School Board Meeting April 12, 2022

001Good morning. We are called to order for the April 12th, 2022 school board meeting of Manatee county. This was a regular meeting in public hearing before we go further, just want to make a few announcements. The first of these is that we are working with new software up here yesterday, the board engaged in a training session. And so we asked, ask you to bear with us, be patient with us. Some of us are much brighter than some of the others of us who don't know anything, but how to turn the computer on and off. And so you just be patient with us and we will get through this. I do want to thank our board agency clerk, the executive assistant to the superintendent and the entire it department that came yesterday and spent a couple

002of hours with us making this, making this happen. So if, if we seemingly halting today is just because this is our first time dealing with this in real time. This, this is not practice. This is the real deal. So just be patient with us. The second thing I do want to do is to acknowledge the presence of one of the former Manatee county school board members, Mr. John Colon, who's present with us today, and we just want to acknowledge him being here. We also would like to acknowledge that father Joseph Gates, who was scheduled to do the invocation this morning is not able to do so. He had an emergency that precluded his presence, but we do have the presence of pastor Jerry Parrish, who is the outreach minister for the police athletic league here

003in Manatee county. And he has graciously stepped in and will do the invocation today. I think the last announcement that I want to make I'll make when we get to that part of the agenda relative to workshops and Mrs messenger, who is our vice chair and who will preside over a public comment, we'll have additional comments that she will make as to how we are going to move through the public comment section. Having said all of that and having been called to order, we're going to ask pastor Jared parish, if he will come now and lead us in invocation, and we will follow that with the pledge of allegiance that stay Stan Father. He loves you. And we thank you when we, you glory, praise and honor. And we thank you for what you're doing

004in this community. We ask you God that you take over, we honor your son, Jesus, for what he did on cavalry. So we celebrate Easter today for the birth, the death, the life, and the resurrection of your son, Jesus. And we ask you right now, God, as a community that we go forth and honor him and honor you with everything we do. We pray for the school board. We pray for every person that lives in Manatee county. We ask you God that the conviction of your holy spirit would permeate every single one of us, that we would cry out for the hurting and the broken. Those that don't have father. We ask you in Jesus name, that we be the person that go fight for the hurting and the broken. We ask you for a

005school board that follows your lead, not their own. We ask you for a people that follows your lead and not our own God. And we ask you for the church to rise up and be the church. God. And today we honor you because you honored us with your son. We ask you to protect this community. We ask you to surround these community with angels, and we ask you God, in Jesus name, that we be aligned as you are light for us. Jesus name, amen, 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, You may be seated. The informational items are published on the agenda as set forth and the number four, and we

006will now move The adoption of the agenda, Right? It's been moved and it's been seconded that the agenda as published and as presented be adopted for today, is there any unreadiness hearing none. The chair will call the question of the approval of the agenda. All in favor that had been on by the time of the aye. Aye. All opposed hearing none. The motion passes unanimously. We now move to the approval of the minutes of number, item number six, and there are two sets of minutes to be approved. We will receive now the recommendation of the superintendent. And following that the chair will entertain a motion. Yes. I recommend the approval of the minutes from board meeting and public hearing March 8th, 2022, the board workshop on March 11th, 2022. Okay. You've heard the recommendation of

007superintendent. It's been moved by a board member Kennedy and seconded by vice chair messenger. Is there any unreadiness hearing none. The chair will call the question all in favor of the approval of the minutes as recommended by the superintendent. That'd be number a sign of aye. Aye. All opposed here. None. The ayes have it. Motion passes unanimously. We will now pause for a moment to hear recognitions and be led in the same by Mr. Mike Barbara, the director of communications for the district item number seven. Great, thank you, Mr. Board chair, board members, superintendent Saunders Here. We have some special guests with us this morning and we're glad to have them, as you all know, we like to have sort of a theme with our recognition. I'll just tell you that today's theme as books.

008So just keep that in mind. And the first recognition has to do with national school library month. And to tell us more about that, we have district library, media specialists, miss grace lists. Thank you, Mr. Barber. Good morning. I just first wanted to say thank you so much for this opportunity to recognize school library month school library, media centers play a critical role in supporting quality learning environments and library media specialists directly support and enhance student achievement, quality library, media programs, close achievement gaps for all learners by providing equitable access to academic resources and by promoting and encouraging a love of reading with the adoption of Florida's best English language arts standards, which include classic literature from every major literary period. A quality library media program is instrumental to the success of the standards implementation.

009We have asked a few of Armenia specialists to be here today so that we can recognize their important work in supporting literacy with the battle of the books program. The battle of the books is a district wide event that celebrates our students love reading students in all grade levels, compete by reading titles from the sunshine state and Florida teens read book lists in answering text-based questions in a fun and exciting game show format Teams from 12 schools participated in this year's fourth annual battle of the books, which was hosted at Braden river high schools, a newly renovated media center, which you can see in that photo on the screen. And I would like to give special recognition to the media specialists and coaches of the winning teams at each level. David violet from Willis elementary

010was not able to be here today, but we do have Aaron lamina is from Braden river, middle and Nancy cope from Nolan middle. They had a tie at the middle school level, which was quite thrilling. And then we also have Andre Dombrowski from Southeast highs, a winning team. And finally, I would like to give a special thank you to Jessica Reed from Braden river high school who established and has organized the battle of the books for the past four years. So before we show we have a short video from MSTB, that gives you an idea of what a wonderful event battle of the books is. I just wanted to say thank you for giving us the time to recognize school library month and all that our media specialists and media centers do for our students.

011So now we have a very short video from MSTP. What tone did the author mostly established at the end of this chapter? According to what we read, This is the fourth annual Manatee county and battle of the books. It was started to promote a love of reading and literature and give our students who love to read an opportunity to show that love of reading on Page 400, twice the page, There are three different levels, elementary, middle, and high school at each level, there's 15 books. They have to read all the books, they discuss the books and they practice the questions. And then this is just kind of their final opportunity to show what they've read and what they know We're awarded based off accuracy. It says left-hand, I'm not left-handed you are now would get

012the question right? The first time we get more points. So we really have to think about the questions beforehand and try to get it right accurately instead of quick. And what I really like about the format of this competition is it's not just randomly picking answers. They have to be able to step fend their answer with a quote from the text itself. Once they answer the question, then they go into the book and they search for something to backup that answer. And a lot of times there'll be multiple correct answers that often trick questions you have to play around, Which of these in chapter 43 of fable was the tone established by our author to close the story. According to what we read This event promotes using text evidence, supporting conclusions that you've drawn from

013what you've seen or what you've read. It supports collaboration, collaborative thinking because the students are discussing what they think the answer is and coming to an agreement based on the way that they read the evidence, Especially for people who are big readers, I recommend that you joined the competition. I think the most important thing is to continue to encourage a love of reading in our students at every level and having something like this, where it's books that are picked specifically for their age group it's books, they want to read, they enjoy reading and the books are about topics that are important to them in today's world Proclamation. Okay. Whereas April, 2022 has been, does it designated the 37th annual national school library month? And whereas a school library, media programs are an important asset in

014the education of our youth. And whereas school library, media programs significantly contribute to student achievement by providing instructional support resources and services. And whereas school library media centers provide access to information in a variety of formats within the school, as well as digital resources outside the school. And whereas learning to become effective users of information and ideas is, is essential as Florida's youth prepare for a future filled with challenges and changes. And whereas promoting competencies in using new and emerging technologies is an integral part of school library programs. And whereas school library, media programs promote literacy and the enjoyment of reading and whereas school library, media specialists, our instructional partners and consultants in teaching and learning process. Now therefore be it resolved at the school board in Manatee county does hereby proclaim April of 2022

015as national school library month adopted with a quorum present and voting this 12th day of April, 2022. And it's signed by our chair and our superintendent. So happy to deliver that. Do you have a good big group coming forward right now? And you know, they were showing the, the media centers there. And, but it, it's nice to see that video and know that there still are books in the media centers and that they're being read so right. Okay. This next recognition, you know, we always talk about our community partners and those people in our community who support our schools. And really we couldn't be, you know, a successful school district without partnerships in our community and without people who volunteer, not only their time, but their resources towards our students in schools. And this is

016a tremendous example of that. It has to do with books for kids. And to tell us more about it, I have Sheila helping the districts campaign for grade level reading and volunteer coordinators. So she'll The books for kids program is a literacy project at the Lakewood ranch rotary club. And it supports the campaign for grade level. Reading the books for kids mission is to raise the reading levels of vulnerable elementary school students by helping with reading comprehension and increasing the number of books in home libraries for eight years, the books for kids program has purchased books every month for each first through third grade student. This year, the books for kids program has included kindergarten classes in the big 10 schools. The books for kids program serves a total of 171 classrooms each month. A

017contingency of volunteers supports this outreach from labeling the books with how to read this book with your child stickers, leveling and shelving books, packaging, leveled books for each classroom, distributing books to the classroom schools and conducting virtual and classroom read allowance and supporting the Sorin for outreach events. It is our honor to recognize Ted Lindenburg and the Lakewood ranch books for kids program and its volunteers. This month represents the distribution of over 100,000 books to our children First. Thank you. I can't thank you enough for this honor to Mrs. Saunders for your constant support wisdom expertise. I thank you so very, very much to doc the help. And it has been a, just a tremendous, tremendous honor for us to work so closely with you. Nine years ago, I came to Dr. Green, who was

018the assistant superintendent at the time. And I said, we have an idea. We'd like to develop a program where we can help boys and girls young children. We wanted to train volunteers to come into the classroom. We wanted to give 'em every time they came into the classroom, a special read aloud book with questions, critical thinking questions related to the book and a list of vocabulary words that would be in that particular book we started. Oh, and so Dr. Green said after a hundred questions, go ahead. And we did. And we started with five volunteers. We distributed 300 books to 100 children in five classes at the ballot school. If we now move to this year, those five volunteers have increased to 125 volunteers where you're distributing now, as Sheila said, close to 4,000 books

019a month to 404 to 4,000 children every month. And what makes this so special Is that every time a volunteer comes into the classroom in that bag is a special gift, a gift that sometimes we take for granted, and that is a gift of a book, a book that they can bring home, read to their siblings and continue to build their own home libraries. And as Dr. Help and just said, Last month we distributed our 100000th book. And so it has been an honor for me to be a small part of this, but it's not just me. These people are just a small sampling of the hundreds of people working on the books for kids program. So to the board of education, to even recognize a program like this. And by the way, we were

020here even before the campaign for grade level reading. And so to the board of education. Thank you for this. Oh I to Mr. Saunders, I can't thank you enough. And to Dr.. Thank you so very, very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. I don't think you should be thinking as we should be thinking you And tech is always looking for volunteers Before we move away from that. This is under the auspices of the rotary club of Lakewood ranch. Is that correct? That's the umbrella organization who is, who is the person that if you want to be a volunteer, that if you want to be a part of this very, very important work, can someone give us the name because this is being broadcast over the whole county, who is the person that if you're

021interested in being involved in this firm as a volunteer, who do we reach out to? Okay. Please step up and tell us your name, your phone number, how to reach you. Okay. Okay. So you can go to our district's website and under volunteer programs for the campaign for grade level reading. You'll see my name, Dr. Sheila Heldman. And you'll see my email, which is helping [email protected]. And I connect volunteers with all of our campaign for grade level reading volunteer programs. Okay. So while this is under the auspices of the rotary club and Lakewood ranch, the entry into supporting this is through the school district. Dr. Sheila helpin is the person wherever you are, whoever you are that you want to volunteer. All right, second thing I'm not done yet because the books have to come

022from somewhere. So they have to be given, or they have to be bought. Is that a fair statement? All right. So to whom do you make the easiest part to, do you make a contribution to buy the books to support this program? Is it the rotary club or the school district or the foundation? How do we get money into this to support this work? I can't. Thank you. Just let me say that the purchase of the books comes to about $60,000, just for the purchase of the books to answer your question. Any donation would be made out to the books with kids, rotary club, Lakewood ranch, The books for kids, rotary club of Lakewood ranch is to whom we make the donation to support the books for kids program that is under the auspices of

023that rotary club. And that is administered by the school district. Yes. All right. What about, I don't have any money. I'm just talking about the book, but what, what if we want to give books, how does that take, or do you allow books to be given? Well, that's a special category. And if in fact they would contact either Dr. Healthman or myself, Ted Lindenberg, I could go over that aspect. What is important is that every book that we had out is a special book geared to the reading level of the boys and girls in that particular classroom, And they're aligned with the curriculum. So all of the books that we distribute through the books for kids program have been chosen by our curriculum team. So they're supporting classroom learning, but if people want to donate

024their own books, we also do community events, such as Soren for that books for kids is there. And we can distribute books at that location, but the books going into the classroom are aligned with classroom curriculum. Okay. Are there any, anything I haven't covered, any other comment that we want to make about this particularly necessarily program? Huge. Thank you. Okay. Ms. Foreman, Thank you. Just one comment. I appreciate you all, including the parents and the guardians in the literacy effort, because as we know, well, when the parents are involved in the education of their own child, the, the outcomes are just so, so vastly improved. So thank you for that. All right. Madam buys two, All right. A Madam superintendent. Is there anything that we may have overlooked or that you want to add to

025this, That we just can't thank them enough. They've expanded and I believe we're expanding again. They are now in first through fourth grade. So not only were they, did they just start at one school, we've taken their talents and treasures and expanded them. And instead of just first through third, they will be adding kindergarten next year. So we, we just cannot thank them enough for their dedication and commitment. Ensuring our students are being supported, Barbara, And next on our agenda item number eight, we will have a report and presentation on a construction update by Mr. Bill Horton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman members of the board, Ms. Saunders, deputy superintendents. We're pleased to be here today. We're at a milestone in the, in the project over specifically in the design process, and we're here to present

026the good work of a fabulous team. Really. That's involved in the project and we're at the schematic design level. We still have work to do. And before we proceed further in general, we'd like to keep the board and the community updated with that. I'm going to introduce Mr. Mr. Golf. He was our project director on the project and he will introduce his architects and his M. And then addition, I'd like to point out that Mr. Lez line is here, principal, as well as he's been involved since day one, including interviews and short listings of the firms. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Golf. Thank you. Good morning. I'm like, thank you for the opportunity to present our progress thus far with the paramount high school renovations that are going to take place

027alive. So I like to also think the community, the city of Palmetto for meeting with us and giving us the opportunity to discuss with them what we are planning to do at Pamela high school. And I'd like to thank the team that has worked so diligently to put this together at the moment I'd like to introduce the Mr. Hindi was Shingo Scholtz, our construction manager, Tom peacock, with Gilbane building company. And I like to introduce Ken and now he's going to come forth. And he's going to give you an overview of what we've put together as a result of our conversations with Mrs. Saunders, the community, and to allow you to see what we've come together and put together thus far for Jeff. Dave, you'll be pleased with Ken. Okay. Thank you so much. I

028want to have one personal note before I get started. I'm a product of your educational system. So I just want to say how proud I am to be here, and if it wasn't for Manatee high school and Mr. Morrison, who gave me the direction, I wouldn't be standing here. So that's, I just wanted to say that anyway, this is our cover sheet. This is beginning of Palmetto high school. Some of our challenges were to create a collegiate campus. We had some community meetings back in November. We listened to some of the issues that Monica had as far as parent pickup traffic visualization is where's the front door and things of that nature. So what you're going to be seeing is some site plans, some building floor plans and elevations of what we're proposing in the

029schematic conceptual design phase next. Oh, Kelly is my it backups. So she's helping me here. Okay. As you see, let me see if I can use, ah, here it is. Okay. This is the baseball field to the Southwest 14th avenue to the west to the bottom of the screen is 17th avenue, which is, is a main east west for both buses and cars coming into the campus building number one, which is administration. And then these colored buildings right here. Those are the ones that we are proposing to demolish as the project develops the brighter colors, the building six and nine will be demolished. First, we're going to start demolishing those so that we can start building the next phase. Okay. The next phase is what we're going to do right here is this is the

030new cafeteria. So again, this is a site plan showing where the buildings are going to be located on the campus. So the cafeteria is next to building number five, which is the existing campus cafeteria. So we still have food service available for the campus and the students, and then to the Northeast is a two-story classroom building. And what that will encompass is the replacement of classrooms in 6, 7, 8, and nine, not only classrooms, but science labs, business labs, things of that nature. So that will be there. Now, one of the things as we started developing the issues, traffic and things like that is how are we going to handle a parent pickup, which is a congestion at, at the entrance and building number one off of 17th street. So what we developed is coming

031off of 14th avenue, we're going to have that as the new access drive for parent pickup and drop off that's the bus loop. So we're taking the bus loop. So it's really an economical change, very simple. And having the parents go to the west portion of the campus and then develop a new access road. So it, it is sort of coterminal with 10th avenue, which is to the south. So that will be an access road to the central plant and maintenance in the back, but it will also handle 25 buses. So that will be the new bus loop for us. And we've talked with transportation and how we're handling the, the loading of, of the students in there. Now, one of the things that early on we discovered is that there's 50 parking spaces along

03217th street that are really on city property. So we're going to have to give that back to the city property, but we accomplished a net 42 additional. So we really picked up 92 additional parking spaces to kind of offset that loss. And then, okay, this is fine. And then this is just a little bit larger view of the cafeteria, right? Where the cursor is, that is going to be the outdoor dining area. Once building seven is demolished. We can build that and then tear down five. And then you can see what we're doing with a little bit larger scale with the bus drive and the access drive X. This is the floor plan for the two story classroom building to the left is first floor main entrance is right here. We have emergency exits stairways,

033the orange colored rooms. Those are the science labs. So there's four science labs that are connected to a material storage. We have the teacher planning and the center group toilets, but the perimeter has the skills live in more and more specifically classrooms. Second floor similar. These are the science labs and then surrounded by the classrooms. Next, this is the exterior of what the two story classroom building will look like. This is to the west as the left rendering. This is what it would look like directly to the main entrance. This is the south east elevation to the right, and then this is the elevations of the classroom building. It will be brick. So we're trying to be mindful of maintenance and that type of construction. Next, this is the cafeteria building. This is we've, it's

034similar to parish. We've made it a little bit bigger in the kitchen. We've talked with Regina and she needs a little bit more room. So we accomplish that and you can see where the outside dining area is going to be positioned on the north side of the campus and some little vignettes of what the campus will look like from the outdoor patio. Next, This is the new administration entrance. When we were talking with Monica and Daniel, some of the concern is safety security. So we were trying to create a secure front door. The other issue is where is the front door on the existing campus? A faces west is not quite visible from 17th street. So we really did some different than yets about how we would really draw people's attention to the front door

035of the campus from 17th. So you can see this is to the parking lot with a signage on it. This is the view to the south with Palmetto high school. Again, we're modifying the parking at the front door. And then the floor plan is right here is the covered entry area. This is controlled entrance into the secure lobby area. The reception secretaries will be behind a glass wall. This would be the, the counter and entrance there. And then the floor plan we'll have a conference room in that secure area. So if there's first time visitors, parents, they will go there rather than entering into the back of the administration area. So we've really secured that this is a secure door from the lobby into the existing reception area and what we've done with that reception

036counter. We converted that into a more of a shipping storage area for ups, federal express. They would come there and deliver their packages to this area, which is to the north. We put another set of secure doors to administration and another set of secure doors to guidance. So once someone is in that controlled storage area, you still can't get anywhere. So they're secure. And then what we're going to be doing is right where that cursor is, is a set of windows. We're going to change that out to an exit door for students. So if they're into guidance, they don't need to go outside of the fence line. They will be within a new fence line in gateway into the rest of the campus next. And lastly, what we're doing at the baseball fields is all

