School Board Meeting May 24, 2022

001Good afternoon. Welcome to the May 24th, 2022 meeting the school board of Manatee county. This is our regular board meeting convening at 5 0 3 in the afternoon. We are going to stand and have the color guard come into our midst. Now This is the color guard from Braden river high school escorted by command Sergeant major retired Alex, pick a roar. The members, 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 Colors, Marks Members of this color guard. Donna Wharton commander Juliana's chip Stewart, my colleague Nathan Wamsley, and geo send Hutto. All right, Today, we are about to do something. I believe that we've never done. I invocation today will be given by

002a lay person. Amen. I'm sorry. Force of habit. Okay. But we have traditionally always had our invocations given by members of the clergy, but today, a very familiar face to us, someone who has been before as many times, and who has always come from a spiritual perspective, brother Hartman, or you please come Oh the God, we just thank you for this opportunity to together. Come together in unity. I thank you, father. God, you said where two or three are gathered together in your name. There you are in the midst. I just thank you father for the children of Manatee county. I thank you for the school board that they meet father God, they've got your will. And their hearts father got, and they do everything they can. Every time they meet to do what's right

003for this community, father, God, we lift up our children. We lift up all the teachers. We lift up all the parents and we pray for our nation father. God, we ask in the name of Jesus that we always say, God bless America. But Lord, I pray that this nation would begin to, to like we did many years ago and that we bless you, Lord God. And I just speak your blessing and peace on this meeting in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. I was talking to you may be seated For informational purposes. We would like to inform the public that the notification of leaves for May 24th, 2022 in our system, and they can be reviewed at your leisure. The chair has found good cause to amend the agenda to include all of the items listed

004on the agenda amendments on the May 24th, 2022 agenda updated May 20th, 2022, and posted to the district [email protected]. That will be one vote to amend the agenda with all of the amendments that have been posted so far. The chair will not entertain a motion to amend. It's been moved by member Kennedy And seconded by vice chair messenger to, to add the agenda amendments as stated, you've heard the motion in the second. Is there any I'm readiness hearing? None. The chill call the question all in favor. That'd be known by saying aye. All opposed that being done, the ayes have it. Motion is approved unanimously. We now also have a vote to approve the minutes from the May 10th, 2022 bullet school board meeting the May 10th, 2022 school board workshop and the May 13th,

0052010 and two school board workshop. And the approval of those minutes comes with a recommendation from my superintendent. Yes, I recommend the approval of the minutes from board meeting May 10th, 2022 board workshop May 10th, 2022. And the board workshop May 13th, 2022. All right. It's been moved by member Kennedy. Awesome. It's been second vice chair messenger that the approval of the minutes is recommended by the superintendent be done. Isn't any unreadiness hearing none. The chair will call the question. All those in favor of the approval of the minutes. That'd be none of that sounded aye. All opposed hearing none. The ayes have it. The motion passes unanimously. We will not ask Mr. Mike Barbara to come and lead us in our recognitions of those persons in our midst for their continuous service to the

006school district. Thank you Mr. Board chair, board members and superintendent Saunders. We're down to the last couple of days and so felt right that we should honor employees. Who've had a distinguished service with the school district. So a while back, we reached out to human resources and starting to inquiring about how many employees we have with the district who have 40 plus years of service, you know, here that are working for the school district. Well, it turns out there's quite a few, but as we looked into it, we learned that the vast majority of those employees have over 40 years of service in education, but a good many of those have served in other districts or they've retired and come back. So we started looking at, we wanted to find the employees. Who've had the

007longest continuous service with the school district in Manatee county. And I'm going to introduce you to three of those this evening. So, and unfortunately two of the individuals couldn't be here because they're right now at retirement celebrations that were arranged. So all three of these people are retiring this year, but the first person I wanted to bring it to your attention is Kathy Kersey. She has served the district for 41 years. And if we could show a photo of Kathy Kathy Kersey started her career with the district as a music teacher at Myakka city elementary on August 19th, 1981, that was a Wednesday. I checked. She was still teaching at Myakka city elementary, at least until Friday when she first started at Myakka, the school's enrollment wasn't large enough to have a full-time music teacher.

008So she worked two days at Myakka and three days at other schools. She did this for 13 years splitting time between Myakka elementary and other schools such as San Rosette, Braden river, Manatee, oh, Nico Daughtry, Anna Maria and Palmetto. That's quite a haul from my ACA to Anna Maria, but that's the way it worked back. Then she spent the, she then spent 22 years as a regular teacher at Myakka, but she wanted to get back to music and she eventually did. But for the last four years, she has taught stem and science at Myakka, but all 41 years of her service have included teaching at my ACA elementary. So our first person who's served 41 years specifically with the school district of Manatee county as Kathy Kersey. The next person is Theresa Howe. Theresa Howe

009is, has also served the district for 41 years, Theresa. How started her career with the district as a paraprofessional at Sam Rosette elementary on August 21st, 1981. The reason I bring up those dates is that's two days after Kathy Kersey started. So that was a Friday, but Theresa served at Sam Aset from 1981 to 2006. So for 25 years, she was a paraprofessional at Sam Aset. She then moved to Terre elementary where she served from 2006 to 2021, 15 years. And she served from 2021 to the present. She serving at Myakka city elementary. So actually Theresa Howe and Kathy Carsey are right now at a retirement celebration at Myakka city elementary. So we wish they could be here. And we have some photos of Theresa that's Theresa on the far. Right. And if you could

010just scroll through the notes again or take a look, I hope you got to see those that's Teresa. The chair will entertain a motion that we recess and reconvene in, in my ACA At the party emotion, anybody. I tried to get him down here and they actually wanted to come, but my ACA has been planning this first time times. Okay. But we do have one special individual that we want to introduce you to. If y'all come up. Okay. Standing to my left. This is Nancy brining and she has been serving the district for 43 years. She started her career with the district on October 2nd, 1979 as a teacher at Blackburn elementary from 1980 through 1981, she did testing of adult basic education at a school called Manatee vo-tech. I'm not sure what happened to

011high school. I believe it's MTC now, right? Her longest stint as a teacher was at Tilghman elementary where she served from 1981 to 2009 as 29, 28 years at Tillman. From there, she served at several different district schools, Sam Manatee high Wakeland before spending the last three years at Johnson K through eight in their VPK program. Nancy has been working in school VP K programs since 2012, but Nancy brining who's here with us today. According to the information that we were able to put together is the longest serving continuous employee with the school district of Manatee county. I'd like to, we have Anthony Losada, the principal of Johnson, K through eight Anthony, which I should say Good evening, board members, Mr. Chair, and superintendent Saunders. I just a few words about Nancy. I've had the

012privilege of working with her for the last three years. She's been wonderful. The community loves her students. Love her parents, love her, and she's going to be dearly missed as she decides to retire this year after 43 years, which is pretty impressive. I don't know that I've met someone who's worked 43 years in our district. So thank you for all. You've done Nancy and we have our Speech speech. The superintendent would also like to present. I can't even imagine 43 years. You've seen it all. And you've been at every level, a lot of changes, a lot of change, and we just are so proud and appreciative of your service. So this is a small token of appreciation. So when you're retired and you're living the dream, you can look back on your career, remember us

013and the time spent changing the lives of students. So thank you. Thank you very much. I apologize. I need to come back up here because I got the I from my assistant principals, but with me today also is a Lissandra. Tayloe my MYP, which is the middle school assistant principal and Adrian Vos, my PYP, which is the elementary side assistant principals as well. So thank you Nancy. They know I was gonna have to give a speech. I just want to thank everyone who came out for the support. If it wasn't for like support of my family and also my theater family, that's back there, my school family, this wouldn't be possible. I kinda grew up in this school. I was only in my early twenties and my son over there was only two when I

014started. And it was just a temporary job until I could find something else because I'd already had my first degree. And I couldn't find a job at the time, but I never left. It. Just worked out, finding it with the kids when they were younger, but I just kept changing it. And then I, as programs got cut. When I got left Tillman, I went back to college to get another degree so I could teach pre-K, which I really loved, but they always say when it's time to go, you'll know, and then decided this is the hardest decision I've ever had to make. But I think it's 43 is enough. Somebody else's turn to take over, you know, but I just want to thank the school boards for all the support we've had over the years.

015And, and since this was a very hard decision and it's been a rough couple of weeks for me, but I wanted to share a little story with you. During the last day of teacher appreciation. One of my former students, who's going into middle school who gave me a run for my money. He was in one of my first years of teaching. He came and brought every teacher that he ever had a bouquet of flowers and gave us a speech and thanked us individually and gave us a hug. That right there is what teaching is all about. That your kids will come back to you after many years. And I have had some of my children's children. I even had a couple of grandchildren when I was at Tillman and he came on a read to

016my class one time. And my kids all year kept saying, when's he coming back? When's he coming back? So I just want to thank you for this. So this is my daughter, Domani brining, and this is my son, Jason Moore. Jason also works at Manatee school for the arts. So we're, and he's been there since they opened. So we're all in the family. And then I have my theater family back there. It was just what helps me get through The school year Is when I work with theater, because that's also another love of mine is music and theater. Great. Thank you very much for coming down and for your service to the school district. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I know you all want to go to the party, so go

017it's all right. It's all right. Y'all can leave now. Okay. Madam vice chair. We are at item nine on the agenda consent items, and we do have public, the public comments for consent, a public hearing later public comments, and then on the new business. So if we could read our obligatory commentary at this time, we will then move forward under your direction with the consent agenda. Okay. Public comment is not an open forum to discuss matters, unrelated to education, to support or oppose candidates for public office, or to engage a commercial speech attempting to sell a service or product to the school board are public. Also public comment is not a forum to attack individual school system employees or board members. Any such complaints should be submitted in writing to the superintendent for appropriate handling.

