think we’re good. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, public comment is not an open forum to discuss matters, unrelated to education, to support or oppose candidates for public office or to engage in commercial speech, attempting to sell a service or product to the school board or public. Also public comment is not a forum to attack individual school system employees or board members. Any such comments should

087be submitted in writing to the superintendent for appropriate handling. Finally, this is not a forum for addressing issues involving individual students because of privacy concerns, such issues should be submitted in writing to the superintendent for appropriate handling. Each speaker is allowed three minutes to address the board. Speakers must stand at the podium and not approach the dyes. This is a business meeting of the school board and the public, the public here in this room and listening outside of this room expects that we conducted in an orderly, efficient, effective, and dignified manner. We requested speakers. Keep this in mind when making your comments. We also request that the audience keep that in mind and not demonstrate approval or disapproval of the speaker has said by clapping or booing the board appreciates the public’s input and will

088listen attentively, consider each comment and usually will not respond. Enter into debate or answer questions during comments on agenda items or doing the public comment section. Before you begin speaking, please provide any handouts to the agency clerk. Please identify yourself only by your full name for the record. You have no more than three minutes to speak. Please stop speaking. When the bell rings, Florida law requires all citizens to conduct themselves in an orderly fashion at public meetings. Any individual who had affairs with the expeditious order, that process of a school board meeting will be subject to removal from the meeting pursuant to section 1 0 0 1 0.372 Perrin three Florida statutes at the discretion of the school board chair orderly fashion is deemed as at a minimum one, no profanity to no vulgar language

089three, no discourteous disrespectful or disparaging conduct. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of notes real quick before we begin. If I could. first of all, we have some public commenters who are online and so if you are listening online and you’re signed up for public comment, so if you’re online, please, when your name is called, please press star six. So if you are on teams and listening, when you’re hearing your name, press star six to unmute yourself. Thanks for that. rev golden one quick warning. I don’t think this is going to be an issue, but I want to issue the warning. Anyway, as I said, at our last meeting, you’re probably gonna hear some things during public comment. You do not agree with whatever side of this you’re on. I ask everybody

090to please listen, respectfully, everybody who signed up to speak will get their turn. I am going to issue a warning to everybody in the room. If there are any outbursts I am. and I do have a right to ask you to be escorted out of the room. I really don’t want to do that at all. This has been a great meeting so far. I just ask that we all be respectful of each other’s views, whatever they are. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I need your help because in my sheet, I only have two people listed as calling in via the phone. That’s Paula loners and Kristen beach Wade Poncelet so I’m assuming they are more than Correct that they’re the only two that designated they’re on the phone. We may. Oh, okay. All right.

091Thank you. We will start with Julia. Okay. Good day. Board members, superintendent. My name is Julia McLaughlin. I’m a mom of two kids in Manatee county schools. When you guys voted back and made it have mass, be up to the discretion of the parents, that was one of the best decisions that you’ve all made. Since I’ve been following very closely, the choices that you’ve made as a board, don’t fall short. Now my right to choose what is best for the health and wellbeing of my children is granted to me by God and not the government nor any other entity. My children were profoundly affected by the all day face coverings. Last year, my son had over five sinus infections developed a severe case of anxiety. And my daughter’s progress in reading dropped off. They did

092not want to go to school. And as a parent to watch your children suffer, it rips your heart right out and won’t allow that to happen. Again. The state department of health said that schools must allow for parents or legal guardians to be able to opt out from wearing a face covering or mask. And you’ve heard from us about this issue over and over again. So there’s no sense in reiterating what you already know. So I will say this be the school board that we all feel that you have somewhat fallen, short of being, make the right decision to leave the choice up to the parents and what is best for our kids. I know that to some of you, we are clowns a joke in here for your entertainment and I don’t care what

093you think of me. I care about my children and that is why I came today. Okay. I stop making this about cases, the virus isn’t going anywhere, just like the cold, the flu and other viruses. This is something we have to live with and I refuse to do so with my child’s face muzzle, because to me it is wrong yet if a parent wants to do so by all means, please do so, but don’t tell me what to do with mine. Let our children be free. They deserve that one. Last thing. It, man, two stands for nothing will fall for anything. Thank you. Thank you. Right next up is Megan Wilcox. My name’s Megan Wilcox. Thank you for listening to me today. I did want to further add to the, previous mother up here that,

094you know, my child as well, had to go through the same thing as everybody else did last year, he had to wear mass. and he did so very well better than any adult I’ve come in contact with. And he has, done very well throughout the school year, even with the situation given to everybody. so it’s not necessarily that, you know, we’re that master going to cause that much of a hiccup, especially since we are maybe two months away from having under twelves, being able to have a vaccine available. So we’re almost there basically is what I’m trying to say. I do have faith that each of you will put any bias aside and put your trust into the hands of science and follow the advice of medical professionals and not turn it into a political

095debate. just wanted to remind that this is also the board is also responsible for keeping my child safe as well. And I do appreciate if you guys could reevaluate situation. Thank you. Thank you, Jessica Patterson. Hi, my name is Jessica Patterson, P a T T E R S O N. Hello again, it’s been awhile since I’ve been up here. I feel like we are watching Florida burn while we’re holding a hose that is turned off. I have a friend and neighbor who is at Sarasota Memorial and things are bad. We are at a breaking point. We are not just talking about our kids and our teachers. We are talking about our entire community. We are at a breaking point. We don’t want lots of learning because COVID is going to spread through our schools. This

096is not last year when everybody was in mass. This was not the alpha variant. This is the Delta variant. It is as contagious as chicken pox. It is going to go through it is going to affect everyone’s families. 28 people on vents yesterday at Sarasota Memorial. I’m sure it’s probably higher today is just increasing. We have the ability to help reduce it to stop this because this is going to affect our entire community. I would like to see from the top. Thank you for wearing your mask, Ms. Reverend golden. Thank you, Mary, for wearing your mess. Sorry, Ms. Foreman, and thank you, Mr. Kennedy, for wearing your mask as board members, as a superintendent, you set the tone for our whole entire district. Principals set the tone for their schools. We have a way to,

097to, to curb this, but if we just sit here and do nothing, we are always reactive. Instead of proactive in Jacksonville, there was six members that died from their church in 10 days, you know what they’re doing? Now, they have a vaccine vaccination clinic. They’re making changes. We have 20 to 30% of cases are kids. This is Definitely going to be spread. This is summer summer camps that are outside. I just like, like just to sit here and not just do not do nothing. I know that you say that, your hands are tied, but Hillsborough Duvall, Broward, Leon, Ella chew up Palm beach, orange leaf, Seminole Palm beach, or all making changes. We are not the only one. This is a threat from our governor. We have to do what is right for our community.

098We can do a mask mandate with an opt-out option and we can help curb the spread. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Anastasia. My name is Laura Anastasia and I have two children and Manatee county elementary schools. Thank you, board members for meeting today and for hearing our comments, I am here because I am scared to send my young unvaccinated children to school tomorrow. Our county is facing an unprecedented surge and COVID-19 the number of new cases continues to set terrifying records. And this past week, the positivity rate, as we heard in Manatee county was 17%. That is unthinkably higher than what it was when you closed school buildings in March, 2020, and unthinkably higher than what it was when you implemented a mass mandate. Last August, my children attended school in person all last year

099and mostly remains healthy. Thanks to the precautions. You as a board had put into place, a mass mandate for students, teachers, and staff, extra cleaning and sanitization and social distancing and classrooms, hallways, and at lunch. But tomorrow when they start their first day of school, there will be no plaques as glass dividers, no social distancing and very few masks. All despite this record-breaking local surge. This is particularly scary to me because unlike previous variants, the Delta variant is not sparing. Our children, Florida currently has a highest number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 of any state in the nation, not just talking infective, I’m talking sick enough to be hospitalized. We can’t let this happen to Manatee county’s children. They have lost enough time in the classroom. During this pandemic, we must do everything we can

100to prevent a rotating door of students and teachers out on quarantine. This school year, if we don’t, our children will pay the price both with their health and their education, the American academy of pediatrics and the CDC both recommended universal mask use in schools for all staff and students over age two, regardless of vaccination status, please follow their data-driven advice. Please Institute a mask mandate from BMC county students. The state health department said that masks or facial coverings may be used as a mitigation measure. As long as parents and guardians have enough choice to opt out a mandate with an opt-out option would fit that bill parents would still have the right to choose whether or not their child would wear a mask. And yet it would greatly increase masking in our schools. Please Institute

101a mask mandate for students today with a written opt-out clause, please protect our children whom we haven’t trusted in your care. Their health, safety and education must remain your first priority. Thank you for your time. Ashley beverage, Good morning, superintendent Saunders and members of the board. Thank you for your hard work. as you said, my name is Ashley Berridge. I have a freshmen at parish community high school and a third grader at McNeil elementary. My husband and I both contracted COVID at the beginning of the pandemic and April of 2020. My husband is a COVID long hauler, But when you’re on 16 months of debilitating, so Well, you know, firsthand the devastating effects of COVID and what it can do to families even when death is not the outcome. I contracted COVID again in November

102of 2020, and I wore a mask in my home for two weeks all the time, my family was tested three times, both the prophet and PCR and never tested positive masks work. As you know, Florida Manatee county had experienced a dramatic increase this month in COVID of course not. Everyone’s making the choice to protect themselves and their community by getting the vaccine and wearing masks when in public indoor places. But there is no debate about the facts. The Delta variant is much stronger and children are more vulnerable than before children can have mild symptoms or be asymptomatic and still develop long. COVID like my husband, such as intolerance to heat dramatic sensitivity to the sun. We live in Florida damage to the right hemisphere of the brain, which controls creativity and complex thinking, memory problems,

103difficulty concentrating and extreme fatigue, which all affect their education. The CDC and the AAP have all advised universal masking in schools. And our county is still seeing a surge above the 15% positivity rate it’s been well-established that mask wearing is as much about protecting others as it is about protecting yourself. Given the option of wearing masks in school will lead to other unprotected children and adults putting my children at unnecessary risk, whether I’m I wear a mask or not optional masking allows parents who do not agree with masking to effectively take away my parental choice. Their request for freedom is infringing on my, and my children’s right to safety. We are truly in this together and we’re all fatigued by the pandemic, but wearing a mask is a simple and highly effective method of reducing

104the spread of COVID COVID and helping us get out of this sooner. I urge you to reinstate the mask mandate and other mitigation measures like the acrylic screens in the cafeterias for students and staff, until our positivity rate drops significantly. The spread has slowed and vaccines are available for all. We have to show our children that we care not only for them, but for everyone. They understand that mask wearing is easy and helps people. My kids get it. We should follow their example. Thank you, Bowen summer. Good morning. I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you how excited me and my family are to start school tomorrow. I’ve got four kids and they made the county school system along with, 11 nieces and nephews. I was fortunate enough to be born and raised here

105in Manatee county. My grandpa, she graduated from high school in 1948, just to provide some context of, of, of my ties to the community, in, in my thoughts, going forward here today, cause I’m not really here to debate the mass. I’m more looking forward towards the future and to talk about the programs and the things that we lost out on this past year. even somebody even hit me up the other day about how we never had a, end of the year football banquet for the Maytag school football team, because the restrictions that were allowed. So as, as we go forward and, and as more things come up, I just wanna to make sure that we have every opportunity to provide people, the chance to participate in those activities. You know, we were fortunate enough here

106in Florida, where we had a football season where we had somewhat normal athletics, although limited, there were other states and communities that did not have that. You don’t get those times back. You don’t get those moments back. and, and for some it’s, it’s, it’s very important for others, not so much. it is true that my family is, is, did not attend school last year because we did not want to send our kids to school wearing masks. I’m not up here to give you some statistics about why master good or not. I’m sure most of you already have your mind made up, in regards to that, but I will tell you that just because myself, my family do not choose to wear masks doesn’t mean that we don’t understand the severity of the disease. That’s going

107to affect people and it’s going to continue effect. And I’ve told my kids under no certain terms. are they ever to be a little or make fun of any other kids that choose to wear a mask at school? I think this board is a perfect example of how our community can continue to balance, those, concerns and desires of people to wear masks or to not wear a mess. as, as we move forward, I, I, I want to be gone of this. I want to be gone of the contention. and I think, it’s perfectly acceptable to recommend it, that people were massive. That’s how you feel to choose. And I certainly think on the other end is perfectly acceptable to allow those parents and those teachers who choose not to wear a mask to have that

108option as well. And as we move forward, I definitely see better days ahead. I would be remiss to say I’m not excited as a see, Chad tote on the school board and congratulations. and go canes, go, Thank you. Oh my goodness gracious. You got to hear this Manatee county or Manatee Haskell. Oh, my Manatee. I went to Campbell street high school. I don’t know where that is. I think they don’t yet. They don’t beat. Okay. Amanda, who’s you provided, she didn’t attend Manatee high school, so, oh my goodness. Okay. Hello. Thank you for having us today. I’m Amanda Hosier and, wow. Today’s has been quite interesting. thank you, Ms. Messenger for stopping what is not on the agenda, because what also was not on the agenda was a vaccination commercial given to us by Dr.

