001It is 9:00 AM. So I'm going to call our workshop to order, we have two topics today. It is the presentation of our grades, three to 12 English language arts and to 12 mathematics instructional materials adoption. And I'm going to call a Dr. Evans up to present the speaker. Welcome to our curriculum division. You'll be seeing today the great work that they've done to get us to this place. This is not our first foray into new standards, but so the whole state of Florida is experiencing a move to yet another set of standards called the best standards. We're all familiar with that. And a major step in that direction is the adoption of the materials for ELA and math. And this team behind me, who's going to present to you today, began this work. I
002mean, the work began really a couple of years ago, but I'm going to just reference this year, began at the beginning of this year and made a promise to this community and to this board and to our superintendent to be thorough, to, to be timely and efficient, right? So we're ready for, for these new standards to come we'll onboard next year. So with that said, I want to bring kudos to Dr. Robyn Thompson, who will be speaking to you and presenting to you today. She is the executive director of our curriculum division and has done a great, great job leading this work and also with her. Yes, yes. You can clap for that. And also with her, our Dr. Breslin, you know, who is our secondary director superstar and our other superstar director of elementary
003curriculum. That's Dr. Callaway. And they can answer any of your questions as can I, but Dr. Thompson will kind of carry the presentation. It is not lengthy. And we'll answer any questions you have and I'll now turn it to Dr. Thompson. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Evans. He left out the word interim. So I'll just keep on reminding everyone about purposeful. Yeah, it is expiring. Good morning, everyone. It's very nice to be here. This is something that we're very excited about, and I'm happy to have the opportunity to share with you. As you can see on this screen, we started this process a little while ago. We've been offering professional development all year long for both ELA and mathematics elementary and secondary to prepare our teachers for next year, we have implemented fully ELA K
004two. This year we have reflected and revised and figured out how to do it even better. So we've had a year under our belt and next year it's full implementation K-12 so the process includes lots of stakeholders, and we wanted to just be very explicit about our selections. As far as the state vetted publishers contributions and the state selected, they used a rubric and selected textbook materials that were appropriate and that are on the adopted textbook list. And everything that we looked at was on the state list. So these have all been adopted by the state and approved by the state. We also provided lots of opportunities for different stakeholders to participate in the selection. We had parents, community members, administrators, teachers, district leaders. So we've had a multitude of perspectives, different lenses, looking at
005these materials, using a rubric, vetting them and coming up with a recommendation. Did I miss anything? We had both virtual and in-person and we sent out surveys to all the teachers, inviting every teacher to participate in addition to just our core groups and the same with administrators. So all administrators participated in the selections, and these are our proposed selections for this year. Benchmark advance is what we adopted for this year for K two, Mrs. Saunders made the decision last year, not to adopt it for K five, since it was a new resource, she wanted to have it for a year and make sure that it met our, our standards and the state standards and our expectations. And indeed, indeed it did. And the stakeholders selected it for ELA through five envision. Math is our selection,
006and we'll give you details for each of these selections. The McGraw hill is a new, a new selection for this year in the past. It's been a different publisher. And then Cengage is the selection for math secondary. So we'll start with Savvis learning. That's our math selection for elementary. Our stakeholders used a rubric that included, first of all, alignment to the new standards that was about most importance, but the rubric also included things like accessibility to tech, the technology piece or the digital platform. It included family engagement pieces. It included connections to the standards for all stakeholders. So that brought in differentiation. Did it have a tier two and a tier three for tiered intervention? Did it have an acceleration piece? So our goal was to make sure that our selections included equity across all
007students equity and access. So the math specifically, you all can read this, but we just wanted to make sure that there was fluency and automaticity included for our, for our foundational learning, but also acceleration pieces. Everything in the math is also connected to ELA. So we wanted to make sure that it was integrated across different content areas. And indeed it is, it does have a really good intervention piece and an acceleration piece and digital access for ELA benchmark. That's the one that we use this year for K two. It includes a lot of additional resources. It includes different acceleration and intervention pieces. The teachers, especially like the platform, the digital platform tools, it's easy to use for all students, teachers and other users. It's accessible to families. I feel kind of weird just running through
008this. So I know we can have questions. Yeah, Charlie, I was waiting for questions at the end, but I'm happy to entertain questions along the way. That's Robin. I, this is a little bit of a, kind of a very specific question, but you're the third bullet point about available in English and Spanish? So you have, I'm just curious. We have some families who are either coming or have already arrived from Afghanistan into our district. And I, you know, maybe down the road, we're gonna have some Ukrainian families as well, joining us. We'll see. But I'm just curious and Haitian-Creole, we obviously we have a larger Haitian population than, than, you know, Afghans or Ukrainians, but we're predominantly English and Spanish speaking families at home, but for, for a precise language need like that. How do
009we as a district, make these materials accessible for a child walking with just no English language, Right? That's a really good question, Deb, from she's our director of ELL, she served as a, one of the committee members for the overarching and her specialist also considered everything. So I don't view all know specifics about different languages, availability and accessibility. I knew working, can you, can you come to the microphone? Sorry. It's a very intimate environment in here As we're coming up. This is key. So we make sure we do introductions. This is Dr. Stephanie Callaway. Yes. She's our director of elementary curriculum and she kind of oversaw all the elementary work and Lori, Dr. Roselands oversaw all the secondary work and our curriculum team is so strong as a result of having these good leaders. So
010Robin, so one of the most important pieces for the entire review of instructional materials is equitable access and outcomes for all learners. And the, the vendors know this, they know that they have to have a very quick responsive nature for a scenario that you're describing. And so working with dev STS and we have our dual language programs are expanding in the district. And so she and benchmark advance and my curriculum coordinators, we have been looking at really increasing the efficacy of the products that are put in teacher's hands, specifically for dual language. And I'm sure that benchmark advance will be responsive to supporting other languages, not necessarily in hard copy digital or print materials, but Debs staff work to make sure that all students with English as a second, second language, that those strategies and
011instructional approaches, her folks are well-trained in the best standards and in the instructional materials to make sure that all students have equity and access. Is that, Yeah, it was really kind of really a better question for Deb's department, but figured spring it on you anyway. Yeah. She has been very much a, an advocate of course, as she always is. Yeah. I've been looking at Other questions that You guys don't have to run all the way across the, did someone else have a question? Okay. It goes without saying that, you know, everything is intimately connected to the standards, the best standards. So that's, that's, that's an important piece to keep in mind the, the McGraw hill, of course it was research-based with Fisher and Shanahan, two of two of our well-known researchers. And basically it's the
012same. Like we use the rubric across all of our selections. And so we're excited about the McGraw hill selection also and Cengage math. And one of the big pieces of the best standards are the mathematical thinking and reasoning standards. Those are the conceptual more conceptual rather than, you know, kind of deconstructed skills. And so this publisher really incorporated those well and it focused on the needs of the differentiation and with our diverse learners, easy online portable, and the Spanish language support is built in today. If you all, after we present this, we have a document ready to be uploaded to the website, and it has links to every single grade level for each of these materials. So if I have a second grader, I can look at the second grade benchmark materials and I can
013look at the second grade Savvis mathematical materials so that we're inviting the general public to come and look at the materials, go through them, ask questions, and that'll be posted for 30 days. And as soon as this meeting is over, it'll be uploaded and posted. Sorry, I have a question. So K to two was already adopted, but K to two was still be available online when a parent looks at it. Sure. Okay. That's what I'm asking because what's that I think the grade levels that are just like three, five for K five for math. Okay. Thank you. Well, I just want to, we want, do you want us to put that, add that to it? I think that might actually create confusion because there'll be like, well, where's my K to two and you'll cause