037of the facilities. There are old and beyond repair. The home team will have a new home dugout, lockers offices for the coach restrooms. There'll be a new concession stand public facilities. Toilets will be upgraded to ADA and the quantity for the seats at the stadium. We have new bleachers and new dugout, and the bullpens will be redone to building 27, which is the existing batting structure that will be refreshed, painted new, new roof on it. And some other amenities that were within that facility. And then this is what the public, this is what the home team facility is. There'll be the dugout, and then that's the cursor to the right, their toilets. And then this is the lockers and coach's office and their facilities right here. So that will be to the north. And I

038believe that is the end of the presentation. Any questions? Do we have any questions of about the construction phase of the improvements? And we'll just start here with Mr. Choke and go around. It looks good. Thank you. Question with the old sites of, of looks like five, seven and eight, Then we go back to the site plan. What happens with those spaces? Obviously nothing there. So It will be converted to courtyards. One more. Let me say, maybe I can move it. Okay. What will happen is obviously it's an a bowl now, and so that will be elevated. So it'll be more grass area. So would it be more of a courtyard? The construction of the new cafeteria really lends itself to a better positioning because now there's distance between classroom building four and the new

039cafeteria. So there'll be like a lawn in between those buildings. I'm sorry. Yeah, I've got several things. First utilities, the environmental cost. I eliminating four old buildings and putting it into a large, newer two story building art. Is it fair to say that we're going to see a reduction in costs, Ms. Foreman? I'm sorry. I probably should've said this upfront, the construction presentation in my mind is different from the financial ramifications of what they're going to do. I've spoken to Mr. Bergeron and he is going to add, or take away from the costs that are going to be associated with this. So I, I, right now, I just want to really talk about the physical, the physical, yeah. The scope of the work that has been changed. And we'll talk about the money part in

040a moment. The big guy just stood up. So maybe he might be the one, I don't know, but, but we all gonna have that as a separate discussion. So I do have another question. Okay, Go ahead. One of the, when I was reviewing the materials that we're going to be boating on later, in some cases in the summaries, it said that the scope included the restrooms in the football field and other places, you know, where the, the, the financial part, I don't see it there are we abandoning that for now? No, ma'am. In fact, we, we see that as a direction from the board to address the functionality of those facilities on right now, they don't flow well from the restrooms to the sanitary system provided by the city of Palmetto. There could be reasons,

041obvious reasons. Outflow at the building is a lower than gravity required gravity to make flow to the system. All that's going to be checked out and some cleanup, a tear down or a raising of the bathrooms at the football field and reconstruction is cost prohibitive. It's estimated to be about a million dollars for both due to the fixture counts that are required. And what did we calculate? 48, 6 years, 40 48 plumbing fixtures. That's a water closets and urinals based on the seating capacity. And so that is a need to go slightly toward a warrant, but they will be functional when we're done. In addition to the, that type of work, other items that have been identified by maintenance department, under director, Mr. Henson, we're going to try to assume or take on those repairs,

042whether it be replaced portions of chill, water, roofing, whatever, and incorporate those allocated capital funds that he currently has into this project. So that's the approach on the existing facility improvements other than what we've been directed to do by the school board, as far as replacements, 39 million is a large sum of money. We started out at 24 25 and went to 29 and to do anything that's deserving at Palmetto, we're at 39, primarily educational facilities. That sports is important too, but that's where we're at today. And I'm not going to allow necessary, increase in scope when we really can't afford it. And if I do have some money at the end, it will a either be readdressed in the project by the board and Ms. Saunders, or we turned into the capital budget. Well,

043let's, let's not get off into if it goes wrong. I don't understand that. What I really want to make sure of is that we're clear about what is required for it to go, right? And like I said, I want to make sure that the finance people have an opportunity to show here why you all are recommending what you're recommending. And this, this is a lot like you all telling us, this is what it is, and this is what it's going to cause. And this is why we're not going to do that. We're going to ask the finance people to tell us why that's fine. Okay. I encourage that. Okay. No, ma'am, that's, that's fine. And then finally, the baseball field, we had the public came to a meeting and a lot of discussion about the

044appearance, right? From on 17th, when you're at the fairgrounds and you look across and you got chain link, fence and old buildings, it looks really bad. So the, the community is very involved and once you know, a more attractive, so it has anything been discussed. And, and Yes, but not. We share the project team and I, my department and the district share those thoughts. We're not currently satisfied with where we're at, but we need to remember we're 10% into a design project. And we are seriously looking at some stellar improvements to that quarter. And we're very aware that what we have is not acceptable. That's where we're at this day. It's not where we're wanting to be. And that was the project team together with the community as a keeping them updated. But the school

045staff and Monica, Mr. Lez line, we will go and do our very best, or is it something we can all be proud of, including the community. Thank you. You're Welcome. It's Kennedy. Thank you, Reverend golden. I have a couple of things in number one. I just want to kind of celebrate this moment because this conversation about Palmetto high school has been going on for, since John cologne got appointed to this board, and that was a long time ago. So there's been a lot of work put into this. Come on, you, you came back. I had to review one more time. You know, it was, you know, it was a good thing about serving with Mr. Cologne. So I do have a question about the, my first question was about the facade of the new administrative

046building, but I see three presentation that answered my own, that faces 17th street. I was forgot. There were in Bradenton and Palmetto, their streets and avenues are reversed, but I had a question about the new, the new parent pickup line. You said that it comes in through 14th street, east It's off of 14th street. And before, before we go, I just want to put the slide up. So the audience understands what we're, we're talking about. Kelly F I think it's the third slide in the, in the PowerPoint. Perfect. Yeah, that's it or that'll work, but over on the, over, on the left-hand side of that graphic is 48 Right here. That's 14th avenue Or 14th avenue. I'm sorry. Yeah, Technically I already did it, But we it's really repurposing an existing bus loop. Okay. So

047That's insane. That's and then we really created a new bus loop to the east. So we really separated parents. We moved them off of 17th in coming in at, at the administration building because now it's chaotic, you know, turning around. So we've really repositioned it and repurpose the bus loop. So it's an existing bus loop, so it can accommodate a number of parents and pickup in that area. And then we moved the new bus loop and creating stacking of 25 buses office 17th street. So the, that entrance, it's a little bit hard, a little bit late, cause it's not the focus of this slide, but There's really two entrances. One is for the students going into their parking lot and that stadium area. And then there's a, another gateway is for buses. Okay. I can

048see it now. Okay. So that, that bus entrance is a little bit south of where the students will pull, Correct? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's separate. And it's it's right next to the baseball field. Okay. That was my first concern because I didn't see that second road went to the south. I thought the parents were, would be driving through the student parking lot. Now We've really separated them, you know, trying to control where they're at. Right. Okay. And then the Signage is going to be important too. Okay. Right. Although after a week of school, people will have it down. So, and then I just wanted to highlight you, you mentioned this how six, seven, and eight sit in a bowl. Cause that's the oldest part of the campus. And you know, Mr. Miner did a lot

049of leadership on this. The, the drainage issues that we have been working on for the past two years. So that, that has alleviated some of those flooding issues, but really, you know, students that have gone and faculty that had worked at Palmetto high school have for decades been talking about problems when there's heavy rain. And so what we found out more recently is like, well, that's an elevation problem of building six, seven and eight. So I'm, I'm just glad to hear that this is all going to be kind of handling What's. In addition, once the cafeteria is constructed, science bulling is constructed and those buildings are being raped or raised that water shedding from those buildings being raised dumping down on those soil will be eliminated. And that site will be raised to accommodate giving

050some the during the desert is the new buildings cafeteria in the science building that water will be captured and piped to an existing retention pond. That's over on the east side, Surrounded by the festival, Which further improves drainage. We have a holding spot for it properly, not a sidewalk, Hopefully it's deep enough. Right. Cause we have to deepen some of the other retention ponds on campus. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sir. That's my main questions. We're all gonna be about flooding and I think you answered a lot of them. Yeah. My concern was more of once these buildings are gone, it sounds like you're going to raise up that land. So it's not so, or it's going to stay where it is and you're just gonna have grass. And because it's going to be permeable,

051it's going to, that's going to be more effective. What is the plan there? Is it to be raised up or is it just so that it's W we did the drainage part a year or so ago, and there's a lot of clutter where those buildings are, it'll allow us to grade it better. The clutter, probably with the trees involved, made it very difficult to drain. So the, that area will still drain to the, to the west, but it, but it will. I I've been out there probably every time it rains hard, I go out there to check it and it's, it's been working even as it exists, but this will declutter it and allow better drainage for future and you know, all that. Okay. I think that was, I think that was what precipitated so

052many things that this board has done is that the flooding. So I feel like that's gotta be the first thing we gotta talk about it. So I was at the presentations and so it's, I always find it so interesting to go to the presentations when you're chosen and then to see, and I know this is only the first phase. I know that we're going to multi phases of plans before it ever gets built, but I always appreciate that just to see how things have changed or been altered. And, and in the presentation, it was discussed that maybe we do the cafeteria, maybe we didn't do the cafeteria. What was the defining moment that made you guys decide to actually build a new cafeteria instead of remodeling it? Because I know that was always, that was

053during that presentation, it was kind of, maybe we will, maybe we won't. Yes. Ma'am the w what's making it possible is the additional funding provided to the project and this meeting today, I hope, and it's the $10 million that made the difference and being able to do things better and capture all aspects of what was approved to replace in the custody report and the desires of the district at Palmetto high. And we're, we're, we're almost there, you know, we got to improve the corner for the fairgrounds and our staff in this appearance. And certainly take a strong look like I mentioned earlier with the football field reference. Right? So that, that actually is one of my other questions that kind of came from what Mrs. Foreman had asked about the football restrooms. So you said

054that, you know, if we come back under budget, then the district will determine how best to allocate those funds in this current project, or take it back to the capital account. Should there be enough to also do those restrooms, would that be on the table or is that something that would have to be planned much further in advance for it to be done? Let's say, you know, you're halfway through construction or, and you go, oh, wait, we've really, we really do have the funds. Is that, is that at that point too late? Or can that still be added on You reach a point where it is too late to do it in the current project. Okay. And you can a create another project, you know, separate You guys come back and fix that as what

055you're saying, Madam vice chair. I think that this is an excellent segue into the funds that have been proposed and extra $10 million to do this. And whether that $10 million is going to accommodate not only the new cafeteria, but also the, the restroom reconstruction on that, that, that you want to call. And so before we asked Mr. Bergeron, who I did ask to do the financial analysis for this, I see the superintendent's hand is raised. So I'm gonna recognize you. And then with maybe we can move forward in terms of whether the money that is currently being asked is going to allow for this or not. Maybe we can't tell it today, but certainly we'll be able to tell it before we get to the point where it's too late. Okay. Before we do

056that, I'm so happy. I helped you segue. Can I make one more comment before you segue there? Go ahead. I you're welcome. But I just want to make one more comment about the front office. You know, I think that that is a really creative way to make it, you know, like I obviously like that's, that's your artistry, but that's a real high looked as I go, I don't know what you're going to do with this thing, but that's a really creative way I think, to add some, I don't even know the right word to make it. No, no, the front office and how it, how curb appeal. Yeah. It's going to really, I think be a focal point. Well, it's a point of orientation and see up. Right. And I think when you always go

057there, like you always eat the flags, I think we're always okay. You can, but I think that that will really help. And I think turning it that way, I think that'll be really smart too. And I really appreciate the security of it. You know, looking at the plans of that. I think that's always should be a focus. So I really appreciate that. And with that I'll segue right back to you And my Madam superintendent. Yes, sir. And Mr. Horton had kind of already mentioned it a little bit, even though we know what the end, we always have some available funds. I will tell you the football bathrooms are a priority. They're, they're a priority, but he had mentioned, we also have maintenance dollars that are allocated every year for maintenance. So some of these additional

058things that may be deemed that we need to do, and we know we're committed to doing them can come out of a different funding source that we already have capital dollars assigned to. So I think it's very apparent sprucing up the courtyard, sprucing up the corner of the baseball field and addressing those football bathrooms or a priority for everyone that we can definitely find ways to do that without necessarily having to go to alter some other capital projects that we have committed to. So I think there's other conversations of funding, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that some of this can come out of that maintenance, right? Madam superintendent and Mr. Horton, I'm, I'm sure that we're going to get your best efforts to spend the money wisely. But what is before

059us today is a request that's going to come up later on in the agenda to add an additional, I think approximately $10 million to the budget to make this happen. And so I think it's only fair that we do hear from the financial people in terms of where they see this being able to come from wherever we've ultimately get it from. I think the community, the board, the staff, we need to at least know that the reason we're looking for this 10 million is because 6 million is required for this. And 3 million is required for this. And one meeting is required for this. And on top of that, we have the capacity to do some things with some other sources. So I don't want to commingle that concept. I just, if it's all right,

060I'd like to go ahead and hear from the financial people as to the $10 million that we're going to be asked to address later on in this, in this agenda. So all three of y'all standing there. Cause if he doesn't know what he's talking about, I want you to know that ain't going to happen. You understand what I'm saying? These finance people, they, they talk dollars. They don't talk bricks and mortar. So, all right. Did I put Mr. Bergeron on, on a sufficient bullseye to, okay. Can I call him up about him superintendent, please do. Please do. All right, come on Mr. Bergeron, tell us why, what they're talking about. Won't work. Good morning. Good Morning. We talked about the additional revenues back in, I think the either January or February capital workshop. No. We

061had a workshop in February where we had a revised capital long range plan. And I was just trying to confirm that you guys have already approved the revenue increases. I'm pretty 99% sure that we've already brought that to you. What allowed us to increase the project is, is the increase in collections for impact fees and sales taxes. And I know there's been some, excuse me, some conversation about, well, hold on a second impact fees, can't be used for this campus because we're not adding students stations and that is accurate. So when we have an, let me back up a little bit, we have three primary sources of capital outlay revenue. We have our 1.5 mill, which is the most stable and the easiest to trend to estimate you get your gross taxable value. And it's

062just 1.5 mils times that so the revenue generation each year, we were pretty solid on that in the summer. And that is the most flexible capital outlay bucket that we have. So with that flexibility, we want to touch that last, the next, most flexible. This is sales tax collections. That's a lot more volatile. You know, what, what happened when the pandemic pandemic hit? You know, we had to adjust the budget downward. Well, thankfully we've seen a tremendous rebound in that. And so it's looking like through year end, we're going to collect about $3 million more in sales taxes than we were estimating last summer. So that's part of the 10.5 million in total revenue. The next biggest or the biggest piece of the 10.5 million in additional revenue is impact fees. And that's the least

063flexible. The most restrictive funds that we get, those funds have to be used on new student stations, or they can pay debt that was used to build student stations in certain circumstances, going off on a tangent because that's important. Because last year we, we identified impact fees as being able to pay debt service. And we went back in a prior year and we essentially bought, we changed the funding source for debt service payments. And this may be too much in the weeds, but that was a big benefit to the district to take the restricted impact fees, spend those on something we'd previously been using sales tax proceeds that freed up sales tax proceeds, which were more flexible to think gave us all kinds of other ways to look at how we would fund certain projects.

064The reason I'm saying going into this level of detail is because when we look at the capital budget and we look at a project like this, we could have a combination of fund sources. We could have the capital outlay millage, and we could have sales taxes. And I like to imagine it looks like a bar chart, which is different colors in the bar chart. And, you know, green could be sales tax blue could be the capital outlay, millage, and combined, they're going to equal to 39 million impact fees. Let's say they're red. We don't have any impact fees in this. But if you look at the universe of all the projects that we have budgeted, and we're looking out multiple years, we have a project that's, you know, that's out there that we could say,

065well, Hey, hold on. We, we could use impact fees for that project maybe. And so that frees up another fund source. And there's this movement of these colored boxes in projects throughout the year. So the bottom line is the influx of additional revenues allowed us to increase this project by $10 million, which is 95, 90 6% of our total additional revenue. You know, there's only 500,000 left and what we're estimating and additional collections this year. But even though a big chunk of that was impact fees. It's still benefited this project because of the, our ability to change fund sources in other projects downstream. So Hopefully that wasn't too much. No, no. Like I, I'm not, I'm probably not the brightest one up here. Then I think I understood what you're really saying. What you're really

066saying to us is that the $10 million worth of work that they are asking us to be done and that they have said to us is needed to be done. What you're saying is that we are able to cover that with additional revenue sources that were not there a year ago. Right. And yes, and it's eaten adding that to this project is pretty much eating up the entire additional revenue stream. So It's all right, that we are using most of this money to deal with this project, because I think most of us agree that this is a top priority in terms of existing needs in the district, we've solved the flooding, but we haven't solved the problem of upgrading that campus to make it look, feel, and deliver like the other high schools. Is that,

067is that a fast pairing of statement? Okay. I just want to be, make, make sure. So now we'll go back and go ahead. I'm sorry. You want to add a couple other things. So We got, okay. I've mentioned that we bring the capital team together about every quarter. If we look at revenues, we look at projects balances, how are things trending? So this is, you know, talk about a living doc and the living process. We are constantly reviewing both the revenue and the appropriation side. Where are we with projects? I'm just curious, what, what are the costs trending these days? Because last year we were using a 7% inflation factor. What are you guys seeing these days? Okay. It's, it's been probably this past year, more like eight or nine in construction. However, the seems

068to be getting better, hopefully, you know, you have a Ukrainian situation with some of that. Okay. So eight or 9%. So we've got a higher, higher cost of construction these days and we'll see what, what effects that has going into next year, but we're already planning for next year. And the reason I would say that's really important is because some of these maintenance projects, you know, if we've got another 2% and in the capital budget, you know, it's a pretty big budget, 2% on some big numbers is a big number. So that's why we're revisiting that. And we'll be bringing that to you for the 22, 23 years, sometime this summer, but that will put additional strain on the capital budget. That strain means we might not be able to do everything that we want.

069We will have to prioritize. We have to do that every year. I, I understand that operationally or administratively that we are constantly trying to make sure that what we're doing is what we can afford to do. And it is the best use of the money where I'm concerned with today is that we're being asked to approve a $10 million capital improvement over a project that started out at 29 million. That's a one-third increase. And so I just want to make sure that we are fully informed that the one third increase that we're being asked to approve that day has reasonably been determined to be a, what is necessary and B what we can do. Cause I don't want to get down the road and hear us being told, well, you all should have known That

070you are going to need the extra $10 million or you are asked to provide the extra $10 million and you voted no that, but for sure, we can work with the $10 million right now. Am I clear about that? Yes, sir. All right. All right. Are they, I'm sorry, not Mrs. Foreman. She had some questions about the money part. Yeah. I was just curious about the operating cost after, after we have the new facilities. Yeah. Once it's online, we'll, we'll build those into the operational budget. What's the CEO target for this building. So we, I haven't built anything in yet because you Know, we've got to, we do anticipate a decrease. I Certainly would expect one. Yes. I've seen them consistently. So, So many, no increase Everything. I'm sorry I had you finished. That's fine.