018Finally, this is not a forum for addressing issues involving individual students because of privacy concerns, such issue should be submitted in writing to the superintendent for appropriate handling it. Speakers allowed three minutes to address the board. Speakers must stand at the podium and not approach the diocese. This is a business meeting of the school board and the public expects that we conducted in an orderly, efficient, effective, and dignified manner. We request that speakers keep this in mind when making your comments. We also requested the audience, keep that in mind, by not demonstrate approval or disapproval of what a speaker has said by clapping or booing the board appreciates the public's input and Melissa attentively consider each comment and usually will not respond, enter into debate or answer questions during comments on agenda items or during

019the public comment section. Before you begin speaking, please provide any handouts to the agency clerk. Please identify yourself by only 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 and public meetings. Any individual interferes with the expeditious or orderly process of a school board meeting will be subject to removal from the meeting present pursuant to Florida statutes at the discretion of the chair, orderly fashion is deemed at a minimum, no profanity, no vulgar language, no discourteous disrespectful or disparaging conduct. And with that, you would like me to, to call public comment now, or are you going to entertain a motion? What's your order? Would you like to go in And

020I'm vice chair, we are going to hear the recommendation of the superintendent relative to consent items. And after we hear the recommendation of the superintendent, we will entertain. They remarks coming to us from the two individuals who've signed up to speak on the consent agenda. And we simply asked them if they would be kind enough to share which item that they're commenting on after the public comment, we will then entertain a motion and a second. And hopefully we can go ahead and approve the consent agenda by them superintendent. Yes. I recommend the approval of the consent agenda for May 24th, 2022. All right. We have two people that have signed up Madam vice chair. Yep. Mr. Hartman, and then Mrs. Wallace, Mr. Hartman. And this is specific just to the consent agenda. I wait, just

021take a second. I just want to let you know that I do have a degree in religious education. I've been a licensed minister To different churches, an elder at three churches, so that isn't qualified finally as a regular ordain minister, but I do have a ministry background that I really appreciate the board for allowing me to do that. My name is Michael Hartman. I'm going to be speaking about item number 21, fire safety, Psalm four eight. I will lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only make us me dwell and safely safety, Proverbs 11, 14, where no counsel is the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety safety goal is to increase the number of best practice resources and evidence-based approaches in areas of school, climate and safety

022across all districts and campus buildings. According to the Florida statutes, casually sanitary safety and fire safety standards talks about inspections of property and fire safety. All inspections are done by fire officials certified by the state fire Marshall periodic inspection of property by district school board to determine compliance with standards of sanitation and CA and casualty safety and the rules of the state board of education. Also inspection of educational property by other public agencies and safety of sanitation inspection of educational or, and solitary plant may be made at any time by the department of education or any state or local agency authorized or required by either general or special inspection. There's many moving parts to the schools. And I think what happens a lot of times people see the surface layer, but as I continue to

023study and look at everything that's going on, there's so many things going on behind the scenes, just like we talked about the teacher and all of the years that they put in, we forget about all that goes on there. And the school board recognizes the fist, the fixed assets of this district of our community and the maintenance of it is prime concern. There is a continuous program of inspection, maintenance, re rehabilitation of all buildings, property, and equipment. And I just wanted to say, just like what you said with the teacher, I want to say thank you to all the people behind the scenes. I want to give them gratitude, acknowledgement, credit, and blessing and gratefulness. And in other languages, it would be grassiness, DACA and mercy. So thank you all. God bless you, Mrs. Wallace.

024I, Heather Wallace. Thank you. The original item that I signed up for on the consent agenda has been pulled, which I appreciate, but since my name's in the hat, I will go ahead and make a few comments on item 16 on the revised agenda. It deals with the job description revision for principals and assistant principals. And as best I can tell, it's not a major change. It's simply including coverage for emergency shelters, which I think has been happening for years. So I certainly appreciate the principals and assistant principals that help us when we have to open shelters. And I certainly support compensating them. If they are needed in an emergency, they should be compensated. And I think it's such a great idea that I think teachers should also be compensated when asked to cover in

025emergencies. So I fully support item 16, and I hope you will also consider adopting a job description that affords teachers the same compensation when not the same as assistant principals, but compensates teachers for their time. Thank you. Share that rep. That is technically a public comment for the consent agenda. Thank you. Madam vice chair, Madam superintendent. Do you have a recommendation Or the consent She already did? I'll move to approve the consent agenda. I will second that I spend moved by a member Kennedy and seconded by the vice chair at the consent items. Be approve. You've heard the motion in second. Are you ready for the question? Is any unreadiness hearing none. Cheryl would call the question all in favor of approving the consent agenda items as recommended by the superintendent. That'd be normal at

026the time of I all the polls hearing none. The ayes have it. The motion carries unanimously at this time, the chair we'll close this regular meeting and open the public hearing for the board to hear public comments regarding the policy and bylaw amendments and new policies and answer questions related. They are to public hearing is now open. We have one item, Madam vice chair. Okay. So you're are you turning it over to me for public public comment? Yes. Okay. So it, it is a public hearing. So even if you didn't sign up to speak, you can speak on this item. I'm going to just go through really quickly. What the policy revisions, the numbers are it's bylaw 0 1 3 1 bylaw 0 1 6 5 0.1 policy. Gosh, there's a lot of dashes in

027this one. Policy 1, 1, 2, 0 slash 3, 1 2 0 slash 4 1 2 0 policy 1, 1, 2, 1 0.0 1 3 1 2, 1 0.01 policy 4 1 2, 1 0.01 policy 2 1, 2 5, 1, 2, a lot of numbers. Policy 1, 2, 1 5, policy 3, 2, 1 5, policy 4 1 5, policy 5, 5, 1, 2, policy 7 43 for policy one or 1 5 9 0 3 5 9 0 4 5 9 0. Policy two four to one policy, two, four to three policy to four 30 policy, 26 0 5 policy 32, 20 policy 62, 20 policy, 83, 10 policy, 84, 0 6, policy 84, 20 and policy 84 52. I have Mr. Hartman signed up. So I'm going to start with Mr. Hartman and there's anyone else

028that would like to come and speak on the policy revisions that are before us. They can come after Mr. Hartman since he already signed up. Yeah. Michael Hartman for the record, I'm going to be smoking. Speaking about the smoking policy, Joe five seven, yet man is born into trouble. As the sparks fly upward revelation nine 18. These men killed by the smoke issued out of their mouse. Famous people who have wished they had never smoked. Humphrey Bogart was 57 cancer of the esophagus Yule Brenner lung cancer made a Memorial memorable anti-smoking commercial, Johnny Carson emphysema, heart attack, Chuck Norris, lung cancer, Sammy Davis, Jr. Lung cancer, Walt Disney, lung cancer, George Harrison, lung cancer, the toxins in cigarette smoke cause plaques plaques to form in the arteries, leading to hardening of the arteries. Once inhaled

029the toxins in cigarette smoke reach virtually every organ in the body and can lead to cancer smoking and respiratory diseases. Smoking is directly linked to chronic lung disease, C O P D, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema emphysema. My wife educated me this week and she studies a doctor online. And he said, because of the tobacco is rolled a fungus grows on that tobacco. And once it gets lit and it becomes airborne that secondary smoke can actually affect people that inhale smoke. And I met my wife through working for GTE and she used to work in the dart center. You'd walk in there and you could see a cloud across the room. And she was the one that lobbied with the company to get them to stop smoking in the buildings. The U S cigarette

030companies spend more than 7.2 billion to promote their cigarettes. Each years, words of wisdom, Yule Brenner, before dying from smoking three packs a day, he filmed an anti-smoking commercial saying he wished he never would have started rod Sterling 51 from the Twilight zone, smoked four packs a day. I have family members that have COPD. I have neighbors that smoke regularly and I had one neighbor. I tried to get her to quit. She said, there's no way I'm going to stop. So the cure for not the best way to quit smoking is don't start. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the policy revisions that are before us, Mrs. Wallace is mulling it over. I said some here, Heather Wallace. My main concerns are for de June policies, but

031since the hearing takes place before the presentation, can we just please make sure that the district explains the parental opt-out options? Because parents can only opt out if they know that the option to opt out exists. And I think at the workshop, it was still being developed because the legislative session, you know, I think changed some things. So I'm sure Mr. Chapman is going to cover it. But if we could just please get some specifics on how parents opt out in how we communicate that they have that option because it is the teacher that you know, deals with it. Thank you. Is there anyone else I'd like to speak on these policies? Okay. Seeing none. I'll turn it back over to your chairman. Thank you. Madam vice chair. All right. At this time, the chair

032will entertain a motion relative to the New policies and amended bylaws and school board policies Charcoal. And just to be clear, we are, we have gobbled close the public hearing and or the public area cabling back, open the regular meeting. Okay. So we don't take any action in the public hearing. Public hearing is closed. Now the children that attend emotion Chair, golden motion to approve the policies, the policy packet in front of us, which has been noticed for seven days, or excuse me on the agenda for seven days, it's been publicly posted at least 30, but a motion to approve the policies before us tonight. I'll just keep it clean. I'll S I'll second that, I'm sorry. I thought we needed a superintendent recommendation for this one. Is there not Okay? Yes. You, you that's

033okay. I'll I'll just read them all again and, and then we can go back to where we were on the motion. I recommend the approval to adopt new policies and amended bylaws in school board policies. The new policies are 55, 12 74, 34, 84 52. The revised bylaws are oh, 1, 3, 1 and oh 1 6, 5 0.1. The revised policies are 11 20 30, 1, 20 41, 20 11, 21 0.0 1 31 21 0.0 1 41 21 0.0 1 12 15 32, 15 42, 15, 15 90, 35 90, 45, 90, 24, 21, 24, 23, 24, 30, 26 0 5 32, 20 62, 20 83, 10 84 0 6, an 84 20. I really just wanted to hear her read all those numbers. I had to suffer through it. I appreciate that. Mr. Chair, I'm

034already confused enough as it is all those numbers. All right. I believe we went in the middle of emotions. Okay. And now we have a second of the motion of the bylaw. 0 1 3. I won't do it now. No, I don't think so. We have a motion and a second. Is there any unreadiness to the approval and adoption of the new policies and amended bylaws and school board policies as recommended by the superintendent? I'm sorry. Madam vice chair. I just wanted to make sure that the community is aware as Mr. Ms. Mrs. Wallace had kind of alluded to is, you know, this was, these were policies that we did discuss at a previous workshop. We, and we, and in our notes that we had, and the comments we made have been put in place.

035So I just wanted to make sure that that was really clear. We we've had a thorough discussion on these. All right. Any other comments? It was Kennedy. No, sir. Ms. Foreman, Mr. Joe. All right. We will proceed them with the, with the vote, all those in favor of the approval that had been on my town to buy all the poles here. None of the ayes have it. The motion passes unanimously. All right. We are now at item 11, public comments and responses up to 60 minutes, and we will again be under the auspices of the vice chair for the public comment. Okay. I'm going to go with Mr. Joe Misco and after Mr. Joe Moscow will be Mr. Carrier. Good evening, Tommy Genesco from Manatee high school. And thank you for allowing me to speak

036with you today. If you recall, we were here at the beginning of last year to discuss a major threats and music programs. And although many of us did see a resolution that although not ideal saved our programs, some did not. And now we're seeing new threats to the music programs we are here because we fear that everyone in our organization is not fully aware of the dire circumstances we currently have, as it pertains to our students. And the music choices offered to them. Thousands of elementary students go into middle school each year and are denied the opportunity to sing in a choir. We have elementary educators who spend six years developing these children's voices. And for many of them to have their hearts broken when there's not even a chorus class offered on the registration

037form. I know how important this is. As a personally affected my family, my son was able to sing for three years at Hale. Then my daughter only had two and then going into COVID. We did not rehire that teacher. So she had to take PE her eighth grade year. And then my nephew, the next year, who loves to sing was not even offered chorus as a class. The next year I've met personally with every superintendent that we have had in Manatee county, in my 21 years to discuss issues that we're facing in music. At those times, a couple of times, things have come to fruition from those conversations, but most of the time I've continued to watch as things get worse. Here's some of the things that I believe needs to happen to guarantee progress

038in the area of the arts. We needed department of our own downtown. We need to find arts administrator downtown that can assist with human resources decisions and the evaluation process of our teachers, as it stands right now, those decisions are being made solely by site based administrators, who will often admit their lack of expertise in the area of music and fine arts. We also need chorus band and orchestra teachers at every secondary school. Right now there's only two middle schools with choral directors in our county. And two more that even offer a chorus class taught by a band or orchestra specialists. That means that nine of our county, middle schools, a child cannot learn to sing from a choral specialist. And at seven of them, they can't sing at all. We also need to re-introduce