109Bensi I believe was her name because most of which her information unfortunately was incorrect. the vaccines have just a site, a few things that she spoke of that are incorrect, and you can do some research on your own. The vaccine side effects are out there. They are not deemed safe. if you look at the various report from the government, there are currently over the last six months, 12,030 366 deaths caused directly by the vaccine. there’s 545,338 adverse effects given from, from the vaccine and there’s over 70,000 serious injuries. So if you’re, if you are willing to take responsibility for an injury or a death of a child, then I think you can talk about the vaccine, but the pharmaceutical industry, the biotech industry are not liable for injury or a death of vaccines, especially from

110COVID all, any vaccines, including COVID I should say. So, unless you’re willing to take liability, I come to you now and ask you to stop talking about vaccines. That is a parental choice, and that is a private choice. So Ms. Saunders, you spoke in, I believe incorrectly as well. When you stated that the H has records of positive case and vaccinated, which they may, but those, those records are protected by HIPAA and less. HIPAA has gone out the window because you do not have you do not have, you know, you’re not eligible for that information because you’re, it’s protected Information that our children, as well as our adults are protected. So I don’t know where you all are getting, you’re stepping over another line by saying that you have access to this information, and you’re

111going to use this information. I personally believe that a vaccination record or status should not even be relevant to a COVID case in a school system, because it’s not relevant information. It’s not pertinent information that you should even be privy to. you know, there’s other info. There’s other places that you can get data along with the CDC. I highly recommend you, you, you try to get additional information, in case you didn’t know, 15% of vaccinated people show no antibodies to the virus, Paula lonas. This is so if you can hear me, please press star six to unmute yourself. Yes, we hear you. Go ahead. You have three minutes if you need it. Hi. Are you able to hear me? Yes ma’am. Okay. Before you start my time, I had sent an email in, with the

112MOU. That’s going to be the second or third thing I mentioned. if you can, put that up, and welcome Mr. Choke. Okay. So I’m ready for my time. so I was calling about two things today, but now I have a third data can easily be manipulated. And I think it’s very disingenuous to use 16% as a positivity rate in our community, because that’s just against people that have tested for the vaccine. I’ve never been tested. So on. When you look at the chart of 2000 bases in a week and put that against a population of 400,000 residents, that’s only a positivity rate of 0.5%. So I think really, really to put this into perspective here and, and stop the fear-mongering among the different organizations. I know everybody has their agendas and they need their funding,

113but the true positivity rates for our community using population in cases is about 0.5%. But the two reasons I was really reaching out today is because, the first thing, and I’ll do that memorandum of understanding a few teachers sent this over to me. They were very concerned about some of the wording and paragraph 10. It talks about, optional, makeup work. And the wording of this was concerning to some of these teachers, because it almost gives the feeling that it is optional for them to actually provide additional work. So it’s a teachers will have the option to provide makeup work for students who are absent, for any reason, including being quarantined. So while it says they can send it to school ology or email, is it also giving them an opportunity to not provide it? Because

114the last sentence is no teacher will be forced coerced into providing student work, accessed by the method of their choosing. So I’d like to hear from the board after my comments, if that means that they can choose not to do the extra work and send it to them, if it’s a COVID related case. And then in paragraph eight, there’s a visitor’s policy, that says that, visitors will be allowed on school only if they agree to wear masks or provide proof of being vaccinated. There are no mass mandates in Manatee county, students and administrators, teachers, cafeteria workers are not required. So that should not be on here at all. And we are not in Nazi Germany. I should not have to provide papers to go in and walk on my student’s campus. I understand Sanjana the

115office, but, not showing a vaccine. the other, issue I wanted to ask is there was an LGBT district eyelines that were handed out about a week or two ago. And actually it was a very nice infographic. A lot of money was spent on this action item for a student will not be required to use a restroom or locker room that is in congruent with their gender, gender identity. does this mean that students will be allowed to go into a locker room that is, does not correspond to their biological sex? It says they have, they can access a single user restroom. but it says alternative or non-stigmatizing options will be made available. So while it may not be stigmatizing for that boy to go into the girl’s locker room and get dressed Comment, and Beth frenzy

116reverie gold night, if I may interject one second, Mrs. Lewis had a couple of questions. I just want to let her know we’re not going to answer them now. Any questions that we get, we will answer at the end of public comment, we will answer at the end of public comment. And I would, I would like to answer two of the questions, but I’m going to wait until the end Elspeth frenzy. Yes. I’m sorry. Oh, no, that’s all right. We know who’s in charge in here very well. Yeah. My husband is the fourth year medical student at medical school. He’s at turning points today. He works at, managing Memorial this year for rotations. He’d be here to supporting this, but he’s busy today, from my kids. Sorry about that. I’ve kept my children home since

117the beginning of the pandemic. my son participated in virtual, kindergarten at Harvey elementary. It was awesome. And, something I never thought I’d be able to do. it was great. I’m here because last fall, my two and a half year old at the time was diagnosed with mild hearing loss. We have no history or experience with this, and I am dependent on specialists to help me language specialists, speech and spoken word specialists and deaf and hard of hearing specialists. the messaging from my specialist is consistent. Amber is behind, and she’s now in a critical time clock. I have to get her caught up for the rest of her school for her entire career, by age five. And to do that, I need her in school because that’s the only place to give her access to the

118specialists that are being offered to her. I tried to get them elsewhere. I tried to get them private. I tried to get them at home. It’s not an option this year. So now I’m faced with putting my three-year-old where I feel she is going to be at risk because I can’t get her to services anywhere else. At the end of school last year, I felt good about what I saw. I think the protocols were working and I was willing to put her in school to share. And as we’ve all heard today, things have greatly changed. And I’m scared about tomorrow. I have, what’s an impossible choice tomorrow just in her school. And I don’t want to do it, but I have to do it because I’m going to prepare her to her best ability for

119the rest of her life, a pediatrician or pediatric dentist, they have all not changed their protocols. And I really wish you guys would fight to keep our children a little bit safer in schools. Seeing an infectious disease doctor walk out without being hurt is so disheartening. I’m trusting this board to protect my young ones that are not vaccinated. I’m trusting you. And I’m begging you to help fight for our kids. our family experience has given me a glimpse into special needs care. And I feel sorry for children that are at greater risk that have had a harder road than my children. We, we have completely neglected our medically fragile, most disabled students, making it impossible for them to safely access the services they need in school. And I want to think about that. We can’t

120forget about them. If it doesn’t get back, that we can’t forget about them. Please remember them. I don’t hear sufficient strategies to help protect our children. I’m begging you to feel open to change soon. I’m scared about tomorrow. The kids are excited. They want to eat in a cafeteria, but I really am worried about their safety. I want to keep them out of hospitals. My husband and I are doing everything we can. And I just beg you, please, please reconsider and help fight for our kids. You guys can see honey, You guys hope you have a good school year. Thank you, Haley. Rheem. Did I say that? The Hayley? R E H M. Okay. Hello. Thanks for having me here today. my name is Haley rim. I am here as a parent of aged children

121in Manatee county and also a registered nurse working in our community. Currently working as a pandemic response nurse. I have brought with me today, a petition from change.org that I’d like to hand into you, Mr. Kennedy, or If you could just give it to Mr. petition with 275 Signatures of community members urging the board to please listen to the healthcare professionals who are concerned about our children, going back to school without a mask mandate in place. I’m here also because as a nurse, I did take an oath to do no harm. Sending our children back to school without a mask mandate, during a pandemic will undoubtedly do harm to our children and to our community. To those of you who are following social media, your neighbor, who may think they know what’s going on in

122the healthcare community. I am here to tell you this virus does not just affect the elderly or those with comorbidities. I have patients in their thirties and forties intubated in the hospital right now, those that do get lucky enough to be discharged. Home are coming home on home oxygen that is abnormal. And it speaks to the severity of this illness. This will spread in our schools. We know that masks mitigate spread. This will help our community. If we put a mask mandate into place to control this, our healthcare workers are tired. We are struggling. We are barely keeping our heads above water. Community protection starts in our schools. These kids will get sick. They will bring this home to their families. They will bring this home to their siblings and they will come into our

123hospitals. It’s already happening. We are seeing a rise in pediatric hospitalizations throughout the state. What are we waiting for? Are we waiting for a child to get severely sick and our community to die? Are we going to keep counting the deaths that are happening in front of our face? I’m here to tell you I am living this. I work in this daily. This is my life right now. It is real. And it will spread in our schools without a mask mandate in place. Please, you were voted here by the public to protect our children. Please feel the weight of that today and do the right thing. Implement a mask mandate with an opt-out choice for those who don’t want to wear them. Okay, that’s fine. What about my kid’s choice to come to school and

124a safe environment during a pandemic to learn? What about my parent choice? Please consider this when you are opening up our schools tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Jennifer sill. Hello, I’m Jennifer still S T I L L. I’m a parent to an incoming first grader and a VPK or I’m also a clinic nurse for the county and have been at my school for 20 years. I also kind of want to lead with my school, has their water fountains open. I know they’re being worked on to be retrofitted, but I was hoping we get some Guidance to have those taped off like last year, because we don’t need Jeremy mouths on water fountains, especially at the elementary level. I wanted to come here and give my perspective of how things were in

125the clinic. Last year, I was in the clinic homeless 190 school days last year, and we were successful with masking. We had no spread within my school from a school exposure. Everything that happened at my school was from community or household exposures. Kids have zero problems wearing masks. It’s how the parent presents it. If my two year old wears a mask, we just saw a baby that’s three who has a hearing problem wearing mask. They do fine with it. If they’re, that’s what they’re instructed to do you put on a mask to help yourself and your friends stay? Well? I actually didn’t think that this was going to be the case. Last year, when school started, I kept my kindergarten, her home because I didn’t think masks were going to work and that we were

126going to see spread of COVID in the classrooms. That was untrue. So when I saw how well the children were doing with mass, I sent her back to school with me in second quarter. I just wonder where last year we were all on the same playing field. And where are my rights as a parent that wants a mass child not to be around unvaccinated people, unmasked people. We have been home for most of the last 18 months, and I have not allowed my children to be around these kinds of people the last year and a half. I know that the survey was sent out. I know for a fact at my school, my first grader could be in a completely mass classroom. We had enough numbers for that, but there was no followup we have,

127as far as my knowledge, no mass classrooms were given any guidance to the county to do that. So I know there was another survey that was, wants to be sent out. I don’t want any more surveys. I just want to set up, I want my kids to go to school every day in a math classroom. I want those that don’t want to wear masks free to not wear a mask, but I want my child around vaccinate adults and mass people. That should be my choice. As a parent, we need several layers of mitigation measures and we know the CDC and the AAP has said that masking is vital for a successful year. The Delta we know is a thousand times higher viral load is 60% more infectious. So as we send these kids back, infections

128are going to happen in the classrooms. It’s I mean, there’s no way about that. I just hope that we can find something that we can all, you know, be on the same playing field and being school and be healthy and safe and succeeding. Thank you so much. Thank you. Glen javelina came in the building. Everybody asks the word IP. That was your policy. Please step to the podium and state your name, call a recess until you get it straightened out. My name for the record is Glenda Molina. I do respect, folks that are more experts than I am. So I’ve got a short clip here. I want to play. And then they cause symptomatic disease because they cannot be filtered out and they have animal reservoirs. And this was very important point, no one can

129make this virus go away. The CDC has managed to convince everybody that we can handle this. Like we did smallpox where we could make the virus go away. Small packs had no animal reservoirs. The only thing I’ve learned to infect humans, that’s why we’re able to make that virus go away. That will not happen with this any more than it will with influenza, the common cold respiratory syncytial virus and the viral respiratory syndromes or anything else that has animal reservoirs. So the reason you can’t do this is because you’re trying to do something which has already been tried, and can’t be done equally important is that vaccination changes. None of this, especially with this vaccine, I would hope this orbit start asking itself. You’ve worked considers taking the advice of the CDC and the state

130board of health. Why are you doing things about this that we didn’t do for the common cold influenza respiratory syncytial virus? And they asked herself why is a vaccine that is supposedly so effective, not in break out in the middle of a summer with respiratory viral syndromes, don’t do that. And to help you understand that you need to know the condition. Is it called antibody mediated, viral enhancement. That is a condition done when vaccines work wrong as they did in every Corona virus study done in animals on Corona viruses, after the SARS outbreak and done in respiratory syncytial virus or a vaccine used an older individual going the wrong way, which by it cannot be done right for respiratory virus, which has a very low pathogenicity rate because immune system actually fight the virus wrong

131and let the virus become a worse would with native infection. And that is why you’re seeing an outbreak right now. In fact, in that flash drive, you’re going to have coming to you and then emails for six extra Olympia studies showing that 75% of people beyond 18 positive seven cases in. So listen to the experts, you know, 99% of that presentation that, fancy did had nothing to do with students zero. We’re talking about adults, nobody gave me numbers. Thank you for your comment to eight or 10 each way pamphlet. so far, is she on the phone, Mr. can you press star six to unmute yourself, please? Hello? Yep. Okay, great. Thank you. My name is. I’m a mom of four kids, three of whom will be attending Stewart elementary this year. to tell you, my

132kids are beyond excited to go to school. This year is an understatement. We have spent the last year and a half in. E-learning keeping my kids home to keep them safe and our families safe and allowing for students that couldn’t, take advantage of e-learning platform to be able to go to school and do it in a safely, socially distanced responsible way. and they’re excited. They want to go to the playground. They want to go see their teachers in their classrooms. And I was okay with sending them to back to school, the brick and mortar school, because the safety measures that were put in place last year, the masks that were put in just last year and the mitigation measures that were put in place last year worked, we saw that we saw how great they

133worked, and I felt comfortable knowing that I was sending my kids back to school, the brick and mortar school under the impression that these guidelines, these safety measures, these protocols would all embrace, when school started this year and it just broke my heart and terrified me when I was informed by our very own school that we were essentially going back to pre pandemic normal. Our kids are going back to school as if nothing was happening, that there was no pandemic. There was no virus read. And it’s horrifying to me to think that tomorrow I’ll be sending my three kids into a school where I don’t know what’s has the faster, the vaccinated I don’t know is half the school were wear masks. And I have to think that they’re going into school with no mitigation

134measures in place, no social business team, nothing to keep my kids safe. All I’m hearing about is how we cannot affect the rights of the unmasked people that want their kids on math. And what about the rights of us as parents and ones that want our kids to stay safe? My kids are all under the age of 12. They are all unable to get vaccinated. There is no way for me to protect them as parents, which is my job since they were born from this virus. And when I send them to school, my intuition is my understanding is they are basically under your care they’re under the schools or expect their safety to be taken care of just as much as you expect me as a parent to keep their feet. So I am asking

135you, please review what is being out there. And the medical people are saying, there’s stuff out there. Please review it. Please understand we are parents. We want our kids back in school, but to do it safely. And I feel like we’re not effectively doing that right now. Every barrier that’s put between our kids keeps them safe. We as parents and adults and professionals and members of the community are given right to protect the vulnerable. And my kids are vulnerable. This, the, any kids that go to school right now and vulnerable. Thank you very much for your comment, Kristen. Ill-will Kristen L well, I got it. Okay, Good afternoon. My name’s Christian L well, let me start by saying, we all share the same goal. We all want our students to return to school, and we

136all want them to return safely with as little disruption, to their learning and instruction as possible. We have exactly one opportunity to get to open our public schools safely. The board should be basing their reopening plan on the recommendations and guidance published by our nation’s leading health experts at the CDC and the AAP. Those agencies have given us clear instructions and recommendations on how to reopen our school safely and effectively. It is time for a district to implement a phase three opening plan based on prevention, not any weight and the reactionary approach we have learned the correct time to scale back on for Redmond measures, such as masking is when the situation improves or is no longer a threat. Unfortunately, our children’s staff and our community are more at risk now than ever before. Data

137tells us that Delta isn’t our predominant strain. It’s only a matter of time until it takes over. I understand my body, my choice argument, when it applies to the vaccine, however, mandating meth in schools during a public health crisis is not an infringement on anyone’s personal rights or freedoms. It’s quite the opposite. Masking is the most simple and effective preventative strategy that we can implement. That also protects our individual rights and freedom of choice to vaccinate ourselves and our children or not to wear a mask. It provides a layer of protection against the preventable, highly contagious disease master, proven to be effective and will aid in creating a safe and healthy learning environment for all public school students and staff, regardless of their vaccination status, we have all seen the headlines. Florida is in trouble.

