School Board on 04-12-2022 4:00 PM - Apr 12, 2022

001Good afternoon Mr. Dick and members of the board. We are expecting Kate Deloach for an update on the session and she's stuck in traffic and hopes to be here in the next 10 minutes and to save time I asked Deb to do the report on the fund so I am moving it up if that is okay with you Mr. Dick. Very good. Thank you. So without further adieu. Thank you Superintendent and good evening Board Members. I did want to do an update to talk about the ESSER and ARP funds that the district has received and where we are in actually spending these funds. This is through March 31 of this calendar year, and I've got some numbers on here that are very, very tiny but I have given you all a sheet to look at,

002and I'm not going into a lot of detail, but I think the main objective of this is to kind of explain to you where we are in the spending of these funds, which funds are still open, and which ones have already closed, and basically kind of where we're at with the last round of the funds which are the ARP funds that actually just were released, so basically what we have done is we have spent all of the what we call ESSER one fund, the fundamentals from the DOE. That you will have been spent and submitted the reports to the DOE and got good feedback from them and no issues. We had -- we have multiple what they call rising K rising kindergarten funds in multiple phases and that is primarily Pre-K and head start funding.

003That is going to be used over the summer with summer school and working with head start to get those funds spent and those are out and there active. They're active until the end of May and the end of March 23 for some of those so we're working diligently to get those put in place and spent. We were in the final throws of spending some of the final ESSER two funds for academic acceleration and non enrollment assistance and we were hearing that the DOE were going to take some of the funds back because they weren't being spent. We haven't gotten final notification of that but we heard it's coming so our great team worked very hard to make sure that we put had appropriate expenditures in place on there so we basically by this time right

004now during the month you will see we have small balances left but we basically have drawn down all those funds. Has that money been well spent? I guess we got a report today that inflation is higher than it has been in 40 years and from my opinion it's the wash of COVID relief funds dumped into the economy and sounds like you got a notice from Tallahassee that if you're not using this money it's going to come back, but you made the decision let's go ahead and find a way to spend it and that as a taxpayer is concerning to me that we have that attitude towards these funds. Again if we don't really need them, they're not adding val, making up for lost revenues or lesses I don't want to see us spending the money

005just because we can. No, we didn't incur additional expenses. We took expenses and the ARP3 funds and moved them to ARP two so nothing was added. There were no new expenditures and shifted the funding source of what we were using those for because what happens is they will take those funds back and they will redistribute them but they will give them a different purpose and so we just didn't want to have to deal with -- we were going to have to do change the follow-upping source on some of those anyway so we said let's move some of the ARP funded expenditures and are closely what we represented to the board what we were going to use the funds for and if you look at the sheet 63% of the funds went to pay for additional

006salaries for teachers to work doing tutoring, actually doing summer school and everything we told the DOE we were going to get the students back in and take care of learning loss so we didn't arbitrarily spend to spend. That's never what I would want to do. The problem we had we are using some of the to fund salaries which takes time to spend, and unfortunately the legislature is saying over and over again nobody is spending these funds yet they have given us three years to spend them, so it puts us in a bad situation and like I said I would never spend additional expenses for no reason whatsoever. They're all have been planned -- I didn't say no reason whatsoever but a good productive reason. It sounds likes you're speak on one side and but we're

007going to make sure they're not going back to Tallahassee. Because we have plans for them and we're in that process and again we were told we had to the end of September 2023 so we had planned those so we had current expenditures that we're making off of the ARP funds that we put on the ESSER two funds instead and I don't want to give that money back to Tallahassee. I want to show we're spending the money and getting results with spending the money appropriately. We did everything we said we were going to do. Could we see something more detailed on that how the money has been expended and the results we have gotten out of that expenditure? Again lumping something here rising K phase five, phase six with the numbers doesn't give me a lot

008of explanation what is going on with those. If you look at the right hand side I break it out how much is spent on salaries and benefits, what went to Charter School and private schools , what we pay professional services for which is again minimal, again minimal travel and the majority are supplies and textbooks, things that we use for curriculum purposes and dues and fees and I thought I am not sure what other detail you're looking for. Like salaries. Can you give an explanation and the teacher -- the typical teacher that iset going some of the ESSER funds how much additional time are they working beyond the workday? How many kids are participating in the tutoring program in and what are the hours logged to justify these expenditures? Okay. We can get this information. We