039wheels in the middle school environment. There are many ways it's going to be done. There's a music ensemble course code. That's often not used. There's a course called career research and decision making that can be used if you extend the wheel beyond musical disciplines. And you can also simply keep them rostered in one music course for the semester and take it from there. I know that principals are concerned about having units, that they can not fill with students without a developed program, but there are many music courses that can be offered to fill those spots. You can also split teachers between two schools with geographical proximity and have a teacher develop both programs for a year, or you can simply hire a teacher with the knowledge that in a school of 800 to a thousand

040kids, if you give the teacher support and time and opportunity, you will find enough kids to fill the program. Our district is in the best financial shape I have seen in my 20 years, 21 years in Manatee county, but we cannot seem to find a way to adequately fund music and support them on our secondary campuses. The push to drive kids into AP IB, dual enrollment and ACE classes has pushed the arts to the side. In addition to our annual budget, being in a good place, we were told in the referendum referendum process that we'd be able to hire teachers out of that money to fill this void. The referendum was, was passed in November. And from what I understand, we still do not have a plan to utilize those funds. Please help us find

041solutions to these problems. And instead of simply saying, we support the arts, can this be the board that shows us that they're willing to prioritize the arts? Thank you, Mr. Carrier. And then after Mr. Carrier will be Alexis plan to next. My maiden name is booze Shelia with a silent G. So I, I do my best effort. Hey, good evening. My name's Kendall care. I'm the director of music at parish community high school. Thank you for this opportunity to address the board tonight in August of 2020, I spoke to the school board about the district's music programs being forced to teach music theory instead of being in chorus and orchestra due to COVID protocols. Also in my 2020 address to the school board, I stated grave concern for cutting for the cutting of middle-school music

042teaching units, because in nearly all cases, once a program is cut, it rarely returns. I said it would take years to recover from both of these administrative actions. Even if the teaching units were replaced tonight, I want to address the fact that our district choir programs will continue to fall behind. And in a few, a few years, we might even struggle to provide choir at the high school level at all, for a district, with a storied reputation for choral excellence. It is hard to imagine that we are even, we even need to address this tonight when asking questions about trying to reinstate choir at Hale Braden river, king saga. And so on, we were told there's not enough students interested to offer choir. If you do some research, you'll find out that most of our

043middle schools at most of our middle schools, choir is not even an option on the registration form. How can kids express interest in a class that doesn't even exist as an option as a band director in our district, I feel very well supported. And I'm thankful for that. As far as the fine arts department head at parish Trinity high school, I strive to support everything arts related at my school. And I, I simply cannot comprehend the elimination of choir at the middle school level from an outsider. It looks, it sincerely looks like a concentrated and calculated effort by either site-based or district leadership. We need to come up with a plan to reinstate choir, orchestra, and band at all of our middle schools. And we need to admit that we as a district right now,

044we're not providing an equal opportunity for our students at this time. In my opinion, we cannot say we are a district supportive of the arts while, while we are at the same time eliminating or decimating middle school acquire programs throughout our district, if we are supportive of the arts. So we need to be all in for every kid, whether they want to play in band orchestra, act, paint, draw, or sing. We have many talented choral educators in our district waiting for the opportunity to teach middle school choir. We should act fast. So we do not lose those great educators to other districts. I'll leave you with a couple of quotes to ponder and with all due respect, I'm not trying to take a shot at you at all, but a quote from Steve Mora, Bali,

045I talked to my students about this. Don't let somebody words blind you from their behavior. The actions of our district have been loud and clear over the past few years. I believe previous actions can be corrected as we get closer to normal post COVID. The second quote is from my Angelo, a three word quote for success in life, just do right. I sincerely hope our school board and administrative administration does right in this situation. The addition, the addition of middle school choir being taught by a choral educator should be a high priority for our school board over the next school year. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Alexis. And after Alexis will be Mrs. Wallace. Good evening. My name is Alexis. We tanks and I teach chorus at Bayshore high school. I'm grateful for

046the opportunity to share on behalf of the choral music educators of Manatee county and would like to thank you for listening to what I have to say tonight. So I have had the privilege of growing this choral program for the past five years, as well as working alongside our Lee middle school choir director, to create a strong choral track from sixth grade, all the way to 12th grade together, we coordinate multiple events throughout the year that combine the middle school and the high school choral students, allowing them to build relationships with their future peers, as well as their future teacher. I'm here tonight advocating for musical equity for all schools modeled for us by Lee middle's music program. My number of incoming freshmen at Bayshore has consistently been higher than my first two years, including

0472019, where my numbers doubled from the previous year, even through the pandemic, we have been able to maintain a consistent choral pathway from the middle school to the high school level. Meanwhile, the incoming freshmen numbers at Manatee Braden river, Lakewood ranch and parish high school have reduced every year since losing a theater program at the most direct feeding middle school. Manatee high school is the program that brought me to Manatee county after graduating from college. And it concerns me that to think that Bayshore though only offering music between two teachers is the only school that has a primary feeder that offers band chorus and orchestra from three specialized teachers. Students who have a strong, enjoyable experience in middle school chorus will be more likely to continue their music education upon their arrival to high school.

048Students should not have to choose their middle school based on the opportunity to sing as the most financially equitable activity. All students come to school with their own instrument and have an equal opportunity to learn concepts immediately. I know firsthand that financial stability can have a direct effect on student involvement in the arts, in my classroom and in any extracurricular activity offered at the high school level. When my students come to Bayshore as freshmen, and they have the opportunity to sing in the first week of school and do not have any financial expectations beyond a small chorus fee for their t-shirt chorus is the most accessible form of music education. Yet our students do not have equal access when they leave their elementary school. Should they choose to attend a middle school with no chorus

049program? They will lose the music, musical momentum. Our elementary music teachers have instilled. It is only a matter of time before the high school choral programs in this district begin to deplete without the encouragement of a middle school feeder an opportunity and acquire that every student should have access to. Should they wish to sing? Thank you so much. I says Wallace and thereafter. Mrs. Wallace will be Mr. Hartman. Hi Heather Wallace again, before I start on my issue, I just want to publicly thank the music teachers at all the schools. I teach advanced students in, in two different programs for different subjects in many of them, you know, it's very clear that their music helps them with their academics. So I want to thank them and, and hopefully they'll get their issue resolved. The issue

050I'm coming before you tonight is on the Edmonds Memorial. Again, I sent an email. I appreciate those who have corresponded with me a little bit about Edmond Edmond's again, this was something I did not bring up. I saw in the board material in September of last year, Edmunds Memorial, it was a consent item. It was not supposed to be discussed at all. So I inquired and it was kind of like, oh, this is normal operating procedure. But in fact it wasn't really normal operating procedure. This is a scholarship that was set up for Palmetto high students. And in September, it was my understanding that the account had $259,775 in it. And I have nothing but positive things to say about my communication with Mr. Barres, Ron, he was very prompt and professional and it looks

051like everything was fine. Then I checked in, in January and then I checked in, in April and I was told that it was being resolved, but my concern was the students did not receive any scholarship money last year. Then like at some point we got a $3,000 check. Nobody quite knew where it was from or where it was going. So again, I've just been asking for information. I wouldn't do it publicly, except I can't seem to get it any other way. So I was recently informed that money was paid out to students pear past practices this year, but still no information about what we're doing with this money when the trust is dissolved. So I believe the email said forward her this email to close the matter I want to close the matter, but I

052just want to know where we're putting the money when the trust is dissolved, because it is to go to students. That is who the money is for. So I'm sure that's the plan, but we as a school district are not in the business of operating trust. That's not what we do. So we need to have a plan to figure out I'm not suggesting anything nefarious. I'm really not being adversarial. I just want to know, are we going to move the money to like Manatee community foundation? But since it was originally placed on a consent item, I imagine that at some point, this board has to decide what to do with the money. And I'm simply asking, I don't want to be on the committee. I don't. I just want to make sure that the money

053that has been there since the seventies Remains there for our kids. Thank you, Mr. Hartman. And then after Mr. Hartman will be Mrs. Carrier. Michael Hartman for the record. I feel like I'm on a game show. Is this the bonus round? I did not sign up for third time, so God bless you. Maybe we just wanted to hear from you again. This is carrier and then Ms. Brinkley, Good evening. And thank you for the opportunity to share tonight. My name is Carrie carrier and I am the choral director at parish community high school. I'm also a product of Manatee county where all schools historically had three music educators on every secondary campus. This provided a specialist for each discipline band, orchestra and choir at every school in the past sixth grade, students across the county

054participated in an exploratory fine arts wheel class, giving them exposure to each opportunity and allowing them to choose the course that best suited their passions and talents. They then received solid instruction from an expert in that field and were ready to enter high school music programs. And this situation, high school choirs flourished with legendary teachers like Jennifer sell Mark Reeves and Archie Snyder. And the 20 years since I returned as a chorus teacher in this county, we have watched little by little as the middle school chorus programs were decimated picking up steam in 2020 as several middle school music programs, mostly chorus were cut all at once for what you may recall was a temporary solution. I remember the first time I saw this happen in 2006, the longtime successful chorus teacher, Braden from middle

055school transferred, and it took just one year for the position to be eliminated. And it never returned. It's been over 15 years, two years ago, when the position was cut at Hale middle school, we sat by and watched as the strongest middle school choral program in our entire community was dismantled without even the blink of an eye. Having served as the choral director of Braden river high school for nine years, I was the beneficiary of students coming into the high school program who had received training at Hale middle school. Most years there, between 60 and 80 incoming freshmen choir students, because they had been encouraged in communal singing. Now, many of our high schools were seeing only a handful of incoming freshmen entering choral programs because they have not had the course as an option

056in middle school. They don't know what it's all about. They don't know if they have natural ability that can be nurtured and developed something special, or if all the exciting opportunities and experiences the coral Springs, they don't know of the availability of music, scholarships, or college programs for singers. So they don't sign up in high school. There's not a magic jump from no exposure to choir in middle school to becoming a diehard choir kid in high school. Not only am I a product of Manatee county, but specifically of middle school chorus, along with Mr., who also spoke here tonight in 1990, I stepped into chorus at Harley middle school where I had wonderful choral directors. They ignited my love for singing and helped me to realize the potential that I had to do this for

057the rest of my life. My career and life purpose started that fall during exploratory wheel, as a sixth grade child, I cannot fathom what my life would have been or the path I would have traveled. Had I not had the opportunity to sing with the choir under exceptional choral educators in middle school, please prioritize music by restoring chorus and three music specialist at each secondary school. Thank you, Ms. Brinkley, after Ms. Brinkley, Mr. Armstrong, Good evening, Deanna Brinkley for the record. So it's come to all of our attention that we have some questionable books in the schools that are erring on the side of pornography. The jury's out on how this happened, but we're going to fix it. And in the statute, 1 0 6, 2 8 3 school district school board instructional material review