138Our hospitals across the state, including pediatric hospitals are short-staffed and many are at, or are surpassing capacity. And we have not yet reached our peak doctors across the state are begging us to do our part, to prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed. We all know there is a direct correlation between sickness, schools, and community spread. We are seeing this in schools and communities across the country who have already started in-person learning. We only have one chance to get this right, and we have the opportunity to learn valuable lifesaving lessons from their mistakes schools that mandated math fair, better than schools who reopened without masks go up across the country with no math mandates or having to switch their mode of learning to virtual, due to widespread illness, mass exposures, and quarantines resulting in staffing

139issues. A school district in our own state had to postpone the first day of school due to a cluster outbreak. Manatee high is currently experiencing an outbreak from band camp and sports. They were all unmasked. Thank you for your call. Karen Nancy says next. I think she just press star six. Ms. can you hear me? Yes, we can go ahead. Have three minutes. My name is Karen Pez, Karen K a R Y N N a N T E S. I am very disappointed that we did not get to hear from the doctor or a Manatee Memorial VP that was present at today’s meeting. I am going to read a joint statement on behalf of Sarasota Memorial healthcare system, chief of staff and hospital epidemiologist while wearing face covering, maybe optional for students, teachers, and staff

140at area public schools. That policy runs contrary to national health experts, recommendations, Sarasota Memorial, chief of staff, James F I O R I C a M D and Sarasota Memorial health hospital, epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists manual for D O G O R D I L L O M D advised parents to send their students back to class with face masks due to the exponential growth in COVID 19 cases, including a rise in cases among young children in our region and states, we urge everyone to wear a mask indoors in public places, regardless of vaccination status, as well as outdoors. When social distancing is not possible, that’s been coupled with mass wearing hand-washing and other precautions are the best tools we have to keep everyone safe and prevent the barriers that pose the greatest risks

141during this pandemic. I, Karen am a mother of two boys that can not get back to native yet. I am extremely concerned with the rising numbers and the Delta variant, but they are just not safe at school. We can Institute a map mandate with an out clause, and I highly highly recommend that we do. Thank you. Thank you, David. Lori Dean. Good morning. I’m not as good a speaker as most of these people. My name is David Dean. I’ve lived in my ACA city for 25 years and I’m in the guardian for two high school and two elementary school children. These latest rules by governor death, Santas department of health are insane, and hopefully there’ll be overturned by the courts, but we don’t have time for that. These, ridiculous rules will inevitably lead to more

142Delta transmissions, hospitalizations and deaths among our children and families. I feel like he is empowered a tyranny of COVID denying reckless and misguided parents to have a right, to send their masculine kids to school and thereby needlessly further spread COVID to my four children, simply because they find mass inconvenient and a front to their vanity or interfere with their high school football games. No, the salt’s going to be inevitable. You’re going to be in crisis mode, just like Polk county and in regard to not even listening to the experts on mass, and treating as though all opinions are equal. I’m just going to quote, Isaac Asimov, who was a professor of biochemistry 40 years ago. He said there is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of

143anti intellectual ism has been a constant thread, winding its way through our political and cultural life nurtured by the false notion that democracy, that means that quote by ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. I never thought we’d lived in such a bizarro world where I’d have to come here and plead with the school officials responsible for children’s safety to please stand up now and protect them. I’m begging you. Re-institute a temporary mask mandate, at least until we get vaccines with an opt-out. If that’s what’s required, pull the plexiglass dividers back out of the warehouse and put them in the schools where the kids can use them. Three re-institute meaningful, direct contract chasing and quarantines to stop the further spread of the now inevitable infections that are going to occur. And for the last

144survey, I was told only 8% of my elementary school parents responded to it. So they didn’t have enough to put up a separate class of mass kids. You need to do something effectively to ask those parents. If they’re going to wear a mask, put them in a separate classroom. If you don’t buy your next meeting, we’ll be in cold COVID full crisis. Like Polk county is now. I’ve gone with it. It’s just unbelievable that I have to be here in beg. This you’re responsible for number one job is to save their lives and keep them healthy, Sir, Kathy flora Or the record, I’m Kathleen flora and that’s F L O R a and good morning, Mr. Chairman, Reverend vice chairman and distinguished members of the board. Thank you for holding this special meeting to allow

145us to speak today. I rise to ask the board to revise the COVID protocols that were put in place on 7 27 to re-institute a temporary mass policy for Monte county schools beginning today to be revisited when the risk environment changes the public health crisis we face in Florida is unprecedented in early summer. All of us felt relief of the dwindling virus cases in our community. And you made rational plans for returned to a healthy and normal school year. Then in just a couple of days, that mutating virus ambushed all of us, forcing you to make decisions that may be the most difficult you will face in public office. This is not a political decision. It’s a public health decision of critical consequence. One that carries with it, the imperative to protect the health, safety,

146and welfare of our kids. As our third president, Thomas Jefferson once said the care of human life and not its destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government. The care of human life. That’s the decision upon you today. The facts are clear. The risks are clear. Our youngest children are not yet elec eligible for the vaccine yet. We all want them in school. The Delta variant is exponentially more transmissible than prior virus strains. Putting the unvaccinated, our youngest kids at highest risk Florida’s children are getting sick. Hospitalized, admitted to pediatric ICU in record numbers. If even one of our children is sick and one cannot predict the medical outcome for that child and family. What we do now, if that occurs is we risk growing numbers of cases throughout our schools. Others

147must quarantine and learning is disrupted. It boils down to this. What will happen if you take no action as elected community leaders, you assumed the responsibility to adapt, to changing circumstances and to act when circumstances require you bear the constitutionally conveyed local authority to decide what is best decisions that sometimes require great personal cost. So what is best it’s to put the simplest most effective mitigation strategy in place now an ACA temporary policy to ensure the least disruption to learning. I ask you not to look to the left nor to the right, but to look into your servant’s heart, sir, and make the right decision for our kids. My name is Jim flora, and it is with great empathy and respect that I addressed this board today. My goal is to take some emotion out

148of the discussion and make three brief points. And one recommendation. First, you’re making a public health decision, not a political one. I come to you today, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as a fierce, independent who, and, and grandfathered in Manatee county. And I firmly believe that this is a local issue and this board should not be bullied by the governor, by the president or anybody else. The buck stops right here at its core. This board in my view is faced with the management, a risk management decision. Each of us are managing COVID our risk every day. I love my church and which I can attend and sit in a mass section. I can sit in an unmatched section or I can attend virtually if I choose to or need to by

149church. Leadership is smart, sir. And they recognize that we all have different needs. And however, in the classroom, as it stands today, our children don’t have that option. Therefore, this is more complex. Risk management strategies must be dynamic. Before I retired, I ran a food company. We manufactured food for consumers and to ensure food safety, we regularly monitored bacterial counts in our finished product and in our facilities. And when the counts went up, we raised our mitigation strategies. When our accounts went down, we eased them because they cost money to not react to critical. Data is reckless and can be extraordinarily costly. The critical, critical success factors here are not complicated is COVID going up or down. Do children get impacted? Yes or no. And what mitigation strategies are the most effective that we can

150implement based upon the majority of scientific opinion, finally, in the face of any threat, effective leaders eat to state call, they need to analyze data. They need to consider creative options unburdened by personal bias. Thank you, sir. Good morning. Good morning. This is Tina show. Can you hear me? Yes. Ma’am you have three minutes. Okay. Thank you very much. I, I am going to keep this short for you as requested. I agree with the previous speakers who support a mask mandate with an opt-out for parents says may be needed for medical purposes. We need to protect the children, teachers, and staff throughout our school system. I like in putting a mask on a child to try and to get a squirming two year old into a car seat. We all know it may not be

151easy, but it is necessary for their safety. No responsible adult would think about driving around with a child, not secured safely. I look at face masks as the car seats for COVID. At this point, this can always be changed. If you Institute the mandate today, you can revisit it. When the numbers show a decline in infection, I respectfully asked the school board to Institute the mask mandate and other COVID precautions. Thank you, Natalia Rizo Rizzo, Natalia Rizzo. Ms. Rizzo, if you’re online, please press star six. Natalia Vizio, Anthony Rizzo, Anthony Rizzo. He just got traded to the Yankees Anthony Rizzo. Okay. Ashley Palmer, Ashley Palmer. If you’re online, please press star six to On mute. Ashley Palmer, Ashley Palmer. Okay. Jennifer bales, Jennifer bales. Hello. I like to ask something real quick. First, if y’all

152don’t mind. I don’t understand that of all these city council meetings, we’ve always had the camera’s reversed so that everybody can see our faces on all these videos. You’re just seeing everybody’s rear rent. And I know that it’s been requested. So I didn’t know why we were not being able to face. Not only you guys, but also the platform, like I said before, I’ll any questions that come up during public comment, we’ll answer at the end. And that included, well, that was the whole point. We’d like to do it at the beginning. Cause I’d like to be able to see people’s faces and not their rear ends. You are, you are looking at our faces, Not just you, but the people, the people should also be able to see our faces. This is a public

153facility and at every community service, that’s all I’m asking. I don’t understand that. Well, we’ve already eaten up half my time, but I will say this. Thank you. The real problem that you’re having here is that this is public comment before the school board in a business meeting. Yes, sir. And you are being given the opportunity to address the board. I don’t know what the optics are for the other people in the room, but these are not the only people in the public. There are people that are sitting home watching this. And I don’t really think that for something as important as there’s Really that much of a concern with what your butt looks like. We want to hear what you have to say. I’m doing that. He was asked three times now a question

154that we’ve answered already, and we need to move on with what we are hearing here today. Okay. I had several things. I wanted to bring up to David after listening to several parents going on and on and on about how they feel that their children are going to be in such worrisome and fear factor. I’ve buried two of my children. So I think my children deserve a voice. I think that this whole thing with the mask and the shots has gone way beyond what anyone has a required answer to say, it’s cost me two children. So I think my children deserve a voice. If you want to mask your children, put a mask on your children. If you do not, you do not have to. It is that simple. If I want to inject my

155child with a vaccine, that is my choice. So on, etc. What infuriates me are these people that come up here and tell me that my child does not have the right who doesn’t have a voice and has to speak, sign language and see face of other individuals. Isn’t allowed to communicate, or my autistic children who believe in our face and our structure of what we see and what we say and how we feel, who can’t comprehend regular conversations. You’ve just eliminated that if you want to wear a mask fine. But as I look around the room and I see everybody wearing a mask, how often do you wear a wash that mask on your face? Cause to me, I wear my underwear. After I take a shower, I wash it. I’m looking around at some

156of these Petri dishes and you’re wanting to force these children for eight hours a day and a Petri dish. Not everybody believes the same. I respect your belief. Why can’t you respect mine? Do my children not count. And as far as segregating these children, you guys have been trying to Percy our tea. Are you not segregating these children? When you say we only want mass children in this room, we only want non mask in this room. We only want vaccinated. No, you can’t do that. You can’t say you want rights for all and then limit and segregate us. Get again. If you’re scared, stay home. If you don’t want to go to a restaurant because you’re scared, someone’s got COVID or out we have options, but it is not right for someone else to tell

157my handicapped children. And by the way, I’m handicapped as well. This is my service dog. No one has the right to turn me away, but yet last year, because these mandates, which by the way, are not laws. I couldn’t go to the grocery store. I couldn’t pick up my prescription drugs. I couldn’t get my dry cleaning. I couldn’t get basic needs because I was turned away because people do not understand the law. Your rights of fear are not mine. I’ve buried two children, almost lost my husband. Six months ago to a heart attack. I’m not scared to live digital or not buried. I Trump yours until you’ve heard a child. You have no idea. This is where it has to end stop taking people’s choices away. If you’re scared, don’t want to do this fine.