014I mean, this is pretty sweeping that it's a lot Over arching. Yeah. But then it would just be the K to two, not, and that might actually create like, well, you're just, We'll add that to the document before we post it. Thank you. Thank you. Miss messenger On that too. That's a great question. Is that the review period that Dr. Thompson is referring to is for the adopted materials, obviously for folks to give us feedback. But beyond that, Ms. Foreman, you asked this question a couple of weeks ago is that our materials should be available for transparency purposes on our website for review anyway, so the parent can see it. So we generally would have those updated that for this particular purpose. We're talking about the feedback for the adoption Process that is catered to
015located somewhere else on the website. It's under the, the information is on the curriculum website. I think Ms. Foreman, you had asked about it. And for some reason we had posted it and for some reason it wasn't there. So we put it back on. Yeah. As a result of that question, you had to be going to School, would you? Right. Exactly. And they can't have access to that. Yeah. So thank you for that question. It made us more aware that we do need to be, you know, accountable. So K to two is available, but in a different location than where this is going to be. And that makes sense. I get that because this is a different review process. I just wanna, I just wanna make sure that if somebody says, well, where's K to
016two, we can say, oh, We can put a link on the document and they can go right to that. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Yes. We don't know exactly what the, the 30 day window for parent review is that, Hey, doors are open, come in whenever you want, or is there certain times, you know, how, how, what does that process look like? So they can go to the online links. Okay. And do we have an in-person also okay. The online links and so that, that will invite them to offer their comments and we'll be accessing those comments and looking at them along the way. Okay. Have you, the bill, there's a bill, obviously in the house. I mean, it's not all the way through yet, but it's going to be brought up about curriculum
017and how parents should be, you know, those stakeholders should be involved, et cetera. We already do that. So for the record check and, and in that same stance, I know we're not, we're not this isn't about libraries in our system, but do we have this same? Can we go in and look at our patrol and entries library and see exactly what the books that are registered in library. Those are all in destiny. It is PE it is pages and pages and pages long. If parents have specific questions, there's a form that they can fill out. And we're working on a district policy kind of along those lines, but we're waiting to see exactly what happens in the session. Yeah. You want him to see what the bill says? Great. Yeah. I just want to make
018sure that's out there because I know there's groups that are like, Hey, this has big. So There have been some public records requests and we're happy to. Yeah. Yeah. And actually on that vein, I have gone on the website and you can actually do a title search, you know, and cause some of these titles are Hot, the Controversial yet they're hot topics. So, so it shows where it is and what grade level it is. And so, you know, so actually we're doing great. We really are not to brag on ourselves, but yeah. But we are, we really do make a concerted effort for transparency and accountability. And we do invite our families and our community to, to speak to us about questions or concerns they have. We're going to get everything. Yes. Yeah. I would
019like to follow the committee because that, that is also a part of that bill is who serves on that committee, who is who it says, you know, that we've got parents, but who selects who's on the committee? Are they trained, vetted? You know, what's, what's the process. So we asked for volunteers and, and then there were some key community leaders that we seek out that we wanted to include and have their voice. And we didn't just choose the people that go along with everything. Cause you know, sometimes people who have lots of concerns and are bringing them to us, those are our most valuable opinions. Sometimes they were trained on the rubric for this process is what I'm speaking to. So they understood what each of the components on the rubric meant. What did it
020mean? What does it mean to have alignment to the standards? What does it mean to be developmentally appropriate? You know, those kinds of things. And then they were able to use the rubric effectively and appropriately to make their selections, The same individuals where the same individuals used for both math and ELA. Okay. Were they chosen based on their skillsets or They were selected on their willingness to participate in the process and their experiences, depending on what stakeholder group they were representing and, and their, you know, knowledge of the instructional teaching and learning cycle. But they were not, you know, ruled out if they weren't necessarily an expert, let's say in math, because we did have in phase one, the curriculum specialists, the curriculum coordinators did the preliminary vetting for alignment to the standards and content
021specific pedagogy. And so the district committee that was formed with teachers and parents, community members, coaches, and administrators, their diversity of perspectives and experiences really made sure that it was a well-rounded vetting process to come together for this recommendation. Not everybody can evaluate calculus. We're hoping they get right now. Any other questions? Thank you all. Am I, am I so lucky? Okay. I have one before you go. I don't want to reach out. So with the, with the new standards coming online for, for August school opening yes. Can teachers, they I'm sure this information will be disseminated obviously with the summer started school, but is C palms kind of still the kind of sort I'm looking for a warehouse for all of our standards or, or will that be now? So you want to speak
022to that, Lori? Yes. Mr. Kennedy, you can actually go on see palms right now and look at the, for example, secondary has quite a few new math courses and you can go review those standards and already see materials. The state is working on filling in lesson plans, working with teams, our math specialist for secondary had been involved in that as well, contributing to the lesson planning. Of course, we're waiting for this, the assessments to be released from the state, but we're highly involved in conversations with those from Tallahassee to make sure that we're aligning to that as well as the textbook companies we have chosen to partner with in their work. And so in addition to that, our curriculum writing will be, will be done by may. And so teachers will be able to leave
023with the maps already completed. And we have training set up that we've been doing throughout the year. And we have paid opportunities for teachers for elementary and secondary to work this summer. If they choose to, to come in early. I know as a teacher, I like to start my planning early in many do, but if, if that's not the case, then we certainly will have opportunities in August and continual support through the year as we go through these standards, we are lucky in the rollout of these standards. And I think I've said this before, but the state has done it in a way that really, really provides kind of a playbook for teachers that, that, whereas before you spent so much time unpacking standards, just to understand what we were trying to get the students
024to do as their task. And that's not the case, it's, it's very clear. And so that clarity is going to ring true in the classroom. And that clarity is going to let students know, this is what we're asking you to do. This is why we want you to do it. And this is how we're going to know that you've mastered it and why it's important All up. So if you don't mind, Laurie, there's a couple of couple things working their way through the legislature that I just want to bounce off you all to see what you think, see where you think it's headed is the experts here. First is there's talk about adding a financial literacy requirement for graduating seniors, which yeah. Having, having taught regular economics sat there with these. Like, I'm not really
025sure this is there. They're gonna be able to use this when they get out of head out after high school graduation. But there's a financial literacy being talked about, which I think we all probably is a great idea. Are there any other course additions or deletions that you see coming on the horizon? So we have a list of daggered courses that we've shared with schools. For example, if you're looking at a liberal arts math, that is a daggered course. So we've shared that and, and the state is suggesting in place. There's actually a financial similar to financial algebra, but it's been redesigned revamped to be, to be at, I hate to say more useful, but it is more appropriate for college or career ready. Right. And so that course will be put into place math
026or college algebra is a new course instead of math for college readiness. And so those, so, so yes, with secondary math, There have been a lot of changes, but it's all designed to make sure that we're doing backwards planning. What do students need to be college and career ready? And then the state has responded by revamping those courses all the way down so that we're changing what goes from kindergarten up. So we have that natural progression. And then in other aspects, yes, there are, there are many, many bills up there that they're still considering working with civics, financial literacy, all of the above. And we're watching them closely to make sure that we're ready to, to support our teachers, whatever the legislation may be. And if I could just put in a quick plush regarding
027grades three to five math acceleration. So there are new courses for elementary students, as Lori was describing that backward design and really understanding vertical progression. It's important to give students those accelerated more advanced experiences sooner rather than later. So next year I'm in, I know Dr. Thompson and team will be coming back in April to share the gifted and acceleration plan for next year. And so those are some new courses coming for our students in grades three to five. Don't move. I got one more for you if I may, if I, if I may last one again, I, I know it's all speculative because it's in the legislature. We have no idea what's going to make it through, but there's a lot of hubbub this week about increased assessments and the K through five area.