009paying teachers extra to do tutoring in the mornings and the afternoon and on Saturdays. I know we're paying them but are kids showing snap what kind of work is being done in these sessions? If we can get an explanation of that I would certainly -- Certainly. We can do that. Also just to again to kind of let you know that the ESSER three funds, the ARP funds that we applied for back in October we just received confirmation that funding has been approved and so again what we hear from the legislature is that school districts are not spending these funds, but what I show you on here is that if you take out the ESSER three funds that were just awarded we have spent 87% of the funding that we have received, so again I don't

010want to spend just to spend, but we are trying to accomplish both things, you know provide the students with what they need, but also spend these funds accordingly, and it would be -- I think it would be a tremendous loss if the state decided to not distribute these funds because school districts have made plans. We've hired people that we're paying. We notified them they're short term funds and once those funds are gone those positions are gone, but we heard over and over again those positions have provided great services to the students. [Off Mic]. I can't. Well [Off Mic]. We can't hear you. [Off Mic]. -- [INAUDIBLE] positions doing extra work? So everything except for the 2.4 million in ESSER three those are all new positions. Everything else is for additional work And so when that

011runs out attrition is going to take care of dissolving those positions or will general revenue be required to continue any of the positions? We already have been working with the school during the budget process to say here's the positions that you have that are going to be going away. What's your plan? When a teacher gives notice -- when somebody gives notice that's the time to start looking at moving these people into different positions, or if it's a position you think you need to keep you're going to have to swap that with something you have existing to make it a net zero because we can't. We're not going to have the funding to continue those so we're preparing the schools to make sure that we do deal with this through attrition and we're seeing a number

012of people retiring and we already upon kind of -- some positions that were vacant we're not going to hire those and we're dealing with it and closely monitoring it. So you have -- I gather what you said because you were concerned that the state was going to pull some money back you shifted some of that money to pay for other things that are ongoing right now? Is that correct? We shifted things that we were paying out what the ARP funds, ESSER three. Yeah, so you wanted to spend that money so let's say you have spent all the funds would the state say we're taking 10% from every district? I don't think so. What they did in the past when they shut down some of the other funds they didn't just give us anymore revenue. We

013couldn't draw down funding from the grants and they just shut them down but what they do they consolidate all the funds back into another pool and send us another RFA. What they did with some of the other funds they created a homeless grant and we applied for that and we were able to receive some funding for that, so there really is -- it's going to come back to the school district. It just comes back in a different form. I'm not sure I understand the rationale. So as you sent to the state to show that you are spending the money do they also ask to see some results of what happened? Oh yes. That's part of what we have to have to show. Can we see that. We haven't tested final because testing just happened. What

014I mean is like he said so we responsibility $2 million and we feel that the students got this extra time and so if have to send something like that to the state send it to the board? Okay. We will include you. We will bring back information on not only extensive details how this was spent but what the student outcome is. So I think it's important to note before the funds are released by the state we have to give a detailed spending plan so they won't release the money until they answer that plan so all those have to be in order before the money is released so what we do is just follow our spending plan based on what we reported to the state of what we were going to do. Right. So what would happen

015and your plan and everyone liked it but you're halfway through the plan and what if something wasn't working out the way you expected or wanted? We can file a budget amendment with them and we've had to do that at certain instances and they have to approve it but it's funded. And basically you know all of this is interrelated in that all trying to cater to the students' needs and increase you know grades and testing scores and so we have to provide assurances that we are going to monitor these types of things, and report that fact. We just haven't to because they just did testing and we haven't got all of that information but I know the state is going to be looking at that very closely to see what yield districts did get with those