158We have options. Thank you, Mr. William, I would have liked to say, good morning, but I’ll say good afternoon to the board. I’m William clapper and I have a presentation, a statement from the Manatee county democratic party out of respect for, other people who wish to make comment, I’m going to truncate my statement so we can certainly move along. Manatee county democratic party supports the safety of all children, teachers, and staff in the school district. Therefore we encourage the Manatee county school board to adopt a mask policy masks, social distancing, and the vaccine had been scientifically proven to significantly reduce the spread of this dangerous disease. While you all can be encouraged by the vaccine, providing us an opportunity to return to normal. This vaccine miracle is not available to children under the age of

15912, leaving them vulnerable to this dangerous Delta variant masks make sense. They protect lives. Studies have confirmed that school environments are not super spreader centers. If mandatory masks, social distancing policies are adopted. I understand you may feel your hands are tied by the governor who has permitted the withholding of education funds. If a mask mandate is adopted, understandably, this puts you as our school board in a terrible position in this political environment. How do you ensure an education that is both funded and safe for students? We encourage you to join other counties and standing up to policies that put personal political careers over and before our children, by the way, our governor’s own children are attending private school with a mask mandate. Don’t our children deserve the same sort treatment. Thank you very much and

160have a pleasant day. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have here three N three initials, three capital letters, PA dash C and then Robert Caston. I don’t know whether those physician’s assistant I believe, or with Edward. That is Lisa. Oh, okay. Then I’ll just call the name. Robert Caston. Mr. Caston, if you’re online, please press star six to unmute Robert Caston. Robert Caston, Tara Tomlinson. Can you hear me? Oh yeah. Mr. Casten. Yes. Yes. Go ahead. Sorry. You have three minutes if you need it. Okay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Robert Caston. I’m a local emergency room physician assistant captain in the Florida army national guard, father of three and a husband of a Manatee county kindergarten teacher. As we all know, there has been an ongoing rise of COVID-19 cases affecting not

161only the elderly, but multiple, people with comorbidities. Now it’s affecting younger, healthier people requiring hospitalization or supplemental oxygen. The youngest of which that I’ve personally seen as a two year old, I’ve been treating COVID 19 patients since the beginning of this pandemic. And this is the worst that it’s been, especially locally. This virus is not prejudice to any race, gender religious, or political beliefs. This virus is not a political game. This virus affects mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, and grandchildren. I’ve personally watched people die from car accidents, severe burns, heart attacks and countless unimaginable ways. It pains me to watch as people come in with severe COVID infections, slowly suffocating because their lungs have been overtaken by severe COVID infection and are in acute respiratory distress syndrome, struggling to breathe, knowing they need oxygen, knowing that

162if they get intubated, their chances of survival drop dramatically. This is the last thing I wish for any family. This new variant is contagious and we have to do everything possible to mitigate the spread of this virus. As everyone has the potential to be a vector to spread this disease, children will spread this disease. Even if your child is asymptomatic, they can and will spread the virus to parents, grandparents, someone else’s grandmother, shopping next to them at Publix. My personal fear for this virus is a relatively unknown long-term complications from the virus. Especially if my children were to contract the virus, we know that mass mitigate the spread basic hygiene, mitigates the spread. This is not a time to be selfish or feel inconvenience for having to wear a mask is the time for the

163community to stand together, to protect our children. My recommendations as a healthcare worker, parent and husband would be a mass requirement with optional, opt out, regardless of the decision from board, my children will wear masks at school, if not for them, but for the greater good of the community. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yes, Tara Tomlinson. I think we called her name before Ms. Tara Tomlinson thinks she’s on online. Hello? Yes. Ma’am. We can hear you. You have three minutes. Okay. Thank you. I’m Tara Tomlinson. first I want to address the fact that the decisions that you make, not only impact people in regard to COVID, but every single one of us, you may need serious or urgent medical care. And just the past week, two people, I know one, a friend and one a

164relative have experienced a grave consequences of the lack of care and participation and mitigation efforts made. So by so many in their community, first, a friend’s little boys fell, hitting his head and landing in the pool. He had a seizure and inhaled water, but EMT, it didn’t take him to the hospital because of the limits they are facing with space and personnel. Then a family member had a stroke and seizures and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She is at SMH where her family and husband cannot be with her. If she faces brain surgery and very possibly death is not wearing masks really worth the community spread. That could be the cause of you or a loved one, not being denied appropriate medical care or facing death all alone. The level of cold-hearted selfishness and

165unwillingness to make even the tiniest bit sacrifice that has been displayed by this community is horrifying. You might think that those of us came, ask and vaccinate can just have the attitude of, oh, well, I guess those who refuse to be safe will face the consequences, but we don’t throw other people’s children to the wolves in our minds that way. And we also understand that it is not only those people who will be impacted, it’s alarming, how the science behind mask wearing is either. It’s understood. It’s difficult to believe that we have still not crossed the fact that mask, that primarily a means of protecting others around you. So this choice, quote, unquote, that parents who want to protect their children from COVID are being given. It’s a choice to have their pile, bear a

166mask, to protect others, but not to be protected from others. Parents who oppose masks are being given all of the choice and benefit their children will be protected from potential COVID exposure from those who choose to mask. Even if they themselves refuse to do their part, they can choose to endanger others or not. All children are only being given the choice to protect others while receiving no protection themselves masking in schools with successful last year. And here we are dealing with a strain of the virus that is far more contagious. Yeah. We are refusing to use those same mitigation efforts. I would like to know this, what scientific evidence do we have to decide that we are in such a better place with COVID that we are no longer needing to engage in appropriate mitigation

167efforts, because I cannot wrap my mind around the people in charge of keeping our children safe, just deciding that they will no longer protect them because it’s too hard to fight for it. I understand wanting to protect your own position, but how will you feel when children start getting admitted to the hospital? Do we share lack of leadership and your Cal Cal into the anti-science crowd. Other school boards have stood up for their children and their communities. It can be done. You’re just choosing not to. Can you, you can say the other telling you don’t matter to this discussion, but that’s a cop out. You just don’t want to be compared to those with more integrity, leadership and courage. Every time you stay, you are giving parents choices, you’re being different. Genuis you also have

168a choice. You can choose to take a stand and to do the right thing, even if it’s hard. And even if it puts your reelection at risk, or you can choose to take the easy way out, pretend you have no options in the end, you will have to live with her personal and professional integrity, Yes. Hi. Yes. Hi. this is Pyle JLR. I’m a physician here in Bradenton, along with my husband who also worked in the emergency room here in Bradington. And I just wanted to, you know, talk a little bit about the fact that, my husband and I, we have two young children who are too young to be vaccinated. We are both vaccinated and I’m not here to talk about vaccines today, but if our children who are too young, don’t really have

169a voice and can’t really have their parents, you know, protect them in any other way. I really strongly feel that math should be remained as, and reinstated in our public schools and our elementary schools. you know, I don’t really understand what, you know, could be so wrong and so debilitating for a child to wear a mask unless they do have some medical condition that really, you know, make the difficult for them to wear one. But I really do see the other side of the coin, which is, you know, that if parents are worried about their, you know, children breathing and not being able to breathe with a math gun, have you really looked at or seen any other tiles, you know, around the county? I don’t really think that most of them have a problem

170where here math. In fact, if you’re really worried about, you know, your children breathing, you really need to look around at the other hospitals and the people that are being hospitalized. I don’t know what it’ll take for, you know, our board of education to, you know, change the decision. But I don’t know if it’ll take a bunch of outbreaks to really make a difference, will it take several teachers and students getting sick, like a domino effect? Will it take, you know, seeing other young children requiring ventilators and oxygen over their faces as a more comfortable alternative to cloth masks to help them breathe? You know, we’re very sincerely begging and asking you to reconsider and reinstate the masks in our schools and Manatee county. It’s a very simple measure with so much value. If it

171means our kids won’t miss out on school, their friends, their teachers, if it means they’ll stay safe and healthy, my husband and I, you know, we would love for our kids not to wear masks anymore, but this is really just a simple way to protect them until we really feel safe enough, you know, that they can be without masks and without, you know, spreading virus to others and without them contracting it as well. thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Rebecca mess. My seller, Rebecca mess salon. My salon, Miss Masella. If you’re online, please press star six to unmute Rebecca Marcella. Yes. Ma’am go ahead. You have three minutes? Yes, ma’am go ahead. You’re three minutes. Hello. she keeps pressing star six. No, she’s on mute. We can hear you. Okay. Thank

172you very much. I am Masella. I am, I have served one of our emergency rooms for over 10 years now. I have some concerns as a parent. I’ve been trying to address these as of a few weeks ago. I’ve been emailing with the board and our leadership at our school and for school. And we’re trying to figure this out when this has been an issue really awesome, or it’s been ramping up, but mainly since July 1st. So there’s a little frustration there, but, mainly until you have a child that’s hospitalized with tubes and wires coming out of them, I don’t think any parent realizes that fear that, you know, are you going to lose that the cases are going up with these pediatric kids? and as a nurse, I should not have to send my

173incoming kids greater end and wonder are they going to have the same classroom setup? I’ve been on Facebook. I’ve seen many friends at different schools. They have tables all clumped together. I have, classrooms at my child’s school where they’re spaced apart, but I see the same, you know, kindergartners with tennis, with the tables clumped together and the students together. And then as my third grade are going to have that, is there a teacher going to be in the math? Why do I have to expect a different setup between my third grader and my kindergartener? If I’m doing these precautions for my children, when we’re out and about in public with the math youth, I just want the math mandate with the opt-out. But furthermore, I would like to see any adults in that building to

174safeguard my unvaccinated child with their math son, whether they are baskets or not. Because the CDC says whether you are vaccinated or not, you are to wear a mask. And I am okay with that. I am an adult. I can do that. If I go in and volunteer, I don’t believe in locking the parents out of the school, but I do believe that if you are going to volunteer or if you are H a T, it’s going to be with my student for over 35 hours a week, more than I’m going to be with them during the school year. I want you and a mask around my child because I know you’re safe, guarding them the way I would do at home and to reply to the lady with the anxiety, with the mask and

175her child and the sinusitis, you know, but you didn’t see flu. You didn’t see strep. That was all mitigated. And you know, the anxiety the mean age right now is 40 for hospitalizations. What is the anxiety going to do to a child when they have to bury a parent? That is our mean age. That is the mean age of an elementary school child. And, and I would just like to ask that you please take into account that, you know, to janitors and Gainesville, you know, succumb to this virus. And it’s because they did not have a mandate in place. You have a business to run a Publix. Now all of the employees are, are wearing a mask fit, faxed or not. So you have a business run, you better, you know, bridge those gaps, April

176Alison breath, April Alison cold breath, Jeremy Kennedy. Can you hear me? Hi there. My name is April Alison Cobra. I’m a parent of three immunity county students. I refuse, absolutely refuse to make any of my children put a face covering on at this point to go to school. I don’t agree with any citizens, Kevin, to complete a form to opt out or complete a survey to attain freedom that we already have. I think no changes should be made. However, if you insist on using your government power to start a platform, then you should start that platform to freedom. Allow the parents want math to complete a form. They can, they can complete a form and you can keep track of them. According to Florida, health.gov COVID hasn’t, COVID, hasn’t even been as deadly as the

177flu, especially in children, only nine, four to deaths among children have been alleged of those. Some have indeed had fatal pre-existing conditions, such as cancer. There’ve been zero, zero child deaths in Manatee county. This is one of them from parents, not one of the parents in my group of 8,000 Patriots state. They oppose Promask parents allowing or even promoting their kids to wear masks. We just demand our God given rights under our constitution, not to the DOH charts stated one kid under 17 in Manatee county was hospitalized. One. This board has no business. Even speaking about vaccines to us or our children. Parents had half have had over a year now to get their opinions on record, via email or public comment. So if you have to answer as to what the parents, what the

178parents want, what we want, you already have your answer, which is exactly consistent, which governor just answers his order. That’s an order. The DOH has put out recommendations. The governor gave you an order. So, I would like to know responding directly to, some of the board’s comments made today. How do you plan on encouraging people in specific zip codes to complete hypothetical surveys and how is this not special treatment? It sounds like there’d be a planned and paid 15 expedition to get this accomplished. And I would like to ask that if you put Dr. Vinci’s, slides up in the nurses, slides to please put them all up, even the ones that were, intentionally skipped. So I want to say that some of you have, stated that you’ve been served For your comment, Ms. Cobra. Thank

179you. Ma’am Reverend golden, Ashley Palmer, who we skipped over earlier, she was disconnected, but is now back on. So did you know she was dead when you called her name before she could not get connected via teams? She is back she Ashley Palmer number 22. Okay. So could we go back to her now? Yes, that’s fine. Thank you, Ms. Palmer, could you plus a star six to unmute yourself three minutes? Yup. Yes. Ma’am go ahead. Thank you so much. this is actually kind of a good intro for me. I have three young children they’re too young to be back speeding right now. and my oldest, did e-learning last year. and just as we fell today, even in the best of circumstances, technology is critical, and difficult to use. So, we were really excited to get,

180to send him back in person after spring break. we were so impressed with all the safety measures that the school was doing. And I saw my son tried being in a classroom, being with his friends and being with other kids. And I am so thankful that we had that opportunity. and so what I’m I am asking right now is for you guys to consider, I understand you believe that your hands are tied, with the governor’s executive orders. And I empathize with you and the predicament that this puts you in, but we’ve seen other counties across the state to fight this order to protect our children. the exposure guidelines discussed today are quite alarming and invasive or prying children’s support and team received nasal swab and miss out and critical learning in the classroom. Our kids

181need to be in school may need to be safe, and that have created a safe guard for us to be able to do that over the last 18 months, Florida prides itself on choice, but where is the safe choice for those of us who wants to protect our families from COVID the strong stance by encouraging them amongst staff, students, and visitors consider a math mandate with an ass out options and establish math only classrooms, the elementary school. Thank you so much for your time and your service to our community. Thank you, Nick Taylor, Nick Taylor, Mr. Taylor, if you’re online, please press star six to unmute Nick Taylor. Hantz Ellington Hantz Ellington. Oh, great. I think you can hear me now. Yes. My name is Dr. Andrew Ellington. My child is, in kindergarten in the

182Manatee county school system, and I was motivated to speak today because Manatee county is currently experiencing an extremely high community transmission of COVID-19 yet, despite this clear health risk, especially the un-vaccinated population. And that’s the majority of the students in Manatee county. the school system is not doing everything possible to protect the health of the students. This CDC, the American academy of pediatrics. They’ve laid out clear guidelines for, students to return safely, to in-person learning. And these organizations represent, the knowledge and experience of thousands of doctors, public health officials. And I think their guidance should be the guidance that Manatee county school district follows. and when I compare Manatee county’s current protocols to those guidelines, the biggest deficiencies I saw, were the quarantining and testing procedure, which it sounds like we’re moving towards being more

183in agreement, with the CDC and AAP guidelines. So that’s great. And then to the mask optional policy, that’s in direct opposition to those, CDC and AAP guidelines, mask protect, not only the people wearing them, over mat protect, not only, from the inhalation of COVID-19, but also help reduce the admission of COVID-19 from infected individuals. So universal masks manding mandating a universal mask wearing, will, greatly increase the protection for our students. And it’s important to point out the CDC has found no adverse effects of mask wearing to students or children’s, students for adults and that’s both at rest and, even at plate. So I think the priority of the school board should be to create and foster that safe learning environment for our students. we should be following the guidelines set out by pediatricians and public

184health experts. so that is, all coast context of a positive case should be required to quarantine at home. And second that students and staff should be required to wear masks while endorse ultimately, the mask option policy is an empowering uninformed misinformed or ill-informed parents to make decisions that put their kids, my kids and everyone’s kids at risk. So ultimately I think you, as the board have to consider whether following the guidance at the state level, that does not agree with scientific consensus or guidance at the national level, as it pertains to student health and in-person learning, you have to decide where whether falling that state guidance is, still ethical given, given the situation in Manatee county. So there’s things we can do. We can Institute that, universal mass mandate. We can to make it temporary

185mass mandate classrooms. Very much Dawn kit, Herman gentlemen, you called you out for me. Was that Nick Taylor? Yes, sir. Oh, all right. Is that all right? Mr. Chair, Nick Taylor. my name is Nick Taylor. I’m the parent of two kids in, elementary school in our county. And, I don’t know if I may ask a question first, but when board members leave and citizens make comments, do you guys get to go back and see those comments? Because there was a national guard doctor who called and you were out of the room and I’ve thought what he said it was pretty compelling. So I was just curious how that works when you have to leave. We’ll answer that at the end of public comment. Okay. Thank you. My time hasn’t started has it? It has, my

186name is Dawn Kinderman for the record, board superintendent, board members, and, congratulations, Mr. Joe, welcome. this is a public health crisis and policies are infecting it as this virus infects our community. It’s time to counter the misinformation with facts. We have reached a place, particularly among policymakers where one must consult their personal conscience, a grandmother working in a local high school, 72 she’s vaccinated. She is, she is not at risk or she is not without risk. Excuse me, a teenager at a local school. Once the vaccine, the desire was increased after an outbreak last week in one of our schools that six and seven children and an extracurricular group at his school, his parents won’t allow him to get the vaccine. A high schooler who’s single mother was ill for weeks and unable to work.