028I got all excited a few months ago when we heard like assessments are going away and we're going to progress monitoring. And I was cheering and social media, and I immediately got beat down by people who were like, it's just to be more testing in the end anyway. And so it turns out I was wrong again. And it looks like we're heading toward more testing, but maybe you have a more in depth understanding. What's what we're possibly looking at. Cause my, So I do not. And, and what I do know about the progress monitoring and the leadership in this district and many others is to really monitor the percent of time that students are spent spending testing. And so one of the really great contributions from our recommendations today for the textbook products is there
029is a built in cycle of formative assessment, those quick checks for understanding so that teachers know daily again sooner, rather than later, which students are struggling. And B being able to dig into the materials to find the resources they need to target those deficits sooner rather than later, because the, the time spent on testing, it's really important that there is a return on investment right away not to leave students struggling longer. And so I don't know the details Dr. Evans and Evan McCarthy, he's all over the, the minute by minute communications about that. But I suspect we're gonna hold firmly to what does the assessment yield in improving instruction and improving learning. Okay. Well, thanks for that. Yeah. We can kind of check back in on it when the legislature is finished, but yeah, I'm,
030I'm really Laurie, when you said backward planning. My, my light went off cause I'm, I'm finishing renewing my certification right now. So backward planning was one of the eight hours I had like, oh, packer planning. I know that, I know about that. I had a question about as a former liberal arts math teacher, moving away from that, which is perfectly fine to the other, I forget what you called the course possibly. But those students that ask that need, that can't move on to algebra, you know, they didn't pass out, run in. Now, one of the biggest things, at least they're concern that I always had with liberal arts math was that it was never counted for an athlete. Right. And so is that with the new change to maybe I, and then maybe I misspoke,
031are we leaving liberal arts, math and moving to something else? Yeah. So liberal arts math will, will be removed. It's no longer an adopted course by the state. And so yes, we're working for all our students to make sure that they're eligible when they're, when they're competing for athletic scholarships. And so we've submitted already to the state, the courses for approval. The process requires that each district submit the courses to the state, which, which is unusual, but it's their process. And so we're waiting to hear back, but we'll, we'll certainly equip our schools with the knowledge so they can tell that our student athletes w would be eligible. So for example, we do have math for college. Algebra will be an eligible course. We know that one, they came back very quick on that they
032have not come back on, on all of our courses. So if we use the financial algebra as a, as a bridge course to support students before they, before they go into geometry, we want them to solidify those algebra skills. We need to hear from the state, if it's going to be eligible or not even the state that you know, the NCAA and then we'll know for sure. Yep. But that's in process. Do you have any other questions? Okay. Mrs. Foreman, Thank you. In the materials. I assume part of the, part of the curriculum materials has progress monitoring or assessments built into it. Okay. What happens if that doesn't align with the progress monitoring that the state comes out? I mean, how are we wasting our money buying books before they come out with it? They're
033monitoring it. They have the publishers have a lot of money involved in this. So they're that what the state is doing. And they have aligned everything already to the best standards. And so the assessments are going to be based on the best standards. So they are right now. Additionally, the, for example, the math books will be consumables so that this, the textbook companies have the opportunity to revise and tweak as needed before the next round comes out. So if we see the assessments are released going into next year, and we need to pivot a little bit to better support our students, the textbook companies will do that. And then we'll have the new materials to, to move forward. There's also a workbook component with both the ELA and math that focuses on preparing students for
034assessments. And that, again, the textbook companies will be revising annually based on state data. We, because I assume that we're buying real textbooks. In addition, there's digital, And there's also worked fucking simple, But we get new hard copy textbooks every year. If there changes This year, the, the benchmark K two had some revisions. And so they are giving us at no additional charge, their new revisions based on what they learned about best standards this year. And they don't charge for that. Right. I guess it's, That was it Mr. Kennedy, The follow-up so, but those, but those revisions are in the consumable, not the textbook itself, They were minor. And they were actually in the teacher edition. So the student additions were not impacted and the student additions are consumable as well. So it was in
035the teacher additions and they were minor in not totally uncommon with new rollout. You know, you want an and again, going back to the vendor, responsiveness to the needs of each district, uniquely is a really important consideration. And benchmark advance has certainly been all along with us on this first year, implementation all along the way and very responsive to what we need to have happen for us to, Okay, hold on one second. I was just going to say my daughter's in first grade. And so she's been doing them benchmark and like, she has like a workbook like this sized, so I could see how, like, if it, if something, what needed to be altered, like they just need to set a new set of those workbooks, like, and she brings them home and you can
036see what it really looks like. And I actually think that's a really nice setup. And I'm trying to remember. I'm pretty sure I did envision a few years ago. Like when I was a teacher, I don't remember if that was one that had the large placemat kind of, or was that go math? Well, math had the plate placemats okay. I know I've done. Both has, has made it to county done envisioned before. Yes, I believe so. I mean, working with Krista Keats, she talked about experiences with envision previous. Okay. Okay. Mrs. Foreman. I wanted to circle back on the assessment, that part of it with the language, if we have a English language learner who has mastered the material in the textbooks and working in the class, and then they are going to have to
037sit down and take these assessments in English, is that, am I understanding that? I think what I hear is you're describing the difference between the state progress monitoring piece and then how teachers utilize instructional materials with those formative and summative assessments. And so I don't see like a conflict in outcomes for the student or over testing as a possibility because teachers go through the materials and based upon their students' needs, make decisions on which students are going to get, which kinds of additional supports if they're struggling. And those formative assessments really are many, you know, checks to see, okay, in a week, how did the student progress toward mastery of the standard? And then as a teacher, what do I need to, to remediate or reteach to move that student further along, but because both
038of the options, whether it's in the instructional materials or a progress monitoring facilitated by the state, both of those are directly aligned to best standards. And to go back just quickly on what makes the transition to best standards. So powerful for teachers is clarity. The best standards Dr. Breslin alluded to it earlier, they are not complicated. They do not require unpacking. And so I predict that the progress monitoring piece is going to tightly align with what the teachers are doing in the classrooms, so that both those pieces of data will further instruction through differentiated remedial opportunities for struggling students or acceleration and enrichment for students who are performing above grade level. I don't think we're going to see a disparaging gap between the two, because they're rooted in the standards. So kind of to hit