071Okay. January 23. So it'll be a general fund impact in the 2320 There's 22, 23. Mid-year Mr. Joe, Just piggybacking off of that question, I believe it was Sug middle school that presented a month or so ago. And we talked about the HVAC system and things like that that are being implemented into that. Their main part of that school is that some to save, you know, in the general fund, the dollars for, for energy, et cetera, is that something that we're seeing in this production of the new two story building as well? Those kinds of systems, the HVAC systems that will help us save dollars. Okay. Yep. That's it. Yep. Okay. I just want to say thank you for everybody working with the, with the school, with the community, you know, you guys have been

072really great and I, I really, really appreciate that. Mr. Kennedy. Thank you. All right. About him. Vice chair From one Manatee high grad to another. Thanks. See, I had to put that in there. I was for you too. I wasn't in the segway. The, had you finished your presentation? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you all for informing us what we need to do and we'll go ahead and segue into the next part of the agenda. Thank you all so very much for the opportunity. Yes, sir. Thank you. Madam vice chair and members of the board items nine, 10 and 11. Yeah, nine, 10 and 11 involve literally public comment support. We do have one public comment on the consent. Then we have the general public comment for 60 minutes, and then we have 12 people that

073were signed up for that. And then we have four public hearings as the next portion of our agenda. I guess the first thing I want to ask is, is there an appetite to read the overall general instructions regarding public comment? Now, since we do have one public comment for the consent items, or do we want to wait? I'm just trying to figure out what, what we would like to see. I'm happy to do it now. Okay. Then let us, let us go ahead. And here, the, the directions and instructions and the new possibility to set exists because of the new software that we have coming from the, and we will now be what we won't be in your hands for consent. But go ahead. Thank you. Do you want me to read it now or

074do you want to get the motion and the second for the consent? Or do you want me to do this now? And then we'll do motions that I always want to do. Okay. Okay. So this is just the overarching rules about public comment. And then I'm going to talk a little bit about our new system and public comment. Public comment is not an open forum to discuss matters, unrelated to education, to support or oppose candidates for public office, or to engage in commercial speech, attempting to sell a service or product to the school board are public. Also public comment is not a foreign to attack individual school system employees or board members. Any such complaints should be submitted in writing to the superintendent for appropriate handling. Finally, this is not a forum for addressing issues

075involving individuals, students, because of privacy concerns, such issues should be submitted in writing to the superintendent for appropriate handling. Each speaker is allowed three minutes to address the board. Speakers must stand at the podium and not approach the diocese. This is a business meeting of the school board and the public expects 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 and not demonstrate approval or disapproval of what a speaker has said by copping or booing the board appreciates the public input and will listen attentively, consider each comment and usually will not respond. Enter into debate or answer questions during comments on agenda items or during the public comment section. Before you begin speaking,

076please 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 at public meetings. Any individual who interferes with the expeditious or orderly process of a school board meeting will be subject to removal from the meeting pursuant to Florida statutes at the discretion of the chair, orderly fashion is deemed as at a minimum, no profanity, no vulgar language, no discourteous disrespectful or disparaging conduct. And with that, our new system has a timer built into the system. So instead of using this timer, there will be timers on this screen and that screen. And I believe also on the laptop in front

077of you, the color changes, it will be green until you have 30 seconds left. And when you have 30 seconds left, it will turn yellow. And then when you run out of time, it turns red and it will ding, as I stated, when it dings and it turns red, we ask that you end your comment. So the next person can come up. We have many people that would like to speak. We want to make sure that we do that in an orderly fashion with that. I'm going to turn it back over to you for the consent agenda. Thank you very much. Madam vice chair, Madam superintendent. Do you have a recommendation for the consent items? Which number 30 in our agenda? Yes, I do. I recommend the approval of the consent agenda for April 12th,

0782022. Right? The chill entertain a motion. All right. It's been moved and seconded that the consent items as recommended 30 consent items is recommended by the superintendent be approved. Is there any unreadiness Public comment? Well, okay. I'm sorry. Public comment then the unreadiness I read that through a chair. Okay. If there's no unreadiness then we'll go to public comment. Okay. All right. Hearing none at this time, we will have a public comment. Ms. Mr. Giblin. I come on down and this is specifically about just the consent, this part. And now you signed up for many things. I just want to be clear that this one is only about the consent agenda For the record, Glen Giblin policies and procedures on your consent agenda are flawed. You have the public sitting here for hours waiting to

079speak on non-consent agenda items that have nothing to do with the consent agenda that you let them sit here. Anyways. Madam clerk, would you please stop the clock? Mr. Molina, do you have a comment about the consent agenda? Yes. The policy about the consent agenda. Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. I'm not going to go there. I'm going to start the clock back. And if you do not adhere to the rules that we have established, this is a three minute opportunity for you to con to comment on the consent agenda. It's how you Do the consent agenda is what I'm addressing. It is Not your perfect. It is my purview. This is public comment. Madam start the clock. Thank you. So getting back to the policy and procedures of public comment on consent agenda, Madam

080clerk, please stop the clock to the members of the board. I have twice explained to Mr. Jolena that this is an opportunity for him to make a comment about the consent agenda. I'm not going to do that again, but what I will ask you is if in fact you want to allow him to continue his three minutes to talk about the policies that have gone into effect to create the consent agenda as we have presented it, or whether you want to limit him as our rules are to commenting about the items to 30 items on the consent agenda. Is there any comment that would want to be made at this time? We'll start with Mr. Choke In an effort to be transparent. You need to understand that if people are not going to come here

081and abide by our rules, they will not be allowed to continue to develop their own roots. It's as simple as that. So the choice is that Mr. Jibber, Lena abides by our rules, or he thought fits his right to address that particular item on the agenda. Mr. Choke. I see it both ways. I see. Yes. It's not a, an agenda item or a consent item. We're not talking about our policies of our meetings, but he's in general talking about the consent items and how we, I would allow him to, I would allow him to give Ms. Three minutes and go As Mr. Choate. I, I see it both ways, just so that the public is aware that the discussion or public comment on the consent agenda should be about a specific item on the consent

082agenda, not the existence or the conduct of the meeting, but you know, I, I, I'm always in favor of hearing from the public. So I Just to be clear, public comment rules, state that you cannot speak during public comment, the only person that can speak as the board and the person up here. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy Revenue, and more the same. I think this is an honest disagreement and interpretation, wherever golden. I agree with yours. This is a, this is a board bylaws question, not a consent item, but Mr. Julian is here. He's got two minutes and a half. This is a lesson learned. So we know from the future, but I'd suggest we let him finish Respectfully. I believe we should follow our rules. And I think if we do not follow our rules,

083then they will not be followed for the rest of this meeting or any other meeting. Thank you very much. So at this point, the matter before us to be considered as a motion as to whether Mr. Vick, whichever Belinda should be allowed to continue to speak all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. Aye. Right. Alright. Motion carries three to two. You may continue. Mr. Stipulate. Thank you very much. So it's out the Clock again For the record, Glen javelina, and, and again, it's the policy and procedures. We're just trying to save the, the taxpayers who employ you. The citizens that are here to want to talk about non-consent items and they should give them that opportunity. You should follow the best practices of the county and you don't do that. You don't

084do that at all. You want people to just sit here and listen to construction and other stuff that we have no interest to. We have things to do. We have jobs. We have people we have to take care of. We have items of ourself and for you to delay 10, 20, 30 people, because you want to get you your stuff that has nothing to do with our stuff is a disservice. And quite frankly, it's disrespectful to the public. And I would suggest that you change that policy and procedures. I want to thank the three members who allow me. I'm not going to burn up the only through all the three minutes. I'll just burn up half of it. But I'm trying to make a point here. You need to take the public's consideration first, including

085a camera anger. See that's not working out so well. Thanks. And that concludes public comment on consent items. Thank you very much. At this time, the children pain, we had a motion and a second, there were no unread illnesses and the comments are completed at this time. The chair will call for the vote. All those in favor of the consent agenda, being accepted as recommended by the superintendent. That'd be known by the sign of aye. Aye. All opposed hearing none. The ayes have it. The motion carries unanimously. At this time, we're going to close out regular meeting and open the public hearing for the board to hear public comments regarding the instructional materials, adoption and answer questions related. They are to the first public hearing for three 12 English language arts in K through 12

086mathematics, Madam vice chair. Yes. This is the public hearing to speak specifically about grades three through 12 English, language arts and K to 12 mathematics instructional materials that have been published to the school district's website. And I have two people that have signed up, but it is a public hearing. So does open to anyone else that would like to speak. But I'm going to call on the first two people that have signed up to speak first and then move on to anyone else that would like to speak in the first person that signed up to speak about these specific instructional materials is Ms. Martin. And then after that will be Mr. Jolena Michelle Martin. Is that what all I have to say? Okay. There's a quote that we're not sure who it can be attributed

087to, but it's the only thing for able to flourish is for good men to do nothing. So in March, Richard Tatum wrote to this entire board and reminded all of you of your responsibility to have a thorough understanding of CRT and how that theory is put into practice via DEI initiative, in an effort to be helpful. He provided thorough tutorials with references to guide each of you, to that understanding. And yesterday Richard Tatum sent an email talking about social, emotional learning and cultural responsiveness pointing out that Jacob, Olivia who's, the chancellor of the divisions of public schools from the Florida department of education said In an effort to make Florida students have the highest quality educational materials. We are advising publishers in school districts to not incorporate unsolicited strategies, such as social, emotional learning and

088cultural responsive teaching. These strategies are not called for in the specifications because they are not aligned to the best standards and therefore should not be in your instructional materials. That's very clear. So I want to remind you of your responsibility and ask each of you to start doing your homework. And I want to remind you of something. If you haven't done your homework, I'm going to ask you to please reserve your vote. This isn't an election year. This is one of the biggest important topics that you're going to be talking about on the campaign trail. Again, in the, there's a, another quote that I want to leave you with. You're going to be talking about this on the campaign trail. So if you don't know what CRT is, what DEI is, what SEL is. If

089you don't know how all of this has infiltrated bringing cultural Marxism into the schools, I'm going to ask you to reserve your boat. There's a man named William Wilberforce and he was an abolitionist. And his job was he spent his life advocating for the powerless. You guys are in a position of power and the kids are powerless. So I'm asking you in the words of Albert Wolver William force, his quote was you can choose to look away, but you can't say that you don't know. And after getting those emails from Tatum, none of you here can say that you don't know you have all of the resources. You need to find out what the truth is. So if you haven't done the homework, please reserve your vote. Mr. Jolena For the record, Glen javelina, I

090will also refer to what you Tatum's. The word diversity is mentioned 35 times in the AHF T draft plan. That is not what's before us today. Today is only the English language arts and the math curriculum adoption. Okay. So English art. So as Michelle mentioned, that CRT should not be taught. You all got the letter from Richard Tate on my sent the all copy of it. So at this time For the record, I would like to hand in Several hundred petitions that are signed, referring to the policies on the, what the curriculum that should be, that should be taught. So I'm going to enter those into the record today, along with his letter, which each and every one of you, including the superintendent have received. It's a four page report. We have hundreds of signatures

091that were entered into the record that we will not tolerate CRT within our school district. Thank you. Okay. That concludes the two that I had signed up. Is there anyone else you'd, since this is a public hearing, you do not have to sign up to speak on these adoption of these specific curriculum materials for English, language arts and math is math. Is there anyone else that would, that is here that would like to speak on these particular items? Mr. Hartman, come on down For the record. Michael Hartman. Peace. What I'd like say is I just, if I could just briefly, when you were talking about the schools, I remember when I was in junior, senior high school, I had to get on a bus for 45 minutes. But then in my last year of school,

092they built a senior high, right. A block away from my school. So I wanted to say kudos on what you all are doing there. Luke 2133 says heaven and earth shall pass away. But my words shall not pass away. Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child and the way they should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. The English language words of taking on a new meaning used to be that an unborn child in a mother's womb was a person. Now it's become a fetus. Legal immigration has now become undocumented workers. Irrefutable evidence is now just a bold chase lie, Mr. Hartman. This is only about the curriculum adoption. Okay. But I'm talking about words. I'm talking about how words lose their meaning, how they're changed. Right? Okay. I'm just

093trying to make a public comment. Sure. There's general public comment after the hearings. I just, this is only about the curriculum. Okay. Well, I'm talking about words and that's what the curriculum is. Okay. Okay. YouTube used to be an inflated tire or tube to float on. Now YouTube is a social media website to post videos on follow means to come along or go after, go behind. But now it means to subscribe to someone's update on social media. The phrase in the beginning, God created is now the big bang or bang a drink, Genesis 1 27. God created male and female, but now we have this new transgender affirming Romans 1 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a pate or a void of

094judgment mind to do those things, which are not convenient. Psalm nine 17, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. And I can understand there's a little bit of confusion here today, but I think if somebody has got something to say to me, the best way to have a dialogue is to either write the rules down. So that just like you said, with the new system, it's a little bit muddled. Maybe some people are not familiar with it. If you tweaking the rules, making them a little bit different when you post them online, say, okay, if you're going to talk about this, this column here, one through 10, this is what you can talk about. Okay. And it has to be within those parameters because I even asked one

095of the memories and asked the lady over here about when can I speak? There was a little bit of confusion there. So if you want to make the changes, that's great. And just, we're just trying to communicate. And I just thank you for your time and God bless you. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on these curriculum materials? Ms. Rhodes, come on down. My name is Betty sales rose. Now I'm just looking at this, right? Have you all had this on the website? What I'm trying to say, everyone of you all up here y'all make y'all ruse, but did you let the parents know about K through 12 or language arts? K through 12 a mathematic. Now, if this what happened back during y'all years, you already been very upset,

096but you all can comment and rule like you all want to have. Y'all called me for the parents to know about this. Gina, do you have you off for the parents? Can have the say so of what you all are doing. Have you golden Call the parents? I think for anybody can come up with this curriculum ideal or whatever you all are doing. I know it's the law say no student left behind, but still as a parents, they have rights to you all just can't come up here and do we not over in Russia is not a communism nation. This is the United States. So we had parents supposed to know what is going on. So you all can come up here and build your jewelry and the jurors to do whatever you all want

097to do. You can have that smile on your face. I have it too, but I'm saying what? It's right. You got to let the parents know what is going on here. Have meetings, put it out on the way off site. I look on the website. I didn't see it. So this is my first time hearing about this, right? And you all going to get up here and approve it today. So we as parents don't have no rights. I know you want to know about your kids, right? Cause I know him. He have kids and I know his kids. He gonna want to know Mary, your grandkids. You want to know Charlie? I don't know. You want to know for your daughter, but I guess you can rule cause you as her mother. So I'm just

098saying, you know, let the parents know what is going on here in the school system. But we won't have to wonder when we come here for a meeting, we won't have to look at it here on this piece of paper. We should already know about it. Then you won't have to be everybody coming up here talking about it. So I'm like this right here. And I have grandkids playing I'm in here and nieces and nephews and this school system. And I'm going to go for what is right? And I'm not gonna let you do him any kind of way and other people, kids. So that's it. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the curriculum materials, please state your name for the record. Good morning. My name is Cindy Waddell.

099Thank you for the time to talk. I'll try to keep this quick. I want to know CRT taught to the students in this community. I want that we are all created equal and in God's image, I want there to be respect for each life. All people are made equal, not ideas are equal. We can openly discuss all ideas, but be respectful to the people. Secondly, I wanted to see your wider viewpoint of AA, H T F African American history taskforce. Oh, okay. Sorry. I understand. And I, I do want a, just in general, a grateful, constitutional and patriotic view of our veterans, framers of this great experiment of the freest country in God's green earth. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Henley. Come on down. I wouldn't have paid. All right, good morning. And as an

100actual educator, I want to first remind everybody those at home, those in the classroom, that the real key to whatever's going in front of those kids is the way it's delivered the instruction, the, the plan and the preparation for those kids to read, understanding dissected, I'm listening to both sides about CRT and it should only come down to one thing. How about we just teach the truth. That's not label it, this, or label it that we don't have to do retro shaming. There's none of that, but either teach the truth or don't teach it. And what's critical is the narrative staying the same. That's why this is all this issue. It's critical for some people to believe they didn't contribute anything and others to believe they contributed everything. I'm not on either side. What matters

101is we put truthful information in front of our kids. They can get BS from the internet. They can get it from the newspaper. They can get it from the brain and Harold, they can get it from press conferences. So it just makes sure what we put in front of them is factual and actual, but more importantly, that the instruction delivers it in a way where they can absorb it, retain it, synthesize it, and use it in their day-to-day life. So I think we're getting into a fight about CRT or diversity and equity and inclusion. Those shouldn't be things we have to make an effort to do. It's supposed to be that way, but until we have people in control that think along those same lines, we're going to be stuck here. So I'm looking at

102groups back here that agree on a bunch of stuff, but this one particular thing could shred them apart. So I'm asking that this board be innovative and forward thinking and maybe even set a positive trend and just agree to put forward what's truthful. And if the history, lessons and courses are the cause of this issue, how about we take them off and revamp them or don't teach it at all. Thank you. Anyone else that would like to speak on the language arts or math curriculum? Okay. I think that concludes the public comment. Part of this public hearing for these material adoption Public hearing is closed. The regular meeting is reconvened. The chair we'll hear from the superintendent about a recommendation of the three 12 English language arts and K-12 mathematical instruction materials adoption for the

10320 22, 20 23 school year. Yes. I recommend the approval of the three through 12th grade English, language arts in K through 12 mathematics instructional materials adoption for the 2022 through 2023 school year. Okay. So Moved second. Alright. It's been moved and by the vice chair and seconded by Mr. Kennedy, that there'll be an approval of item. Number two under the public hearing approval of the three 12 English language arts in K-12 mathematics instruction material for the 20 22, 20 23 school year. You've heard the motion. And second, is there any unreadiness Oh, oh, I'm so sorry. Wait a minute. Hold on. Do you want me to raise my hand or do you want me to use that? Well, no at you, you pushed your speaker button and I see you, your name is first

104followed by Mr. Choke. Okay. All right. Go ahead and met him bastion. I just, I wanted to ask a few questions and kind of review how we got here. This board had a presentation of this curriculum a month or two ago. I don't know the exact date, but it was a month or two ago. It was put out to the public. It was posted on our website. Anybody could have submitted comments about the curriculum to the district. And, and so I would like to know how many comments did you receive from people that reviewed the, when it was put out online? None. Zero comments. Okay. How was this curriculum chosen? Yeah. Can you just go through the process of how it's who's involved in choosing it, how it's chosen or Laurie Breslin also to come

105up with a deputy because she was hand-in-hand involved so that I know this was something that we talked about the workshop, but since there were concerns raised today, I want to make sure that everyone hears exactly how this curriculum comes before us. So that we're all on the same page on what's in the curriculum. What's not in the curriculum, how it gets here and the, the, the laws that really govern a lot of what is before us. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll say a couple of things as a matter of transition, go to Dr. President who chaired our, along with Dr. Kelly or our committees. I think we said last time, and it's a good question. And we appreciate the feedback from the public. Always we go through a formalized process. That's publicly noticed. So as

106to get the feedback you're describing, and the process has been codified annually to be done pretty much the same way, which is, and Dr. had probably a couple of other points about some of the particulars of the process, but generally speaking, we look across the landscape of the materials, the books and materials as approved by the state, and then through the committee work that she'll describe, we select for our district, what materials resonate best with our educators and parents and so forth, but to be clear, and someone referenced the DOE memo that asked us to be cautious about what we're, we're adopting. Obviously we would follow those instructions. And to that end, that memo with references, what should be in the, not in the materials was directed to the publishers themselves. So we would only

107be selecting materials that would be from the state approved, adopted list as approved by the state DOE. So we're then selecting from a state DOE list and then putting the process together that Dr. Brazzaville described and then selecting the appropriate materials from auntie county. I'm sorry, wasn't that memo from Jacob Oliva. Wasn't that also specific about math curriculum? Okay. Just making sure like it, I know that it was directed to the publishers, but it was very specific about math Right now. Yes ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Good morning. So the process we used in Dr. Kelly and myself sat and very carefully planned this process and made it as transparent as we possibly could. The timeline was developed, shared with all district leaders, once approved share with all stakeholders, put on our website with the announcement

108of the textbook adoption process. We don't consider anything that isn't on the state approved list first and foremost. So we make sure it's vetted by our state first. And then after that, once we have the timeline, we reach out to our community, our parents, our schools often help us in reaching out to the parents, their SAC meetings and other opportunities to open our doors. So there's plenty of opportunity for review and feedback. We publish a rubric and this is a rubric that is used commonly throughout the state. So there's plenty of opportunity to provide feedback again from all stakeholders. Once it goes down to that process where we narrow down to three, and there's also other layers where we make sure it works within our system, does it, does it integrate with Schoology? Can students