058process says specify the qualifications for instructional materials reviewer and the process for selecting reviewers list of reviewers duties and responsibilities, including compliance with the requirement and provide all instructional materials recommended by reviewer. Be accompanied by reviewer statement that the materials align with the state standards, state the requirements for an affidavit to be made by each district instructional material reviewer, which substantially meets the requirements, establish a process that certifies the accuracy of instructional materials incorporate applicable requirements, which relates to the duties of instructional material. Reviewers establish the process by which instructional materials will be purchased. Section 1 0 6 as statute 1 0 1 0 0 6 3 0 says before transacting any business, each state instructional material reviewer. So I'll make an affidavit to be filed with the department. A statute 1 0 0 6,

0593 1 says evaluation of Instructional materials recommended by each reviewer shall be to the satisfaction of each reviewer, accurate objective, balanced noninflammatory, current free of pornography and material prohibited under And suited to the student's need and their ability to comprehend the material presented Statute 8 4 7 1 0 2 harmful materials. Prohibited knowingly means having the general knowledge of reason to know, or belief or ground for belief, any picture of photograph, drawing, sculpture, emotion, picture, film, video cassette, similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body, which depicts nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery beastiality, and which is harmful to minors. Any book pamphlet, magazine printed matter. However, we produced our sound recording that contains any matter, define explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement

060or sexual conduct that is harmful to minors. That's the Florida statutes. I do not believe that any principal, any school, any teacher, anybody on the board is advocating. This wants this, I think Frankly. Okay. Mr. Armstrong, and then Ms. Hutchinson. Good afternoon. My name is Steven Armstrong and I'm the choral director at Braden river high. I'm a second generation native of Bradenton. I hold a bachelor's and two master's degrees in voice performance, choral conducting and music education. And I've seen my choir's Excel and music, performance assessments and competitions throughout the state of Florida. I've seen much success, but unfortunately have been forced to stand by it and see once flourishing music programs and other counties decimated and closed because of decisions made by school boards and administrators, as you may know, Hillsborough county unceremoniously fired

061me at 109 other music teachers last year, as they prioritize many things about music education, I was thrilled to be hired at Braden river despite taking a $20,000 pay cut and driving 65 miles a day. Braden river has a 15 year history of producing superior choirs at both the district and state level and his storage bin at the same performance levels as arts magnet, schools and other districts this year, every one of our students in choir received straight superiors at district and state music performance assessments, and were also invited to perform at Carnegie hall. I say all this to show you that we have a flourishing choral program whose roots have been severed over the past couple of years, as you know, it takes some time for the impact of the root system being eliminated

062to show in the branches and flowers. And so as the case with the elimination of our middle-school programs, our main middle school feeder Hale has received recognition as a middle school choir of distinction and music performance assessments. For those of you who do not know the significance of that for time sake, please take my word that this a monumental achievement and Israeli accomplished choir has been eliminated, hail all along with many other schools, completely eliminated, not just that. There's not a choral music teacher on campus. They do not offer the course to any students course is not listed on a single course registration form. We're often told that teacher allocation is driven by student requests, but how can there possibly be enough students to justify adding positions? If there aren't a choice on a request

063for the class last year, I had 15 freshmen and this year I have 16 that leaves us with only 64 students with the opportunity of four years of choral experience. This program has historically seen around 220 students with not only four years of high school, but in additional two and a half years of middle school choir, whether intentional or just misguided. This is a recipe for disaster. For our choral programs. We are losing students every year to wrap that and Manatee school for the arts that want to sing somewhere. The decision to take almost all middle schools from three music teachers to two is putting us three years behind other districts. Last year, Lakewood ranch lost a music unit due to its lack of solutions at the end of 2021 king Los chorus, Nolan, Los

064orchestra and hail loss course when surveyed last semester for how the referendum funds should be prioritized. All of our high school choral directors here said that we should fix the middle school situation that have, and have no fewer than three music educators on each middle school campus. Please help us bring back chorus to middle schools in this county School board members, Enid Hutchinson career educator. I am coming forward to be a voice for teachers who have been non-renewed by principals who abused their power. There are no protections for teachers who are non-renewed in Manatee county's teacher contract. I was recently informed that human resources handles teachers who fill in for a one-year leave of absence position as a non-renewal at the end of the year, human resources also told me when a PRI principal non-renewed

065a teacher, they trust the principal's judgment 100% and no further process is conducted. The most powerful way to make positive change is through personal testimony, which is why I came forward to share. After teaching six years with highly effective evaluations at Braden river high school, the former principal abused her power to non-renew me. At the end of the year, a non-renewal can literally destroy a teacher's career and prevent them from getting hired anywhere else. After I was non-renewed the union president brought my concerns to the superintendent in a conversation about my case, a school board members, a conversation is not an official appeal process. Contrary to what the superintendent said in January. There is no official appeal process for teachers who were non-renewed. It is paramount that Manatee county school board number one puts in

066place new policies and protections to the teacher contract that principals must follow prior to recommending any effective annual contract teacher for non-renewal and number two, add an official appeal process where the teacher can be fairly represented. This will prevent any principal from non renewing teachers based on a personality, conflict, whim, or abuse of power. Right now, there are teachers who were non-renewed just last month in April, is this school board going to give those teachers who were non-renewed a chance to appeal their non-renewal and hear their side of the story to protect their careers. Please do not allow these non-renewals to continue without an official appeal process. Now, please consider what I have submitted to you for teacher contract improvements. Please make this a top priority concern. Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes public

067comment. Thank you, Madam vice chair. At this time, we are going to entertain responses to public comment from the members of the board. And we'll start with Mr. Chuck, I guess first thing is everybody coming out? I guess there's a question maybe for superintendent, I didn't know, is there, there was a couple of comments made about the wheel program, I guess you'd call it at when you get into sixth grade, you go through all the, is that no longer done Department of education removed that allowance about a handful of years ago, once upon a time there was a wheel and all middle schools ran students through each quarter, a different type of experience in middle school that is no longer allowable. So the units are given to schools to pick four electives based on the

068department of education course offerings. And other than each school does offer art and music. We do not specify specifically what types of electives that they have beyond that, but that is what the wheel, which once upon a time or in place does not exist anymore. Okay. I know we haven't been presented and I think we talked about it maybe at the workshop about the, the committee giving us their plane. I know that's in place relatively. I think it's on eventually on, on our, our summer schedule here, but just, just so that everyone's aware of that, that is something that committee is putting together, their proposal on how we should do. We have a, an arts task force as well as feedback and information input from all of our teachers throughout the district. I am meeting

069with our arts specialist tomorrow and his supervisor so that we can clearly communicate that out. So everyone knows what the recommendations were for not only this year, but for the next three years. And to that, I'm not going to ask some of the teachers that are here, but where they were we did we ask teachers in general, do you want to be a part of this? How was that? How has that process, that this was done before I was here? So how was that process started with, to get that committee? The information was gathered in terms of equipment needs, et cetera. I do know for a fact, I've met with some individuals in the audience about chorus or their concern. And you know, the great thing about our district is we've grown many elective options.

070And I know that was stated too. We've expanded our IB programs, our ACE Cambridge programs, we've expanded some of our vocational programs. And as well as part, I know a couple of people mentioned Hale, what happened with hell middle school? We opened Mona Jane. So there was a reduction of students and then principals decide what electives they are going to choose when their allocation is reduced. So there has been input, there will be a plan. And definitely, I think a couple of points that were met about put it on the course code offering so that that's definitely an easy solution to see if it's driving enough interest to have that in place where then they can go and seek teachers to fill some of those positions. You stole my thunder on that. Yeah. I mean,

071I agree if you don't, you don't know what you don't know and I agree it shouldn't be on the catalog to say, how many students want this And then let let, because it should be driven by the Students. And that's, that's When we had the workshop and talked about the staffing allocation and there was only an increase of one teacher in the arts. I was a aghast, I did have conversation with the superintendent and she told me that of the task force and the meeting tomorrow. But I, I do my fellow school board members. I do not, I am so strongly opposed to wait, letting this go. Another year. We've got to, we have been told by, by music teachers throughout the district, we've been told tonight and w we have generated the monies for

072the arts. And if we don't have enough in one S one middle school, we can just, as one of our 40 year teachers said, she shared, you know, and, and drove, drove across town and we can do that. So it's not like we've got to fill, fill the classes entirely. So we're in the process of budgeting. And I, in fact, I even had it on my comments for, for comments this evening. I don't, when we're talking about workshops, I don't want to take this down to the wire on, on our budget process, because we won't really be addressing this again until August. And as soon as the information comes from the task force, I would ask that we find a way to have a workshop on this and, and see what the plan is and,

073you know, w and, and get something going. So I, I'm not going to back down on this one, then on the Edmonds Memorial scholarship fund, I recall the conversations and the process. I believe that they were supposed to provide an, a trust accounting. Is that correct? I'd like to know the status of that. Thank you for asking. We had three years of accounting information, which we had to obtain from Wells Fargo. We are, have been working with their attorney. We did get the documentation, Mr. completed his review, and it's a book that's this thick, I'll gladly pass it on for, for you as well. This contained some certain information regarding bank accounts. From there. Once we got that, once we got the accounting approved, it moved to the next arena, which was legal again, revised

074documentation that would be able to terminate the trust and final. The final parts of it was exhibit D, which is the last accounting we got that last week. I went from Mr. Barch Ron's approval. I'm in contact with the trustee here. The revised language is now legal. Mr. Bosch one has to give the blessing on the last exhibit, and I'd like to be able with the superintendents recommendation, bring it back before the board on. And I will say not necessarily our consent as well. So you may ask all the questions you may, may desire on this one. Okay. Thank you. Thank You. Ma'am And then the, the teachers appeal process, when they're non-renewed, could you address that Madam superintendent? Yes. Any complaint that a teacher has, if they are a member of the union, it

075certainly can go before their president, but we do have a process in HR that if they feel that they have not been treated appropriately or fairly, they follow a complaint there, and it is fully investigated. Do we have that procedure in writing? Yes, we Do. Okay. Would it be possible for the board members to receive that from you? Sure. Yeah. I want to thank everybody That you've finished Ms. For Tonight too. Yes, I am. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you all for coming out tonight. This is a perfect example of, of community driven public governance, and it's, it's very much appreciated as Mr. mentioned, we did talk about this at our last workshop. There is certainly board support for this idea. As we were listening to the public comment, I was thinking to myself, do

076we just make a motion to provide choral orchestra and band at every secondary school? Or, and then I kind of thought about it. I was like, why don't we work with the superintendent? You know, we don't need to make a motion to direct if all five board members are on the same. And we went on the same page and we want to get this done this summer. I do remember in the early days of the pandemic, or I should say in the, the August, that was what, August of 20, when we were opening schools and the superintendent, her team were kind of struggling to figure out pandemic education as everybody was in this country. And in this state and the changes that were made to the music programs generated probably if not the most, nearly

077the most email around any issue I've seen since I've been on this board. So there is a very engaged and organized and active and energetic music and arts community out here in this county. And like Mrs. Foreman, I will not let this go. We do need to, to use the analogy, get the roots back in the ground. So this, so this, this tree can flower and I totally support that. And I just want to make one comment about the budget. We'd still have budget approval to come this summer. And part of that budget approval will how we are going to spend the millage money. So if you remember, we kind of, we placed a few different items into kind of one catchall category in the visual and performing arts as part of that catchall category.