039on what you just said, the standards before, you'd have a principal that come in and say, that's not, you didn't hit to the depth of that standard. And then another person might say, well, you did hit to the dust. It was, it felt far more when you were a teacher with the old standards, because there would be different people that felt like, well, that's not to the depth of the standard. That's not what the standard meant. You're not hitting, you're not, that's not rigorous enough. And you'd have to really would you'd have entire trainings where, what does the standard mean? And with the new best standards, which they're right. You can go on and see pumps. And cm is the best standards are far clearer. I think for an educator, which I think also probably
040makes it easier for a principal to say, yes, they are hitting to the depth of the standard that they're supposed to hit. And here's the outcome. And it's makes more sense. Then you have an entire training where they say, well, what does this standard really mean to me? It's like, how many times can you write a child? Must have a Nemic awareness, but they'll find some, you know, anyways, they're just, the format is, is very different than what the teachers have had for years. Just as a non-educator looking at this, it almost, to me, it appears that progress monitoring is redundant. Is that fair to say? I tried to engineer They're great questions. And let me just fast forward to some things we don't know. And this is ties into Mr. Kennedy's question as well.
041We're all been paying attention to what the assessments might look like. So we're sort of guessing a little bit because we have not seen them. We think it's going to well, who knows, it's going to be called the fast assessment, the Florida assessment of student thinking it has historically been one assessment at the end of the year, right? The FSA has one assessment. So what we're understanding, it's going to be a series of assessments, which may be a good thing. So what they would describe as foreman is a formative, I'm sorry to say progress monitoring assessment would be more than once, right? You do it in the fall. See if the student grew in the winter and then the spring. So what we're assuming is it will be a series of those formal formalized state
042assessments, but more than one. Okay. And we would typically call that a progress monitor or long cycle. Cause there was several months between them. In addition to that, what these folks were decided describing is formative. Formative is short in the classroom in the moment. You know, we, we love that kind of assessment because it drives learning in the immediate. So they, and then combine those two things. We would want the short formatives that are built into these, these materials. They are tied to the, to the standard, to the skill that's been identified. We've already vetted that pore per our work. And so we would have to assume that the state's assessments would be that whoever they adopt as their assessment builder would be rooted in those same skills or, or there wouldn't be that connection.
043So I'm going to make the assumption. And I don't mean that to be funny. I think the state is on this piece that the short form is doing our classroom that are driving those skills would then lead to those longer cycle assessment progress, monitoring assessment, that those same skills will be experienced they're in. And then we assume then finally that the growth between those three or four assessments will be how we are derived as being successful as a district. But we are working a little bit, speaking of backwards design without a piece of information that we would like to have, which is what those assessments will look like, but they'll coming soon. And, and to that end, then finally, we, you know, the state works very closely with the textbook vendors and had already per
044what Dr. Thompson mentioned, had already reviewed those. So, you know, we're all in this together to make sure kids learn the standards. And so the vendors are good partners and the same with the assessment vendors, we have some sense of who they might go with and, and I've know that they've been having dialogue and, and those things would be tightly aligned. I wouldn't suspect that they would not be aligned to the state. Wouldn't approve them, but, you know, I think going forward, and maybe this is a way of transitioning toward the end of our presentation. There's some information we know, and we know what the standards are. That's a good thing. And by the way, I'm speaking for, I think the team, we really liked the standards. I mean, we like a lot of it.
045And you heard that excitement in their voice and teachers cause they're uncomplicated. There is that clarity they're based around concrete skills and yes, some conceptual stuff. Cause that's important too, but some concrete skills that we can teach kids. We're good at that. If you tell us how to teach kids and you tell us what it is, our teachers and can do it, and these guys can do a curriculum and instruction to do that. So we like that about it. We liked the infusion of the civics materials and all that that we've been talking about. So it's a lot of good coming from it, but there are some things we yet don't know. And the most important thing we get don't know, and we're hanging, hanging, you know, hanging on every word from the legislature is
046what the final assessments will be. But I'm not concerned about it being misaligned because I just don't anticipate that Mr. Kenney, I just want to share one quick thing to go back to Ms. Ms. Foreman's question. There are two businesses, the house bill and a Senate bill house, bill four 15, the general description I'll skip part of it authorize a certain students of limited English chose to have they'll type other certain assessments administered in their native language or English and provides DOE and the school board, or excuse me, DOE and state board of education duties relating to us assessments in native languages. There's a companion Senate bill. That's really great news. The bad news is neither one of them has been into a committee yet. So that means it's probably gonna die. So, you know,
047but when you, I mean, what a great idea and it's re you know, as a school board member, it's looking out for the student, like imagine what our proficiency numbers would look like. If we would allow ELL kids to test in their native language, but we're not there yet in Florida. Hopefully we'll get there next session, or maybe we'll get surprised this session. And this thing will stop the Life. That's certainly one word watching. We've accommodated students from other languages and other ways through the years with uses of dictionaries in their native language and that sort of thing, those accommodations are in place, but that would be a game changer. We'll see, Well, this, this I'll say it it's, it's, it's pertaining Tavis to the curriculum is pertaining to what we've been talking about. But,
048but it's not necessarily where we are. And I've had thoughts about this for years. And when it comes to textbooks and testing and that sort of thing, our kids, our kids are coming from their homes and into schools with phones and tablets in their hands from the jump. And they can manipulate these probably better than we can yet. Then we sit them down at a desk and bring them a book that they, that they can read the same book in their form that they know. And then we say, okay, come test. And by the way, you've got to take this tab and pull off the seal because it's sealed and open up to page one. And you have someone read. I mean, I'm, I know it's not, but I'm just being facetious about SATs and
049how we used to do it. Right. Is there a thinking broad and I'm not, I'm not in the district. This is not something we can do, but I'm talking about in education in general. Is there a thinking that why are we still in those days? Not that anybody in here were old or anything, but, but no, because that's all, I mean, I took the same test, right? So at some point you take a kid from the environment and the way they learn and then put them over here and say, take this test on this computer and use this mouse that they don't even know. Like we don't even have a, my kids are on tablets and iPads, like don't even have this or they're on the, so it's just, I don't know. Is there anything
050in the industry as, as we see, like in curriculum, moving towards that, to where this is where kids are, and I think we've got to get out of, this is the way education was 30 years ago. I'm sorry. That's where we're kids are far more advanced with things. And I almost think that sometimes when you go backwards on a way that you test the, the quote unquote attention span is because what is this? What is a, what is a pencil and bubble sheet right now? Those Cantrell's are great when you're grading as a teacher, but if you did it on a tablet, so I don't know. I mean, I hope you get where I'm coming from. Absolutely. I mean, you, you sit a student down for an AP exam and they're writing three essays and