109access it at home? Can our ELL students and our ESC students access the material, all of those departments are involved from that point. It gets narrowed down to three, and then we go to our schools and we provide access to all the materials. And we ask them to provide feedback. They're given a, a two week time period to review, provide feedback. We review the feedback, we send it out again. We open open hours to come view the materials. And then once it goes through all of those layers, then we finally say, here are the top selections based on the feedback from all stakeholders. We work with the vendors to make sure that we have public access to those materials. We posted on our website so that the public has an opportunity to fully review the

110materials and offer additional feedback if warranted before we move forward. So that's what I mean by very purposeful layers so that we are slow in the process because it is very important. We have the best tools in front of our students, but we're also transparent. Okay. I have, I have one more question. There was many that shared concerns about CRT and one that even tied it to election years, which I think is very poignant. So having gone through all these layers of process, can you talk a little bit more about CRT in this curriculum, CRT, as it's viewed by the state and our governor? Absolutely. So we follow everything from the state's direction, right? And so if we're told not to include anything within our curriculum, we don't, but first and foremost, we look at

111the state standards and we, we find materials that support the teaching of the standards. Period. CRT is not within the state tandem standards for ELA or math. So it wouldn't even be a part of the conversation. It's not in our rubrics. It's not part of the presentation from the vendors, because everything we do is aligned to what we want our students to do. And that is to show mastery of the standards. That's it, There was another comment made about the delivery and making sure that teachers are properly trained in order to teach this curriculum. How, how will the training be done for this curriculum? So we've started training on the best standards already. And we do that by, we have our experts in curriculum. We have a best champion for math and ELA at each

112school, elementary, middle, and high. They, they take part in our trainings. We develop materials, they take them back to their school sites. They train their staff on their campuses. We also have training available to our administrators that we, that we conduct as well. So that training has been ongoing through the year and we catalog it so that anybody new to the district at any time has access to those trainings. They're all recorded. We don't want to lose that valuable training, and we don't want to have to recreate it every time. So as teachers come in this summer, as we hire, there'll be provided the information with that. We're currently writing curriculum maps. So all the maps that are being updated, that's a collaborative team of teachers that have joined us in this effort. Those maps

113will be finished by may and rolled out to teachers so that they have plenty of time to review it before they leave for the year. And then we also have ongoing PD over the summer by content areas, by grade levels for teachers, if they choose to come and receive, pay to review the materials, our textbook, our plan is to have them at the school sites by the time the year is over. So teachers that are leaving for the summer, if they wish could take a teacher edition and have that to review as needed. And then of course in August, we do have an extra day built in, and that was very purposeful so that we would have time with our teachers for all our new initiatives that we're doing as a district. And of course

114the best standards is a huge part of that. And so we'll have training as well, but it doesn't stop. Then we are planning out at the end of quarter one to review and revise as needed as we go, because we know that every, every year we have to review and revise based on feedback from teachers, administrators, parents, and our state data. Thank you. I think that answered. I was just trying to make sure that the things that got brought up that they were addressed, and I understand that we have two more speakers now, Mrs. Foreman has signed up that she also wants to speak, but before we go any further, I would like for you to tell me who you are and what your credentials are. Yes, Sir. No, ma'am, this is deadly serious. Yes.

115I heard that you don't know what you're doing and you don't know what you're talking about. So Yeah. And the director of secondary curriculum and instruction and Dr. Callaway is in the room with me, she's the director of elementary. And of course we have Dr. Thompson here as well. So they are they here? Will it stand up? Yes. But these are the people that are Yes. Keep standing. Yes. And, and sorry, I would say that this, this process. Yes. Ma'am. I want you to tell where did you go to school and what is your degree in, I want to know why you qualified to stand here and make this presentation, because we've just heard from other people in the community. We don't know what we are doing. Wow. I am a proud product of the

116Manatee county school system, both middle and high school in this district, went through university of Florida, hold three degrees from the university of Florida to in curriculum and instruction. And then a doctorate degree in teaching and learning have served as a assistant principal and in high school, a middle school principal and An ELA teacher before that ELA teacher and intensive reading teacher, all of the, about 20 years in education And the two other people that are standing who are on this committee, can you attest to their credentials? Yes, sir. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Doctorate, both of them years and education. I think Dr. Callaway has been a principal for 12 years in elementary education. K eight as well. Dr. Thompson, as, as you all know, very well, very brilliant individual who has served this district for

117many years. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. So Ms. Messenger took a lot of my questions that I wanted answered. We had this presentation done a couple of months ago. We were still kind of waiting for the best standards and, and at that point, the legislature hasn't hadn't finished yet. It now obviously has I'm on page 4 30, 6 of the packet, complete alignment to the new Florida best standards. What about HB seven, some of those other legislatures that legislative that had passed, is that something that this we know that it's comfortable, we're following what the state has put on us? Yes, sir. We have already met and had discussions about all the new legislation coming down. The biggest thing that I see is that we need to communicate and involve parents, which we have,

118and we'll continue to do that. As we know next year, the textbook adoption continues with social studies and that process will start in June and, and I will be asking community members to, to come in and be involved in the process. And, and I'll meetings will be publicly noticed. Again, we do believe that all parents should be able to see the materials their students are learning with. Again, I'm a parent of four children in this district. And so anything we can do to aid in that process where we're going to do, I would say the public notice and things like that, that we do, obviously we're gonna have to follow the legislative process that that was passed to get, have, have a public hearing and have people come in and look at the, the material

119and things like that. And this is probably beyond the scope of today, but my thoughts are, if there's people that haven't gotten that notice, maybe we knew better, we can do different ways of noticing, you know? And so that's just something to think about further as we move forward, especially with complying with what the legislature put forward this past. I think we can expand on that and we will certainly do that. Yeah, That's it. Thank you, Ms. Foreman. Yeah. I wanted to, to comment here on April 18th, we're going to be having a workshop that we'll go through our website. And I want to remind everybody that curriculum is available on the website. Some of the textbooks are available there, but one thing that one of the speakers really spoke home to me about was

120how we communicate to the public that this is available and that this is going on. And so I just pulled up our webpage, you know, the front page. And I think it would be a good move to have notice on there that this curriculum adoption is going on. We advertise it and it's on the website, but sometimes our website is difficult to get through. And so I would, I would encourage the administration to put, put it on the front page. Okay. That's all I have. All right. Does anyone else Mr. Kennedy, Thank you river golden. I just have a quick statement. I don't want to talk about CRT. I'm sick and tired of it. It's a phony issue to me, but what I do want to talk about and what I want to ask the

121critics to think about and Dr. Evans, Dr. Breslin, you can correct. If I say anything wrong, please just give me a hand up and I'll correct it. But the, the materials that we are adopting as Dr. Breslin reminded this earlier, they come from a state approved list. Those instructional materials on that state approved list are aligned to state standards, which are approved by the state department of education. We all know who is in charge and has been in charge of this education system for the past 20 years. So I want you to just do a little bit of critical thinking. How could, how could on one hand all of these cultural Marxist, communist, whatever pejorative or whatever, maybe it's, that's not a pejorative to you, but whatever name you want to call it, how would

122those things be in there? If the people in charge of the policy decisions and these standards and curriculum are vehemently suddenly last year or a year and a half ago, suddenly they found CRT. And it's just, it just doesn't make logical sense that these materials in these state standards would be embedded with all these terrible things. When the people in charge of these standards and instructional materials are telling you how terrible they are. I believe for the sake of getting, getting people angry and getting them out to vote. There are a bunch of problems we have in the school district with kids post pandemic. If we spent the amount of time and energy on kids' mental health issues and getting them back up to speed from what they lost during the pandemic, I think that

123would be a much better use of our time. But here we are, we're going to spend an hour talking about what is to me a fake issue, but, but here we are. And so it really starts to me. It started last year with the mask mandates. And right before school ended, the governor came out with an executive order saying, everybody's got to get rid of their mask mandates, which 90, you know, almost every district in the state was planning on doing when school ended, but that got people. Some of you were here during this two meetings in that in may, in that may. And if you remember them, they were put some pretty crowded and loud meetings, but it was then that the governor learned, Ooh, this, this anti mass stuff really gets people ticked

124off. So instead of being the free state of Florida, where people can make their own decisions in their personal life, these things can get, you know, shoved down our throat. And so now lesson learned from that mass thing was like, well, this stuff really works. And it gets people mad. So suddenly CRT came on the scene and then it was social, emotional learning. And then next, a couple of meetings from now, it's going to be the African-American history task force. So I would just ask the critics and I understand where you're coming from. I do not doubt the sincerity of your position and your criticisms of all these things that you do not like I, you know, I know you believe them. I respect your opinion. I disagree with it, but you're certainly have every

125right to come up here and talk about it. Or at public comment, we're glad to see you're here. But my, my request is, can we please just focus on actual issues affecting actual kids in this district because CRT and SEL and any other acronym you want to come up with that is, you know, this bane of it, the school district is existence. It's just to me, excuse me to me, not a problem. So, and I will vote to approve these standards or excuse me, instructional materials. Thank you. Has everyone had an opportunity to speak? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I think A lot of what we are experiencing, not only in this room today, And not only in Manatee county, But we are experiencing a paradigm shift In what's taking place in public education, As

126it evolves in this country. One word that sticks out to me that a lot of people say when they come before us Is the word power, Power. And I think the reality of what separates us more than anything Is the belief that you think That I have. We have Power Other. That is what is at the root of why we sit here. I will not presume to speak for everybody up here, But I will share with you That I am not here because I am seeking or trying to be in power. I do this To serve That's all. And if my service is acceptable to the parents and the children and to the staff, the people who are in the system, then my service will be continued. If not, it won't be, But I am

127not Wanting as Mr. Kennedy has pointed out to enter into an argument or into a discussion with people who think that this is about power. And if there's one thing that I have heard that has come from the people in this room today, is that we ought to be about truth, Truth. And the truth is That critical race theory has nothing to do with public education. It never has, and never will critical race theory. It was a theory that I studied when I was in law school. And it was taught by people who were part of a study that emanated out of Harvard university law, which is where our governor went to law school. And I know he knows While many of us may not know that critical race theory is just that it is

128a theory about why there is disparity in law enforcement, in the courts and in the penal system. That's all it ever has been. Now, the fact that people use it for other purposes, I cannot control, But I can speak the truth. And that's not a question of power. I think that's the greatest service that anybody can give. W I agree, we've spent all this time talking about something that everybody knows is not the problem. It is a symptom of a problem that we have. We have three people with doctoral degrees that have spent the better part of the school year, trying to bring us into a position where our children can be better served. And yet on this day that it comes before us. We're supposed to overturn all of that, disregard all of that

129and acquiesce To those who are in the room Saying we should not do that Of a truth. How helpful is that? Because I've not heard one recommendation coming from the public comments that were made today on what to do. All I keep hearing is what not to do. And this is not a, this is not a board that can afford to do nothing. We've still got reading levels that we've got to increase. We've still got dropout rates that we've got to decrease. We've still got money that we've got to raise to try to do these things. And you know of a truth. The fact that, That you disrespect me just indicates more to me what you really think about the system that's supposed to serve us all. And it's okay, because whether you really Get

130it or not, I'm still going to serve. Cause I'm not here for you or for your interest. I'm not here to combat your consideration of whatever power you think I've got. I came to serve, and I'm going to just do that to the best of my ability until I'm no longer able to do it. So with that, I'm going to ask, I think there are no more comments. We've had a motion and a second we've had everybody had an opportunity to discuss. And so, and the superintendent has made her recommendation that we adopt this. And so I will, I will start at the other end with the vice chair and we will come around and ask those who would approve the recommendation of the superintendent for the English language arts and K through 12 mathematics

131instruction material for 2223. That'd be known about a sign of aye. Aye, Aye. Apparently that's a unanimous everybody up here agrees that we should adopt these materials. And I thank you. I'm going to close the regular meeting to move toward the adoption of the, the joint, the public hearing of full consideration to adopt and amend school board policies, which will put us back in the hands of the vice chair. And what I'm going to ask you is before we do that, we can take about minute, 10 minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, five minute recess. We're in recess for five minutes. Thank you. Reference Where I call back to order at this time. If we could be called back to order now, please. Thank you so very much. This time, I believe we are

132set to conduct a public hearing for consideration to adopt and amend school board policies would be in the, Yes. Okay. So this is the public comment. Does the public hearing portion what's before us are revisions to several policies, the revisions to these policies, our firm, new Yola, and are based on updated USDA, title nine updated regulations, and those policies are policy 1, 1 2, 2 3 1 2 2 4 1 2 2 policy 1, 1, 2, 2 0.01 policy 3 1 2, 2 0.01 policy 4 1 2, 2 0.01 policy 3 1 6 2 3 3 6 2 4 3 6 2, policy 2, 2 6, 0, and a new policy of policy 5, 5, 1 7. And like I said, it is a public hearing. So just as we did with the curriculum adoption,

133this is open to anyone that liked to speak on these specific policy, revisions and adoption of the new policy that's on before us. And I have one person that has signed up and then after I've called on that person, I will ask if anyone else would like to speak on these specific policies, Mr. Jim Molina. Okay. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on these particular policies that are before us? I see here. Okay. Mr. Gelina, we're speaking on the adoption of revised policies and the new policy. And I read out the policy numbers. I trust if you signed up that you reviewed them. Yeah. So Glen Juliana, for the record requests, these policies received reflect changes in a terminology definition processes that are consistent with the latest regulations released by the United

134States department of education. So the problem that I have as policy 2, 2, 6, 0, which reads non-discrimination and access to equal educational opportunity, that's what it says equal, equal opportunity, not indiscriminate that does not work for special needs kids. It never has. It never will. I have a special needs kids that I know just turned 17, still reading at the third grade reading level. This you speak, you, you treat our special needs kids very poorly. As far as the educational standards that you are getting money for and you throw them to the wayside, they don't get as much of an education that policy's got the change. You know, I sit in on due process, hearing meeting six, seven hours, and I see what these parents struggle through. And then just to get a change,

135change, change of a school is like pulling teeth from the district here that whole, that whole, that whole area needs to re be revamped. You know, we gave you a million, four for mental health. I don't see any, I don't see where that's going. I did a records request on the Policy. Yeah. So non-descriptive access to equal education. You don't do it because you don't have the personnel it's not trained. Right. And it has to change. I've got some other stuff to talk with. I'm going to yell my time. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else who would like to speak specifically about the policies that are before us? Okay. Seeing none. I will turn it back over to you. Thank you. Madam vice chair. We will close the public hearing for consideration to

136adopt an amend school board policies. And we will reconvene the regular meeting and move to item four on the public hearing agenda approval to adopt new policy in the middle school board policies. Chill. I hear the recommendation coming from the superintendent. Yes. I recommend to the approval to adopt new policy and amend school board policies. The new policy is 55 17 revise policies are 1 1 2 2 3 1 2 2 4 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 0.0 1 3 1 2 2 0.0 1 4 1 2 2 0.0 1 1 3 6 2 3 3 6 2 4 3 6 2 and 2, 2 6 0. And you've heard the recommendation coming from the superintendent. The chair will entertain a motion. I'll second. All right. It's been moved by Mr. Kennedy and

137seconded, but by Mrs. Foreman, that we approve the new policy and amend a school board policies as recommended by the superintendent. Is there any unreadiness first off from the board hearing none. Then we will ask if there's any public comment for number four. I have a sheet here that says that the approval to adopt new policy in the middle school board policies that we have one speaker, We just had that, that, that individual signed up. But that is not that they signed. They when they sign up that they speak at the public hearing portion. Okay. So they do not get to come back and speak. It's the same item it's held as a public hearing instead of general, instead of public comment on the specific item. That's fine. All right. At this time, and then

138the chair will call the question regarding, Sorry. I have one request. Yes. Can we have Mr. Chapman just talk about the Providence of these policy adoption that came before us because there was a concern about it. Can we just have him come up and kind of just give a summary of what they are and, and where they came from? That's fine. I think that was a request that we had had in the past, is that when the policy, any kind of policy adoption comes before us, that that is something we, I think do, Although in fairness, Mr. Chapman addressed these policies, when we voted to advertise them, you're Right. He did. Oh, Okay. I'll be a brief there's times like this. When the federal government and agencies of the federal government or Congress put down

139rules, you know, to all public school systems that receive federal funds. So that means Manatee county. So when that happens, Neola the service that we use that helps us with these policies manage these policies. So these set of policy changes came from a final rule. It's called that the U S department of education puts out on, on this case on title nine regulations, they kind of expanded the title nine regulations. So when that happens, almost every school district in America has to then adjust their policies when it comes to title nine. So as you'll see, that's why there's so many number policies here because it, it, it has to cover all the different sections of our policy, whether that's the administration, school employees, students, and so forth. So that's why you see like 11 20,

1402 30, 1, 22 and all so forth because all of those policies that deal with non-discrimination equal employment and so forth, anti harassment have to be changed to, to reflect the final rule that the U S department of education put down. So that's where we are. These are pretty straightforward. The language has to be pretty much word for word, what is in that final rule. So that's, what's reflected in these policy changes. So again, this is what happens. Sometimes we have to pretty much go straight forward from what the federal government is telling us to do, and then have our policies reflect that. So that's what you have in front of us in front of you. Thank you. Thank you. Hold it with, I just want to, I noticed when I looked at the read

141the policies that they're green now, certain lines are green and that mean that they are Nila, Right? So what, we've, what, we've, what we've Institute, which we'll see. And then in the new business section, when I'm back up here, green is the added a new language. Red is the language that's being stricken and the purple language, which is not in this set, but I think there's a purple section in the policies. And the new business will be areas where the district administration had to make a decision on. And so that will be reflected in, in the, in the, I was going to say in the color purple, but in the purple color. So that will be our policy going forward. So I'll explain that when we get to that a new section, but a green,

142red, and purple, but in this it's all green and red. So yes. All right, everybody else. And I'll just add that our, you know, both our two councils, the board council and our general council also, you know, review these to make sure that they are matching what they know of when it comes to the final rule of title IX. All right. Thank you, sir. Okay. We have a motion and a second, no one readiness citizen, no other comments, no other clarification's the chair. We'll call it a question regarding the approval to adopt new quality and the men school board policies, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed. There being none. The motion carries unanimously relative to these policies and we thank you very much. At this time, we're going to move to item

14311 on our agenda, public comment and responses. We will not be under the administration of the vice chair. Okay. I already read the spiel earlier, so I'm just going to go down the list. Mr. Nelson, come on down. You are first and then after Mr. Nelson will be Mr. Hartman. Good morning or afternoon. My name is norm Nelson. I'm trying to back here again. This is my eighth year grind to get some information on finances and you got a four page packet distributed and hope that you'll see on the screen, trying to get an answer for a question that I've been trying to get for eight years, because I presented financial data. All the data that's on these four sheets are from your reports. I created two number two and three. I do that monthly

144and that's occurred as of February to help you keep track of the finances. As you look at this screen, there's no question about the budget. And then you start the budget in September 60. I'm 1 billion, 68 million, but almost the same day. You become out with a year to date, July and August. And you said it's 1,000,008. And if you noticed on the rest of the months, it's 1,000,008. There's a difference of what? 59 million 7 89 73. So my question to you and your administration, how do you get from 1,000,068? Let's do 1,000,000,008. How do you do that? That's why I attached these budget amendment reports. I make out it wasn't by budget amendment. It's just under same report, almost identical in September. That's the report you give. You will sow how miracley