078And then there was also student supports and steam, excuse me. So I think one way the board can show it supports through budget approval is we can kind of, this referendum is going to go for three years until it needs to be renewed, or until it will expire. Excuse me, I have to renew it before that. But I think another way the board can show its support is when we do that budget approval of millage funds, we make sure that we're providing funds that these positions can be there. So I would just ask for your patience, give us a little time for the board and superintendent to work together on this, and then keep your eye on us. And we'll, and we'll, we'll keep you informed as we move through, as we move through budget

079season, that said, I think that's, that was it. Yeah. The, the teacher contract renewal that I think is also going to be a work in progress that cause that does have to make its way through, through bargaining, which we don't talk about here. We talk about that as a group in the shade, but I can commit to however I can help in that effort. In my time remaining on this board, having been non-renewed myself and seeing how it does greatly affect a, a teacher or a staff members career prospects in, especially in an industry, which we are begging for good people to stay or to join us in this career. So just want to let assumptions, and I want to let you know, I still got your back on that one and other folks who

080are dealing with that as well. I think that was it. I just have one more thing to say, and I'll actually, I'll save this for the end, cause it was not raised at public comment. So that's it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. Good boy. Kennedy ice jet messenger. Well, what your fourth either to my detriment or to my luxury, y'all have already said anything. I think I would have said. So I will just thank the public commenters for coming tonight. Not rehash. Thank you. Madam vice chair, with respect to the Edmonds Memorial trust funds, is there not a provision in the trust itself as to how to dissolve the trust? There is a Mr. Chair. There's a process for debt solutions as per statute. And that process has been followed. Ultimately it will come to

081before the board, the language that I dealt with personally was issues of not having the accounting properly approved, having a proper signatory, as well as cleaning up language of identification, which we will not do. So we had to one gather the accounting to ensure it was proper to move forward, to strike some of the legal language that will not be acceptable to us as well as a final proposed disbursement of the trust to us to be acceptable. There's a provision in the internal revenue service code that says that when you have a trust and you have funds that are not going to go toward the purpose of the trust that you are allowed to take those funds and convey them to another entity, the same purpose, the same, the same way. Is that a provision

082in that trust? I will say this to you. I can't answer that question about the IRS code. I could tell you that part to dissolve this trust. It had to go up to the state for approval. So we have that. We have those components in place. I can tell you that there's four exhibits that will come before this board to show how this pro how the trust process has been terminated to the satisfaction of the court So far. I don't think that anything that has been said has addressed the issue that was brought to us by Ms. Wallace, what happens to the money after the trust is dissolved. And so I think in all fairness here in transparency, we need to make a statement as to what we want to see happen. We've heard Mrs.

083Wallace, his recommendation, and that is that it be used for the students, which was the purpose of the trust to begin with. I'm sure that there are entities in the community that could be repositories for this. Yeah, the Reverend golden one. Provisor when we, when we disperse, when this trust is dispersed, it must be kept for the trust purpose that it was intended. So that would be a continuation. The question which we have is where do you park this particular monies to make sure that it stays in the perpetuity of the trust for those students at that particular school? We don't have to decide that tonight. No, sir. Okay. We finally heard that the money will be kept for the purposes of students at that particular school. And all we have to decide is which

084repository we're going to use. Exactly. Right. Right. Thank you. The second issue that I have with respect to what we've heard tonight in public comment is it seems, it seems that the Grecians and the Hebrews were having a dispute about the administration of food to the widows. The Grecians were upset because they thought that they were being discriminated against. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. We're not talking about Greeks and Hebrews. We're talking about music, choral education and arts and other parts of the aid as is now going to be in steam instead of stem. And I think that they have a good point and I don't think we need to have a workshop about that. I listened to all of you say consensually, that we want to make sure that there is equity in the

085use of the millage extension funds that this community by 70% said we could use for the next three years. And we're not going to wait another year to do that. We want that included in what we're going to do this year and included in what we consider this year in terms of our strategic plan. And in terms of our curriculum planning, that is what am I expressing the center. That's what we want to see at the upcoming presentation for the board. Does that, did I say that right? If I left out anything, okay. Now, is that going to be problematic Madam superintendent? Because I'm pretty sure that they are already doing it in an equitable way. And there's nothing we can do about the inequities in the past, but our commitment here tonight, publicly and

086in full disclosure and with transparency is that we going to correct this problem. And I don't mean sometime we're going to do that now, is that problematic administratively, logistically, It's already in our strategic plan update. I believe Mr. Chapman has we'll be going over that Friday. I do believe there will need to be some further conversation. When we say we're expanding our arts and our music programs, No one assumed it was all necessarily course. So I do think we need to be mindful as to what that means could be chorus, but we also have dance. We have theater, we have digital arts, we have graphic arts, we have jazz band. There are many arts and music programs that fit that definition. So I do ask that we allow the information to come forward. That should

087be driving some of our decisions because if the board says, I want course and every middle school right out of the gate, there's not a problem, but what elective are we removing? Because you can only staff so many positions at a full middle schools, 132 kids, 120, 130. So, but what if the school, the feedback from the students said we wanted theater. Are we going to tell them it has to be course. So I do say all intent and purpose was to enhance, expand and add chorus was definitely on that option of, of choices. I've not seen the final conclusion as to what the students and the schools are seeking. So I do say we will have that information. It will be provided. And there certainly doesn't need to wait for a workshop to say

088what, how we're going to add or what we're going to add, because the intent is that those things are going to be added. The one course that we already added this year at Manatee did not come out of the millage. Remember the millage goes into effect in July for the upcoming year. So that was done out of the general budget. So I do think I would caution let, let's get all the information let's provide and see what the plan that the team has before us. So we can say, could be two course. And these two schools look like they need it, but this one wanted theater. I mean, we have some wonderful theater programs too, that I'm sure those teachers would like that to be promoted and increased and supported as well In, in a

089follow-up to a suggestion that Mr. Choke made. Is it possible for us to operate in a co-operative manner here to try to allow as many people as possible to have input into as many of these options as a possible. And instead of just saying, all right, we're going to offer, we're going to put this on the sheet and you can check that off. If it's dead, we're going to put this, put them all on the sheet. Absolutely. And then what we wind up with is having the opportunity then to determine what the majority of the students would have to see. Absolutely. And, and that's really Well. I, but I'm, I'm, I'm saying, I think I heard someone else say earlier, if it's not on the sheet, they don't know that it's possible to be, to

090be had. So everything that's possible. Can we put that out there? I know we only have a few days left to the end of school, but can we put that out there so that the children can know that we are trying to make sure that we are offering electives that are responsive to them and that, that, that we are being proactive and trying to, trying to address that I'm going to interrupt, interrupt my tirade. I'm sorry, not my comments. Go back Just to kind of reiterate. I think that the problem is we've already gotten past the time where kids are going around and trying to make a schedule, bringing home with their parents. Here's your electives. Here's, what's offered. We've already gotten past that point in the school year. So we're already creating staffing plans,

091which obviously we saw based on those sheets that were brought. So I, I don't, I am not for four, without any knowledge blanketly saying, we've got to hire X amount, of course, teachers and force kids in, in the chorus, because we want this building. We want this back. I want it back. I mean, I hope some of y'all know me per I want it back, but it's gotta be done the right way. I do think we made a mistake by not offering it as an elective to the children at fifth grade, sixth grade seven, you know, whatever grade to say, is this something you want? And I don't know If five kids come back from middle school and say, we don't, we want this then that's. But if 5,500 kids come back, then we know

092where we stand. I don't know is in, I think chair was asking, is there S is there a way that we could do that now through email phone call? I don't know. And I, that may be a complete mess and a disaster to ask now on the backend of, Hey, we sent out registration, but we forgot we didn't put in this. I don't know how you do that. So that's where, that's my concern. Oops. Make their schedule request form. So I don't know what they put on there or what they didn't put, but can we go back and identify now some interest we do have a couple of days left. So the answer for that is yes. Number two, we're talking about middle school. We're not talking about high school, so it is easier to

093make an adjustment. Number three, we also can get information at the very beginning of the year, because remember we have growth that happens over the summer. We make adjustments at the 10 day count. It could be that if the schools don't feel that they can get a proper identification, now we easily can do it the first week of school. And at the 10 day count, make some additions adjustments of, of those selections. Th that we have growth units all the time. So that's definitely an item. But what I would say is put the whole, every art and music opportunity on the sheet, let them see if some schools prefer something more than others. Lee middle school was an art magnet school many years ago. So the units were built into their allocations, which is how

094they have that direct feeder to Bayshore. The other schools were not equipped that way, but if it's too, if the schools feel it's too tight to really get feedback by this week, we can easily do it. The first week we make adjustments at the 10 day, all the time we're talking middle school. I think that that's probably as realistic, an expectation that we can have as a board to satisfy the lacking that we've all acknowledged exists with respect to this part of the arts aspect of steam. Well, yeah, not w we, we know that we, I haven't heard one person comes and said we don't have enough art classes. Nobody came up and talked about dance. What they came up and talked about specifically is chorus music. And I can appreciate that we can do

095that at the beginning, but I also appreciate the fact that we're not going to just do dance, not just going to do the course in the music, we're going to do it all because every child ought to have the opportunity to know whether or not at that school. They can have their artistic expression fulfilled. Is there any that I say that in a proper way? Yes. Ms. Foreman, How are we going to staff for that? Well, you know what, I'm so glad you asked that question. That is a question that the superintendent will answer for us. When we come back with the recommendations that are going to be made within the first 10 days of next year. I don't have to decide that tonight. I simply have to decide that that is an aspiration that

096we have not, that's not an aspiration. If we're going to be afraid, we can't ask for it and then say, well, it's too hard to do either. We're going to ask for it and try to get it done, or we're not going to ask for it because we admitting the night that it's too hard to do. Just one quick thing. I'm sorry. No, That's fine. But I would like to say, to talk to what Ms. Foreman is asking as well. Let's, let's, let's think outside the box, let's be creative. Obviously there were solutions tonight about maybe there's one teacher for multiple schools that are near each other. So I do think that, that if we got numbers back, even before the end of school, I'm sure there were principals that feedback about it. You could

097be creative in that aspect of, of maybe one teacher goes to multiple schools, you know, and, and, and it's worked out 40 years ago. We just had an example, Anna Marie, to Baca. I don't want us to get bogged down in how to do it before we make up in our minds that this is what we want to do. We do want to respond to the issues that was raised in public comment. That's where we are. If we are doing that, then how to get it done. We're going to assume we're going to get it done in the best, most effective, most efficient way that comes to us as recommended from the superintendent and the staff, the how is not what I'm concerned with right now. Not, I just want us to be sure that

098this is worthy of examination beyond just discussing tonight. That's all when you're done. Yeah. Ms. Foreman. Well, I personally would really like to hear from Jeremiah Bowman he's there taskforce has, they may have that information. They may have already gone to the schools, talked with, I hope to have gone and talked to the principals and gotten there in, in the, in the arts people and gotten their input on what they hope to have and what they see is realistic in their schools. That's why I really, You know, understand your point I'm workshop happy, but I'm not sure. And by the workshop, what I'm saying is that if this were a done deal, and if this was adequate, they wouldn't be here tonight. Now either we're going to acknowledge that there's merit to what they're bringing,