016funds, but we will come back with that information. But I thought it was important to note that the majority of it has gone to the teachers and additional duties, salaries and stipends and additional pay for summer school, so I felt good that we're spending appropriately and not paying for outside services and things like that, so as I said without the ESSER three funds we have spent 87% of all of our funds. We applied for the ARP funds Wednesday October 6, 2021. Waited very patiently and finally found out we got awarded March 17, 2022. It's still kind of fluid because the Governor hasn't signed the budget and this is part of the budget he's signing, and as I said the unspent funds for the academic acceleration and enrollment assistance will be redistributed by the DOE for

017other projects so we will have the ability to apply again for those grants as they come through. Do you have any other questions or is there any other things that you would like us to bring back and report to the board on -- we can put together a list of kind of what assurances and outcomes we've said we were going to do for the DOE and then we will kind of match those up with the progress on that and give you some stats. All right. Does that sound good? Thank you. Do you want -- Kate is here? [Off Mic]. Come up to the hot seat, the hot stand. Well anybody. Okay. Well, I want to take an opportunity to thank you all. It's a pleasure working with the board and for the district this session.

018I think overall we did exceptionally well. The biggest issue was obviously the concerns with 777 and we were able to get an amendment put in place that will mitigate the damage that would have caused. There were a couple of things I think that made our efforts this year successful they just wanted to touch O one was that we were able to have a very clean and concise amendment to the bill. Some of the other stakeholders that are concerns with the bill were recommending striking whole sections. Well, anyone who files a bill is not really going to want to completely gut their bill and what I think what set us a part was having something that kept the integrity of the bill there but fixed the issues that was going to cause a problem for us.

019We kind of partnered unofficially with Martin County who was in the same boat so I worked with their team and we worked together obviously engaging our representatives Mooney and Senator Rodriguez. She I will say was fantastic when we were first engaged on this it was right before a finance and tax meeting and she was able to raise the issue in the meeting and T'd us up for the amendment. The house was leading the charge on this bill and that took the representative to help us meet with Robinson follow up on that amendment and made sure it actually went into the final bill. I will say our amendment was the only amendment that was taken on the bill so there were a lot of efforts to change it but ours was you know put into the

020bill in its final stop and now is going to be sent to the Governor shortly so it was a little hairy there at certain points just having only a little bit of time and one committee stop in each chamber to try to get it done but I think we had a really good argument. Your team was spectacular to work with and commutative and you know the pace is fast and getting answers back and feedback quickly makes our job easier and it was great working with and you I think there's a lot more we can do together whether it's monitoring legislation. Obviously there's a lot of education bills that are fired some of which you know right away are going to be problematic and some later in the process if amended and whether it be monitoring

021or tweaking legislation like we did in this case to either make it better or not apply to us. There's an area that I don't know if we have discussed before you the area of appropriations. I do think there are some things that our district could look at asking for state appropriation for looking at next session so we do have some time between this session ending and next session starting and I would love your feedback to potentially look at and answer any questions that you guys have what we worked on this session. [Off Mic]. So Kate I sent you today and I presented this to the board I believe in January, but it's our plan for Legislative Platform development. Yes. So I sent that to you, and so you know what we're going to do we're

022meeting with Jim moody on the tenth of May and go over his impressions of the session but what we're going to do over the spring is complete a needs assessment of possible District 2 concerns and share them with the board. Then we're going to draft our concerns and work with you to perhaps perhaps some possible legislation, so and then we're going to share our work because one of our main issues is that when we get platforms from other consortia they don't match what our needs are so we wanted to be more proactive about it and come up with what our needs are and then perhaps craft legislation with your assistance that we can float out there this summer and say this is what we're interested in and if it doesn't get into one of those

023platforms maybe we can advance on our own. I think that's an excellent idea. If I had a T-Shirt to wear around Tallahassee it would say "the Florida Keys are different" and there's so many things that don't fit with our needs and be aware of what you guys want and whether it's a stand alone bill or say this is what we want and let's find a way to amend it into one of the education bills that we know will come and is fantastic and I saw the Email of the development and that's a great framework for next session and I happy to work with you to get that structured and ready to go. [Off Mic]. Would have been $18 million. $18 million would have been the gap by missing that one election. You have poise. Let's