145up here. One day who could have $59 million more, the next day it's gone. I like to get you to answer the questions. No se the top line of the billion 68 million. I know how you look at that because you've been looking at my page to Lang 30, because it's like 50 where the auditor report, it says testing is done by car rigs, which you'll hear a report later on. For example, description for entries. When the budget was created, start with the original budget. Start with the original budget. Subsequent amendments are made with the narrative script for the reasons that budget amendment, as the budget is built and ongoing approval. The district complaint, the tentative budget to the school board and conduct a public hearing in July. And a plan is a prey pre

146vinyl hearing and the school board in September, once the budget is approved, documentation, documentation has to FL DOE. Now I want to know how do you get, yeah. How do you get to that? Or has it spread through coincidence? If you look at page two and you look at the column of original budget and you look at transfers, there's positives and negative. If you add those two together, I have all trends in our fund transfers. They amount to 59 million. You ready? Tell me, How did you do that? Is it finance department director has their choice say, Hey, we're going to lower that tomorrow. We publish it in September, but we're going to change it tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Hartman. After Mr. Hartman will be Mr. Hoover, For the record Michael Hartman. And I was

147just thinking, talking about what we were talking about earlier, but I think it's an overview of everything that's going on here today. The support staff had come up and speak about the budget, speak about the construction, everything that's going on. They condense, when I look at the information packet, it was 800 pages. So I cannot take 200 pages and spread it out and say, here you disseminate that, give it to me. And then show me on one sheet of paper with the information is, but when I come here or anybody else speaks, it's almost like, and this, and I prayed about this, this with the Lord, put on my heart. It's almost like it's Kabuki theater. And let me just tell you what that is. That is a form of classical theater in Japan, known

148for its elaborate costumes and dynamic acting the phrase, Kabuki theater, Kabuki dance, or Kabuki play are sometimes used in a political discourse to describe an an event characterized more by showmanship than content. And I think what we've seen today, at least what I've got out of this meeting is that a lot of information that people are trying to come up here and speak about. They don't have the staff and the people can say, well, I looked at a pie chart, I see a bunch of colors. What does it mean 10% here, 2050, you got a lawyer. Well, I, I know what this means. You got to have a law degree to disseminate what some of this stuff means. So I think there was a lot of frustration. Me personally, I prayed for every one of

149you every day, the Bible says, pray for those that are in authority and power, that you may live a quiet and peaceful life. I don't come here with any malice. I don't come here with any malcontent, but I have concerns. And sometimes when we try to express it out of our frustration of not knowing, maybe we don't know, maybe we're misinformed. But the thing is, is in order to be able to understand, there has to be a two way street. And sometimes when somebody comes up to me and said, I don't like this, or I don't like that, I say, please tell me what I'm doing wrong. Please show me what I need to know. Give me the truth. If you've got more truth than what I have, please enlighten me. I don't take an

150offense because if I take an offense, as soon as you start talking to me, I'm going to go like this. I don't want to hear it. I'm closing down. Especially like my grandson, you start yelling at him or try to reprimand him. He goes into a different zone. He's he's not there. So I just speak a blessing on you. I just pray that everything that happened today, you would take it home tonight. And when you lay on your pillow, that the Lord would minister his grace and his healing and his deliverance because this nation needs it. Thank you, Mr. Hoover. And after Mr. Hoover is Mr. Jolena Good afternoon board. My name is Geren Hoover. I'm the vice chairman of the Republican party, Manatee county. And I am here speaking on behalf of the Republican

151executive committee and Republican party, Amanti county by a nod of heads. How many of you have read the OIG report from the DOE when they investigated the creating a false graduation rates? Okay, so apparently no one has that's. You ought to read it. And I recommend everyone to read this report because you'll discover lots of interesting things. The OIG substantiated the allegations against our superintendent, Ms. Saunders and Ms. Saunders in that report When interviewed by the OIG stated Quote, no staff members, voice concerns over homeschool in GED, coding of students As part of that same investigation, Ms. Carrillo, a choice program specialist stated quote that she felt with Saunders was asking the school to do was unethical because schools were instructing parents to withdraw their children to homeschool, but they were not informing of parents.

152What that meant and what entailed. She further stated, quote that Ms. Saunders and, and asked her to provide documentation to in statute supporting coding students for homeschool, no statute was provided to her. She also stated that It was quote, it was a twist on the understanding of the statute. And when asked if she felt it was intentional to boost graduation rates, Ms. Corello stated yes. Mr. Lundeen, supervisor, student demographics, protections, projections, and assignment stated that he felt the schools were pushing the kids in the home education and doing it after FTE way to ensure the school collected the FTE funding. Mr. Lundeen, further stated that the schools would push the students torrent towards home education and alternative program, or even having them drop out. Once the funding had been collected, I gave the clerk, the

153board clerk, the resolution from the Manatee county Republican executive committee, the resolution that was passed, you all have that. I know it's been given to you before, but I would like that to be part of the record. And I'm just going to read the therefore cause on it because it's it's important. And by the way, it is fascinating. Whenever the NAACP and the Republican party of Manatee county are in agreement, the public and the board should take notice. You really should. But the resolution says, therefore, be it resolved that the Manti county Republican executive committee, based upon the foregoing demands the resignation of superintendent Saunders and further, if a resignation does not occur immediately, this committee demands that the board terminate him. I asked this board to do that. And I asked you Mr. Choate

154to start the discussion. Thank you, Mr. Bellina. And after Mr. Belina will be Mr. Henley For the record, Glen Giblin. So I agree with Mr. Hoover. The other thing about it is that once you coach someone as homeschool and you fall under the umbrella of the state statute, that says you must get a report to the superintendent every year and an evaluation must be done. Every year. I did a records request for the 115 of the 121 students that were coded homeschooling. So you may have do that to enhance your graduation rates that does not make you escape. The state statutes that by law, as you sent you coded them, you must receive that report. I guarantee you, you do not have 115 reports from the students that were coded in that direction. So that

155is a state statute violation should be aware of it because coming down the pipe, that's going to come back and rear its ugly head. The other thing I want to talk about is, again, the policy inherit is after 12, no, we had to listen through all your other stuff that really these folks don't want to hear. They came here on a particular subject matter, not on the agenda. Use the best policies of the county. I don't know why you don't follow them. They got it down. Pat. I was there this morning in and out future agenda items got my three minutes head. What I had to say and leave that's they respect us. You guys don't respect us. You don't respect our time. You don't respect the, the comments that we make up here to

156get respect. You have to give respect. And that's why people are so frustrated when they get up here. You know, and I did a record. When did we change the camera position? Can anybody tell me that I've been around? Nobody knows, but magically, you guys switched it around somehow that you don't want it. But when a presentation comes up, you look at them. So that needs to change. I got a call from art Higgins. He wanted to be here to address this board. Unfortunately, he's a caretaker and he couldn't get out, but he did want to call in what happened to the call-in. If you got 60 minutes, why would you not give the public the opportunity to continue to call in? Guess what? Like the county best practices of the county. Here's an 800

157number, hit star six to, to speak. Why did you get rid of that? You got people out there that cannot get here and you marginalize them. Dumb, believable impact fees. Where are we at? You guys are the largest employer in the county. And what are you doing about workforce housing? What are you doing about impact fees? Are you collaborating with the county and saying, Hey, we're going to do the sliding scale. I haven't heard anything. You hammer everybody for the 6,200 bucks, whether it's an 800, a foot starter home or $5 million mansion. I have heard zero on that. So I'm very disappointed with the board impact fees, largest employer at a state. And you don't care. Mr. Hunley, come on down after Mr. Hunley will be Ms. Martin. Good morning again at Hunley for

158the record. And I just want to speak to a, all of you directly, whether you recognize it or not. We're speaking about truth. And I can only imagine the Kabuki show that's going to come after what I say, but the truth is, if we look at what took place and apply that to any other employees in this district, they would be fired. They would be a rag tag, Troy Nelson investigation. And that would be it. So if Willie Clark acted on his own at Palmetto high and made those changes to increase the letter grade at Palmetto high, without the permission from the top, he would be gone. If Willie's AP worked with his registrar to do that, and they got caught, they will be gone. The truth is this, this looks bad. There's nobody out

159here fooled anymore. It's no more about whether or not things are corrupt. It's whether or not we're going to continue to let people get away with it. So I'm saying to everybody that makes up excuses like this is what I was taught as an administrator. I can't come in here and do something and then fall on ignorance as the excuse and get away with it. So if I trained classically, like so many of you in Marion county, and I learned how to Rob a bank, if I come over here and Rob a bank is written, gonna say, whoa, you know, he was trained to do that. There is a Florida statute that says inability to effectively do your job. So if w how can we be so brilliant that the Mickey mouse club and USA

160yesterday all recognize us as superintendent of the year. But then when we violate Florida statute and break the law, we fall on it. I didn't know better. This is what they told me to do. That's ridiculous. So what I'm saying to you all is I'm speaking up, not for myself. Y'all will see me later, federal court, then we'll get with truth, but I'm talking about the registrars, the bus drivers, the cafeteria, the teachers, the APS, and the principals that are scared to say something. What if that were them? And we can't say send your complaint to the superintendent for proper handling, because nothing's getting handled properly. So let's not do another element. Let's not hide behind a DOA decision that we won lying about water bills and stolen money. Let's deal with what we're talking

161about right now. And if anybody else violated those statutes, they would be done, Period. So Kabuki that later on, but you all are individuals. I hold you all in your own regard. Come on, man. The public, this is ridiculous. So they're just asking everyone to be treated fairly because there's some unemployed people that did far less than this. And they got canned Truth is what about those hundred and 15 kids Ms. Martin, after Ms. Martin will be missed parm So you're going to hear some repeat from earlier today because I'm trying to do it for emphasis, but a hundred percent. I agree with what Hunley and Garren just said. Again, the only thing that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Since 2013 superintendent Saunders has been caught in

162a scandal that has exploited 115 students GRA inflating, the graduation rates that falsely elevated the Manatee scores that put us at 35th in the state. When the truth is we were 49th out of 67 in an abysmal statistic. And she still gets her thousands, tens of thousands of dollars a year in bonuses. The important thing Garren read part of it, this quote from Carrillo, and it was did, did this happen intentionally? And this woman said, yes, I think that she did it intentionally in response, superintendent Saunders said she admitted to directing staff to withdraw students into the home education of pursuing a GED. And she stated whether it's correct or not, correct. It was the process. That's not leadership. Okay. So here's where the public stands. We have Saunders telling us she doesn't really care

163about doing her job or finding out what's right for the kids or doing what is right. She's just going to do it, whether it's right or not. That's what she has said. So we have to avoid putting the responsibility on her because she's not accepting the responsibility. So now it falls to you guys. That is what the superintendent just said. The smell, if it's good or not, I don't care. I'm just going to do what the policy says. You guys, this is terrible leadership. And it's up to you as the board to step in. Remember the only thing it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. And that's what you're doing. Nothing. When we spoke to the board about it, the response back from the board was, oh, that happened

164so long ago. Is there a time limit to justice? Sandra's behavior harmed students. And she knowingly participated in it. And for this reason, I ask that you don't sit and do nothing. I'm calling upon the board to stand up and do what is right. I'm going to leave you again with a quote from Wilberforce. He devoted his life to standing up for the powerless. You are empowered to do something for the powerless. You might choose to look the other way, but you can never say that you didn't know now, you know, please do what is right. And ask Ms. Sanders to resign or fire her. Ms. Parm after Ms. Parnes will be Ms. Rhodes. Rather than upon for the record. It's funny because all this hype about Cynthia Saunders, that's going on now, it's nothing

165new myself and a group of other people were at the actual hearing where she chose not to show. And in that meeting, in that hearing, they actually recommended, or her recommended her recommendation was shot down. No questions asked Corcoran, decided to put that recommendations to the wayside and put it on his desk so that whoever the board members were that came up next, decided to give her the little slap on the wrist that they gave her, because that's exactly what it was. It was a slap on the wrist for all those students. So with that being said, number one, it was already known about the position that she was in before she was ever put in her position as superintendent. So that all that falls on the board members that voted for her to get

166her position. You already knew about that because it was already, it was already known about, I recommend not that she be that they call it, let her resign, because that would be a slap on the wrist. I wrote. I recommend that she be fired and fired immediately. And the reason that I say that is because her resigning allows her to keep her pension or work, whatever it is that she's going to be allowed to get. But what about the 115 students? What about them? What do they get? They get nothing. Where are they? Does anybody know? Does she know? Do you all know, has anybody even thought to even look to see what they're doing in their life? Why is it that she can, she would possibly gave it to resign and go on with

167her life? Where these kids, what are they doing about their life? Fire, her fire, her fire, her period. No, if ands or buts about it, she doesn't deserve anything other than what she may have in her pocket right now. Thank you, Ms. Rhodes. And after Ms. Rose will be Mr. Jones, Better sales rose. The only thing I don't have to say, because my group did say it, but only one thing I got to say, I did a survey myself and I left the paperwork home. And the thing about it just like it was safe. Every wasn't been a minority, a Hispanic, that person would've been gone, what they did to the kids. Now, the next board meeting, you have a parent going to come up here and speak. Cause one of her kids was one

168who will put out in the street. Didn't do no homeschooling. Nobody's checking on the kids to see what they was doing. I fought each of, while you who was on that board during that time. But I'm gonna forget about that because you gotta use your own conscious. And another thing, they send something to golden. He replied back and yes, everybody was destroyed what he stayed about the issue. But I'm going to say this. My issue right now is about busing of our minority kids out. I bind neighborhood to other school. You all were so mad with Lincoln. Y'all open up Palm view. Palm brew is not a school from sixth to eighth grade students. You can't handle that, but not to go to Lincoln because y'all head, Mr. H stole bad. When I called him,

169Mr. Is so bad. Y'all take the kids out of the neighborhood. Some the Buffalo Creek and is walking distance for them. Kids to go to Lincoln, to make our school in our neighborhood. Like when low enrollment, I was going down east one day and I saw some kids getting off the bus. So me? Yes. I'm very nosy. I stopped. The kids said, where are you coming from? He saved from cane mill. I said, but what? Y'all coming home so late, what you all do? I don't know if the board know, they take the kids to Ann, Marie Allen first. Then I kid, they go east, go last. And that's not right. That really not. Right? The kids are getting home late and you all responsible for it. You really are responsible for it because you

170don't have to take the kids out of our neighborhood and take another school. And just like for a parish high school, why are you taking our kids? Sending them out there for him, that road supposed to be going right there. You all know if Paul hadn't gone to Paris? No. When the parents had to me not there to the school, they then the kids wasn't going there. They went onto a brand river and Lakewood red. But what y'all did, y'all came and took our kids to make them go out there to Paris high school, the ones who are out there. And that's not right. If you're going to be equal, everybody's supposed to be created equal living in this county. Don't take our kids out of our neighborhood and put him in another school. Thank

171you. Okay. Mr. Jones, and after Mr. Jones will be missed Zeller. Greetings Rodney Jones for the record. Long-term civil rights activists here, but we're 25 years from a historic family here as well. Pioneers. And I could honestly say this has been one of my best experiences as a civil rights activist tracking each of you down and definitely attract Ms. Sanders down. Our community takes credit for that. Over three years of research, thousands of files pulled Betty. Lou rose really stayed on the APC to make sure she was brought to justice in some form, and God is going to happen either way. You know, we can play this charade. It's the biggest raid. I think somebody said the community is not food and they're not the charade that you put on in front of the camera.

172This a day of beating a dead horse. It doesn't work anymore. You've lost what has happened here. There was corruption. You made it. You made the Cardinal sin. You lost control of it. You lost the entertainment of it. And now it's rocketing into a national issue. And I don't know if you noticed, man, people were getting arrested all over the country. I think the Lieutenant governor of New York just got arrested today for corruption. So it's happening. Everybody knows it. The evidence is there. So the fact that you sit here and look stupid is it's not going to save you at all. Ms. Saunders has to go. We known it. We brought it up in 2018. If you go back to the November 4th workshop, 2018, and then the November 11th board member in 2018,

173we were having this exact same conversation that we're having now about her as our superintendent. And here we are four years later having the exact same conversation about her being your superintendent. But you know what? She's caused some damage. She's caused millions of dollars in damages in civil rights violations in your whole, you thought the hokey pokey and the Turkey leg and everything else you were doing with going to shake these Negroes off of you, but you did. And we're still standing up. You know what? Because God is in control of this. We've got a lion pastor up there and a bunch of shams and everything else and a crooked, crooked superintendent over here. And you got to, and somebody thinks you're going to be running for office again, man, you're up there. It's soaking

174up air and not doing anything. You have no character and no integrity and no courage and no heart. You I'm talking about you. It's a shame. And mayor, we put you up there because you are a finance person. I heard you talk more. Palmater high today than I ever heard. You speak a blanket in three years, all of you oughta be shame yourself and Gina, you just don't know anything. You're not qualified to be on that board or two year teaching. The mom is not qualified to be on the board of a, over a billion dollar juggernaut, nonprofit. You just don't have the skillset. And he played you like a fool. I wrote you about it. I talked to you about it. Even got kicked out of meetings, trying to tell you. So y'all about

175to feel God's wrath. And I came for one person, only one reason. And one reason all it was I brought in to send y'all ass to jail, Ms. Zeller and after Ms. Zeller will be Ms. Barber. Samantha Zeller. I'm here today on behalf of the board of directors and membership of the Manatee Patriots. You remember ma may remember us as tea party Manatee Manatee Patriots has read, discussed and voted in the affirmative supporting the resolution published by the Republican executive committee of Manatee county, calling for the resignation or dismissal of Cynthia Saunders. The district superintendent, all the diminished creative leaders within the district are called two great responsibilities requiring great trust in ordering district employees to change students' status for the sole purpose of inflating graduation rates, Mrs. Saunders destroyed trust, endangered the careers of

176her subordinates and worse yet effected the deliberate mishandling of the students. She is duty bound to care for the culture within the district should be molded by its leadership's high, ethical and moral standards. We fear that damage dropped by the superintendent is significant and is a leading factor contributing to poor morale and teachers, aid, administrators, students, and parents. This is too great. A price to pay for one person's deliberate attempts at personal aggrandizement. So on behalf of our board of directors and almost all, almost 1000 members, we ask that you vote to demand superintendent Saunders, resignation. Thank you, Ms. Barber. And after Ms. Barbara will be Mr. Cologne. Good afternoon. My name's pat Barbara. I'm the president of the Manatee education association. And I'm here because I'm very concerned about some of the discussion that's

177going on here today. I have never, in my time, as president ever had an employee who was brought forth before the EPC and the PPS who was later disciplined by the school board, that process is backwards. The investigation goes on here first, then is referred to the state DOE and the DOE decides what they're going to do after the district decides school boards. Before you had an opportunity to make a decision, whether or not anything was going to occur, as far as discipline in the case that's being discussed, no employee that I've ever represented was referred to the DOE and action taken by the DOE. And then that case brought back to the school board. After the DOE has determined what the punish was, punishment was going to be, or the EPC accepted that punishment.