099or are we going to say that what has already been done is sufficient and I, for 1:00 AM not one of the ones that think that what they've done is sufficient at that. I think that we, we ought to allow the superintendent under our direction to go forward, to try to correct it. Yes. Mr. I'm sorry. Had you finished Ms. Foreman? Yeah. All right. Mr. Kennedy, I'll be brief. I Irvin golden. You just said, well, I, I think the message is clear. The support from the board is clear. Now let's give the superintendent superintendent a chance to, to react. And like Chad said, let's come up. Think outside the box. Let's come up with some ideas. One thing I did leave out. If I may ever go, I hadn't finished math. Oh, one more thing

100real quick that I am not really interested in being in the book, banning business at all, but I will, if I have what the heck I'm gonna run it again. I'll just say it. If the folks who are in and I think Mrs. Brinkley left. So really I wanted to direct this at her, but she's gone. So Mrs. Franklin, when you hear this later, I will support all the book banning efforts that you're into, as long as you acknowledge that the Bible needs to be added to that list because the Bible is filled with sex and violence. Oh, Okay. That was not part of pup. Yes, it was. It was part of public comment. So I wanted to address that and I will listen to everybody's take on, on books and what's problematic and what's

101not, but let's just be clear about all the books that are problematic. Okay. That was it. That was it. Okay. So let me finish. The other thing that I wanted to talk about, and that is the non-renewal policy that is in place with respect to teachers. Is there an impediment either through collective bargaining or any other process that stops us from having a non renewal policy that has two aspects. And I just picked these words cause I don't, I haven't thought of any others administrative and then competency related because it appears that what's being alleged is that some principals had behind the non specificity to do things that they should not be able to do. But I am realistic in knowing that there are some people that literally really ought to not be renewed, particularly

102if they're not doing their jobs, but is it possible to have something like that set forth in writing you are being non-renewed for administrative reasons, we don't have enough students or you're being non-renewed for competency related issues. You were absent 42 times. You I'm just trying to figure out how we get around the, the hurt that comes from someone not being able to tell someone else officially why they were not, not renewed. What I keep hearing in the communications that I get is that, you know, I got great evaluations. I did this, did that, that. And then I wound up with a principal who didn't like me. And so I wound up being non-renewed well, I don't know whether that's true or not, but that principal, since that principal initiated the decision ought to be

103required to say, well, not only we non-renewed you because you, you can't teach math anymore or whatever it is. So that those, those were the, the three kinds of side. I did want to talk about the, the reading of all of the statutes that Mrs. Brinkley read for us. But I only had a question in that regard. Is there anything that was read in the statute by the speaker? Was there anything that was omitted or was there anything that was said that was not correct? Cause I thought she just read the statutes. The lawyers are conferring, so Sure. Where you're referring to the review committee of the Yes. So what happened is that we had a speaker in public comment that came up and read several statutes. And I'm asking if, what was read was

104a correct rendering of what is in the statutes, because sometimes we read abbreviated portions of the statute. We don't read the whole statute. Yeah. I can say that she was referring correctly to the number of the statute that she was discussing. She was paraphrasing. I don't think we should state that it was accurate, but it was the correct statute. And it goes into effect in July. It's a new statute. Alright, thank you very much. Those are the comments that I, that I wanted to make. I don't think we need to take any, any other actions in response to what we've heard other than what we've already said. We'd like the superintendent to commit to do. If that is the case I'd like to I'm On at 6 35, right? Yes, I'm done. And we're going

105to take a five minute recess And reconvene. We are now at I not having any items 12. We are now at item 13, new business non-consent items, the approval of the use of the source. Well requests for proposal on firefighting apparatus and five service vehicles estimated in the amount of $150,000. And this is something that comes before us with the superintendent recommendation. Yes. I recommend the approval of the use of the source. Well request for proposal on firefighting apparatus and fire service vehicles. This one being a mobile communications vehicle. SDMC number 22 dash oh 1 2 2 dash Mr. Estimated in the amount of $150,000. Okay. Alright. It's been moved by Mr. Kennedy. Second advice to your messenger that we approve the use of the source will request at the recommendation of the superintendent. There's

106been a motion. Second. Is there any unreadiness Madam vice chair. Oh, I'm so sorry. I apologize, Mrs. Wallace. Oh my God. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud? I believe this will be my last one. I, I'm not going to apologize, but this one was originally on the consent agenda and my primary concern is making sure that the agenda reflects what is actually happening at meetings because most people do not read the agenda packet. So my first concern is that it appears to the public that we are purchasing firefighting apparatus and fire service vehicles. And some of you, when you peruse the consent may also think that's what is being purchased. But we are not at least as far as I can tell using it for firefighting purposes, we are buying a media

107van to cover high school football games and school programs. So I appreciate very, very much the board members that treat me with respect and call me back. And, and the, and the staff in general, I do appreciate that some members of the public may not have that opportunity. And so if I notice something, sometimes I just think it's best to be on the front end and talk about it in the spirit of transparency. I want our district to do well, but if we don't have the public's trust, that is very hard to do. And so Ms. Messenger, I believed pulled this off of the consent agenda and I hope there will be a short conversation about who requested the media van, why the request was written as a firefighting vehicle, opposed to a communication vehicle

108because the communication part department does a very good job. I would be remiss if I did not congratulate them on all of the coverage of the graduation ceremonies and the senior spotlights. And we love to see the good news, but who requested the additional communication media van for the game of the week and those assemblies, why was it written as a firefighting vehicle and what is the funding source? Because I have no problem. Well, I'm, I don't know if I do or not. If the funding is coming from the MTC firefighting program, then I think that would be a problem because that would, that those, we need to support our first responders in the training of them. If it is coming from a communication budget, we need to just let the public know that that

109is what's being covered there. So basically I think you get the general idea. It's more of a transparency issue that our agendas need to reflect what's happening at the meeting. If we want people to be civically engaged, we need to communicate with them properly. And I do appreciate the response. Thank You. Thank you. That concludes public comment on this item. All right. Thank you. Madam vice chair. And at this time we, this is under non-consent, but there's a superintendent's recommendation. Okay. And I think that teachers had public comment rather than make our motion. And second predicated on just what we've heard. Maybe we want to hear from the superintendent at this time. Yes, sir. I do believe it's been moved and seconded, but I would like to clear up the questions that were posed. Why

110was it listed in the manner? Was that is a regular process for purchasing because that is the bid we worked off of. So that is the state standard language that she used for the contractor that we're able to purchase that from. If we go within the executive summary, I agree a hundred percent the on everybody reads the executive summary, but it was requested by myself because we are expanding our communications. One of the things that you will notice that when you do see our survey backup, Mr. Chapman's going to be going over that Friday from the community and the parents is we do need to make sure we're highlighting and emphasizing our programs, but it's not just athletic programs. It's our arts programs. It's our theater programs. It's our groundbreaking that we're going to have

111at Buffalo Creek. So this would be a van that is equipped for us to do live streaming and broadcasting to enhance what's going on in the district. So it is not purchased out of our firefighting budget at MTC. It is done out of our communications department. We have money left in that department now, and that's why we're moving forward. But that those are the points that were made. So I hope I was able to explain them well. Okay. Yeah. I'll probably comment. It has been since, since I've gotten on board, I'm on the board, I've stayed in many times. We do not do a very good job of promoting ourselves. We do not do a very good job of promoting what the students in our district are doing. The unbelievable things they're doing, the programs

112that we're providing. We'll be adding more next year as we go through. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a place speaking and nobody knew about, about the was program. Nobody knew about these programs that we, that we have out there with arts being a part of, of the, the referendum. There is a, a in my, my opinion, a visual aspect of visual arts and production aspects that we are not tapping into and not creating an opportunity for our students. Meaning when that chorus program does a fantastic concert in the, in the wintertime, we should have producing that on Ms. TV. We should have kids in the seats producing that to where they can create a portfolio for themselves and go out out of, out of high school and go to Feld

113entertainment and say, Hey, Feld entertainment. This is what I did for my four years. Let me come on and do Disney on ice or, or, or whatever they do. And this is beyond athletics. It's, it goes beyond to, to all the visual arts that we do and the productions, we should have our students engaged in this and, and, and being able to put together a program to have our students be able to use this moving forward in their future. And so I think it's fantastic. Yeah, I did have it moved just so that we could have that clarity, because I do agree with Mrs. Wallace on, if you're just looking at the titles on the agenda, it was not very explanatory that it was a mobile communications vehicle and it was allowed in the, in

114the bid. And I do appreciate that once I did that, that the words mobile communications field were at least added to the title. I do really appreciate that as well, because I think that does add at least some clarity to anybody that is just looking at the agenda. So I, I, I really wanted to just ensure that that was put out there and that the questions about where the source of money was coming from or answered. I think it is on the executive summary, but it's like at the very bottom. So I, I, I really think that there's a lot of benefit as Mr. Choate has explained that a lot of live events that we can make sure that families, for instance, that are working might be able to still watch their kid perform if

115it's during the school hours. I think that there's some benefit to that in itself, but also to Mr. Toad's point, a student being able to walk out of high school saying, Hey, I've done all these live events. And I have life event experience. That's different than doing video production, you know, in your classroom, you know, that is a different experience and a really important skill set. If you were going to go work at Feld, I could see that. So, you know, I think there's a lot of positives to this. I think that the biggest concern was the transparency of the wording of it. And so I really appreciate at least adding that. So there was a little bit more clarity, so, And make a helpful point to, to Ms. Walston, the superintendents point discussion, but

116also to the general public, because of our new board software that we have, you can go to our district website and to the school board page. And when you click on the agenda of a board meeting all those, most of those items, now, when you can, you can link, you can press on the board item and it brings you directly to the summary of what is being discussed or voted on so that you don't have to go through a thousand pages or 600 pages of board work. So on this item for particular, you could go right to the board agenda, click on it and on the, on the mobile communications vehicle. And it will bring you right to the summary on our district website, where then you don't have to scroll through hundreds of pages.

117So we tried to make that easier. Actually it was our, our board clerk and Ms. Collins made it easier now, where now you can just click on an item and it will take you right to the summary to make it faster and easier. So really, I just wanted to state that for the public who are listening, it should make it a little easier to, to summarize what's what's going on during board meetings. Thank you for that interjection. I went back and I read the notated item, and I have just a few questions. Number one, if a person is not going to really read the agenda and the headlines that are in the agenda, I'm not quite so sure we can realistically expect them to read the details that are found in here. Aside from that.

118I don't think that that's the real issue that is being lifted up here tonight. The real issue is the clarity with which we describe the actions that we're going to take. And quite honestly, a good people can disagree with what clarity is. I was not confused about the item even before the addition of mobile communications vehicle. Cause I read the whole item. I had that much interest. I read the whole item. I understood it even when it was on the consent agenda. And when I was asked to pull it off of the consent agenda, I agreed to that because I too would like transparency, not clarity as a big difference, but transparency is always more desirable. And so to the extent that you all have labored to make the request more transparent, because number one,

119all this does is authorize us for a period between June 14th, 2022, to February, 2010, 2026, to use a contract that we have in some other aspect, as a guiding line to vote for this particular vehicle. That's what this is about. That's what it says. That's what it's written to say. Now that that is about as clear as you can get in terms of what the purpose of this contract is. It's not necessarily transparent because I do agree with the people that brought the objections. And that is that a lot of people aren't really particularly interested in transparency because they really don't understand what they're looking at. That's what we am, that's what we're dealing with here. And so to the extent that you, that it was brought to our attention, that we needed to

120provide more transparency about this particular transaction of a possible $150,000 expenditure that would be made over the next four years, I'm going to support that. But to the posture that it was not clear. Well, a lot of that depends on how much each of us is able to understand what we read. And some of us have a better understanding of that than others. Some of us have a lot more education than other people have. And so it doesn't require all that much clarity to get to understand what the, what the real issue is. But I also agree that there's some people that just don't read and then there's some people that don't know how to read, and we just do the best that we can to try to reach as many people as we can.