024do that math in our heads just for a minute. It's over $12,000 per employee. That's what money means to us. It's the end of the world we just missed it and it's a big deal, and we need somebody looking out after us you know. We're volunteer when is we do it. We need someone right there that if someone has an opportunity for a committee meeting or like you were pointing out it happens quickly so to have a person on the ground that can jump in and take advantage -- [Off Mic]. Thank you. And I will say the sponsors I don't think that was ever their intent so it was great to say to them we see what you're trying to do with this bill and I don't think anyone is opposed to greater input on

025local elections but here's what problem this will cause for us and how significant it would be, and once we were able to kind of get them with that they were overwhelmingly supportive of trying to make a change as long as it didn't ruin their pilgrim can I just -- if you can't answer this it's fine because I don't think you worked on it but one of the thins in the news recently is the lack of funding for aheck and affect the clinics in school if they don't find fund for example that and can you talk that process through how stuff likes that falls through the cracks or whatever happened to it? Sure. Full disclosure I serve on the board of aheck but do a number of budget items so it is budget is a tricky

026process. You know the funding is never guaranteed and what makes it particularly challenging and they stood by it this year if your funding is not put in the initial budgets that are passed by the House and Senate, you know the house will pass their budget and the Senate passes theirs and they go into conference to reconcile the two. If your item is not in one of the budgets you're essentially ineligible for being put in the budget during conference and it's my understanding that that aheck fell into that situation and the budgets and there was a limited opportunity to get it in by that point and the budget process is tricky and you will see things funded for years and drop off for one year and brand-new projects it gets funded for one year. It's a

027tricky process. Kate, you know when Andy was talking he was selling your ability and I'm the one that wouldn't have hired you except that I did renege on that and admit that I am very glad that we did and I will admit you did a great job and I will continue with you and Andy doesn't need to sell you anymore and I don't want him to sell anyone else and might go for the federal ones too, but now you would be great if you could solve the problem of we get these for every four years but because of the timing when ballots are printed and when the election is we're really going -- if we pass it this year two years now we're going to have to pass it again even though we're asking for

028four years. What can we do to get it passed for four years that we don't have to come up and ask the voters to do it again for four years? Do we have to ask for six? Can we do that what can we do? Is that a statutory limitation that requires it to come up? We can always look at tweaking that. One of the things that we looked at this year but kind of a secondary and the one that limit its to one per year and we weren't unable to get it done and they were restrictive on the amendments they were taking and focus on the big problematic part but that's something we can revisit. Please look into that. Yeah. [Off Mic]. The sales tax is 10 years out. I'm not one for spreading it

029out too long because I believe the taxpayers should see what you have done with the money you asked them to give us and if don't like it say no to us, but I think let's get four years because every two years is not -- could you maybe work with staff on that and between the two of you and with all this money we're paying you guys to solve this problem for us. Absolutely. We can definitely -- It's a guarantee. If money is involved? No problem. Kate you did a wonderful job. Thank you very much. Thank you guys and I look forward to working with you summer as we nail down a platform and if I can assist with anything else just let me know. Thank you. We are going to just adjourn for a reception

030for Katrina Madok and that will take us and then we be right on time for our 5:00 o'clock start. Okay. So we're going to adjourn for the celebration of Ms. Katrina Madok? Yes. Thank you [GAVEL] (recess) I will open up the School Board meeting. Do we have someone for Pledge of Allegiance. Yes we commandeered our cheerleaders to lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mr. Dick I do recommend that we adopt the agenda as presented. There have been no requests for changes. So moved. Second. The agenda is adopted. Thank you so much. I also would like to recommend approval of our March 8 school

031board minutes. Moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none the minutes are adopted. Thank you so much and Mr. Dick I'm going to ask to you join me as we recognize our gem for this evening and I'm going to Mr. Acevedo to lead us through the gem. [Off Mic] the Chairman of the board make their way down here. We would like to call up Ms. Katrina Madok. we are so proud tonight to recognize Katrina Madok science and gifted teacher for winning the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematical and Science Teaching. This recognition determined by a distinguished panel of mathematicians and scientists and educators is given by the President of the United States and one of the highest honors given in the country. Only 117 recipient this is year. It honors the dedication and hard work and important