051their hands are like, like, are you kidding me? I mean, if you tried to write pages and pages with your hand recently, it's hard. So, so there is talk and discussion for the college board to move to computer-based testing. You know, that the sat in the very near future and AP exams in the very near, near future may be on computer-based type type examination. So they're leaning towards that. Of course we know our state tests are computer-based for the secondary level, with the exception of sixth grade. So steps are moving in that direction. Same thing with, with act they're, they're not there yet. And, and I don't, I don't know why the textbook materials do have an online component where students do have the opportunity to log into the platform, read the text, highlight it,
052annotate it, using the computer as well as print, because we need multiple options for our students as well. And so that the piece is there. So we can equip our students. When you, when you go to college, your textbook may be digital. And in fact, our science in secondary, our digital textbooks with some print components as, as needed to, to diversify the classrooms. So leaning towards that direction, I think COVID actually propelled it a little bit further when suddenly students were taking their AP test at home on their computer during the initial phase of COVID. I remember my son taking his AP test online from his bedroom, where there was a Proctor sitting in. So, so I think that opened the door a little bit faster, but they're, they're not there just yet. And Evan
053McCarthy is definitely the expert on our assessments, but stepping that way. But, but you're correct. I mean, my second grader is, is more efficient on his technology than I am. And I, I used to think myself quite that tech expert, and that was a long time ago. It was a long time ago. Yeah, By the way, Ms. Breslin's son won last night at the, the step awards. So Madam chair and board, that's our presentation day. We will move forward as Dr. Thompson outlined. And as you can see why I wanted to compliment them and their work, we promised the board and the superintendent, we would be well-informed and well positioned in this district to move forward to the best standards. And I think you can see why we have that degree of confidence. We appreciate
054the opportunity. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. This chap in Europe. Yeah. Mr. Kennedy. I was talking to Deb this while I was sitting there, which may violate some sort of board rule, but we, we, as long as we don't hear your phone, right, there's no $5 fine. The, there was following up on your Afghan question. And if you all know this I'll repeat, but there was a Sarasota county sheriff officer who is, is himself an Afghan American citizen. And he was able over the last year or two to bring 33 of his 33 families that are related to him to this area. And I think about 25 of those families have settled in Manatee county and are going to be, have children and we'll be entering our
055schools. And so Deb is planning to, she's already kind of signed up a community member who speaks Farsi and wants to help out and translate and things. And then she's also planning to hold a, a kind of a Q and a session with those families to see how we can help them and register and, you know, registered a ride if they need bus and all that stuff. So, and there's also some organizations that are in the area that connect, you know, Muslim Americans and Farsi speakers. And so we'll, we'll grow our Farsi resources to, to these families like we've done with Haitian Creole and Vietnamese and 90 some other languages that are spoken at Manatee county. So just to follow up on that, Thank you, Deb, Wherever you are. Yeah, yeah. But, but I'm actually
056here not to speak Farsi, but to maybe it's Farsi cause it's policies, but, but we have two sets of, of policies that are out there. We have one that are out being that have been advertised and are out for public comment. One set is set to be in front of you all on March 8th for an up or down vote. And then the other set, you all just approve to advertise on Tuesday evening, that will be voted on in April. So I'm here along with Mr. Teitelbaum to answer any questions or concerns or, you know, edits you might have along the way with these policies, the set that's going to be voted on on March 8th is a, the parent bill of rights, which is a very long comprehensive legislation that was passed last year
057by the Florida legislature. So there's a lot there, but obviously most of it, if not, all of it is, you know, statute language. So it's the world we live in now under this parent bill of rights umbrella. But, but I'm here to help you all navigate these policies in the world of policies. I'll just give you a little update. There was a, a set of policies released by Neil late 2021 that we're working on to get in front of you here soon. And then there'll be some that will be released come may. So what we're trying to do is get to that spot where when those may ones get released, where we're completely caught up on our policy updates, but it's a constant drum beat of updates. And then obviously the legislature is working on
058legislation as we speak, and that legislature ends March 11th. And then there's, you know, the discussions with governor and he signs things and vetoes things. And so obviously come probably very soon in the summer or early fall, we'll get a big release of policies that reflect the legislation that was just passed this March. That's probably been, that will be effective most likely July 1st of this year. So we're just trying to get in a good place so that we're ready to make sure our policies are up to date with Florida statute. That's your joke? Oh, sorry. The, some of the policies here would like to parental involvement, the textbook stuff. I mean, is this, who's the company we use again? I'm Sorry. I mean, are they, they're probably working with an understanding the legislature where
059they're at. I just, my only point is I don't want to do this. And all of a sudden three months from now, we got advertise for new ones because they got to revise it. Do what I mean, Right? Yeah. This is all, you know, essentially they're taking Florida statute, you know, some, some could even argue why even change your policy if it's already in law, but you do want your policies obviously to reflect Florida statute. So it's pretty much word for word Florida statute. Now what the legislature is doing right now, some of that may have to come back and edit some of these policies, but, but that's just part of the legislative process. Madam chair seat for a moment. Yes. Mr. Chu, it's very interesting when we get legislative changes, because part of the
060legislative changes themselves also require the school board itself to update policies, create new policies as well. So what we're seeing when Mr. Chapman comes up here from new Yola is that we're kind of being directed by the legislature. We have to come up to speed on certain things and they give us sometimes a time period to do it, or just tell us that we must create a policy. So this is really part of that particular process, Right? And also, you know, like the second set of policies that you'll be voting on in April that you just advertised on Tuesday night, you know, those were all updates from the federal government cause of title nine. So we, you know, that's when the, whether that's the department of justice or department of education of the United States
061makes updates, then those that have to float out every school district in. So when it comes to title nine, that's why, when you see, you know, you've got an update, you know, what is it almost a dozen policies when it comes to non-discrimination and anti harassment, because they all involve title nine. So, you know, that's where it gets, it gets a lot of work, but that's why we have no Yola right. To help us with that language. And most, I would like to say all school districts in Florida probably use Nao, but I would say, I'll just say most use Nila for, to, to utilize these updates because you know, they then back these policies with their legal team and that if it's, you know, for whatever reason, then their legal team helps, you know,
062in any kind of legal dispute, they back what they're, what they're doing. So that's part of the why we use Nila. No, ma'am, I'm sorry, Mr. Yeah, this is, I just wanna make this comment now at the workshop before we get to this at final approval during regular meeting, but on page seven, it's the front side of the fourth page, but halfway down it says pledge of allegiance, a student will be excused from reciting the pledge of allegiance or the declaration of independence upon written request by the student's parent in accordance with state law. I'll just share this now, and then we can, we don't have to talk about it. I just want to share my opinion on it. I think this is, would not stand to legal scrutiny. I get it that the, for