121So I thank you for your coming forward, Mr. Chief of staff, to provide an appreciation for the transparency that that's necessary. Having said all that is any, any other comment, all right. Hearing none, the chair will call the question. All those in favor of the recommendation of the approval of the use of the source will request as a basis for a proposal on firefighting apparatus and five service vehicles, specifically a mobile communications vehicle as has already been awarded in their proposal to the Oshkosh corporation, Pierce manufacturing, frontline communications, Oz, Kosh, Wisconsin, in that particular contract. a second in the Midwest fire manufacturers. All of those are manufacturers of the, the mobile communications vehicles. And they've all agreed to accept the source well contract as the basis for, for financing this all right. All in favor,

122say aye. Okay. All the poles hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Madam vice chair for giving us this opportunity to provide more clarity and more transparency Next new business, Without a superintendent's recommendation, the discussion and or action or recommendation from the citizens financial oversight committee, which is also contained in the, In the material that we've passed out, The board will hold discussion and or action regarding the recommendation from the citizens was financial oversight committed. And I don't see a recommendation in the materials and in writing Berman golden for me, I'm sorry, Was just saying, if I may, this is not, this is our item, as you mentioned. And so if it helps get us started off, I'll make the motion, Excuse me. Sure. As The liaison. Oh, of course. I'm sorry.

123Sorry about that. I would like to address it before any motions. I specifically did not put it on here as emotion for several reasons. First, first of all, just to explain this citizen financial oversight committee voted five to four to recommend to this board that we terminate a certain member from a membership on the committee. And So it's my responsibility to bring it to, to the board. I asked that we not use an individual's name. And I also ask that we not discuss the merits, you know, or talk about, you know, the merits of the reason that they did this. I do not. I personally, my, my opinion is that we shouldn't allow committees to vote people off the island, so to speak. I think it's a bad precedent. I unequivocally say that this committee

124is dysfunctional. I don't believe that you can attribute that dysfunction to anyone member. And I think the dysfunction lands right back in our laps, that it's been a mess from the time it was established. And we've tried multiple times to correct things along the way. And I, it has been scheduled the discussion of, of what to do about the committee for the June 16th workshop. And I have some ideas, that's basically a throw it out and start over again kind of thing. But, but that's not the discussion this evening. I asked you to give, give consideration to whether we should have committees voting about other other committee members. I mean, that could, that could impact this committee down the road. It could impact the, the audit committee. So I just, you know, I am not

125going to be in favor of the motion. Okay. This is forming a respectfully. I'm going to disagree completely. The financial oversight committee has made a recommendation to us. I think it is our duty to vote it up or down. I certainly don't want to put anybody's name out there, but I will talk about reasons why I am going to make a motion to remove this member or to act on the recommendation of the FOC, excuse me, the citizens financial oversight committee. It started a couple months ago when this member did not like the way the minutes were written, he then raised it at the next meeting as he should, which was proper. The committee took a vote and they did not agree with his position. And the committee moved on with their work. That member

126then disregarded the decision of the committee on which he sits and contacted the board. Then the member at the next meeting brought it up again. Even the chair himself said, we have already dealt with this, the member in question, then went on to call the people who approved the fellow members of his committee that approved those minutes. He called them a disgrace, not the act that they took was disgraceful, but the members themselves are a disgrace. So he's, he's operating completely outside of the norms for a board member or a committee member. He's personally insulting colleagues on that committee. And I don't think that's behavior that we should just sit back and say, well, let's reset. And you know, sorry, majority of the committee you've voted the first time overwhelmingly about the issue presented. And

127then they voted again to recommend that this person be removed. So I empathize with not wanting to create drama, but the person being removed is not even here nor is anybody else from the citizens financial oversight committee. So I don't think there's going to be a lot of drama. In fact, I think the committee all, I'm sorry, pat, I'm sorry, pat, for the record, pat Barbara has a member of the committee and she is here. Thank you, pat. Sorry about that. So I think if anything, the committee, there was so much time and Mrs. Foreman, you know, you were there from, from receive for it. You know, how much time has committee wasted on this issue of minutes that work completely proper. And there's nothing wrong with them, but how much time? And this is

128a rhetorical question, how much time is wasted. So as of the last committee meeting the chair informed the group, he does not plan to fill out his term. So we're about to lose Mr. Ballard. I think you're right in that it is an opportunity to, I don't see reset reformulate kind of. I'm not sure who else we're going to lose before the end of the, the terms, but I just, I, you can't behave like that and expect to remain a member of the committee in my opinion. So that's why I would like to make a motion to remove this member of the audit committee dot, dot dot effective immediately. How about that? Is that your motion? That is my motion. Okay. I'll second that Right. It's been moved and seconded that the action of this

129board be to accept the recommendation of the citizens, financial oversight committed. And at this point, I guess we'll just go ahead and start with you, Mike, are we asking question? Yes. While we've got a motion on the second now, so My, I guess my question is one, the report is due from them, passed, it passed through, right? Okay. One does this member, if this action is taken, are we going to be even later on what we need from them or does it, does it really matter? Okay. I have not been to meetings. I've listened to them. Audio, audio wise. I have not personally appointed anyone on the committee. I know that's how it was before board members, you know, appointed them. We've heard public comment from, from folks who've gone and watched the meetings and

130said how dysfunctional they are and we need to make a change. And now the committee's coming to us asking for a change. My concern is if we don't make the change, what happens to the five out of the four that said, yes, we're, we're, we're losing. I mean, we're, we're going to start over anyways. And I don't really have any dog in the fight and put anybody in here, but it seems very displaced. I've listed about five of these audios and it's, it's pretty dysfunctional and it's not just on one person, but at this starts to ball and maybe make changes. Some of the ones that we talked about, we talked about in June, if this moves that ball to say, we need to make changes in this committee. That I'm for it because the

131changes have to be made in this committee and almost start from scratch. But that's just me. I see your point, Mr. Kennedy, and I'll support, I'll support the motion. That's all I'm going to say Was to Kennedy. We're in golden. I just want it to clear. I've been informed that when I made my motion, I said, audit committee, not citizens, financial oversight committee. So with Mrs. Messenger, as my secondary will approve, I would like to substitute the words, citizens, financial oversight committee for audit committee in that motion. I will approve that. Okay. I'm good. Well, I'm glad to know that I'm not the only imperfect person up here tonight. Look, step that. All right. And are you done? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Madam vice chair. I just wanted to clarify the reason why I'm

132seconding Mr. Kennedy's motion. Yeah. He's elaborated on some of the reasons, but for me, the biggest reason is that we have stated multiple times that we want this community, this committee, both of our committees to have an independence from us. And that requires that we trust them to come before us with recommendations. And so if they are saying, this is what we need in order to move forward, then I'm going to respect their independence. I know we were hoping that they would be objective and independent. I think we've had conversations that we don't believe there's objectivity, but I do believe that for our part, we can try to ensure there's independence. And as far as I know that that motion that would happen in that committee was not driven by any board member. Sitting here

133was not driven by any school district personnel. It was driven by the committee and voted on by the committee. And I don't, there would not be a recommendation that came before me. There have been recommendations that had come before me from that committee that I didn't always a hundred percent agree with, but I trusted that that committee had done their due diligence and was putting forth what they believed was correct. Sometimes the wording in the reports, I think I would not have always agreed with all of their wording, but they came before us with their recommendation. And I respected the work that they did as a citizen committee. This to me is no different. They have done work, they have worked together. They have come up with this as a way for them to move

134forward. And I think it would be disrespectful to not heed what this citizen committee is saying they need. So that is really my driving factor is my belief and support of this committee being independent from us. Yeah. We might appoint the members, but then we want them to function together and present back to us. We don't want to drive what's in their reports. We don't want to drive what's in their emotion and recommendations to us. I want it to come from the citizens committee and that's what's happened here. So that is why I support this along with the things that Mr. Kennedy pointed out. But to me, even more important is their independence and that it came from this committee's need. So that's it. Thank you. Madam vice chairs attorney died. We have before us

135a recommendation coming from the citizens financial oversight committee, committed that we point under the present configuration a person on that committee move to amplify the meeting minutes in a meeting. And that motion that was made in that meeting was defeated for that to come back before that committee does that not under Robert's rules of order, require someone on the prevailing side to bring that back. Yes, sir. Okay. It's my understanding if I did go back and look at the minutes and review the record that the, that brought the amplification motion back before this committee was not on the prevailing side of that particular motion. And it was after the attempt by that person to bring it back before the committee that this recommendation was made to remove this person from the committee. Am I right

136on the facts of that so far? I'm pretty sure I am because I've read this thing. And so for that reason, because that, that, that is not pursuant to the law, not withstanding what we may think about the motion of the person or all of the issues that were raised. And I don't even want to talk about what minutes or minutes are nothing more than a record of the actions taken by the board. The discussions like what we are having is not part of the minutes as a motion that was made a second to the motion, and we're going to vote here in a minute and that's what will be in the minutes. So I just wanted to bring that clarification because this is going to come up again. I'm sure that we're going to

137have some other people that are going to have some other reasons as to why we should either continue that, that service to the district or not. But I want to make sure that the bedrock reason for anybody to being on this representing this board is that they do so lawfully. And according to the rules, you're, you're entitled to your own opinion, but you don't get to make up your own law. And so for that reason, I am going to support this, this motion that, that particular person, B, B be terminated. And having said that, I think everyone has had an opportunity to come here If I could interject. Yes, sir. Okay. I just want to make sure that the board's motion is clear because you're trying to protect the name of the individual, which is

138fine, but I just want to make sure the action is clear of what you're doing and, and the motion should probably state that it was that you're approving the action that the citizen committee took at their April. I believe it's April six meeting to recommend, recommend removal of one of their members. Okay. So, so we'll know who that is. I understand, but I'm not so much accepting the approval. It accepting the recommendation that they made to us. Yes. If they have no power to do it themselves. And so what we've accepted and what we are going, what we're voting on is the recommendation that they've made to us about their members. And we are going to approve that. I'm sorry. Okay. I didn't get a chance to vote. So I go ahead and Mr. Kennedy.