032role that teachers play in supporting learners who will be future STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics professionals. The role they play is huge to ensure our nation's children are unable to unlock a world of possibilities. Katrina Madok became as a middle teacher and went to Adams and when the need a res to take up science classes she did so and she inspires her students and she has a love of learning that she brings to class and it's clear when you walk in the room and motivating her students to success and as one of her students said "she's a great teacher and she makes me smile everyday and she knows a lot of things" so we're very proud to give this special award to Katrina Madok and I will turn it over to the Superintendent for a

033few words. Thank you so much Amber. I'm so proud of Katrina. Now Mr. Dick has already to steal her and but we're going keep her at Gerald Adams and glad to celebrate her on her home turf and we have known about this for months and she makes things in class to have students learning and creativity and all of the things are in place in her classroom and we're proud and honored to have you as a teacher here and we're excited that we got national recognition in Monroe County and congratulations. [Applause] This sign was given for the award. . [Off Mic]. Thank you so much. Thank you cheerleaders for your help and showing off that recognition. [Applause] Next I would like to call up QSI junior Nina Bowen. [Applause] Hi Nina. Come on up right here.

034That's for you. So beginning our GEMS this evening we do have a lot because we're back in Key West. Nina is a junior in high school and received an $80,000 scholarship to Florida tech at the science state and engineering fair where she presented her project the effect of aeration on agricultural run off. This accomplishment was achieved through her dedication and diligence in creating and presenting and defending her project both at the district and state level. She was the district winner and went to state and awarded the $80,000 scholarship. We are extremely proud of her work and pleased to award her with this gem for providing us with such a great educational moment to see that recognition so congratulations Nina. [Applause] Congratulations. You can stay close by and the next group we're going to call up

035is the Key West cheerleaders and their coach Tiffany Hughes. [Applause] This tal evaluated team is being recognized for displaying outstanding sportsmanship at the state championship cheer compensation. Side line cheer leading is being about positive and pumps up the crowd but at competitive level teams want to claim a victory for themselves. The cheerleaders made it to state finals this year and although they didn't take a title they stood out for encouragement and sportsmanship and here's a letter that a party wrote "I want to complement your team and I listened as they were complementary on the teams on the mat and encouraging "you got this" and we were competing against each other but they cheered for each other and it warmed my heart and see the positivity they had for all of the of the teams it's

036amazing sportsmanship and team spirit. Competition can be fierced but we are so proud of them and award them with putting the pride first and set an example and an educational moment for these GEMS awards and I'm going to hand them out. Stormy Hilliard, the Superintendent will hand them to you. I will call your name. Deanna. Jazzin. Molly. Katyln. Jazz. Kayla, grace, Paris, Madison, Bridget, Carly, Isabella, Shania, and their coach that leads it off coach Tiffany Hughes. [Applause] [Off Mic]. Thank you again for showing how the Monroe County School District has sportsmanship. [Applause] Am next I would like to call out Mr. John Moller. [Applause] Mr. Moller is a familiar face to many. As many of you know sports in high school requires a tremendous amount of transportation in order to get teams to the mainland

037to play. Key West high school has been lucky to have two dedicated retire eyes who have given countless hours of drive time and I mean hundreds of thousands of hours during their careers to make sure that players get to the games. They're teachers that years ago decided to be certified bus drivers to help out. When they retired they saw the need of having trips want be canceled because of drivers and they stepped right up to that and they have made sure that our athletes have gotten to the mainland and been to competition and not had to cancel a thing and they give countless hours volunteer to help our students to be able to compete, keep their schedules and do all it takes to make them successful and we're happy to recognize Mr. Moller and Mr.