187This inspired that team to go and get her first dose, but she’s only a couple of weeks passed and she won’t be fully when school starts, she wants to wear a mask, but she fears that she will be ostracized. And that most of her peers will not be wearing a mask. She’s secretly hoping right now that you’re going to do something to help her. She does not want to be left with the burden of choosing between fitting in or staying safe. Her mother wants her to wear a mask. The school will never know, but that is that mother’s choice. You can make a mask mandate and opt out through the DOE. They would not have used opt out language. You can’t have an opt out. If you don’t have a mandate, why is that language

188there? It gives you permission to do that. And then you will know that child, that mother, that is her choice. She wants her child to be massed a local elementary. After several weeks in ventilation, a fathers are come to the disease this week, his GoFundMe, he says that he was 45 years old and otherwise in good health here in break-in, Braden in private school and mother of six during a late summer drama camp, which not require mass became infected as did others who attended that, that camp 42 years old on a ventilator in the ICU, in Manatee county right now, a father whose children attended a local elementary. He is in his thirties, in Northwest Bradenton. He’s in ICU right now, fighting for his life, a high school educator with co-morbidities vaccinated. And he’s one

189of the few employees wearing a mask at a school where there’s very little social distancing. His doctor has warned him that despite his vaccination, he is still high risk. He needs his job. He loves his job. He is praying that his mask will be enough to protect him because others won’t have one. And he knows it. Sorry, freedom of choice, but choices are not without consequences and moments like this. Our choices impact more than ourselves, America, the land of the free, but also home of the brave. Am I allowed to ask permission to finish? I’m almost done. If I wouldn’t have gotten upset, I could. We don’t. We have, we have to be consistent. Everybody gets three minutes. I will send this to all of you in email. Please read it. Thank you, Dr. Pyle

190Shaw on the phone. It might be Dr. Shaw. If you’re online, please press star six to unmute. Hello, this is Dr. Pyle Shaw. Good morning. School board. Watch a good afternoon. Now school board members. I thank you for your service to the community and for your time today, I’ve worked in healthcare for over 20 years. Helping children and adults recover from injury. I have two elementary aged children ready to go back to school in person this year, while we were all excited to go to our first in-person open house in over a year, I was equally disheartened to see only a handful of adults and children wearing masks, walking through the school. And while in close contact in individual classrooms, the administrators could have easily led the effort in a show of support by wearing

191masks and following CDC and AAP guidelines for universal indoor masking, regardless of vaccination status. We are nowhere near the end of this pandemic. As this virus, happily mutates, the unvaccinated are at highest risk, as you know, and you’ve heard of breakthrough cases amongst some vaccinated as well and severely concerned for the health and safety of our children. Particularly our elementary aged kids who have no access to vaccines yet. How do we go about protecting them when the large majority won’t be wearing masks or practicing any type of distancing, I’ve kept them safe this far by teaching them the importance of wearing a mask when around others, limiting contact, preaching, hand hygiene, and has had no problem using the services at the Sarasota dog track to get them tested as a safety measure before seeing their

19294 year old grandmother and one-year-old cousin last week, if my five and seven year old can take all the appropriate safety measures to protect themselves and those around them, I expect our schools to do the same universal masking in our schools last year, truly helped mitigate and prevent an explosion of cases that could have been. We should continue with the mask mandate this school year. At the very least until the majority of our young learners have an opportunity to get vaccinated equally important is the safety of our teachers and staff. They’re in close contact all day with an average of 20 students. At any point in the day, teachers have no idea who students come in contact with outside of school or at home, or what their parents and guardians do for work and the

193possibilities of exposure exponentially. That’s extremely concerning. The power is in your hands to do even better this year in the name of public health. Let’s all do our part. I understand COVID fatigue. I understand mixed messages from the CDC and media, but all the real life quantifiable numbers from our local doctors and hospitals to do the right thing. Thank you very much for your time, Debbie. Freunde from Freud. Yeah. Debbie F R E U N D. Ms. Fried, if you’re online, please press star six to unmute. Good morning. my name is Debbie Fran. I currently have a cousin in the hospital with COVID. My mother-in-law is suffering from neurological complications, resulting from a COVID infection two months ago, including confusion and dementia type symptoms that she did not have prior to COVID. the chief medical

194examiner at Wilson children’s hospital in Jacksonville has stated at Wilson children’s hospital, we are seeing more children of all ages hospitalized with COVID-19 than ever before. Some require specialized critical care support, and our pediatric intensive care unit. Many of these children are eligible to receive that kit vaccine. All parents are last month. COVID 19 admissions to Wolfson children’s hospital surpassed our previous high in January, 2021. The rate shows no sign of slowing. We’ve heard, many doctors speak today. Over the past year, we have lauded our medical, healthcare workers. We have held them in such high esteem. Everyone, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, we have applauded our healthcare workers. We need to heat their advice. At this point, we need to listen to our local doctors and nurses, nurse practitioners,

195physician assistants. We’ve heard from all of them today. We need to listen to their advice. Their advice is either to mask or have some type of face covering our lawyers for the school board stated their opinion. If we’re going to listen to opinions, why don’t we listen to the opinions of other, school boards, such as Alachua county, Duvall county. They are saying that we should mask up also, orange county and Seminole county have closed all of their after school activities that happen at county fields. We don’t want to get to that point where we’re closing our county fields and our children can’t play outside. They can’t play lacrosse, baseball, softball families. Can’t get out of their house, just their family, not necessarily teams, just their family. Can’t get out of the house and go to

196these fields. We don’t want to get to that point. Please let’s require face coverings with an opt-out for those parents who don’t choose to. We respect their opinions as well, but let’s heed the advice of all of our medical professionals. Thank you, Andrea Stanford. Andrea’s Stanford. Stanford. If you’re online, online, please press star six to unmute. Yes. Ma’am go ahead. You have three minutes. Yes. Ma’am you have three minutes. Thank you, Andrea Stanford here. Thank you all for making yourself available for us today on these two issues. primarily today we have heard a great deal of fear by those in our community. And the undertone of all of this is that the members of our community would like you to promulgate a resolution to this virus, this virus isn’t going away just as all the

197other Corona viruses haven’t gone away. one of the things we haven’t heard is a testimony about the mask, not filtering viruses. I agree with all of this community about protecting our children and keeping everybody safe in the school environment. It masks work. Then why are we in this position today? Now the, Dr. Bensi, provided a great deal of statistics about, the adult population of our community and, conveniently those numbers exclude our children. That again, just fed the fear. If mask filter viruses, then those wearing the mask are protected either what it is our governor’s position. And it is currently the executive order and the law that if you want to wear a mask, you may wear a mask mask. Wearers are not excluded from this equation. And so, again, the, the fear-mongering about this virus

198and the desire to legislate it are promulgated a way easily within the purview of the school board. We will not be able to legislate away this virus. It’s that simple mitigating factors aside. We will not be able to make it go away. It still exists. So, continuing the fear-mongering and it is of no benefit to anyone. another thing we haven’t heard today is emergency use authorization. We didn’t hear that during, Dr. Ben campaign ad, this is an emergency use authorization approved medical therapy. It is doesn’t even meet the definition of vaccine provided By your opinion, your comment, Marsha TBA, Taba, Marsha Tabba. Yes. Ma’am. We can hear you. Go ahead. You have three minutes if you need it. Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, ma’am. Thank you. Hi, my name is Marcia

199TBA, and I’m a mother of three children. Two of whom are attending and Manatee county school. I’m here to share my experience with open house at our schools that we were so excited to go through on the lack of safety measures that we have seen personally, my kids were beyond excited to attend school. Again, we have quarantined all of last year, and we have also kept all of our safety measures. It would have been my first year and it, and excited is an understatement. However, would the lack of safety measures, we have to deny our child’s school experience. So he deserves a very, a handful of attendees wore a mask and practice some sort of social distancing, or at least tried to, there were no plexiglass dividers in the cafeteria nor anywhere else, no temperature

200checks and overfilled classrooms. Our family has made so many sacrifices yet. A mask seems such an inconvenience for some, none of us want the aspires to continue, nor do we want to keep our children quote, unquote, mask up. I have a newborn at the house. We all want this to end, but in order to accomplish this goal, we have to come together and mandate masks and appropriate COVID precautions that we have had even in the priests previous year put together. And I wanted to address real quick, a comment that was made previously about why, if a mask works, why are we in this situation again? And that is because of a completely different variant that none of us planned for all of the summer, we were absolutely thrilled to send our kids back to school.

201and for the statement, that’s masked work, how come, if they work, then you’re protected. Unfortunately, that is not the case because our kids still have to take those masks off to eat. And the cafeteria is not supplied with the plexiglass or even separated six, six foot separations. We’re not employees, nor will they will, nor will they be once the school begins. So that is to answer that question. I know the school board seems to be ready to react, but not protect, which is our biggest concern. Thank you so much. Thank you, Catherine Burns. Catherine Burns. Ms. Burns. If you’re online, please press star six to unmute yourself. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. this is Katie burns. good afternoon. Mr. Golden says that you would like to hear from the

202voice of the parents of gladly obliged and one parent. I’m speaking on behalf of myself and many other parents who not only want children to be unmasked at school, but also do not agree with the requirement to complete a form to do so. It is the individual Liberty of my child and others to breathe freely. Children are not at risk for the virus, nor are they known to spread it for the most part. According to the CDC, roughly 350 children out of over 78 million children in the U and died for COVID-19. Many of us have shown up countless times to share data that proves this to be accurate. In addition to sharing negative repercussions of wearing masks, we need to die deal in facts. And most importantly, in Liberty, multiple collars of reference the

203Delta variant, as in the presentation, the majority of these cases are actually the alpha Barea, medically fragile children also brought up frequently while I feel for them. where’s the protocol been for flu season? Thomas Jefferson says I prefer dangerous freedom to peaceful slavery. It is the parents’ responsibility, not the schools or the school boards to protect our children and make choices as we see fit for them. This is not a political issue, nor is it a risk management issue. It’s a personal freedom issue. So it must allow each individual person to exercise his individual freedom to wear mask or not, regardless of form to vaccine status or recent testing. I understand that there’s no mass mandate. However, there should be no form required for those who choose not to wear mat. I do support to

204allow parents to make the healthcare decisions for their individual children, whether or not they wear a mask. What’s the difference between a mask mandate with an option to opt out or freedom just to do. As we see fit in short, please allow children to choose without requiring any sort of form to be completed. Furthermore, I request the same courtesy for parents and visitors and staff. Also, wherever all these medical professionals been for the past several months, I’ve been attending nearly every single meeting for the past four months and watched previous meetings online and never have I seen this many show up except for the first day, probably before school. That’s all. Thank you. Thank you, Andrea Schneider, Andrea Schneider, Schneider, if you’re online, please press star six to unmute Andrea Schneider. Okay. Tine Ben Z

205Denzel tine. Vinzel hello? Yes. Ma’am you have three minutes. We can hear you. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. hello, my name is. I am the parent of an elementary age kiddo here at Mansie county. as well as one who is not yet of age to go to school, I would like to strongly encourage the board to put a map policy in place for everyone, students, teachers, staff, and visitors, the CDC and AAP have recommended that students should be able to attend school in person while they are wearing that. Our family did choose to do e-learning for most of last school year, because my kiddo who is at school age does tend to get sick very easily, but we struggled. He’s six. He does much better in person and on campus with his peers. We will

206be getting him back pronated as soon as it is available for children who are under 10, but until such time, the best option that we have for keeping our kids safe is wearing that. We know that masking works because there was almost no peer to peer transmission of COVID last school year, thanks to math students, teachers, and staff. We’re also not getting sick nearly as often, which is common at the start of a new school year. Again, largely thanks to Matt. I get it. Math starts and that’s something everybody really wants to keep doing, but they are simple. And when everyone is wearing them properly, that means over both your nose and your mouth. They are effective. As numbers continue to increase across the country state and in our county, the best way to keep

207everyone safe while attending school in person is to have them wear masks, at least until such time that the vaccine is available to elementary aged kids. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tanya. Ranney Tanya. Ranney Ms. Rainey, if you’re on them, if you are on the phone, please press star six to unmute. Tanya, Ronnie, Jennifer, still remembering that’s a duplicate. She already spoke. Oh, I’m sorry. Okay. And I’m Evan Reed. Good morning burden board members. My name is Evan Reed and tomorrow will be my first day as a senior at Manatee high over the summer. I was an intern in the Sarasota Memorial, ER, when I, and when I began my time there, we had five COVID patients today. There is 186. Some of whom are fully vaccinated. The Delta variant is here in Manatee

208county and is two times more transmissible than the original strain with our state’s vaccination rates sitting around 49.6%. The virus will continue to spread and mutate through the vaccinated and unvaccinated population, especially in settings with high unvaccinated populations. Like my school, where I discovered through a survey, 67% of students are un-vaccinated. This is way too high to reopen schools without masks being mandated. Last year at the mask mandate was implemented large events for minimize, and my problem was denied, et cetera. And this was done to protect our community, not just the students now, infection rates are rising again and children, especially those who are too young to get vaccinated. Like my brother, who is starting first grade tomorrow, and may I mentioned he has not once complained about having to wear a mask. The CDC