063taking guidance from the Florida legislature, but there are at least two that I can think of Supreme court of the United States cases, which the precedent set is that kids still have free speech rights, even at school. And those free speech rights. There's two things I have a problem with here. And this is not even in 10 years of teaching. I think maybe twice I had a kid who didn't want to get up for the pledge of allegiance. And I think it was more about, they were just exhausted and not that they were engaging in some political protest, but in any case, given the fact that the us Supreme court has said that students have free speech rights in school making the record, well, let me, let me back up having to opt out, like
064having to put something in writing to opt out of saying the pledge of being forced to say the pledge of allegiance, I don't believe will pass legal muster once it leaves the state of Florida, because maybe in Florida, that will be acceptable. But then again, to say that the student has to get a request by their parent, that conflicts with, I believe the student's free speech rights. So I I'd much rather get into this at a workshop when the what's the word I'm looking for. It's a little quieter than opening. This can of worms at a meeting, but that's really, that's the only comment I had on any of these. These all seem pretty routine and response to legislation. The attorney respond to the Thank you very much, Mr. Kennedy. I appreciate you bringing this
065to my attention. And Mr. Chapman's attention in advance, the Barnett case by far is a landmark case. It reversed the previous court decision with that particular case was really challenging. First amendment rights, religious freedom were a Jehovah witness was forced to stand salute the flag or force potential criminal or expulsion penalties. Now the Florida legislature in their particular statute. And we're different. We're gonna have a difference of opinion between opt-in and opt-out. They are not compelling students to stand there, giving the parental rights not to stand. So there that's the difference between a rural half of opinion is what is the difference? Is it not, are you not get pulling him to stainless the parent off sound? The fact is they're giving you the freedom of choice, whether or not they will allow their student
066to opt out from standing for the pledge of allegiance. Now, this has not had a constitutional challenge in any way, shape or form. So in this particular legislative change from the parental bill of rights, you are seeing a reiteration of that particular Florida statute for the pledge of allegiance, as well as the national Anthem. It actually goes on it's. It's a very interesting statute to read. So at this point in time, it would be consistent. The real question is what's the difference between opting in and opting out, but in terms of consistency for the Supreme court decision, as long as you have the freedom of choice, you would be, you would not be necessarily in violation. That's my opinion, the legal opinion, however, it's never been tested. Thank you. Thank you. I'm just going save
067on parent point of view. If my child didn't want to stand for the pledge of allegiance, I'd want to know, because I'd want to have a conversation with my child about it. I may not make a determination one way or another, but I'd want to at least have that conversation with my child to say, well, this is what it really means. And this is what I mean here. Here's all I would want to have that conversation. I wouldn't want the school to have the conversation. I wouldn't want to teach her how to have that conversation. I wouldn't want the principal to have to have the conversation. I would want to have that conversation with my child. So I think for me, that makes sense as a parent, I can see the, how can I understand
068your point of view of it infringing on a child, right? But I'm the parent. And if my child wants to sit down for that or not recite that, I'm going to have a real conversation with my kid about that and talk about family members that went to war so that you could do that. So to me, I couldn't see doing anything other than allowing the parent to have that say, but I do understand your point. And you know, we probably come from different sides of it too, because you taught high school. So you saw a child that might more willingly do that. And I taught elementary school where a kid really didn't understand that. And it wasn't expectation of this is what we do. Whereas when you get in high school, they go, well, hold
069on, I'm going to question everything. You know what I mean? So that, I think that, that, that could also be part of it too. You know, you're laughing over there cause you taught high school too. I have that two high schoolers, But if your child said, I don't want to recite the pledge of allegiance, I am a hundred percent sure or even stand I'm a hundred percent sure you'd want to know that and have a conversation. And I think to me, that's what this is asking for. And I think that that's appropriate. But I had one question on that same page. It says the school will not collect, obtain, or retain information on the political affiliation, voting history, religious affiliation, or biometric information of a student. And my question was, what is biometric information? What
070does that, what does that define us? Scan eyeballs. I can't skip. No, no really. I mean like Biometric Ms. Ms. Messenger. That's a great question. But technically you would check, you would consider what is the thumbprint is non-prod biometric. You could argue, it could be anything. It's a unique identifier of one individual, but Mr. Kenny's correct. What is the biometric scan, Mr. Kennedy? It is your thumbprint. That scan is your eyeballs. And sometimes in combination with your voice, believe it or not is biometric to a certain extent. However, we're going to go. There'll be a little bit in the weeds on that one. I Just, that one was Well here in the school district, we do not collect biometric And we will, and we will not. So This is what we did adult. We have
071don't they have to go through screening didn't I have to do Nope. That's us. That's us for level two screening. Ms. Ms. Foreman, It says, have a parents, student, a student, parent, or siblings. It doesn't say of employees. It says of parents, students or siblings. Okay. But don't we Check out the parent before we let them, Well, we go through the lung for the Jennifer, just Jessica. Okay. Hold on. We're going to only speak one person at a time. Mr. Chapman, why don't you start? And then we'll let Mr. Tatango I'll yield my time to hop off my apology. Madam chair. Okay. I did have Jessica loans for that. It allows two different things and allows people to be leveled, to screen that's purposes of employment for clearances that allows you as a board member
072to go anywhere. You want to go, et cetera, et cetera, contractors as well, that are level two screen, but there are also parts of the Jessica lawns for that, that allows individuals to be escorted upon the campus as well to still be in compliance so that it's not necessarily pure level two screening. There are other ways of doing it also in the Jessica Lunsford act. When we have contractors separating that particular area, fenced in it, fenced out, really not fenced in would be another, another thing. And again, I apologize, Ms. Ms. I'm excited about the stuff Clearly all fired up over there. If you sign up to be a volunteer, like as a parent, you can sign up to be a volunteer. And if you do that, they don't take your fingerprint. You do have
073to do like a questionnaire and take like a course and, and they do check your name. I think they do like a name check to and say you're approved or whatever, but they don't take your fingerprint. If you just want to go chaperone at your child's field trip, it's it's they do have a process and you do have to become a volunteer and take the class and go through whatever background check they do, but it's not biometric information. And now it is against the state's database. Yeah. I mean, that's it. Yeah. And they do. I think they I'm sure they do some sort of other name check or whatever when you go through it. But were there other questions about the policies before us? My question with that same thing with C, there is the