139Yeah, I, I, based on that advice, if Mrs. Messenger was, will withdraw her second, Throw my second, I'll withdraw my motion to restate another motion. Okay. So the new motion would be, I move for the board to approve the recommendation from the citizens financial oversight committee from their meeting of the last Wednesday, April six, May six, sometime eight Mason. Wasn't My 18th. That was the last ones they get. So let me restate, I move that the board accept the recommendation from the citizens financial oversight committee from their meeting of Wednesday, May 18th Regarding removal of one of their members. That's the only recommendation they made that Meeting. Oh, okay. All right. All right. I will second that. All right. It's been moved and seconded. If there's no further discussion, the chair's going to call the

140question and we will vote individually. I will vote first. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you all so very much. And we now moved to workshop workshop, item requests. Is this an addition to the ones that we have all ready? I think you're absolutely. Absolutely. I don't. I don't see any need to add subtract. I agree To move, Right. Oh, oh, go ahead. Ms. Foreman. That's all right. Okay. All right. We don't have any need for continued public comment updates legal, the legal department update from Mr. Dye beginning with a recounting of his wonderful time in the mountains in Utah. So In a jet lag In jet lag. Okay. The only thing I have real quick regarding the, the former Braden and middle school property progress, the appraisal was furnished to both

141of the parties that are occupying the property, and they have now had time to meet with their boards and officers, and, and I will be communicating with them while we're in the next week and should have an update back to the board of where things stand and approximately the end of one week from tonight. Great. Thank you. That's all the attorney di no instructional update tonight. Operations update from Mr. Wagon. Very good. I just have a five short items like update John, a number one update from the operations job fair. It was about two weeks ago. We had it at Wakeland. We made 11 offers, two bus aides, two drivers for custodians and three food service workers. The next in-person for instructional will be June 14th. That's it? The great Florida teaching it's in Orlando.

142We have a team going from here from Manatee county. The great Florida teaching has been offered for many, many, actually for many decades here in the state of Florida. So we're going to keep our fingers crossed that we have a lot of people attend that June 2nd is the job fair career fair, really open house at Manatee technical college. We'll have a table there for operations as well. Recruiting. The interesting thing about that is that's a partnership with our community. CareerSource Suncoast is helping with that as well. And it's going to be unique in that our students are going to be walking around interested students in to see the programs and talking about their experiences. And we're offer also having employers. They're offering students who graduate not only from MTC, but also from high schools

143with skills to work here in Manatee county as well. So it'll be twofold besides showing our programs. Also having employers there to offer jobs. And number four is June 14th is our teacher virtual job fair. We use a company called brazen. You've heard us talk about that before. So June 14th flag day will be the day where we do virtual for instructional as well. And then on top of that, the operations department is having job fairs. Every Thursday. We have them already planned through the month of June, June 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th, every Thursday from nine in the morning, till one o'clock in the afternoon at the Wakeland support center. So really pushing it hard, trying to fill our vacancies before the fall. That's it. Thank you. Thanks, done. And now we will, well,

144no, we've got two seventeens updates and then 17 superintendents remarks. Okay. All right. As many of you are aware, we have been honored to have one of the top five finalists for teacher of the year in Manatee county. First time ever. Ms. Stele Jackson is a fourth grade teacher at Samoset elementary, and we are so proud of her that she's made it to this step in the process. She is competing in the state of Florida. There's over 185,000 teachers. So she has been designated as one of the top five and the state will announce the overall winner in the summer. And I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't walk away with a prize. So we're very, very proud of her and congratulate Sam Aset and the whole school community for that. As many of you

145know, tomorrow, we have our first groundbreaking and while Buffalo Creek middle school for the wing, I encourage you all to participate. If you're free, it's at 10:00 AM. And that's just one of many that will be forthcoming. So many of the bids and contracts and the awards you've been given, you will slowly see ground breakings coming forward down between now and the end of the year. But this is the first one Thursday, our tradition. And Mr. Choate, I don't, I don't know if you were there in August where you up on the board in August. Yes. For the waving or the buses. Yep. We'll be there. So a 6:00 AM Thursday to bid a fine farewell for the bus drivers as they go on their last run of the school year. That's always exciting and

146very celebratory. So that of course happens then teachers' last day is Friday. And I just want to thank everyone. It has been a tough year. Remember if you think back we started the year in COVID we had a couple of waves of COVID, but in addition to that, we had so much glory and wonderful accolades that also happened. I mean, we have Deela Jackson listed there. We've had many great things, many graduation ceremonies all this week, Mr. Losada was telling me he had his kindergarten. Matriculation is pre-K his eighth grade is this week. So we're seeing many of those celebrations. So as difficult as this year might have been, we graduated over 2,800 seniors. And I would say out of my time here, this graduating class had the biggest struggle of everyone. They were 10th

147graders. When the district shut down, they didn't have the opportunity to take their graduation required assessments. And they had to endure come back and they persevered so many positives as well as many struggles. So I think all of our employees for ensuring our students have had the best education possible. They deserve a well rested summer, and I hope to see them all back in the fall. Thank you. Thank you, Madam superintendent. And we will proceed in this order with board comments, a member foreman, Choate Kennedy messenger, golden. Thank you. This past week we had a graduations. I was able to attend six out of the seven. Two of them were occurring at the same time. So it was impossible to be two places at once. And this is my second time with graduations. And I

148have to say, I just, I, I thought they were far more joyful this year, perhaps because the seniors were able to have a lot of their senior activities, but there was just a lot of excitement and a lot of, a lot of smiles and, and it was really, really enjoyed it. And I wish all of our graduating seniors much success in, in whatever course they choose to take. We also, I also attended the take stock in children graduation. These, some of the students graduated among the seven graduating schools, but, but these were recognized for, and given their award, the scholarship that they're going to that will take them through college. And that was really exciting. They were able to honor their mentors. And I had, I did not realize the commitment and the amount of

149time that the mentors put in on this. They, they meet with them weekly at their school, and it's just a very success successful way to, to help students along the way. And I think there were 54. Does that sound right? 54 students that through this program have all four years college taken care of. So that's pretty exciting. And I want to address the, the book issue because did have actually productive conversations with staff and with the concerned citizens about the books in our media center. And I know that our staff is working really hard on this in order to comply with house bill 1467. And I think we're demonstrating that we're listening to concerns and we're reacting to them, and it's not necessarily a book ban, but if they have, if there are concerns, we

150have a process in place where people can, can express their concerns and they will be listened to, you know, they, they will be, they will be reviewed. And I appreciate the citizens coming to us in a, in this manner meeting with us and, and talking about it. So I think it's productive and, and I appreciate it. So to our staff and teachers and everyone who's taking off for the summer, congratulations making it through a really tough year. And I don't know that we can promise next year will be less tough, but rest up and hope. Hope you come back in the fall. Thanks. Good. I'm good. A sincere thank you to our staff, to our teachers, to everybody who's involved on a day-to-day basis to educate our students there. There's, there's endless things that you

151do. That's not in the spotlight. It's not during your hours of work. And, and I just want to thank you for that two kids in my own, in the district. You know, I reap the benefit of, of what's going on in this district. And I can't thank you enough to Ms. Jackson from Sam set, what an incredible award. I think you said one of the first times ever in the district, one out of five, and she could very well when it that's, that's an incredible accomplishment and, you know, extremely thankful that we have her in our district, educating our students, heartfelt condolences to, to families about may in may mean the T that we've lost some, some passionate folks over the last couple of weeks who loved me. The high school loved like the school

152district and students in general, in this, in this county with Eddie Mueller passing and John Scott passing two guys that meant a lot to the school and we'll miss him and sod condolences to their family. And as we get going here at the end of the school, a lot of activities still going on while graduation were fantastic, a lot of activities still going on at the schools, Olympics talent shows fifth grade Dodge ball. So I encourage, if anybody can go out and see kids or grandkids to do that and enjoy your summer and look forward to having everybody back in the ball. Thank you. Yeah, Chad, I appreciate you saying that John Scott was, was a close personal friend these few years and, and his, his legacy will, will live on through, through his art

153and all the great memories that we all have of, of John. Everything's pretty much been said. I do want to just express my thanks to our superintendent and our staff. I've had kind of a flurry of questions and activity this week. So I appreciate the quick responses I've gotten back to that stuff. Big, thanks to our high school principals who pulled off an excellent graduation week and props to Palmetto high school for, I think the there, the number of students per minute pass throughout graduation, and they, they won, they won the graduation season. So a nice job. This is the last line on your excellent pulling off of a large graduation ceremony and in early in your principalship career. And then finally one serious notes. If you haven't seen the news, there was a very

154significant incident in Texas tonight. Granted the state of Florida has already been through this. And so we have had a few years to react to the issue of school violence. But if you were so inclined, please keep these families in San Antonio in your prayers. And if you're a policymaker, maybe we can talk about, are we doing everything we can to make sure that our kids are safe in this current environment of young people, just deciding to, for whatever reason, pick up weapons and take it out on innocent people. So I don't want to leave on a downer. So I will say thank you to our public commenters over here tonight. And as Chad said, all our teachers and staff who have made it through another year, I'm sure they would say this year, just

155flew by, but time is relative. So thanks to everybody, our cafeteria bus, they have been stretched beyond I think anything our school staffs have seen just due to shortages and so forth. So whenever this reaches them, I hope it does this board. Thanks you sincerely for, for everything you've been through this school year. So thanks to, I don't think I have anything to add. I think Mr. Kennedy said it as well as possible to thank everybody for all their hard work this year. You know, it was a, a tough year, especially in the beginning. And so I really just appreciate the teachers and the cafeteria workers and the bus drivers and the principals and assistant principals and our superintendent and all of her staff and early everybody to make this as a successful year as

156possible. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam vice chair. First, I'd like to come in about graduations. It is absolutely miraculous to me that you have as many different personalities graduating, as you had shoe styles at the graduations. And yet somehow the staff, the teachers, the bus drivers managed to get them to 13 years to stand on that field, to turn their tassels from one side to the other, the same as a whole lot easier than the doing. And I'm just not quite so sure that that we can ever fully express how well the Herculean job is being done by the people in this county, which gets me to my second point, the good buys that we heard here tonight, people who have dedicated literally a generation of their lives to making sure that

157what happened last week has happened every year, since they've been involved with public education. It is just umbling to know that there is someone who has given 43 years of their life while raising children and going on vacation and doing all kinds of things that they wanted to do and not doing a lot of things that they had hoped to do to be in service to the public education of children in Manatee county. I am just, I am humbled to be able to serve here with these people who, who are doing their part to make sure that it doesn't end on our watch of the challenges are great, but they will be overcome. The changes are many, but they will be Concord, which gets me to the last of my three GS, the graduations, the

158goodbyes. And tomorrow we go to a groundbreaking, which says to me that this process is ongoing. There is no end to this. There is no stopping of this, and there will be no denying of this, those young people that graduated last week, that we were part of their graduation. They will be replaced next year by their younger brothers and the younger sisters and the younger cousins. And after that, there will be others. And I am going to pray. And as long as we are free people living in a democratic Republic, that it continues to be that in June, we have graduations and I too am saddened about like Mr. Kennedy about why, what happened in San Antonio today, but that's not new. Something happened in Buffalo last week. And as has been pointed out, something

159happened in Florida a few years ago. And the only thing that stops that is activity that we're engaged in now, public education. We have to keep at it. We have to have better, better teachers, better legislators. And I'm just happy that I'm a part of it. We've come to the end of another year. Last year we were battling COVID this year. We're back to what we were battling the year before gun violence, because that's still very real. Thank you also very much for the privilege of letting me serve as your chair. We are adjourned.