209advises that everyone should wear a mask regardless of their vaccination status. And the APA says that all students over the ages of two should be wearing a mask. This board’s current policy is arguing against billion dollar scientific agencies for your in-person learning. We successfully mitigated COVID cases by minimizing crowds, wearing masks and doing the things we were supposed to do. And now we’re discussing if we should continue to do these things as an even more dangerous is surging at 17 years old, the answer is more than clear to me of what we need to do just in the past week. Four of my fully vaccinated friends have gotten COVID with severe symptoms. The vaccine works when 90 to 70% of the population is vaccinated and we are nowhere near that. And because of that vaccinated,

210people will contract and now spread the virus because of how much stronger the Delta variant is with the original strain. The efficacy for the vaccine was around 95%. And with the new Delta strain, it appears to be in the low eighties. The variant is more dangerous and will continue to mutate over and over, which could eventually lead the vaccine to be ineffective in doing its job. This is why it’s so crucial that this board implement masks. We need to slow the spread because as of right now, the United States is on track to becoming the new India with our state leading the show. We’ve watched New York at the beginning of the pandemic, and that is us. Now this is not a political issue. It is a public health crisis. The sports should not be

211voting to please constituents and voters. It should simply look at the science. Something of the state state should be doing as well. People are dying and how you vote today could impact the current 600,000 plus deaf told this country is already racked up. I know that some people are appalled by the idea of going back to wearing a mask, but the science is telling us we need to voting to make anti maskers happy does not benefit them because from what I’ve seen, no patient is happy when they are rolled into the ER in a gurney. These people who come into the ER or unmasked unvaccinated, and they are sicker and sicker. These people die all alone, surrounded by bowel security precautions with no handhold, no comfort, no peace, no humanity. And this pandemic has already

212taken so much. It has taken two years of my normal teenage life, where I’ve supposed to been in my prime. This is the story of millions around me. I’ve watched. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Okay. Dr. Richard Conner, Dr. Conner, Brittany. Brittany said Charle. you’re going to pass that last name to me, Ms. Sicero surcharge. If you’re online, please press star six. Brittany Charro. Okay. Andrea Griffin. Thank you. Andrew Griffin, Manatee county. I’m a Florida activist. So the reason why we were concerned about this is because even though we’re addressing you, we’re also addressing the people out there. And I don’t think it’s fair that they have to see the backside of me when I’m talking. So this was something that was directed by some of you guys up here to do that,

213because it’s just very easy to put that camera right there on ignorance is the thought that we have the ability to stop a virus. You guys have massed us. It didn’t. Our numbers are going through the roof. Why? Cause masks don’t work. The only science we’ve had for masks so far has been an aerosol spray test that does not rise to the level of a scientific study. However, I submitted to you guys months ago, true scientific studies that you guys dismissed discrimination is when you in segregation. I mean, we were over the segregation, right? I mean, black people are bad. White people are good. Now it’s masks are bad or excuse me, non master, bad and masks are good. That’s what we’re going to start teaching our children in school, medical privacy. I’m going to

214tell you if I find out the Florida department of health has my medical information, there’s going to be some major problems. So I would suggest you check your facts before you start telling people. Because that to me is scary. Why do we keep using percentages and not real numbers and real facts? Why? Because if you had five people tested and one person was sick, that’s 20%, right? 20%. So that’s how, that’s how we manipulate numbers. It was, we used percentages instead of real numbers and real facts. And that’s what we’re getting from our doctors that are advising you. They’re giving you percentages. Why, where are these numbers coming from? Where’s the proof that these numbers exist. Besides somebody telling you in some report you’re getting, who has done any independent research up here to verify

215that this is Dr. Vinci, what independent research have you done to confirm the information that you are spreading? Mary I’m coming after your seat. I am so disappointed and disgusted with you. I voted for you. I didn’t vote for you to mask people. I didn’t vote for you to push your will upon everybody in this county. How dare you. I’m coming after your seat. Vaccines are killing people, whether you like it or not, and you guys are lying it. And other than Vinci being a mouthpiece in the gal over here, she was sitting there telling us she masks all the time. Yet. She got sick. Twice. That in and of itself is, is your proof. That’s your proof in the pudding, these masks aren’t working. So please do not mass these kids. And furthermore, the

216mask mandate with the right out. That’s the same thing as your choice, your right to choose. So these people whining Nice Nicole Lynch. I’m actually really surprised to be back up here, discussing this again, after we had a very long fall and winter discussing this. but I do want to say, I noticed that of the pro maskers that came up here today, including the epidemiologists that stood up here and wasn’t able to finish his statement. Every single one of them took their mask off, set it down on the same podium that everybody in this room has come up and touched, put the mask back on their face. It is not the anti maskers spreading the virus in this town. That is what spreading the virus in this town. I have been a non masker since

217day one. My kids wore a mask to school last year. However, I have hosted five parties at my home since last spring of over 50 people per party. Not one instance of COVID not one. I’ve also just had a slumber party at my house. I had several little fourth graders coming over for a birthday party and we did have a little girl test positive several days later, not one person got COVID. We had no mask, not one at my party. Got COVID with that little girl. She went to two parties that day and had a sleep over at the second party. Not one person got COVID. So the kids are not spreading COVID we’re ignoring the facts. Yes. Some kids do get it. Yes. Some people get sick, but they’re not the spreaders. There’s no

218need to have it. And please explain to me what is the difference between an opt-out and an, and being able to choose why? Why do we need the mandate in place with an opt-out option? Just make it optional. It’s not, it’s no different. There’s no need to change anything. I wanted to also say that, as far as sending kids to school, it isn’t the school’s responsibility to keep my child physically safe from harm. When they’re there, I’m not able to do it. It’s their job. However, it is not the school’s responsibility to keep my kid healthy. You’re not allowed to give them Tylenol. If they have a headache, you’re not allowed to give them cough medicine. If they have a cough, you’re not allowed to give them anything else, unless it comes with a doctor’s

219note. So why are you allowed to put a mask on my kid? That’s also a safety measure, right? So there’s no need for the school to mandate mask. And I also, if you’re giving me, you decided last last semester to give me the option as a parent, put a mask on my kid or not. Why are you now taking that option away from me as a visitor? We just had back to school night, we probably had a handful of mass people. No COVID and we’re in Northwest Bradenton. Why are you still taking away the twist? It’s a parents, whether it be on the mask or on us. So I’m asking you to follow the direction of the, of the governor and let us choose for our children and ourselves. Rachel Rachel Casella. Ms. Castles, if

220you’re online, please press star six to unmute. Hello. Hi. We can hear you. Hi, my name is Rachel and I have an elementary school student in Manatee county. I don’t want to repeat what everyone else has said, but I will just say that I’m a hundred percent in favor of creating a mask mandate with an opt-out option for those who don’t want a mask. And for me, failure to act that policy that requires masks, deprives my child, the right to a safe public education, especially after seeing the open house. And I am also very disappointed that we did not get to hear from the doctors earlier. I think what they have to say is very important. but thank you so much for letting us speak today and hearing our voices. Thank you. Reverend golden, I

221have one more name for the list. he had requested with me before the beating began, to liner for public comment. He was having some trouble online. So too, because the intent was there. we have, we have one more. His name is Brian Moore. M O U R E 48. Yes we are. Yup. Brian, M O U R E. Brian Morris. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Go ahead. You have three minutes. Thank you. I’m a registered independent voter. the start of my comments are from an email I sent the school board today before the meeting started. I appreciate the, exception here, not exception, but getting me in, on behalf of many constituents who elected you, you must keep your policy to reject mask mandates. Let’s stick to some facts and reasons as you should know,

222mask mandates are unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, and scientific and illogical as are the shot and locked down mandates public officials and private companies continue to get confused on this matter. However, for example, we all know a policy sign of no blacks allowed is wrong. Mask mandates, violate the U S civil rights act and the American with disabilities act, which prohibits public places to discriminate based on disabilities, such as not being able to wear a mask safely, which applies to all of us, for the statute 4 65 says practicing medicine without a license is a misdemeanor. And the FDA has classified a mask as a medical device. That’s used 7, 6 0 says not allowing a person’s equal enjoyment of any public spaces punishable by a potential thousand dollars per instance. And statute 7, 8 7 says

223restraining, another person without lawful authority is, and against his or her will is a felony 7, 8 4 says causing substantial emotional distress is a misdemeanor. the data that Jennifer Bensi shared is littered with this truth. For example, we all know, even from the CDC that COVID testing is terribly inaccurate. How many buildings around 10:55 AM she an example Of this by stating that the alpha testing is quote most prevalent and 80% accurate end quote, and when quote, someone tests negative, a retest is given, and when someone tests positive, it stays positive. And to quote, hopefully you see the basic air in that about 11:20 AM she falsely stated, quote COVID is a vaccine presented preventable disease and quote, the big drug makers of these shots have even published. The shots do not prevent disease.

224Even the corrupt CDC and Tony Fowchee has stated these shots don’t prevent disease. Jennifer and the board also improperly referred to COVID shots as vaccines. They are experimental gene therapy, therapy shots unapproved by the FDA, and they should always be called experimental of course shots. I could go on with specifics, but for time sake, please know, I plan to pursue legal action against the school board and individual members. If you don’t proceed constitutionally and legally. And I must say that the three members wearing masks in this meeting, Charlie, Mary and James are setting a bad example for our children. It’s foolish week and virtue signaling to James shame on you for being rude to the lady about her concern about the public, looking at her backside. You’d totally missed a simple question. Just like you

225seem to miss other basic points. There are many people watching the back of citizens and we’d also like to see you’re not the emperor, but if you were, you have no clothes on only a mask. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that brings us to the end of, public comments, for today Heather Brown. wow. Ma’am the list that I have does not that Heather Brown on it. Look again. I don’t see it either. Man. When, when, when and how did you try to register for public comment? Did you fill out a card? maybe wanting to just step forward again. I’m sorry. Let me, may I proceed? Yeah. Heather Brown, Reverend gold, B R O w N. Yes. Ma’am you have three minutes. Okay. Welcome. I was great to hear, Mr. Cho, that you will be

226championing our students and our children. I ask that you also remember our immune compromised children, as you are a champion for them today. Asthma affects one in 12 school aged kids. The CDC states that people with asthma are at higher risk for developing severe illness and being hospitalized from COVID-19. That means that the same percentage of students could be at heightened risk for being hospitalized or worse. I come to you today representing my son who has respiratory illness, triggered asthma, a simple routine cold can wreak havoc on his lungs and immune system and lead to bronchitis. So you can imagine the effects that COVID-19 could have on him. We discovered through e-learning that there are many students at his school in the same boat, many with two working parents, for which virtual school is not

227an option. We were so hopeful when the survey came out about having an all mass classroom, what a great solution we could keep anti mask folks happy, pro mask folks, happy all while protecting our immune compromised children. It felt like a win-win win. It’s my knowledge from speaking to the principal that Galit second grade showed enough interest for not one, but almost two full classrooms of mask children. When I spoke to him, the principal, he said that, they did not want to segregate kids. In fact, it felt, but to me, I’m sorry. I feel like during this global pandemic, it could be one of the only solutions to keeping our at risk kids in a public school setting while keeping them safe, real segregation will occur, but it’s going to occur when most at-risk parents

228feel like the only option is to pull their kids out of the public school system for health purposes. When speaking to the school about my concerns, they assured me at back to school night that I would probably see 50% of the kids bring masks. Would you like to know how many kids are wearing masks in my son’s classroom zero. He is the only student wearing a mask. I would estimate that at best on back to school night, I saw five to 10% of people in the entire school wearing a mask. We discussed all of the data. I’m not going to bore you. The duke university study that showed that mass scoring significantly prevented transmission of COVID-19 in schools and buses, even without physical distancing. This variant is a thousand times more contagious than the COVID-19

229of last year. Anti maskers say, if you believe in mass, fine wear them, it’s your choice. You can protect yourself. And I wish that the science proved that that’s true. I wish my son would be protective when I sent him into school tomorrow. But you and I all know that is not the case. You’ve left me with an impossible choice, my son’s health or his education. Thank you. All right. We’re we’re golden. I think that’s going to come. Okay. Public comment. We thank everybody who participated in public comment. I have a few questions that came up that I’d like to address there and public comment. if anybody else has any, you wanted to address first. Okay. I’ll I’ll go through mine. first of all, a question was asked, can teachers choose not to send work

230home? The answer to that is no, on the LGBT guidelines. they’re somewhere over the weekend. Somebody, some fake news out that boys are going to be using girls’ bathrooms, but even, even as the public comments are correctly noted, it’s not about bathrooms. It’s about allowing a child to access a single use bathroom. If that’s what they feel better doing. about the issue of the cameras and Ms. Griffin already left, public comment is designed for the public to speak to the board, not to speak to the public, even the public that’s in this room. So, we really are not even required to broadcast public comment. We’re happy to do that, but, where we have the camera set up during our meetings is completely up to us. come back to that, when board meters, when, excuse me,

231when board members miss a public comment, we can always go back and watch the video. the video playback that’s on our Vimeo, mandatory, excuse our Vimeo page, vimeo.com/manatee schools. Florida, D H does have everyone’s vaccine status and HIPAA ref. HIPAA is only binding on healthcare professionals. So please understand HIPAA, as far as virtue signaling by wearing a mask, the one thing that we’ve been talking about for the past month is respecting each other’s choices. so I would hope we would continue to respect each other’s choices and not ridicule and insult each other. We can get into that later, because I think we should address it as a board because there is quite a movement, board members of the, I don’t know about you, but the amount of email we got over the past week was

232probably the most we’ve ever seen. Mr. Chuck, you landed right on time. and I apologize, some of it, I may not have gotten back to especially last night, anything that came in after six o’clock and there was a message put her on a Facebook group that led to a bunch more email, which actually had some incorrect information. So my, my plea to the community is that, and we’re happy to deal with emails, even if you have a misinformation, but if you hear something you cannot believe instead of firing off angry emails, full of misinformation, just ask first, the board members will get back to you. The superintendent will get back to you. So, so please, please, before you go, you know, putting this information out there to hundreds of people which leads to a hundreds