074charter schools in the district, are they, they follow the same policies or they can either adopt them or not adopt them. They, now, if it's for, to statute, they're going to have to follow it. But when it comes to our policies, they are not following our, our policies when it comes to in our policy manual. Okay. Gotcha. Cause that right there, I mean, I would just, if there was a charter school up there required you to have to be some kind of religion or whatever that, you know, to be in the school, I'm not saying there is, or that I know, but that was my question, Mrs. Foreman, this, I think this whole thing was your baby. So The reason for it. Okay. And I wanted to make this comment is that the format that
075we were given at the, at the board meeting was very different from this. Okay. It was hard to read. It was jumbled things work where, where the, the board had to make a decision, for example, to corporal punishment, that one really stood out to me is that it was still in there. There was a box to check or not, but th that bothered me. So I, this form, it is beautiful. Whoever did it. Thank you. I would ask that somebody take a look at what's on the website for the public to review, to make sure that it has got the clarity that this one does, you know, because I just, I couldn't follow the other one. Yes. So this one's excellent. And then the, the other thing is, is there a way are a hundred
076percent of these changes Neil are driven or are there some district driven changes as well Comes to this set? It's probably a hundred percent of this set because it's, it's strictly out of Florida statute in the, in the title nine, for example, there are a few decisions that Mr. Teitelbaum had to be consulted on when it came to, you know, how many days does a person have to put in a claim, a claim about discrimination? You know, whether it's 10 days or 15 days, that, that kind of thing. So I would say most, if not all policies, 99.5% is right out of a Florida statute or recommended from new Yola. And then there's probably less than 1% that, that we would have to make a minor decision here. There, obviously I didn't even know that
077in Florida school districts could still do corporal punishment. That was something I had to learn. So that was something that you all as a board could decide on if you'd like, but I figured that box could be checked and, and taken out of that policy of not having corporate punishment here in Manatee county. So, so there's, there's decisions like that. I don't want to say easy decisions, but decisions that I think administration can make that would coincide with what makes sense here in Manatee county. But obviously if there are decisions that require board action, we, I, I even Mr. Teitelbaum would certainly bring that to you all to make sure that you all, if there's big decisions to be made, could make that decision. Well, all of these are board decisions, Right. But I, I
078met the, the kind of nuts and bolts of running the school district. Is there a way to identify with it within your format of what is district driven and what is sure? I can, I can do that Colors or whatever I can Do. That's a good recommendation Or something to sure. So that we can, but we know what we're looking at. Sure, Sure. I don't think there's anything in this, but I think we've had that before where it was more than one color. Yeah. We've been green and red, but Yes, just one thing very quickly, Ms. Foreman response to the Neola format itself, you almost sometimes give, gives choices. And the best part of being the general counsel and working with Mr. Chapman is we actually know the consistency of what our other policies state.
079So sometimes within some of those choices, we look for consistency of how things are done, review processes. These are just strictly procedural administration type of decisions. They're not changing the substance. They just, and again, they will give you guidelines, box a box B. And sometimes I will look with Mr. Chapman and say, oh, by the way, the title nine, we have a tremendous section of the website. This would be consistent of what we're doing. So we're looking for consistency in some of the small choices that Yola does give us to make. Not every policy is laid in with multiple choice, check the check, the blank. But we, we do look again to make sure that whatever we are choosing is consistent with the mission of the district, our student progression plan, our, our, our code
080of student conduct is all these other factors that we always look to in Mr. Chapman, I bring the bring, I call them the Bible's out. We bring all the Bibles out to say, this is what we already have. This would be consistent. Yeah. For like, for example, in the anti harassment policy, you know, the box is checked for staff attorney, which would be Mitchell Teitelbaum instead of board attorney Mr. Guy. So, you know, like, for example, what number is that? Oh, a 1362. Or for example, in some of these school safety ones, you know, many school districts have different types of police organizations, right? So in ours, it's the county sheriff and it's the city Palmetto's city of Bradington city homes, beach, you know, so some of those boxes are checked rather than state police
081or some other type, you know, law enforcement jurisdiction that might happen in other counties. So The there's, there's a section here on Excel options, the ACC E L program. I mean, that is, that is unique to our county, isn't it? Or our district let's see, I don't think these pages are numbered third page, page five, right under, underneath the right. Yes. Like that is unique to our district. Right, right. Okay. Okay. And again, that's, you know, like again, if corporate punishment was unique to our district that, But this would not be Neela driven, this would be Yeah. And that's something like, to your example, it could be a different color, perhaps. So I, I don't think that's a great suggestion. Okay. That easily done. And there any other questions? Nope. Nope. So just to understand
082in the future, when it comes before us for approval, you want, do you want to see both options, but what the district intends to put forward, or do you only want to see what the district intends to put forward? Because you said that, that you didn't like the presentation at the board, which is why you wanted to have this workshop. Do you want to continue to have a workshop about policies before they come before us? Like, so we continued to do this, which is fine. I'm just, I just want to understand what your goal like for future agendas, For future agendas. We are required to have a reading of the policy. Okay. There's a, there's a T the time limits, let's see, it requires 28 days between the boat and the second reading. So you
083start with a reading, your advertise, and then you have the second reading and, and the, the, the public meetings. So I ever since I took this class, okay, I'm a little uncomfortable with how we're doing it, because we don't really read them. We just say, here they are folks, you know, now we're going to advertise them. And I read them. I do too. But, but, so I don't know if there's a better way to do that. Thinking about the meeting, like allowed, like the whole thing to individually. Well, I, I, I could come to the podium and, you know, maybe not, but I, I know the superintendent reads the titles, but I could potentially read the titles and just explain to you that these are, you know, came from this, you know, from the statute
084new statutes. And, and then to your suggestion, as you'll see, you know, in red and green and purple here are the corrections we made and here are the decisions we made, you know, not a comprehensive thing, but just a brief so that anybody listening could, could understand what, what is, you know, so for example, this, I would have said, you know, the parent bill of rights was a huge piece of legislation last year. This is, you know, it's all been codified in state law. This is now Nicola's policies that reflect what's in statute. And we now need to put these in our policies so that parents know what their rights are under this new legislation. And then there's some other updated legislation here relating to school safety and our guardian program. And, you know, and
085again, reflecting a state code and state statute, would that be helpful, I guess, to maybe do a little more of a Sort of like Mr. Barres, Ron does with the budget amendments up into say what they are, it's, it's a better transparency for the public, rather than just reading emergency removal of students. Well, what about emergency removal of students what's, what's changing and what, Maybe it's some sort of summary, Mr. Di did you just something else to add? I was just going to chime in. Yeah. I believe what a board member for men is asking for is not that a verbatim reading of the proposed rule change happens, but that the staff gives a little report. That's also to the public of the subject, matter of the changes, but the all that's required by the