178And the employee was brought back before the school board and further punishment was dealt out. So I hope that you consider that if something should have happened with the superintendent that that should have happened eight years ago when she was not superintendent, but executive director of secondary schools, that was the responsibility of a previous board and a previous superintendent, not the current board. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cologne. You'll close this out on public comment. Wow. Good morning. My name is John cologne. I'm a former Manatee school board member, a former state board of education member and a former state higher education coordinating council board member. I'm here today to commend the excellent job that superintendent Cynthia Saunders has done during her tenure and her ability to work successfully with staff, teachers, and parents to

179move our district forward. As someone with experience in education at the state and local levels. I'm speaking out because I don't think it's productive to allow political attacks to get in the way of the progress of our district and ultimately the education of our children. I'm troubled because I'm told the primary criticism of superintendent Saunders revolves around the administrative issue that occurred six to eight years ago while she was in a subordinate position. I've taken time to review the matter, which has been settled without dispute by the state board and superintendents on this. This is clearly a distraction from our real mission. We've made extensive progress on disorders and to suggest otherwise would be an insult to all our hard working teachers and staff that have made this possible. Since the board made her interim

180superintendent in 2018 saving tax payers, at least $250,000 on quote nationwide search we've eliminated. All DNF ranked schools are standing amongst the 67 counties in Florida has risen to 28 and that's the highest it's ever been. In addition to supporting our academic progress, she's been responsive to new challenges in the wake of the Parkland tragedy. She instituted the guardian program, which put armed security in every district school, despite COVID-19. Our district has ended school on time for the last two years. And our seniors had in-person graduation ceremonies, which is no small feat teachers and other district employees have received pay increases every school year under her leadership. She was named the star superintendent of the year by the consortium of Florida education foundations. She's demonstrated a commitment to the minority community receiving the top honor

181from the league of United Latin American citizens for expanding educational opportunities. She has similarly been recognized with the president's award from the madness of the black chamber of commerce during the referendum to continue the one meal sales tax to fund our district, which passed 69% to 31%. So on. This was our best advocate. Clearly the taxpayers agree with her leadership, her leadership has been effective. And as of today, Manatee, county's only two points away from being Florida's third AA rated school. I took that latitude because other people I know they did. I know they did. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Okay. That concludes public comment. I'm going to turn it back over to the chairman. Thank you very much. Madam vice chair. At this time, we will move to item 13 of the

182new business agenda. There are no discussion items that we'll pull from consent. I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, do you want to allow anyone on this board to respond? You know, I'm sorry. Did you ask the chair? That question? I did. Oh, Okay. Well, in that case, certainly we will have the opportunity to have anybody from the board that wants to respond. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm just asking. No, no, that's fine. Go ahead. I don't think I can really sum up any better than Mr. Cologne just did anyways. So I would like to just speak for a minute From my heart, because I really think people need to understand something. And I'm typically not a very emotional person, but I'm gonna just speak a little bit about history. I didn't vote for our superintendent the first time

183she came around. I didn't vote for that. And I didn't vote for it. Not only because of that case, but there were other concerns. But over time, what I learned was that This superintendent makes data driven decisions, not emotional ones. I've sat down with her and watched her say, okay, well, I'm not going to do this curriculum. I'll live to that one. And it was all based on data, all based on what was best for the students, what was helping our students to learn what was helping our students achieve. That's what I want in a superintendent. And it's shown as Mr. Cohen said, we have grown in the rankings. We've improved academically. And it's really her leadership. I was fortunate enough to go to the leadership Manatee round table and what the those members spoke

184of is how many innovative programs the school district has. And the superintendent is so gracious. She won't say that those were her idea. She brought them. So not only is she an innovative thinker, She is data driven. And to me as a mom, with two kids and our schools, that's what I want. So when it came around to renew her contract, I voted, yes. And I'll continue to do it. And I'm going to tell you why, because she's making positive educational Decisions that are in our school board, our school district. And that's what we need. So personally, like I, I hear people's concerns. That was eight years ago, eight years ago, she wasn't the superintendent. She wasn't even the deputy superintendent. And I know that was highlighted. I was on the board when we got

185that news. And I'm going to tell you what the board did immediately. When we learned that we had student records, audited, I believe Mr. Vaughn, you were there with me. We had an audited right then. Okay. We want an audit. We want to know everything. We made sure that people were properly trained. So I think a lot of those pieces get missed, but it, it wasn't left by the wayside. This board did address it at that time and we've moved forward. And those four records have been audited since then To ensure that we're following all of the rules and the laws and that the policies that are put in place or followed. But I really want to highlight how far we've come because of her And not highlight one negative thing. She did eight years

186ago when she wasn't the superintendent. And she didn't have a say. So that is that. Thank you so much. Let's stop you right here. I'm going to ask just once That you give the same respect that you expect to receive, It's as simple as that, No ifs, no ands, no buts and no exceptions. Mr. Law enforcement officer, would you make sure that this gentleman Lying ass all property total down, or you got, You go drive you a shave you with all fast though. And anyone else that has that level of disrespect for this process and for what we're trying to do, please leave. Don't have me ask you to leave because I will do that. You may continue. No, that was really it. I just wanted to highlight like, as a parent and as a

187board member that was there. Not only did we have it audited, it has, it is continually watched over the employees have been trained. That happened eight years ago. Our superintendent wasn't the superintendent at the time, since then we have grown educationally as John cologne stated so clearly and eloquently far more than me. And to me like that, that should be our focus. You know, the students. That is my focus. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Madam vice chair. How is it proper to ask Mr. Cologne, if he would allow the written comments, if he would allow the written comments that he read, read to be entered into the record there every so often everybody wants to come up here and put stuff in the record. Would you mind allowing that to be put in the record? Also?

188I thought it was very well done and I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Alright, we're done Ms. Ms. Besson. Okay. Mr. Kennedy. Thank you. Chair is a golden. I'm just stating no, I want to thank everyone who spoke during public comment. What we just heard is for me, a pretty good encapsulation of the feedback that I've received over the past month. Cause it's, it's been a while since we had a meeting. So this issue has been brewing for quite a while and I've heard from quite a few people. And so I want to just address really kind of two or two and a half things. And I'll try to do it as quickly as possible. First, every school district employee should be held accountable and all of our employees are, are held accountable to

189the superintendent. We are only, we as a board are only. And when I say we, during these comments, I'm talking about the five of us. So we are responsible for one employee of the district. And that's the superintendent. I believe there should be some measure of accountability imposed on the superintendent for this. It could range from something like a letter of reprimand. And I know she has received one from DOE. It could go as far as an immediate termination. And I will say that I'm, I am not advocating for an immediate termination at all, but I am advocating that the board Institute, some accountability for, for the situation and, and the superintendents, tenure and performance, I believe ha has to be looked at, looked at as a whole. I think there are criticisms that are

190made, which are valid. And I think we, as a board need to address them if we are going to be taken seriously, because I'm hearing from people on this issue that are not our normal public speakers. And I've had people reach out to me and say, well, this board is not really gonna do anything. And I believe that we, as in our role of governance, we have to Institute some sort of accountability measure. I'm not making any motions today. I just want to make a couple of suggestions. If at our next board meeting somebody on the board would like to join me on this. You know, there's plenty of time to consider what I'm going to say. So accountability, accountability, measures, excuse me, could be, like I said, a letter of reprimand, it could be

191a one week suspension. It could be a, you know, you could get into contract issues, although that's pretty severe. But I, I think we as a board have to address this in some way, and I am prepared to do that, but I will wait for, if there's other board members who want to do that, I can, I can wait on that. This issue has been for a long, long time, and it's finally coming to its closure. And I would like us to close this deal with it and, and move forward. The, the students who were affected by this back in 2014 and 2015 rightfully. So those kids were, were, have been talking to me, one-on-one by residents. And they were brought up today during public comment. So I'd like to share an idea for those

192students who are affected. And I realize that those students are now probably in their, probably in their mid twenties. They're they're young adults now are they? They are adults. They're not even young anymore, but I would, what I would like the board to consider on behalf of those students, those former students. And hopefully if this idea gains any traction are, will be our students once again. But what I would like the board to approve is setting aside a pool of money. And Mr. Di I haven't talked about you have yet, but assuming that this is we're legally able to do this as a school district, what I'd like us to do is approve the set aside of a, of a fund. And out of that fund, we could offer scholarships to the students who are

193affected by this to MTC. So if, and, and maybe some of them have landed on their feet and they're doing fine in their life, but I think it's up to us as a board to offer to those former students. Some sort of, I'm not sure if the right word is mitigation or restitution, they're probably both wrong, but just offer those students who are affected an opportunity to pick up their education again. And again, I'm not making any motions today. I just want to get these, this idea out for the board's consideration. And then finally, and this is, this is kind of a side issue. It just kind of crossed my mind as, as there's been a lot of discussion of this issue in the past few weeks, the superintendents current contract expires a year from

194this summer. So she has a year and a few months left to go. I think the talk of terminating the superintendent right now is, is honestly, is a very bad idea. The school district is in kind of the final phase of the school year. There are assessments that have already begun taking place. And the superintendent is in the process right now of getting us prepared for the 2223 school year. So now granted, there's going to be a new board seated this November. And I think it's up to that board to make the decision on who will lead this district. Once superintendent Saunders, tenure here is complete, but I think this board now, or in the very near future, we should at least begin the initial steps of what that search is going to look like.

195Are we going to contract with FSB EA? What are the details of the search look like? So we can, I believe, and I, I won't be here to make the decision, but as long as I'm here now, I'll say it. I think we should do a full, a nationwide search that takes time. And the earlier we get started the better. And so I think this board could initiate the process. And then in November, when the new board is seated, they can, they can take it from there and decide who the, that board wants to work with once this contract is up. So that's, that's what I wanted to say. I want to thank everybody who took the time to stop me one-on-one or to reach out and call me and share what they, they thought

196some folks emailed some of them. And I apologize because some of them I didn't get back to because this issue has, has, has really been, it's just been the toughest issue I've had to deal with in quite a while. And it's because, you know, there is, there is a body of work that must be considered and the superintendent has done some very good things during her tenure. But I, but I do think we, as a board need to Institute some sort of accountability measure and, and I hope that the superintendent can, can accept that. And I hope the superintendent can continue doing the good work that she's doing, and we can reach out to those former students and see if we can and see if we can help them or help their family. So that's

197it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We started out today meeting with, with a prayer from a pastor saying that we, the board needs to be led by God. And I have been just as the rest of you are just, you know, agonizing over this and the past month. And none of us have, have gone without making mistakes, even I, so, and scripture says that we are to, to forgive, you know, and, and if the person is apologetic, you know, that they should be restored. And so I feel it's the right thing to do, but I do want to comment here. I was on the audit committee when this happened and read, I did read the inspector General's report in detail. I, we had met, we had meetings with the auditors, with district personnel and got a,

198a good feel about what happened and what, and we pursued changes to make sure it didn't happen again. And actually, I think we came out of it stronger in our homeschool department, Mr. Jim, Jim Molina's right. You have to do a report and they weren't getting done. The, this occurred in the 14, 15 year, and there were 115 students, and these were students that were withdrawing. They were, and the choice that the district, the administration had was to code them for GED, which would count against the graduation rate or code them for homeschool. And they were, they were coded for homeschool. I'm proud of the work that the audit committee did. I commend CRI for what they did. And I think it's turned some things around in that area. I'd like to note that the

199graduation rates have gone up legitimately since that day, there were 81.1% in 2016 and 17. Now we're up to, to 85%. And so I did ask the superintendent to what, what made the change? What, what was it? And in addition to hiring coaches and technicians for, for graduation, there's a new program, a hope program for eighth graders to try and keep them from getting lost in the system. We've got credit recovery in high school, and we also offer it in summer school. We've got smart horizon for students who haven't passed the state assessment. There are things that are going on too, that helped bring the graduation rate up. I'm not proud of 85%. And I'm especially concerned about the students who get a certificate of completion because that bill that we heard about when we

200were in Tallahassee, it did not go through. And so I, I, I really want to pursue that and see what we can do to help, help move that along. You know, the proper time to terminate the superintendent or Mrs. Saunders position would have been when the inspector general came out with their report, that was November, 2017, and it would not have been the board's decision. It would have been superintendent greens that she needs to be, you know, she should have done it back then. Alternatively, when the findings of probable cause were issued, which was December, 2018, that school board, instead of they should have terminated the contract for her to be, to become superintendent. And so I, I hold those that those board members responsible. So now it's three and a half years later since

201that time, and these misdeeds have not occurred for the past five and a half years. And Ms. Saunders has made a public that she did. She plans to retire when her contract expires in June of 2023. So here's where I see the board. If we terminate her now, okay, the district will have an interim superintendent and many of the pending plans and initiatives, and I'm aware of some of them. And, and I'm be happy to share them with you if you like. But in fairness to the new superintendent, the search should begin after a board is new board comes in, board members should have the opportunity to select their superintendent. It's going to be a long time to have a placeholder in the superintendent seat. Not much is going to get done. I, I don't

202know that at best we would, we would stay where we are now and not, not advanced. Now I understand the outrage just as I was outraged in 2018, but now as a board member, I've got to make my decision not based on outrage, but or punishment, but, but what does best for our students? Remember that one of our public comment or said, you know, we've got to take care of the powerless and that's who I am making my decision based on. So if you think it's better for her to leave now, okay, I'd like to hear those arguments, but I'm making my decision on what's best for the students. So if you, if you think it's best for the students, email me, give me a call that that's where I am on the, thank you.

203I'm just gonna go down my list here from public comments. Some things that I'd like to share, actually agree with Ms. Smith, Mr. Jolene, generally not. I believe that that I would like to see public comment possibly moved in the beginning. At least maybe 30 minutes, give a chance to, to have people come in and say their piece. Maybe it's about things we're going to vote on and things we're going to talk about. So I wouldn't mind seeing a little piece of that moved impact fees and the study that study, I know we will be receiving that I'm believe momentarily. So that's probably where we're at. We had that workshop in February, right? And we were waiting to get it sometime in may ish. I believe whenever the, the firm was done with that. So

204we'll that, that is soon coming. And I do agree. We do need to address some of those things. I think as a board, we all agreed. We need to address those things for, for affordable housing. I did speak with several city council members, also county commissioners when they had their joint meeting about it was, it was maybe a couple of weeks ago where they had it about affordable housing and things like that. Talking about converting the jail. So you know, different things. And I asked all of them, what can the school district do? What, what is when you're out there and you're evaluating what to do for, for, for affordable housing. Is there anything that the school district can do? Cause we hear about our land and our properties and this and that, and not

205one of them ever suggested or had any input to me saying, Hey, we saw this, this piece of land that you guys have, or we saw this not being used properly or this. So we are, at least I know what I am communicating to other leaders in the, in the, in the community about that. I want to know what, what can we do and what can we not do? So that is happening. It may not be happening in front of cameras. Lot of things don't happen in front of cameras because there's distractions. Sometimes when we get in front of cameras and try to conduct a business. So those things are happening. Just want to make sure I've already said the cameras should be switched. I'll say it again, but that's all good. Cause I don't

206need to be on the camera to the situation with the superintendent. It's pretty simple. To me, there's an investigation done by people far more qualified for investigating than myself. And it went through the board of education. It went through the right channels. It should have gone to, and they decided on a punishment that was fit for what they believed happened. Who am I to sit there and say that no, you're wrong. And it shouldn't be X something else. I believe that she was, she was punished to what they believe that punishment was deserved for what she did hasn't happened before, or shouldn't be hasn't happened after the situation in 2014, 15, the school years when it happened has not continued. They did an investigation. It has not continued. If they would have found it continued

207different story. They did not reach out to us and say, school board members, at least I didn't get called. You should ask for a resignation or this should, this is a fireable offense. Never once. Was that ever convened to me? I don't know about anybody else. And so it's, it's, it's kind of cut and dry. She's being punished. The board of education is punishing her and, and that's the punishment for the crime. If I get pulled over for speeding and I get a $50 ticket, but my boss thinks I should have gotten a $75 ticket. I'm going to get a $50 ticket, whatever the sheriff tells me. And so the board of education is telling us what the punishment is. If they were to recommend to be fired RAs resignation, that's what we should be

208discussing. So to me, it's pretty cut and dry. Other than that, that's it. Thank you, sir. Okay. Every, everyone has had an opportunity to speak first and foremost, obviously there's nothing before us. So the first question is putting in the, where we think that this ought to come up and I've heard two or three different responses. But I think that the predicate to all of that begins with the fact that when Mrs. Sanders was the second executive director, one of the departments here, she did something that was unprofessional. That's the first thing. I don't think she's ever been accused of a crime. I don't think that anybody's ever determined that she committed any criminal act. And there is no civil action that arises out of this. She is before the administrative professional practices commission, I

209think they started out with a litany of charges that they made at that time. I believe at that time, only two of the members of that board present at that time, the litany over the course of time was reduced to what was finally presented to her. What was brought up, what was held in terms of a hearing at that time, only three of us were on this board. And as Mrs. Foreman has pointed out in the face of that, which emerged at that time, three of us on this board were a part of a decision to a bring her on as an interim superintendent. I, I wasn't on the board. Then two of the board members decided to bring her on as an interim superintendent. When I came onto the board, two of the three

210of us who remain, decided to offer her a permanent contract. And I heard one of the three of us that said that we would offer her a permanent contract, say she is satisfied with her performance as a superintendent. So I'm, I'm a little hesitant as the chair of the board who hires the superintendent and has the attorney. I'm not quite so sure that I want to go back and second guess and be involved in the discussions about what the previous boards did or do, because I don't want that to happen with this board. I appreciate the fact that we will rise or fall on the decisions that we make that are in the best interest of the school district at this time. So one of the decisions that I'm hoping that we will make is

211that we will not make more of this than has already been made with respect to her professional, lack of whatever they called it in the order. I, I, I read it, but I didn't see anything in there that rose to the level of criminality, fraud, deception, none of that, what they said was that they may have. And I'm pretty sure that when we get around to talking about what we would ought to do, I don't know about your $50 ticket, but I'm pretty sure that if you went to court that the policemen wouldn't be able to get by with saying he may have been doing over the speed limit. He has proof. And when that proof is presented, that is what the decision is made on. I have not heard anybody say that this superintendent

212has done anything as a superintendent that justifies all of the attention that we're paying to her. Now, what I really feel in my heart of hearts is that there are people who want her gone. If she was Joan of arc, if she was the Virgin Mary, she would not be satisfactory to some people in this community. I just happen to disagree with those people. I agree that as a superintendent, she has been stellar. Now I must admit I'm a little prejudice because I was the third vote that allowed her to become the permanent superintendent. Two of us up here didn't even make that decision. They were not with us then. And so at this point, I appreciate all of the input that we have had in response to all of the public comments that have

213been made. But at this point, I don't even see how this rises to a level of something that needs to be agenda on the less as Mr. Kennedy points that out. He wants to put it on an agenda and have us discuss it. I'm not quite sure what we would be discussing other than are we going to add to the punishment as Mr. Choate has pointed out that the professional practices, commission has already determined to be sufficient. Let me give you an example. Her punishment Involved A $2,000 fine. That's what it said. Am I right? So what I think is that we ought to waive the $2,000 fine. Now, if I don't have the authority to do that, Then why do I possess the authority to add to what has already been done? And why

214would I want to throw this community Into further disarray predicated on my feelings and somebody else said this ain't about my feelings. This is about the facts. So if I have the authority To lower the fine, Which I don't think I do, then I should not have the authority to enhance the punishment. If you even want to call it a punishment, what this is is a resolution of a professional dispute By educators. Believe me, I been there as many of you like to point out from time to time. I know what it's like to be disciplined By your professional oversight organization, But as Mrs. Foreman, I'm sorry. It's Mrs. Bartel commented and never in the history of her oversight, which is over 20 years. Now that goes back three or four school bulls. Has there

215ever been anybody ever been subjected to punishment after, in addition to what the state Educational practices commission has decided? I I'm very familiar with the outcome of the punishment that was handed to the principal of Lincoln Memorial academy that was handed down by the department of education. People come in here all the time and act like we made a decision in that case. We didn't. So if I don't have the authority to lower her fine, I'm not going to presume that it would be in the proper exercise about authority To enhance her punishment. And I'm not going to get into whether or not we need to do something for the children who were impacted. And because I was not here then In when these things occurred, that is when those issues should have been brought

216up in my opinion. So with that, I'd like to move ahead with the agenda that remains for us in this moment and in this time. And I want to thank all of my colleagues. So all of the point of all of the comments you made and all of the, all of the input that you've given to all of the people who have made the statements that they have made today, about what else we need to do about the superintendent. We keep talking about the issue. The issue is that we got one in two children that can't read at the third grade level. That's The issue is we have way too many children that are not graduating and that the rate of, of dropout rates too hot, that those are issues. This ain't no issue. This

217has been resolved unless we decide to make more of it. For whatever reason we decide. And my prayer is it that will not happen. This is over and done. Let's move on. I feel the same way I feel about this, that I felt about what has transpired contrary to what the gossip is. LMA is over and done. At least in the state course. It will be another 10 years before the federal courts get around to making a decision, but that's okay too. So I thank you. Can we move on or do we need another five minute break? You know, some of us are older than others if we don't need a five minute break. Oh, Okay. Well we'll take a five minute break then. Yeah, the young one. Thank you. Yeah. And him lecturing us

218about ethics, man. Let us, Let us be called back to order. Can we be called back to order? No, that's okay. No, that's all right. That's okay. That's okay. Did he, did you get that? Did he get his pay And you turn in your paper that it to, Okay. All right. That's fine. That's fine. Thank you very much. Okay. We will reconvene to get to the new business non-consent items of our agenda. Is there any objection to a, a singular vote on items? 1, 2, 3, and four, since they all apply to the high school partial replacement project and they just reflect different phases, phase one second, letters of commitment agreement between the owner and Gill, bane building and agreement between the owner and tinkle and chokes. And I think we do still have Mr.