233of, well, not hundreds of emails, but please just ask us first. again, if you hear something that you think is crazy, ask us first, cause that’s been going around a little bit over the past a week or so to, board representing anything else you’d like to address some public comment. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I did write a list of some things that were mentioned, and I do think that they should be cleared up. someone made a comment about, e-learning I want to make it clear that this board did not decide to get rid of e-learning. I think this board would have supported it maintaining e-learning, it’s no longer funded by the state, so we can’t offer it. If we could, I would a hundred percent support that. there were comments about mitigation measures. all of them,

234it seems like there are some that believe that all of them have been removed. there seems like there’s a lot of those feelings about that and, and really the department of health rules to us give some specific ones, but I know that the school district already had some in place and planned. So can you, do you mind going through those mitigation measures that are already in place? I know that you have a meeting and you’re going to continue to work through it, but given what we’ve been given from the department of health and your partnership with, the health department in Manatee county, what are the mitigation measures that you do have planned? As of right now? Okay. Thank you. and I haven’t, I guess I have a few other things I’d like to say, because

235I think that there’s either you have to be for masks or against masks, and it’s like, there’s this division line. And I don’t think anybody up here has to have an opinion on masks at all. I don’t think you have to be for them or against them, but we have to follow what’s in front of us. That’s not an emotional decision. That is a decision based on what we’ve been given and what we are charged to do. that is our job. It is not, it is not an emotional one. It is not even one based on my opinion on the topic, my opinion on the topic is completely irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the legal documents that we’ve been handed over, not just from the governor, but from the department of health, the

236department of education and state law, all four of those have dictated what we need to do once again, not my opinion on it. I haven’t even stated my opinion on it. My opinion on it is irrelevant. Anybody, the opinion sitting in this room is irrelevant on this topic because we have four different Florida entities telling us exactly what we need to do. I do want to say, the amount of email I have received pales in comparison to what we received last year, reopening schools, I think I received perhaps 50 to a hundred, Hundred percent more emails than I received on this topic. And I think that, So I think that there is some division, for sure. I think there’s either one side or the other side, but I think there’s a lot of people that

237aren’t on one side or the other side. and I think that was evidenced at a lot of the open houses where people, you know, some did some didn’t, I don’t think it needs to be so, and it doesn’t really matter. Like I said, my opinion on it doesn’t matter. We’ve been handed from four different entities, what we need to do. so My request, And I know that we are now two hours past what we said we were going to end on, but my request is that we enable the superintendent to adhere and follow the guidelines that have been handed to us. There isn’t any other Possible Outcome. Other than that, that is what we’ve been handed. That is what every school district is doing. Any school district that says it’s mandated, they say, but you

238can opt out. It means the exact same thing. It might sound better in a newspaper to some people. Great. It means the same thing. Either way a person can opt out. And when I talked to our attorney last Friday, when this information first came out and, and, and you let me know if this has changed, but your understanding was that if a person came to school without a mask on, they have opted out whether they fill out a paper or not is once again irrelevant, because if they’ve come to school without a mask on, they have opted out. It is, it is, it sounds great. I get it. I’m not demeaning. Any of those boards, they have their own decisions to make it changes nothing about the rules that we’ve been handed, nothing about the

239orders that we’ve been given. It changes none of that because any parent, even if they, if, even if this board decided they wanted to mandate masks, we’d have to wait 30 days for that to be publicly noticed, then we’d have to vote on it. And even then any parent that wanted to opt out could just send their child without a mask. It doesn’t need a paper. If that’s not my opinion, those aren’t my feelings on the topic. Those are just the facts. So I really, when I’m up here, I really try to remove as much emotion about any of this as I can. And I get this as a very emotional topic, cause it’s our babies. I get it. But this is what we’ve been handed. I don’t have to like it. Believe me. There’s

240lots of minutes. I sat here thinking about all the different rules and mandates that we are given. We are told what standards we were told. We are ordered. We are, we are mandated with standards of teach. We are mandated to funding. We are commanded the mandated, the laws. These, this is not any different, any of those other pieces. So, my request is that we enable the superintendent to do her job, which is follow the recommendations and the rules. The guidelines have been given to us from the Florida department of health, the Florida department of education, the governor and state law, which has been cited in the Florida department of health orders and the Florida department education’s orders. It doesn’t need to be anything more than that because it could change. So our guidelines should say,

241we enable her to follow what she’s being told, because maybe it will change. I’d rather have the flexibility to say, okay, the Florida department health now says whatever we need to do that that is what we should be focusing on. So just my 2 cents. Okay. Ms. Messenger, you can make a motion to adjourn any time, but I would like to give everybody an opportunity to, before we go, Okay. I thought that we were still dealing with it, responses to public comment. We are in the, we can do that or we can go right into it. She gave up your, you said what you wanted to say about the public comment and so that Mrs. and then she kept going, Well, we are all guilty of just keeping going sometimes. So Well, that’s true. but

242the question is, where are we now? Do you want to hear the response with respect to the public comment, rim golden urine. Okay. Because what I have been accused of and consequences of what Mrs. Messenger raised was stopping somebody from talking and that’s not true. What we said was that that person could not make a presentation. And there’s a big difference between that. We had 48, 9 people, two that you added on at the very end and allowed to come. So anybody that has an opportunity to speak has been given an opportunity to speak. And I resent being described as an emperor that made some unilateral decision. First off, I didn’t even bring it up. What was brought up was brought up by Ms. Messenger and she was right. And I supported that. But, you

243know, I’m, I’m, I’m, I I’m, I am getting emotional about this because I can see emotion over a lot of what has been described, but I’m going to wait my turn as the vice-chair of the board and let others speak in terms of what they would like to discuss from coming out of all of this it’s going to do. But that’s the one thing that I really resent with respect to the public comment that it was, that it was made to appear that I made some unilateral decision about not that the board made some unilateral decision about not letting this doctor present, but we did not stop that doctor from making public comment. As a matter of fact, when it was determined that he was not allowed to present, he turned around and walked out

244and a lot of other people stayed because it’s just that important. True. True. And then Mrs. Foreman. So how are we on public comment? Are we on we’re to keep it clean? We’re going to keep responses to public comment first, With, with response to the, the choice of having e-learning like last year compared to the choices of this year and made it in Manatee virtual, is there a connection between, and it was brought up a couple of times, just the virtual part, and I know that superintendent has talked about it. So is there, if you could clarify the difference in what we did last year and what does Mancy virtual and what does banshee virtual give choice to? If a parent right now does not want to send a kid back because of the numbers,

245can they ever come back into the classroom throughout the school year? Timeout I’m different. I know Mr. Choate that’s I think that’s the number one question we got to answer. And so I think that’s going to take us a little bit of time. So I’m able to, we just say that until we get through the public comment responses. Cause you’re, you’re absolutely right. We need to talk about that. Yup. Anything else? Boom. No, I’ll wait to discuss everything. So we get through it. Okay. Thanks. You would you want me to answer that? Sure, sir. that is in reference to an MOU, that myself, went into an agreement with the head of the MBA association and that pertains to the work environment of the MBA bargaining group. So that was decided only during the school day,

246because during the school day, visitors do not have the authority or right to be in the building. Most districts have shut off any access to visitors still this year. That’s what we did last year. but the MEA association did feel that it was valid to allow visitors in, but wanted some protection for employees. We have had parents concerned with the access to visitors too. So we did agree upon that to allow visitors with noted protection. however, if it’s contentious, the only other measure would be to eliminate all visitors during the student day. So we are hoping to allow, because we know how valuable those volunteers and parents coming in to help with classrooms and stuff are, that’s one of those things that we can monitor, but that’s where that was derived from. So yes, we

247can put that in place because it’s for access during the work day with children on campus. And then the, the only other question I had, is related to the mass classrooms. you know, we had the survey and there were a couple of schools that had enough for a grade or two. even if we had the participation and the principals buy-in because it is their school. And it’s a difficult thing to do. Are we allowed to now under this, this rule from, department of health, Mr. Kennedy, I’ll answer just that part. Cause I know you want to talk about it a little bit more. I phoned department of education this weekend to get clarity around that. their understanding was because it is parental choice. They are choosing to be an, a classroom environment that allows that

248they felt that it was allowable. I have asked, our general counsel to reach out to the DOE council. He’s got a call in waiting, because a lot of that happened from Friday to today. So I don’t know if he’s had time to speak with them or get a response back. I do have a call with fads, another call from the state at three today. So, just saying I do have another call, but I do think that that is an in and that option was only presented for elementary. And right now I do believe that it is allowable. I’m sorry, one follow-up to that. If a teacher wants to put mass kids on one side of the room and then Yeah. Not do that. No, no, ma’am that, that can’t be done. All right. Thank you.

249And I think that’s what the order was indicating you can’t segregate or separate in that fashion, but if you had enough that constituted a class of one school of third graders or et cetera, that would be allowed that that’s my understanding right now That choice versus being forced to, to separate a rubber mold. Yep. If we all had an opportunity to make comment about public comment, I think we have. okay. and I know the hours late and we’d been here a long time. Is there any preference for how long we’re going to be able to discuss this amongst ourselves with each of us? Do we get five minutes, 10 minutes, a half hour, two hours. Do we want to break? Do we want to break in for five minutes anyway, If you’d like a break

250we do. I would like to at the latest be out of here at 2 45, it may not even take that long. Right? Reverend golden answer your Question. There’s two things I’d like to talk about. And just to address since we heard about them from the community, that’s the, as a messenger, I disagree. I think we do have an option as has been demonstrated around the district because there are districts choosing the option of an opt-out option. So I don’t think everything’s laid out. We do have a choice. so I think we should at least address that everybody got a chance to speak. And then the other thing I’d like to talk about is the survey idea, which Reverend golden brought up at the last meeting. And I think because we are in a much

251different place now than we were two weeks ago, I think we have to revisit that question. And I’d like to, I’d like to address that the superintendent, I’m sure has been dealing with it all weekend. So, that’s the only two things I really need to get back to. but you may have something else. Well, that, that, that was why I signed up to speak because, we, we could spend a lot of time up in here in the trying to narrow this down, but I think you you’ve isolated it to the essence of where we are right now. The one where we are right now, we weren’t at the last board meeting when all of the people showed up and they thought we were going to do a mass mandate. We weren’t even where we were

252two weeks ago where we were in may when we decided that we were going to, not have a mass mandate before, before not having mass mandates got to be a popular call celebrity. We, we, we, we made up in our minds in may that we were not going to have a mandatory mass mandate. The governor’s late, he’s coming up two months later saying we’re not going to have mass mandate, but guess what? Not in may, not two weeks ago, the issue of mass mandates is not what’s before us what’s before us is how do we go forward to serve the best interest of the parents in this district? We spent all morning listening to others’ opinions. So I do think that they matter. And I, I have proffered something that I helped well guide us

253because today I’m not prepared to make a decision. All I, I just heard from our attorneys, I just heard from the people and what I have heard leads me to believe that there are at least three different situations that need to be considered going forward that were not considered in the previous survey that was sent out. First, I, we prefer that my child, children only attend classes with other students and teachers who wear masks. That’s a preference and you have a right to express your preference. Be I, we prefer that my child, children only attend classes with other students and teachers who do not wear masks simple. The third option is very clear. I do not have any preference for either a or B. And what I’m hearing the superintendent say from the discussions with

254her is that we have the capacity to be inclusive of all three of those options. And I’m not prepared today to put my opinion out there because it doesn’t matter any more than anybody else’s. Everybody got an opinion, just like everybody got a nose. But the reality here is that the only opinion that matters with respect to a particular child is the opinion of that parent. And I’m not sitting up here as a parent. I’m sitting up here as a representative of all of the children in the district. So I don’t have the luxury of telling you what I want for my grandchildren or what I think is best for my grandchild. That doesn’t even matter. I agree with Mrs. Messenger about that. My opinion doesn’t matter. But what really matters is whether I have

255listened to the preferences of the parents who do have children in the system, the people who have come here and said, begging us, please send our children back with masks. I’m not going to ignore that. I’m not going to disregard that. That’s just too important. People took time off to come back. So I am waiting to get the results from what I hope we will instruct the superintendent to do. The only other thing that I want to add to this is that, there is a 10 day CA first off, we couldn’t take a vote today. If we’re going to, we haven’t published it. We haven’t notified it, a consensus that we have, and we may, and we may not even get that. But what I am hoping is that 10 with the 10 day count

256consistent with the 10 day count. And from each school, these questions are answered. I don’t want a county wide survey of what the preferences are. And I am particular. I just be honest, transparent. I’m really concerned about elementary schools because regardless of what you say in elementary school, there is no, there is nothing available to prevent the spread of the virus, but masks, they don’t have the other protections that older children have. They don’t have all of that. And I hate to the word cause that just excites people, but there is no vaccine for anybody under the age of 12. And so my concern is particularly that we address those parental concerns, a B or neither. Now, for those of you who are too busy or who think that we are doing too much here,

257if you don’t answer at all, that still leaves you no worse off than you are right now, because that says it’s not even important enough an issue for me to even respond to the survey nobody’s going to make you respond. Nobody requires you to respond. Nobody says that it’s mandatory. It only helps us. I, I have two speakers. I think it made an important point that the school, that the question be asked at the school level. Yes. Just a link that can be sent around Mrs. Messenger. And then Mrs. Foreman try that. Anyone, I just don’t have a button, the shirt. I’m sorry. Okay. Gotcha. I just want to respond to some of the things I heard. I appreciate you making the comment about opinions. I want to be clear. I listened intently, but that

258doesn’t change. What is our charge? Right. at the last meeting, when you brought up the survey, I said, I support sending out surveys. So it sounds like you want to do it at a S at the schools instead. I guess I have a legal question though. Let’s say you were to create a mass classroom, which I get that’s a parent’s choice. If you were going to create that mass classroom, if in 10, 20 days, all of a sudden that parent decided, no I’m done. I want to opt out according to this, they can opt out. So then what happens to that classroom? That’s a real question I want to know. Can they still opt out? And if they can, then what happens does that child have to be removed? And then that really is some