086rulemaking under one 20 for any agency, not just the school board is that it be published and that the public can get a copy of it and read it themselves. Okay. So I just want to make sure that we are moving forward in a way that you would like workshops like this, or you'd prefer that when it comes before us for advertisement, that someone from the district, she traveling gives just a summarization of each of the major changes and topics At the meeting. I had That meeting, I think it would be The first meeting that we approved for the Advertising advertising. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Is that okay? I just want to make sure we're all on the same page and we get that in. However we want to do it. There, there have been
087times in the past where we did like big policy reviews and we did have like a lengthy workshop about those discussions. And if there's something new, like a brand new policy, like I think that those, you know what I mean, we should continue to have these, Those are probably coming, right. We, we know of two pieces of legislation that are working their way through that. We're going to need some explanation. You, you and the public are probably going to need some explanation of how the district is going to reflect this in policy when it comes to some of these items that are moving through the legislature now. So I think that's important to have that discuss whether it's a, probably a workshop, but maybe so that way, you know, to your point, that everybody understands
088what, what is happening in full transparency, that we're not just trying to put policies all together and put, you know, just kind of put them through the dark of night. So, Right. I guess that's my point too. I was like, there'll be times where I think we will need a workshop still to discuss certain big things that come before us, that we know it's going to be a hot topic, or we know is a significant change or, or warrant a significant amount of discussion. Yeah. The Parkland shooting, you know, all the policies that involve that you've heard. And then, and then the, that the, the coattails, right. So, you know, like even, you know, Mr. Scott Hanson has to come up here and talk about the alert system and all the other things that then
089come from that policy. So I think that's important to, for people to relay what, why, you know, why are we doing scent cheesecakes? Well, it's because of the policy, which is because of this legislation because of this Florida statute. So, or just like we just saw in the presentation before this, you know, the best standards and the textbook adoptions, and we have policies on textbook adoption and instructional materials and how parents can, you know, you know, add public comment to that and view things and their rights and so on and so forth. So that's all codified in our, in our policies. Are there any other questions about the policies or any other discussion that the board would like to have on these policies? And Mr. Chapman did also bring up the ones that we had
090put out for advertising at the last meeting. And I know that it was mostly federal changes, but is there any conversation or discussion about any of that? No. Okay. Then thank you, Mr. Chapman. Thank you. And with that, we have, I'm sorry. I want to say one thing before we adjourn. I just want to catch, we're not, we have public comment. Oh, oh, sorry. Mr. Nelson, come on down Mr. Nelson, Before I start my remarks, I'm norm Nelson and citizens. I want to thank you for this, but if you apply auto appreciate Nicola. If you were here, when you started and you took two hours to do one page of one, we got nothing done. And you hire these people. Now married, done a great job. I let you know that I have agreed to
091meet with Mary regarding the budget and amendments. And won't talk about that until I hear and I get together. But the other thing on my agenda is there's a lack of attention, attention to a particular problem. And that's a citizens financial oversight committee. No, I attended your last two meetings. It just reinforced by ideas. You got to change that you're responsible. You promised us a citizens committee to do that. You promise us sitting in those last two meetings. Wasn't like, that was after three years for three years, you've got to get back and solve it. This is going to be a way of life, where in the future, the state, legislature's not going to give you more money, as you can see by and how he's taken my $20 million away from because they didn't
092comply with an order. The same thing as Putin taking over Rue Kane, because he thinks differently. One of the things that I've noticed over my years, working with board members say it's one of a comfortable, and now it comes to money. But back in Rochester, I wasn't citizen citizens board along with educators. And we talked about problems, especially financing. And how do we do with people? And we were out of sync, private industry. People were differently. Look, flats, Pete, I'm looking at, how do you take care of employees? You think differently? You're biased. Just like I'm biased because I have an industry. And that kind of obvious at my last meeting, I went to, you're got to give up some authority to the board. They look at things differently. Now I got what I want
093to hear. It's on a hood of a page where you advertised. Yeah, here it is. You don't speak the same language. This is part of your publications. She did. You did a great doing great things. You are, some of the presentations are thanks to your field. What is the view of the citizens about their money? What are their outcomes? Are they succeeding dare to be different. They appear to be different. And that's what you ought to give the authority to the committee in entered. You say workshop in Europe, what constitution, whatever it is that they ought to have the authority you think differently. Don't impose those on citizens. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. And that concludes public comment and you before. Thank you. I now have two things. Thanks Mr. Nelson. I didn't intend
094to bring this up today, but since you set it up for me, I'll talk about it now. So board members, we had a couple of meetings go. I brought up the idea about how to move forward with the, with the financial oversight committee. I suggested making it part of the audit committee. The board didn't want to go that way. And, and that, and that's fine, but I, I've kind of my thinking on, it's evolved a little bit. If, if the board would like to keep the structure intact as it, as it is. I think that's great. I think that's fine, but maybe we can kind of incorporate both ideas and Mrs. Foreman, I know you're you are, are ready and are going to be working with the C4 as our kind of liaison. I just
095want to put this out now as an idea. And if we want to come back to it, we can, but we keep the C4. We keep the citizens, financial oversight committee intact as it is, you know, after Mrs. Foreman's work, she can come back to us with some suggested charter changes if there are any, but I would still suggest that the, that my one idea that may be useful to keep is that we still hire an outside auditor to complete an audit of the entire one mil fund. And then that audit report can become a work product that the C FOC goes through. So they have something, they have an independent audit report that gives them a basis of something to work from. So just the thought kind of a meet in the middle, maybe
096from my previous idea. The other thing I want to say, it's Tuesday night near the end of the meeting. I sat at this very seat and I criticized the Florida legislature for just lining up and doing what they're told. And lo and behold, yesterday, our very own will. Robinson made me eat my words. And I, I tweeted at will immediately. My thanks and my support for his bravery, because seven, I believe seven Republican members of the Florida legislature bucked their party to say no to this, don't say gay bill. I've said before. I think it's a shame that LGBT kids who are already incredibly vulnerable are kind of being thrown into the political Malmstrom in an election year. It's really sad. So I really appreciate those seven and we'll, especially it really last night, I
097was really in the Tampa bay times reporting and said, you know, you know, will Robinson from Bradenton. It made me very proud to be from, from Manatee county yesterday. So will I eat my words? And thank you for your courageous stand yesterday. That's it. Any other comments he's got, let him drop that mic. Okay. It is 10 23. And with that, I will adjourn our workshop. Thank you very much.