219I'm sorry, Mr. Horton. And we have Mr. Oh my God. They're coming for us. And they have, and we have Mr. What am I having a brain freeze chief Bergeron with us? Is there any objection? Can we just do the four? Okay. Then the chair will I asked for the superintendent's recommendation on items? 1, 2, 3, and four, No superintendent recommendation On their aunt. Yeah, there are for those, those are superintendent recommendations, New business non-consent items one. I see Superman, Right? Sorry, chair. I'm sorry. Would you say that? Would you, would you say that out loud to get please? Would you write that down and notarize it? Focus on camera it's on camera. Okay. All right. Thank you. Madam superintendent, your recommendations for the first four items under new business. Yes. I recommend the approval

220of Palmetto high school, partial replacement project phase one plans and schematic design that has no financial impact. I also recommend the approval of Palmetto high school, partial replacement project. Second letters of commitment from shingle and Schultz, Inc, and Gail bang building company with no financial impact. I also have a recommendation for the approval of how metal high school partial replacement project agreement between owner and Gilbane building company amendment one, and the amount of $39,627,000. In addition, I have a recommendation for approval at Palmetto high school, partial replacement project agreement between owner and shingle and Schultz Inc amendment one, and the amount of $436,000 or a hundred thirty six, five hundred seventy 5,000 dot note. I messed that up again, 430, $6,575. Okay. You've heard the recommendation of the superintendent and I'm gonna, I'm going to

221turn this into a scribblers era because I believe that number three should be 39 million, 627,000 comma zero zero $0 period. So that, that, that would be a Scribner's error with respect to, with respect to the first four items. Yes. Ma'am. I'm sorry. I think I, I think it's actually supposed to be $39,627. Well, there is a Scribner's error either way, so it's either. Nope. If it is $39,627. It's correct. I don't think is that what it is? Oh, I thought it was 39 million. And the agreement between the district and Gilbane construction or increasing his construction fee by 39,000. Okay. Okay. Well, it's not the total project prime such as what we did. Okay. I misspoke One 10 or 1 25 to one. Okay. 50th. Okay. Mr. Horton, what Mr. Church said to me

222out, I'll say to you, and I'll put it in writing and notarize it a little later on. I was mistaken. Thank you. All right. So it is as has been pronounced by the superintendent. I apologize. Okay. All right. It's been moved and seconded that first four items under the new business B approved as recommended by the superintendent. You've heard the motion. And second, is there any unreadiness yes. Ma'am. I'm sorry. There's public comment. Oh, there is whoa, Mr. Brett. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes. And this whole meeting, I mean, I feel like you've been waiting all these hours. You've been here a while. Mr. Britt. We'll we'll have something written up and notarized for you to take with you. We leave it. Thank you very much. My name is bill Britt and I'm a part

223of the one town one team group who started the dialogue with the district for the projects that we're discussing at Palmetto high school. And I'm primarily here to, to thank the board. I know you might be shocked that you're going to be thinking about something today after write it down after enjoying the, joining the show for the better part of the day. But I do want to thank all of you here. Think I've talked to all of you at least a few times, as well as a superintendent Saunders about this. And it, it is very important to the community and Palmetto who has long suffered. What we felt was a lack of equal treatment by the district. And, and some of us like myself are old enough to be able to verify that. But you

224all listen to our, our story about the school and the various things that needed to be treated and address there. And we are very grateful for this project and happy to see that it is about to become into fruition. I want to thank our, our existing staff and administrators at Pembina high, have done a great job working with the district to, to fine tune. This project led by our principal, Mrs., who's doing a fantastic job. And the construction department, Mr. Horton, and his people have all been very open to the community. And our input on this project is we all have strong feelings about how we want to see it finish, and the reasons why I think that it's important for the school district to know that, you know, we didn't just look at this

225as something, please give this to Palmetto. Our arguments were that this has an economic impact, not just on Palmetto, which of course it does, but to the county at large, if you look at the construction, that's going to go on with the port. The EDC is, you know, working extensively to get businesses, recruit them to, you know, have facilities in Manatee county. And as everybody knows, our community in every direction is growing. And why it's important for Palmetto because it's seen by more of the public than any other school because of its proximity to 17th street, as well as the fairgrounds, which has 350,000 visitors annually. And I think that it's important that schools look like they're successful. When people move here or visit here, they're gonna, they're gonna take a look and we are

226all visual. And it's important that the school have the look, the standards of what you guys are setting here academically. So anyway, thank you. And I'll turn it back over here. Thank you. Okay. So any other public comment? No, that was the only public comment I know since we combined them, but I was bad as the only one on this topic. Yeah. Okay. And now we'll, Yeah. I just want to make a comment that I am strongly in support of cosmetic improvements to that corner also to let the board know I did go and actually went into the bathrooms, both baseball and football and they're nasty, you know, I'm just, you know, so we, We don't know for sure. I mean, I could be carrying some disease now, but anyway, so just another day in

227the life of a school board member. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Nope. All right. Hearing none. The chair will call the question all in favor. Aye. Aye. All opposed to having the same sign, hearing none items 1, 2, 3, and four, passion, Nana, mostly on the new business agenda. Thank you for coming and thank you, Mr. Britt for, for being a patient and kind thank you. All right. Number five approval of the budget amendments for February of 2022 recommendations of superintendent. Yes. I recommend the approval of the budget amendments for February, 2022, Some moved A second. It's been moved and seconded that the superintendents recommendation for the budget amendments of February of 2020 to be approved. You've heard the motion and the second, and we'll hear clarification from Mr. Burchard, As he has as a

228reminder of supplemental information we've been providing with the budget amendments for over a year. Now, I think that have been quite a while, but there was a comment open to the public about, you know, sometimes there's either too much information or too little information. I did want to point out. We do have a one-page summary. That's attached to the budget amendments, looking at it by fond. So this is the highest level view what's behind this for the February amendments. There were 560 actual budget amendments that affected 10,678 chart strengths. So, you know, we've got from the most granular to a one-page document that rolls everything up. I also like to point that out because you know, sometimes if somebody comes up here and they say, you know, Hey, how much did you spend on X,

229Y, or Z? We are a very complex organization. We can get answers, but sometimes on the fly, it's not that easy because we do have so much data in our database transactions that hit the million dollar threshold. We're we're getting to, to a point where we're seeing the same funds being involved, they were capital project funds, mainly moving between objects and charts strings, just so we're, we're accounting for things according to the DOE charter of accounts. And then some of the Esser funds, the bonuses that were paid out had to book those because we still didn't have the award letter yet. And then just some adjustments for those. So really that's pretty much it pretty straightforward amendments for February. Anyone else? Any other clarification's hearing none. The chair call the question all in favor of

230the approval of the budget amendments for February, 2022, say aye. Aye. All opposed hearing none. The motion carries unanimously. I note that item six and seven call for approval of a new job description. One being that of a facilities manager, planner, and the other, being that of a manager health education at the MTC community training center. If there's no objection. I'm just going to ask that both of these be considered at this time and we will hear the superintendent's recommendation. Yes. I recommend the approval of the new job description and position of facilities planner, as well as the approval of a new job description and position of manager health education, MTC community training center. Alright, it's been moved and properly seconded that items six and seven, a be approved based on the recommendation and part

231of this superintendent. Is there any unreadiness hearing none and no public comment hearing none. The chair will call the question all in favor of the approval of item six and seven under the new business, the general, let it be known by the sound of aye. All opposed here. None of the ayes have it. Both those items are approved unanimously. We are not on an item. Number eight for approval of advertising, a notice of intent to amend and adopt school board policies for the board meeting on May 24th, 2022. I am superintendent. Yes. I recommend the advertising a notice of intent to amend and adopt school board policies and setting a public hearing at the board meeting on May 24th, 2022. The new policies are 55, 12 74, 34 and 84 52, 3 Specific. Those are

232three specific new ones. The revised policies are a 1 3 1 0 1 6 5 0.1 1 1 2 0 3 1 2 0 4 1 2 0 1 1 2 1 0.0 1 3 1 2 1 0.0 1 4 1 2 1 0.0 1 1 2 1 5 3 2 1 5 4 2 1 5 1 5 9 0 3 5 9 0 4 5 9 0 24, 21 24, 23, 24 32, 6 0 5 32, 20 62, 28, 3, 10 84 0 6 and 84, 20. It's been moved. And second that we approve the advertising of a notice of intent to amend and adopt the school board policies as articulated by the superintendent and setting a public hearing at the board meeting on May 24th, 2022. You heard the recommendation coming from the

233superintendent has been emotional a second. Is there any unreadiness yes ma'am. Okay. I know we have asked that Mr. Chapman go through the, the policies, but I think we're all very tired and hungry and there's so many, would it be appropriate? I did read them, you know, their mind, you know, it's crazy, but would we be able to workshops this so that we, because it's got some anti-bullying things in there and I do have some comments, but I certainly don't want to bring them up today. This is just to advertise. And I, I guess the real question that I have is why are we not able individually to talk about these in our briefings? Is that not enough time? I'm just trying to figure out, Oh, it's for the public, The advertisement. Yeah. I believe

234we will workshop them. I think that was an expectation of the board when we have a big cluster, like, like this anyway. So they will come up for back before the board at a workshop before we bring them back to be voted upon as well. Okay. Is this the one on four for, It will be on May 15th. I believe 13. 13. Okay. So it's already on the Workshop. We already have it on the workshop date. All right. All right. Is that was that at Ms. Foreman? Great. Thank You. All right. Thank you, Ms. Chapman, stand down. Okay. You've heard the motion. The second I seen all the unreadiness as a general call the question for item number eight on the new business. All in favor, say aye. All opposed hearing none of the ayes

235have it. And that item number eight passes unanimously. We now move to new business. Number 14 on the agenda, the no superintendent recommendations and the approval of travel expense for a school board member to attend the Florida school boards association, school finance class on April 27th through the 29th at Howard and the Hills not to exceed $1,000. They've got my name here by it. Who, who, who wants to go? Oh, okay. All right. Well I think that's, I'm glad she didn't move it in secondary. So that's fine. You heard the motion and second to approve the travel expense, not to exceed a thousand dollars. Is there any unreadiness okay. Hearing none. Then the, the chair will call the question all in favor of said approval. That had been on my sign of aye. Aye. All

236opposed hearing none of the ayes have it. I had a number one on the 14 is approved approval of the internal audit to reports. These other reports that were left over And presented at the last workshop by the audit committee, chair and CRI. Okay. All right. And, and, and these are the reports from Mr. Griffis that No, that now Mr. Griffis final report to us on safety and security is not part of this batch and it's also not it's Mr. Docking back me up. It's it's also not a public document because it concerns safety and security. Okay. But this, this approval, it says chair, but really you're the liaison. I am the liaison, but you are our esteem chair. So your name goes on everything. Well, I am esteemed, but by something, but I'm just

237saying you were at the meetings where this comes up with these meals ahead. So you were there. I feel more comfortable if you make the motion. Oh, I'd be happy to a motion. Motion to approve. All right. It's been moved and seconded that the internal auditors reports be approved, moved by the liaison to the, to the internal, to the audit committee, to the audit committee. Seconded by Mr. Jones. You've heard the motion. And second is an unreadiness There's public comment. Oh, there's I'm sorry. Yes. Mr. Hartman. I apologize. Okay. Mr. Hartman, we're specifically talking about the internal auditors reports and those reports are adjunct texts, par report the sales tax report, the budget function report that were given to us from CRI. That was the specific ones we are voting on to approve My Cartman

238for the third time. Just want to say you got blessed. All of you for sharing your heart. And I just thank you for your compassion. I learned stuff today that I didn't know. And I was basing some opinions. I wasn't stuck in that opinion, but I realized that some people were like, the gentlemen said misinformation, if I did something wrong and you can show me that I'm wrong, I'll admit them. I'm wrong. But if you come to me and accused me or somebody else on this board here, and, and it's misinformation, what I've got to say, I don't want to hear that you're here for a reason. You're here for this community. You've sworn an oath to do your job, to take care of the students. And if anybody is perfect in this room with

239a please raise their right hand. Oh, that's the left-hand. Well, see, I was perfectly, but I, I blew it. I blew it without Just like Jesus said, when they brought the woman that was caught in the act of adultery, but where was the man? They didn't bring the man. They brought the woman, but they picked up stones to stoner. And then he looked around and he wrote on the ground. And that he did it a couple of times. But what he was writing was the sins that those other people had done. And then they all went away and he looked at the woman. He said, woman, where are those? Nine accusers has no man condemned you. You said, no, Lord. He says, neither do I condemn you go and sin no more. We've all made

240mistakes. We've all done things that we were not proud of. But thank God that we can find forgiveness. The Bible says that God delights in mercy. He's a God of mercy, but we have to say I was wrong. And if you admit you're wrong, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. So I just speak blessings. God bless each one of you. Thank you for sharing your heart. I mean, it's hard. I spoke to the gentleman that was the former, Mr. Mr. Simone, on the way out. And I asked him, I said, when you were on the board, did you get any flack? And he said all the time. So it comes with the job. But the thing is, is like, was mentioned. I don't go by my feelings. I don't go by what people are saying or

241their demeanor, because sometimes when somebody, and this is something the Lord's worked out in my heart, I've had people get you at work and yell and scream at me. And instead of getting all flared up and getting mad, I just kind of go like this and say, Lord, what did I do wrong? Or I asked the person. So that's self looking at yourself and saying I did something wrong, but it's so easy to point the finger at somebody else. So I just wanted to thank you for your courage and just pray that we continue on as a community that loves our children. And we do everything that we can to just glorify God and our bodies in the name of Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Turn it back on over to you. All right. No

242other public comments, no other unreadiness is the chair. We'll call the question on item number two, the approval of the internal audit to reports that have been submitted. The chair called call the question all in favor of aye. Aye. All opposed hearing none of the I's have it. The motion is carried unanimously. The item number three approval of the removal of an audit committee member. And I guess the question that I'm asking is, is this a removal or a resignation? Oh, Roman gold, miss. This one came from me essentially. Mr. Former. Well, this is approved former member, but Mr. Portelli was a audit committee member for probably about two years, roughly, but Mr. Portelli just kind of dropped out of communication. He stopped showing up at meetings and he was not responding to multiple phone

243calls or emails. And so this is just the official act to remove him from the audit committee. Okay. Then I know you're the liaison, but I think since this is a removal, maybe this needs to come from the board and I will make this motion since it's not a resignation. It is a remove if there's a recommendation that he be removed. And so as the chair, I'm going to recommend his removal. Oh second. Okay. All right. So it's been moved and seconded that the recommendation coming from the liaison be accepted. You've heard the motion. Second. Is there any unreadiness Yes. Ma'am Hold that as a PA. I'm sorry, Mr. Hartman, you get this, We're talking about the removal of the audit committee member. You signed up to speak for this item. You can, if you'd

244like, you don't have to, you can waive your time, but it's specific about the removal of the audit committee member, Michael Hartman for the record. But, but here it is again, the same thing we were just talking about. I don't know his personal circumstance and situations. I don't know what his family's like, but here's the thing. Communication. If I don't want to be on the audit committee, Mr. Kennedy, I've got some issues. I can't stay, but when, just like a boss, if, if, if, if your superintendent and your teachers don't show up, you got to fill those slots with other teachers. So the bottom line is, is I don't know what what's happening with him, but just speak blessing on him in the name of Jesus and have a great day. Alright. Thank you, sir.

245All right. No other public comments, Mr. Keenan. Thank you, rev. I just to be clear, this, the only way to add or remove a board member by the charter of the committee is through an action of the board. So that's why we need to take this action To that's fine. And I just think that it ought not be coming just emanating from anybody they'll at least come through the chair so that it is on the agenda as a chair action. And then it all, it's up to me to say, can you all buy in? Well, I know we've got two, possibly three votes, but at least we don't have to deal with what Mr. Hartman brings up and that's personalities and, and not knowing what's happened. So I I'm I'm, I'm fine with it. Yes.

246Ms. Foreman, I just want to say, because I did serve on the audit committee with Mr. Portale. He was a, he, he was a very valuable member. He, he participated and contributed greatly. I know during COVID, when we resuming in, you know, he had the kids there and, you know, it was, I'm sure there were difficulties. So I don't know what his circumstances are, but I do thank him for, for the service that he gave. And I just don't want him to his room, his leaving the committee to be, to be negative. I think he's he, I appreciate him. So then I will amend my motion that we approve the removal of the audit committee member with regret. Thank you. All right. Does that work? Okay? Is there any problem with that? Okay. Having said

247that the chair will not call the question all in favor of the removal of the audit committee member with regret, let it be known about Sinai. Aye. All opposed hearing none. That motion also passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Workshop item requests. I believe that there has been a request that the March 29th workshop be postponed and that those matters be shifted to the April 18th workshop date that we always have. And that is definitive had, have had those changes been made. Is this the It's the April 29 shots that will be postponed? This Topics will be moved to may 13. Okay. So what happened to the 18th of April? That is still there. That's an existence. That would be the first section. Alright. So what I have is not the modified, not the modified

248calc. Okay. There's just, no, I'm sorry. There's just no, April 29th meeting. Okay. I thank you all. I was going to be in Howey in the Hills and so not able to attend. That's What I think I'm going every time. So we just moved all those topics. They have one of those there, they got nothing. They Have nothing near, McDonald's a few miles away. Bottom line. Is there any need at this point, because we now have a workshop scheduled all the way through may is any need to add to that. Right now we have a request without any meeting dates assigned. And then we've the only thing that we've said is that the capital funds workshop will be in August. Anybody, anything? Yes. One question. The we're going to, we're going to take the topics

249that were scheduled for the 29th, and we're going to move those topics to Friday, the 13th of May. And then I don't have the, I don't have it in front of me. And then are we moving the May 13th, the previously topics. We're going to distribute those between those two meet scheduled meeting day. So we'll have them well, we'll just split them between those two dates that we've already done. Okay. The other thing that I think has been brought up, we've set out a workshop dates for Friday, the summer calendar calls from Monday to Thursday work week. So all we're going to still try to have work shops or are we going to take a vacation to, I just, how are we going to make sure that we only do the workshops in the first

250try the first Friday of the month? I'm sorry, the Friday before the first meeting of the month for both July and August. Well, we'll talk about that in our briefing of how to handle it past may. All right. Are there any other discussions that we need to hear about the workshop items? I have one question. Yes. Ma'am on my calendar. The May 27th is a tentative day. Now that things are getting shifted around is that confirmed that we are going to have a workshop on that day. Do we know that yet May 27th, We're going to need to have the second may one sets. We cut the eight end of April. So That is confirmed. We will have a workshop on that day. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I know. All right.