259sort of divisive behavior. So then can you even do that? I don’t think we yet know if you can create a mast room. Okay. So keep that in mind. Okay. But if you can, I think you could opt out of it And still be in that classroom. Could you be removed from the classroom if you opted out, if you decide to, And it’s back to the first point is we don’t know if it’s legal to create an all mask room. Okay. Okay. Let’s say that it was, if it was, and then somebody said I’m done. I don’t want to do this anymore. Yeah. The way I read the rule, which needs clarification on that, on this point, it’s the harassment section of the rule is that who doesn’t wear a mask could say oil, their

260parent could say, no, I want my kid in that class and force the hand. Right. so it’s, it’s, it’s, That’s not the scenario. What she described is a parent that said, yes, I want my child in a class with other mass children. And I want them there with a mass teacher. What she’s describing is, but later the parent changed their mind. Yes. That’s not my issue, But it’s the parents’ issues in that class that have all signed up for that. That’s my whole point. If you’re going to create that and say, Hey, we have this option. Then what happens when that happens for all the other parents that clearly wanted this and chose that. And now you’re going to have to, what are you going to, that’s my question. And maybe that’s not a question

261for today. It sounds like it’s not, I mean, I felt like none of this was a question for today. So maybe this isn’t a question for today. This can all be discussed on Wednesday or any other day when we have an answer, but it’s just, those are real things to think about when you’re doing that, because I don’t know what kind of consequences you really can enact This, this rule, excuse me, go ahead. But this, this rule says you cannot relegate the non mast person into a physical location. That’s right. But so if they’re in that room and they take their mask off and you say, no, now you’re out of the room. Now you’re relegating them to a physical location. And, and, and, and the position that I have with respect to that is

262that that then becomes a student progression plan, issue, a student that you see. So I know you don’t want to deal with that, but if you, if you are a parent, you have a PA, if you’re a parent that you’ve made a decision to put your child in there and you change your mind, I don’t understand why that impacts the policy that I have in place. Okay. But this is all what F’s. So let’s just talk about today. And I want to let the superintendent address this, because I don’t know if we have a consensus. I certainly support this idea. I think we should. We, we made an attempt at this a few weeks ago to see where the interest was. Now. I want to tell a different spot superintendent Sanders, and then let’s move

263on. And we can pick this back up on Wednesday with these one-offs and possibilities. This information would not be part of the survey because the first survey that the board deems, if you want me to do one will be just specific questions then would come follow up. If we were allowed to do this, would the criteria of such classroom, which would mean just what was stated. If you later decide you don’t want to have a mask and wear that anymore, that is the criteria for that class. So the child would be moved to another teacher. If we have space, this would treated No different than a gifted class. If I parent a Lex to be in a gifted class, they are pulled out for gifted services and that’s what is presented and provided for that

264child or those children in that environment. If they no longer want to participate in, in that they can choose not to. And then their class has changed and they’re removed. So that’s what I would think would be the process before we would put any children and those scenarios, it would be clearly communicated to parents, both for those decisions and those situations would be scheduled. So if we went down the path and there was enough, we would make sure the understanding, because if we created that environment, then that environment needs to remain stable and sterile. As long as you have enough people to convey with that. Mr. Chuck, finally, sorry. Oh, no, you’re fine. so just sticking with today, and, and what the board of education has set down to us. I think that to say

265a mask mandate with an opt-out is we’re, we’re, we’re talking semantics. I think it’d be the same thing. If we set a mask mandate to opt in to wearing a mask is the same as wearing, saying a mandate to mask, you know, wear a mask to opt out. It’s just flipping words around. I think it’s all quite the same. If you make a mask mandate, if we were to go against what for entities, like Mismeasure said, has told us to, to do. If we were to go against it and say, no, we’re going to do a mask mandate and you can opt out if the same amount of people who were the same amount of families that choose not to wear a mask. Let’s just say 75% of the families say not to wear a

266mask. And they all fill out paperwork to not wear a mask. It’s still going to be in the same way that we would be in. If, if we said no, a mask wear mask, if you want to wear a mask. So I think we’re, it’s almost like we’re fighting each other for no reason. I think it’s where the mask, if you want to wear the mask, absolutely fantastic. If you don’t, you don’t have to. I just think it’s a play on words that we move one in and out and we add some different thing and it’s not, we’re still giving parents choice. So why even rattle the cage back to the people who gave us the law. And here’s what we had to do when it’s the same thing. I’m not going to anything else

267because I know your time. So I’m just gonna stick to what we’re doing today. All the other stuff. This is a lot of talk of what ifs we have. No clue. Three o’clock call can slam everything, shut with whatever else we want to talk about. But just for today, that’s just, that’s my opinion on that. If it’s almost exact same thing. Okay. I got, nobody went up to speak, so let’s oh, Barry, did I take you? Oh, I’m sorry. I took you off. Go ahead And kick me off and then we’ll wrap this up. All right. Okay. I’m I’m mine is I hope short. the one thing about the rule that just tickles me is that it says students may wear mass. Okay. And then it goes, however, you must be able to opt out

268if you may, why did they put that in there that you got to opt out or that you, that you can’t opt out as well? It just seems to me that that’s irrelevant. The second sentence. Of course. Yeah. Okay. The answer to that is because the people that are doing this from Tallahassee, a plan politics with a health issue, and nobody really wants to come out and say that this is a political effort, a political machination to deal with a serious health crisis that we have in the state in the country. Florida is one of seven states that constitutes more than 50% of the coronavirus cases. Our governor issued this emergency order, not based on any science, but based on what he’s hoping that his political base will accept and embrace. That’s what we’re doing.

269That’s why we’re doing this. Okay. Let’s, let’s get back to that. But she asked the question, I gave an answer. I know y’all, don’t want to hear that, but that’s, that’s, what’s happening here. It’s just, it’s dumb, you know, to, to say, you know, the second part of that sentence is not necessary if, if, if it’s strictly a optional, I do want to point out when we’re talking about the four entities that, you know, what they say. I looked at the Florida department of health, website, and there was a section, how do I prevent and prepare for COVID-19 and the question, how can I protect myself? It’ll probably disappear now that we’ve got this on camera, but the best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus and avoid exposing other

270people. Here’s how practice social distancing wear a cloth face covering in public. So, you know, it’s not like they’re saying that that face mass suddenly don’t don’t matter. the thing I wanted to, come in on is the rule says that parents opt out emphasis on parents. Okay. If I’ve got a teenager who goes to school, I want him to wear the mask. He gets to school and he takes it off. I haven’t opted out. Okay. He’s got no right to opt out. And my question is, how Are we going to communicate this to the schools? How are we going to follow up on it? you know, it seems to me, you almost have to have an opt-in and an opt-out to get the, get the message across to the, to the schools, you know? Do

271you want me to respond to that? It’s like Mina, G many of the items, high school teachers predominantly have at least 150 plus students. So yes, parents are going to have to convey to teachers the expectation. However, we’re not going to discipline students, even if the parent wants them to wear the mask. If they’ll remind them, they’ll do just the same measures they did last year, but we’re not going to put them in in-school suspension or any type of discipline, airy action over a mask. So I do believe there has to be constant communication with the wishes of the parents, all levels, elementary, middle, and high, and then they’re going to do their very best to ensure those wishes of the parents are going to be communicated and conveyed. So there’s gotta be that collaboration

272and conversation from the parents, and that’s what they want. I’ve heard from many, that’s what I’ve told them. We will convey that to the principals that we’re going to honor their wishes. We will try our very best to keep kids wearing a mask if that’s their expectation. but it really that part’s not going to be very different than last year, but the parent is going to need to be in communication, email, phone call, et cetera, with the principal or the teachers. Okay. I want to give everybody a chance to get the last word. I just want to say one thing, going back to public comment, we had people, at public comment, telling us who are on one hand are talking about freedom and personal choice and Liberty. And then on the other hand, talk about

273things that they want to censor, speaking about and, specifically vaccines and I respect, I respect our take on vaccines. You know, everybody’s all over the place or are this board, our school employees, our community everybody’s, but like we’re elected officials who one of our prime duties is to be responsive and communicative with our constituents. And so I, I am glad, I just want to say a few things, and this is not political. I have no plans to run next year. So this is my, this is what I’m going to say is not based on politics. It based on what I believe is the best thing to do in this moment. And I’ve said it before the last couple of meetings, if we’re up to me, we would have a mass mandate for everybody until we

274squash this thing. But it’s not up to me. It’s up to this board to make a policy for the school board. as I said before, the opt-out language for some reason was put in there personally, I think it was an admission from the governor’s office that the original executive order wasn’t going to hold up to illegal, to legal scrutiny. So they had to backtrack a little bit and put that in there. at the same time, as I said, kind of at the top of this, that, and Chad or Mr. Choate, you went there too. Like it’s, to me, it’s a distinction without a difference to say master optional and we have mandatory mass, but there’s an opt-out are exactly the same thing. Now, there is some debate and I go, I got a good email

275response from one of our constituents over the weekend and said, but if you have the mandate and then the opt-out that will provide support for students feeling peer pressure, and I would just make the plea. and, and I, that doesn’t weigh on me, but in effect, my plea to parents is to say, I think they’re both pretty much the same end result. This is what the school environment is going to look like when we open tomorrow. And as we go through these first couple of weeks, so based on what you know now, how do you want to proceed from today? And so, like I said, I would support a mandate for everybody. I would support a mandate with an opt-out, but I think it’s toothless and, is, you know, I think Gina, you know, might

276sound good for the paper. I think it was the way what you said for, I mean, there’s, and there’s some truth to that. but you know, I’m only one and that’s the way it’s supposed to be up here. That’s the way it should be, because none of us should be king or queen Reverend golden. And then that’s all I got. I’ll defer to you all to finish it. That’s what happened when I left the room, but I am not interested in us butting heads with another constitutional officer. The governor has spoken, the governor has said that will not be mandates. No, the lawyers and all those people, they going, are they going to flesh that out? It’s a mess in the coming months, but in terms of what we can do, we shouldn’t let, what

277did I hear that y’all say one time we shouldn’t let the possible, no, we shouldn’t let the lack of perfection prevent us from doing what we can possibly do. And right now I just would like to know why there would be a problem having, an, survey, but particularly for the elementary schools to try to find out exactly whether we are right and what we are hearing or not. I, I, most of the people I heard here today say, please mandatory mask. Well, that’s the same as filling out a service servicing. I only want my child in a class with mass people, but it also allows people who don’t want that to say the same thing. And it allows people who don’t think that this is even an important issue to not even, to not even

278answer, but us sitting up here trying to read the minds of the parents of 50,000 kids, that doesn’t make any sense. And certainly sitting up here knowing that this governor, with the political capital that he has put into this issue, he is not gonna back down. He’s not gonna back down until the court backs him down. And we all know how that came out last year. Don’t we, he won in courts. So I’m not interested in, in, in assuming that, that he might not win this time. I’d like to craft something that avoids a confrontation with the government. I think the survey does that. It gives us data and facts upon which the superintendent can decide at each school, how to shape those classes that we need to do. And river golden, I fully support

279that idea and board members. I would ask that each of you to kind of check in with the superintendent on your room to have that discussion with her, Just the principles. Yeah. I’ve already said I support that. I support us communicating as much as we possibly can, and I think it’s appropriate that it comes from the superintendent, like when she sets that our guidelines or whatever, but I just wanna make sure we’re all on the same page about today of the expectation is she’s going to adhere to what we have received today that we’ve got on Friday. So wanna make sure we’re all on the same page with that. Okay. I just want to make sure that she has clear direction when she walks out this room. That’s my only goal. So The other thing,

280I just want to make sure I understand why you would like a survey. It will, we will make the language so that it’s consistent. is it going out just for elementary or everybody? I need to know that, to ask those three questions, it will be conveyed, through the schools, to the parents. We will give them first two weeks of school to respond, and then I will have that information back by then. I will have a legal rule from the state if we can do that, and can move forward. But right now that’s what I understand. So I just need to My personal thing, I would, and I don’t, but I would not do any survey until we know exactly the ifs ands and buts about it. Me personally. So I wouldn’t get us involved in

281anything until we know, can we, even, because I don’t want to give the survey and then we really can’t do this tool, the classroom, you know, I mean, I know you gotta call it three or some more information. So that would be, I’m not saying we’re survey out in 10 minutes. but I would make, I would want to make sure we can even do it first because it we’re opening up a whole another can of worms. Are you able to find out today if we could do that specifically for elementary? because it would be very difficult to schedule was secondary because of all the different electives and so forth. But Quite honestly, I am only in the children in the school system, that are, that are governed by the emergency order, but that are not

282protected by any of, all of the other things that are available to mitigate the spread of this. And that’s right. Yeah. And I think we need to do that right away, because those are the children that stay in one class all day, every day. And those are the children whose parents are going to have to make the greatest adjustments. If we aren’t even able to do it, I’m not asking for any promises. I just am tired of hearing everybody’s opinion and we don’t have any facts including my own. Okay. And Chad, I think you’re on the right track before we, yeah. The car leaves the garage. We should make sure it’s got gas in it. Yeah. I think, just about the elementary versus secondary question, I’m sure our secondary schedule makers are quaking with fear

283right now because you can’t really, you can’t ask that survey of secondary kids cause they’re in seven classes a day. It’s logistically really probably impossible. but again, our secondary parents know now that this is what it’s going to look like, that’s the other problem. I just real quick, the other problem with the opt-out it creates, and I think we’re going to find this in the other district, it creates an incredible burden on the school staff, because who’s going to be chasing down. Who’s got, who’s got enough down paper and who doesn’t. So, you know, again, if we, if we can’t go all the way, then we gotta, you know, we gotta go option A matter school. I will follow back up with you once I know direction on Lee legalities in terms of, are we

284allowed to do the parental choice for elementary as described? I’ve got the points of entrance for the questions. If I’m able to do it, it will be disseminated up until the end of the 10 days, because if we’re going to do it, we would need to put it in place as soon as possible, but that would give ample time to do so. Okay. I just want to close with the words of one of our elementary school principals who said to me over the weekend, we, this is going to be a crazy year, even crazier probably than last year. We’re going to do the best we can, and we’re going to take it one day at a time. So, be, be ready, everybody out there to be flexible. Things are going to change and just do

285the best job we can for our kids. I don’t think we should adjourn until Mr. Cello, renders for us. the Manatee Haskell, song. Do we have a motion to adjourn, Right. Be safe And be as great.