251Did you get your question answered? I'm taking tenanted up off my calendar right now. All right. All right. Any other comments with respect to the workshops hearing none. We'll move to item 16, which is not necessary since we don't have any additional comments to be made. We will have updates from my legal department. Mr. Di, Thank you chair though. The only update on the Powell property, we still are waiting on getting appraisals on that property. It's been very slow getting the appraisals, hopefully within the next two weeks is what I understand. So that's, everything's waiting to, to get those. We'll distribute those when they, when they arrive. Okay. All right, how come we don't get an update from the book from the superintendents lawyer? Do it, do we not? Should we not get why don't

252we all to know what they doing? I mean, they don't want to know. Okay. Oh, okay. Let's don't okay. That's fine. Yes, sir. I do update the board for matters that come through my desk and that should be brought to the attention. So I do, I do email you guys as necessary, But you don't have a report the day. If it was something significant, I will definitely speak. But that nothing today, sir. That's the 20 hours that lawyers used to say. No. No. All right. In that case, we'll hear from Dr. Dan Evans, Dr. Evans. We want to know, tell us a little bit about your credentials. No, no, that's all right. Don't do that. Well, thank you, sir. And thank you board, couple of things, just to kind of follow up on, we heard

253in the meeting today. First of all, I thank you for the compliments of our, our curriculum division, who works very, very hard to make good choices like we did today with we believe we made good choices with regards to our instructional materials. So we also just thank you for understanding the hard work that they do along with our teachers. I was just reminded as well by the celebration we had at the beginning of the meeting, around our, our library media folks and the folks who volunteer in our schools, that if we're going to raise reading scores in our school district is going to take a village. We appreciate the folks who read with our students, and I just wanted to make sure I said that to the public who, who might want to reach out

254and volunteer. I do think that specific to that, we will read, improve reading scores in large part, by having students read more, how will that stay in the obvious that is a big deal, how much time they spend in books that they enjoy as well as books in school that might challenge their thinking is a big step toward having students read better. So, so I just wanted to recognize some of the, that, that work that was going on on our mind folks. Cause I know it's been about a month since we had a board meeting that we are entering into testing season. Okay. When that's not necessarily our favorite topic, but it's a chance for our students to showcase their skills. Just last week, we tested all third graders in reading and we've been started

255our writing assessments as well. Cause they take a while to grade. That's why they're tested a little bit earlier. And in a couple of weeks we will begin all the other testing we do state testing, I'm talking about. So we just ask our students again to be in attendance know, there'll be ready and they're going to do great to showcase all the great work happening in our schools. And the last thing is just continue to celebrate. We've been celebrating the arts a lot. I've done that a couple of times and seen you all at the arts events. So I won't comment on that, but now we're kind of somewhat post COVID. We're seeing more of our students take part in competitions and debates and field trips and things like that. So I wanted to say

256that's a big part of learning and it's great to see the one I'll recognize it's in our good news page, which our public can go to is our Braden river, middle school kiddos who went to see the Sarasota opera house. I just think about that. And so those are the kinds of opportunities to help our students to learn above and beyond what we do in the classroom. So it's good to see that again, and folks can find that on our good news page. And that's all I have first for you, sir. Thank you, Dr. Evans. And now Mr. Wagner operations update. Very good. Thank you. Chairman Goldman members of the board and superintendent tenant Saunders. I just have one item today. I just want to talk about just for a few minutes. It's our health

257insurance we're self-insured and it's focusing on our prescription. So by the numbers, starting at the 10,000 foot view, you know, we insure 4,600 employees here in the school system, which equates to about 8,400 lives. And that's how they classified 8,400 lives. 81% of the eligible employees participate in our, our self-insured health plan about $35 million is contributed from the school district and the school board to the, to the plan. In addition to 14 million contributed by the members who participate. In addition, the district put in another $5 million over the last year and a half due to COVID. The last rate increase we had was 20 17, 5 years ago of the 52 million or so dollars that is spent every year. Medical equates for 73% of that. And pharmacy is 27%. We have health

258insurance committee made up of three representatives from MEA and three from ask me and six from the district who worked with our consultants to, to help manage the plan in talking about the pharmacy. So that's what we're here talking about right now. It's a PBM, our pharmacy benefits manager. So previously it was a company called elixir. And now we have moved to a company called Integra in 2020. The pharmacy spend that we had here in the district were represented 30%. So 30% of the money we collected was spent on pharmacy, which was at that time about $15 million Integra, which is our new PBM, which is pharmacy benefits manager is, is new. And one of biggest differences is that the manufacturer rebates that they pharmacy benefits managers receive gets transmitted back to our plan. So

259we see a cost savings from them because they are a non-for-profit and we made that move really based on another Florida school district who had made that move previously to Integra. So they had found the non-for-profit pharmacy benefit manager. Non-pro, they're a non-for-profit leader in transparency that manages healthcare costs to help clients gain efficiencies, lower expenditures, and improve the overall quality of health. Pentegra reimburses the pharmacies and, and pays the bills based on current market conditions and drug costs, which represents which replaces the, the process we had before the school district is billed at the same amount that the pharmacy has paid. Now, both the school district and the pharmacies have access to the, this cost information, which validates each transaction, you know, of Integra is committed to ensuring that the cost information is validated

260and that appropriate drug prescriptions are used rather than driving utilization and maybe even chasing rebates, which isn't the case. Now their focus is to channel prescription use to the most clinically effective options. And this philosophy lowers the P M P M, which stands for cost per member per month for the school district and to improve our members' health. So just as an example, so we've been with them for three months. Okay. Since January 1st, currently the drugs spend or medical spend for prescription drugs have gone from $138 to $90 in the last three months. So we have seen a significant savings on a percentage wise from our, our members in addition, because there has been some questions about this. For addition, we have MCR, which is also our local partner who is contracting with our

261PBM number. The PBM has been Tegra. So, and that, that is to offer specialty drugs at zero copay. So people who are on specialty drugs, those are, those are specialty drugs or high cost medicines used to treat clonic chronic complex health conditions that require particular therapies. MCR health is a specialty pharmacy, and it has a capacity to spend specialty medications at a $0 Comac copayment for our members. So we're trying to save our members money and also save our plan money. They get a what's called a 3 0 4 B classifications. They actually can purchase drugs and medicines cheaper and transport that that cost savings onto the employees. So we're estimated to save a $1.3 million this year for making the change for the PBM, which is a significant amount of money before we made

262the change. And Tager sent letters out to the employees that the formulary changed. The formulary is a list of medicines that are available and the formulary really changes every year for everybody as just as prescription drugs, come on or get taken off the list. New manufacturers are creating new new medicines all the time. So the formularies are always going to change and, and each a PBM has their own formulary. So, You know, we're, we're also, they also are, are big on generics. It's really the same ingredients, but a lower cost. And there's an appeal process also with this new PBM. So people who, if they, if they pick a medicine that's not on there, they can go through an appeal process. There's different levels, level one, level two, and they have different amounts of days

263and times that the PBM has to get back to the employee. I guess my takeaway from all of this is so we know it's not been a hundred percent perfect. Just like we've, we've seen it. Can't be everything. Not everything can be a hundred percent perfect, but I do think that it, it was a good implementation. We are making these changes to reduce costs to the healthcare plan to the employees. And my biggest takeaway is that we have a benefits department here in the school district that is actively taking calls, taking emails. They have a website there's email addresses on the website, the answer, their phones, they respond to employees. You know, if we know of employees who are having questions in this area, Mike, you health has one, but also if they're feeling like

264they're not getting traction and not being heard, we want to hear from them. We want to hear from them in the benefits department. And we are actively answering phone calls and emails and making sure, you know, we're taking care of our employees. So I just wanted to give you that short update on the pharmacy, really the pharmacy spend on our self-insured healthcare plan. So that's it. I gave Mr. Writing before I, I apologize, but my mind is just wondering now, is there any appetite or any ability to see systems at the federal level for unexpected expenditures as a consequence of COVID or have we already sought to get grants? I know we have a structure in place and I know we have the premiums, but I don't think anybody has contemplated the, the, the problems

265that this pandemic has caused, the, the habit that it's wrecking. I know the insureds can probably get benefits or get help, but what about the integrity of our plan? The 8,400 lives that we insure has our plan been weakened as a consequence of COVID. And can we get any of that back or has an, is that something that's We have, I mean, the money's we pushed into the plan did come from the, the relief dollars from the federal government due to the pandemic. I think you're talking maybe now more about long-term effects because what's happening in two years from now, or what are the long-term effects from the pandemic. So How do we write that in? Yeah. And how could you write that in not at a cost to the people, but to bring in

266the COVID relief dollars. That it's great, that we have COVID relief for right now for the physiological consequences of the, of the pandemic, but the psychological, the mental health issues are going to be costly into the future. And we're not even, we aren't even yet sure what they're going to be. So I just, I know we're getting rid of that workshop that, but I just want to not overlook the specific dollar consequences of trying to meet those challenges. That's great. And, and, and all these changes are, have been made to try to really, we're trying to manage the health plan, the best possible way we can to reduce pushing those costs. But, you know, those are all good questions, Particularly since we were self-insured it means that if, if we run out, we run out

267and I P elevated 400 lives. Don't have anywhere to go, but to us. So if we could start making that inquiry or those inquiries, or at least that might require legislation, I don't know. But yes, sir. All right. Thank you very much, sir. I'm sorry. Did anybody else have any, any questions? Okay. All right. We will now hear from the superintendent, our superintendent of the Manatee county school district sister, Cynthia Sanders. Oh my No pressure. Thank you, chairman golden. One of the things I would like to point out that some of you may not be aware, but last Friday, our Manatee community foundation hosted a breakfast of support for our expansion, our community partnership school for Daughtry. And there was somewhere between 25 and 30 community members that came to hear more about it and

268possibly give up their time and talents for this cause. So we're so ever grateful by that partnership because Susie buoy and that organization is always trying to help us do beyond what we can do in our, in a normal school day. So I just wanted to recognize her officially, but she will be one that I will bring before the board formally, because she's done so much for our organization. And we know that many, many positives will come from that breakfast meeting. Conrad. Some Minsky helped present as well as Steve Ross camp, which are of course a tremendous partners within the school district as well. So I just wanted to point that out. Some of you are probably aware most of the time when I have a fads or superintendent meetings and trainings, we're joint with

269FSB. This is not a joint one, but it is the spring conference. It will be held in Orlando for the next three days. I am taking a dragging along Doug Wagner with me. So Dr. Evans will be the point of contact while I'm gone. And we're hoping to hear some summary from the legislation sessions and implementation that DOE wants to see of execution of those bills. I know many conversations are out there about seniors and are they waiving any of those assessments for them this year? Like they've done in the last two years, there's no conversation as such. So all of those requirements for graduation are still in place. We could hear otherwise, but we're not anticipating hearing, hearing anything different. The other announcement that some of you may be aware of is the congressional

270teacher award that Bermuda Keenan supports and puts on is on Tuesday, April the 19th at 5:30 PM. I hope that she will be able to join us at recognizing those teachers at the auditorium at Kaiser university at SCF. So that will be occurring next week. And I do want to thank the board and the community for the unwavering support that you have given me in my position and for allowing me to continue leading and moving this district forward so that we can finish this year strong and into the future. So I do. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Madam to Superintendent. You're the chair. Oh, talk about a Freudian slip. Talk about a Freudian slip. Oh boy. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Madam superintendent for your, your graciousness being gracious on the difficult circumstances.

271So I thank you for that. That is, that is an attribute that is lost on many, including myself sometimes, but you have been gracious as long as I have known you in this setting period. So I think you having said that we are now at board comments and I, I believe, I think the board clerk says that the order is Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Foreman, Mr. Choke, Ms. Messenger, and then the chair. I don't remember how we did it the last time we did, but let's just do it that way this time. And I'll be a super fast and gold golden. I just want to thank everybody for the meeting. You know, I was not looking forward to this one just because of, you know, some of the events that unfolded, but I think we had

272a good conversation. We all shared our ideas and we heard each other and that's the way we should work. And we're just really proud of the way this board has worked, especially since Mr. Chode has joined us. It's been, you know, just step right in and hit the ground running. And then the only thing I wanna say is I had a really interesting experience last week, a testing coordinator at one of our elementary schools reached out and said, Hey, we're short on staff for this first test. So would you mind coming in? I said, yeah, I'll be, I'll be happy. I'll be happy to. And I sat there for two hours and watched her administer the test. And, and I said to myself, like, what am I doing here? And I said, this is really

273a shame because there's like 12 kids in this room. You couldn't handle this yourself. And she said, well, really the reason that you're here is that if anybody tries to say that I did something wrong, I've got you here as my witness. And I was like, ah, that's what I was not thinking through. So testing season is now coming upon us. So, you know, we're coming into the final stretch, even though it's in April, but it's gonna fly by. So I just want to thank, I want to thank Stuart Ella for inviting me out to, to help them out. I was happy to come do it last Wednesday morning. And I've said this before, but to our school community, to our parents and our groups, Hey, just reach out, invite us. We'll be happy to,

274you know, no scheduling conflicts. We'll be happy to come out and join you. So I help out if you need it. And then finally it just based on yesterday's email from the end of the day, I want to congratulate Dr. Breslin and Dr. Thompson on their moves into new positions. And who am I forgetting? Dr. Carer Calloway was on that list and oh, Ms. Collins is going to be the new principal at Southeast high school. So I just wanted to extend my congratulations to, to them. And I'm sure we have many more moves coming. Yeah, that's the, that's the first of many announcements on changes coming up for next year. So I just want to congratulate those four on their, on their upcoming new rules. So that's it. Thanks Mr. Chair. Yes. Thank you, Mr.

275Kennedy, Ms. Foreman, It's been a long meeting. I'm gonna pass on our comments. Okay, Mr. Tope. I just want to thank everybody for the meeting. All of our faculty and staff, and continue to do what they do for our kids. I want to thank again, Mr. Lindenberg. I was able to go to the books for kids lunch in, and the support from the rotary club is phenomenal and it's, and it's support like that from the community, our other community schools at, at Manatee, and soon to be Daughtry, you know, we couldn't do it without the support of the community. And, and it shows also want to thank Mr. Garner at, at Johnson middle school. I got to go to Johnson and speak to his business advanced business class. It's been a while since I've been

276in a classroom and was able to actually, you know, other than just the stuff with the chamber. So it was really cool to get back in the classroom and, and talk about, you know, the, the, the business aspect and run a business and, and also some public service. And, and it was really, it was a great class. They took notes. They really didn't need to do that, but they took notes on what I said and had some great questions. And so I really think him for that opportunity. And I did get a little tidbit. If anybody is on Thursday afternoon, I did hear that a certain board member, Mr. Kennedy himself will be at a basketball game at Johnson. I was told I'm supposed to play. Yes, God, On Thursday, I'm taking the ibuprofen now.

277And I said, I'll definitely come out and watch that. Apparently the students have a really, really good eighth grader. So I want you to guard him. I'll take the six, nine kid. Sure. No of other than that. Thanks everybody. That's all I got. That's it? That's it. All right. Bass chair messenger. I guess I wanted to start off by just thinking Ms. Means and Mrs. Collins, because I mean, they got us through this meeting with all this new stuff going on. So I really appreciate that. It will take us time to learn it all, but I think, you know, I think it went as smooth as it could have gone, at least from my point of view. I don't know, over there, you might've been crying and I wouldn't have known. So, you know, I,

278I invited screen, I wanted to also take time to thank Reverend golden. This was a long meeting and with new software and everything else. And I think you did it really well. You, there was a lot of contention and everything else and you stay calm no matter what. And so I really appreciate that. I want to leave myself some notes, want to talk. One thing about, we had somebody talk about, you know, how people come in here with frustrations. And I think you're right, that some of it I think is communication. You know, I always think, you know, the more we can be proactive in how we communicate the less reactive we're going to get from individuals and the less reactive we have to be. So I really do believe in being as proactive as

279possible when it comes to communication. But I also have to acknowledge that there are some people that come into this room that aren't really seeking to understand anything at all. And I think there was some of that as well today that had already drawn their conclusions. And I'm not sure it would have mattered what anybody said, if that would have changed any other frustrations with the conclusions that have already been drawn. And I don't know if that can necessarily be my goal, but my goal should always be to make sure that we communicate to those that may not have all that information that we are able to ensure that they do have all that information and then they can make their mind up. Don't just listen to the ones. I don't just listen to the

280other side, hear both sides. So I just want to really make sure that I say that I, I T I do agree with you and, and I'm open to ideas on how to curb that as much as possible, but I've tried lots of different tactics and strategies in my year sitting up here. And it seems as if there are some that that might be their goal. That's not my goal. So my goal is children and students and education. And that will always be my goal. I'm going to make decisions based on that and nothing else, not based on politics, not based on any type of groups it's going to be based on what I really do believe is best for our students. That's my agenda. I have two kids, my younger one's turning four tomorrow,

281and she's going to go to pre-K next year. So I will have to in our schools. And my goal is what will be best for them, just like I want what's best for all the other kids in our schools. And I'm, if I'm making decisions based on what I think is best for them, I'm going to be benefiting all the students in Manatee county. That's my goal. And that's why I do believe that it's of the benefit of this board and the school district to continue to support our superintendent. Not only has she improved our school academically and added programs and, and makes data driven decisions. There's also significant data that shows that the most successful school districts have a superintendent that is there longer. If look at some of the most successful school districts,

282I'll be, I will say some of it is purely based on financial, their demographics, but you can also look at and see how long has the superintendent been there. That makes a difference because that continuity of this great leadership makes a difference. Having it all changed up. That's how we ended up where we ended up because it kept changing and it kept changing how the, which way we went, having this continuity with a vision of, as I said, innovative programs and, and data-driven decisions on curriculum and other products that makes a difference. So I'm in full support of keeping that continuity, because I think that's really as best as what's best for students. So I just want to end with that. And with that, I am done. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam vice

283chair. I think that I'm just listening at the comments that have been made and not made by Mrs. Foreman. I, I, I am more appreciative than ever that, that this is a school board. And I think that's very, very important that it is a board that is trying to do the best that it can do as a board, as no big guys and little you's here. And I hope we are able to sustain that attitude, that altitude, that aptitude going forward, because I remember what it was like when I came on the boat, we had five board members, and I think it's very important that if you strive to create unity as a board, that you don't throw it away chasing some illusory notion that any one of us controls all of the rest of

284us. That's just not going to happen. I'm not saying that it has happened, but it's a lot less likely to happen with what we're trying to do here as a board. And so I, I thank you. And I want to reiterate again, I think the superintendent for supporting us as a professional and supporting this board, even when we have our own doubts, even when we have our own misgivings, even when we have our different agendas, you have served us all. And I think that I thank you for that. I feel the same way about our, our attorney, that, that, that we get good legal advice from this attorney for, for, for what he does to help us as we try to make, make good decisions. I want to thank the people who work here, who

285have taken the time to become w w w w what was the CDL? What kind of license is that commercial? You, you take your time to get a commercial driver's license. You come here, you go somewhere and get a PhD and you come here. Thank you. You, you spend your time learning how to cook food and meet the health departments down this. I thank you. And so I, I just truly, I am honored to serve this district. I am honored to serve with the people on this boat. I am honored to serve the parents and the children in this district, because if it's not about service, then what is it about, what is it about? So I, I, I thank you all. And with that, my favorite part of the meeting, we adjourned.