038James with this GEM and they have created an excellent educational moment so congratulations Mr. Moller. [Applause] Yes, I think you will be driving together in the future. Mr. James. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next I would like to call up Ms. Pauler [INAUDIBLE] and Elizabeth from Key West high school. [Applause] Dr. Siegel if you would like to join us. They have each been nominate thear a GEM with the work with the mock trail team. The sponsor Ms. Pauler has gone and above to start the team up and she has been so dedicated doing practices on the weekends and at night never missing a one for the students so they were able to start this mock trial team and boy did it take off. She recruits students and present for all of the sessions. Key

039West high school has been the district winner and representative at the state level for the past three years and they couldn't have done it without Libby, a Key West alumni and local attorney who volunteered countless hours since the team was formed working with the students preparing for competition and influencing them and preparing them for life. Here's are some of the ways that the students say she has helped them. Parker said "libby wants you to try and always helps. She contributes so much time and walks us through the concept and great advice and how to perform in the public speaking aspect. And another states "I want to state how thankful of the generous time she has given to the team. She takes time out of life and job to help us be successful and live up

040to our full potential" . For all that you have both done you're GEMS to students on the mock trial team which has benefited all of the students. [Applause] Thank you so much and thank you again Libby and Paula. [Applause] Now I would like to call up Ms. Rebecca Keenum from Poinciana. Ms. Whitehead if you would like to come up. She is a guidance counsel at poinsettia elementary and however she's gone above and beyond to support the intervention system at schools. Without being asked she stepped up to make sure that the schools are on track for model recognition and meet the criteria. Some of the extraordinary work is meeting with all points of can be the to determine support of it is needed for the rest of the school year want she's forwarded information and sent

041reminder to make sure that evaluations and timelines are met. She extended herself beyond Poinciana and the programs are going strong in the lower Keys throughout the year and making great educational moments for kids everyday and we appreciate her efforts and proud to award her with this GEM. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you and congratulations and thank you from all the PBIS coordinators. Next I would like to call up volunteer Tracy Halnext. [Applause] I have to say this this is amazing because I watched Tracy to grow up. Just to stand here and see what she has been done. She began volunteering before her daughter started school and known in the community as a cotton candy lady. She answered a SOS call and if you have been to a carnival the machine went down so she and her family

042brought their machine and made it a success and took the broken one home and got it works so no cotton candy was missed again. She has volunteered every month to make sure that the snack cart is when and even when the cotton candy is not acting right and if you have seen a picture or done it yourself you know you have a cotton candy outfit and makes sure every child gets a treat and a smile the whole time because of her efforts the school got $5,000 of grants and -- thank you for the time and support to the students. You Tracy are truly a GEM. Congratulations. [Applause] Next I would like to bring up Officer Keny Bierbower. [Applause] The staff at Poinciana states their School Resource Officer is extraordinary to say the least. They hit

043the Jackpot when he joined their team. He wears many hats during the school day. He controls traffic in the morning and the afternoon and that is a task. He constantly walks the campus to ensure it's safe and spends a lot of time interacting with the students so they see law enforcement officers as approach annual and being there to help them with their needs. Students with special needs make a pit stop to the office on the daily walk. He mentors students and acts as a check in and check out coach going far beyond his specified duties and his a friendly smile and asks how can I do more for the students? . Thank you officer for making a difference in the lives of students and staff. We are honored to present you with this GEM. [Applause]

044And now I would like to call down Ms. Deb Anders and call up Ms. Nancy oneck. [Applause] I'm going to let bev tell you about Nancy because she truly is a GEM and this is why. So this isn't as exciting as some of the other things you have done the cheerleaders, but for us it's exciting because Nancy on a typical year handles about $20 million or about $13 million in federal and state grants with the introduction of the pandemic relief funds we added about 20 million to her plate and Nancy does a great job with everything she touches. We've had no audit issues or comments. All of our compliance has been met. She makes sure that all deadlines are done. She does the budget reporting and really follows up with everything with the DOE and

045we couldn't do it without her so she is truly a GEM for the finance department. Thank you. [Applause] Congratulations and thank you again. It's wonderful when we get to share such good news and you can see a lot of great things are happening so thank you all and congratulations to all of our GEM recipients and our special award winner. [Applause] (no audio) You can have a report as long as there's no voting and you can have citizen input afterwards. You need to have citizen input before you do an action item. Let's have Pat do what he has. [Off Mic]. Mr. Dick Mr. Lefere going to give us a security and software training update and move into the Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium conceptual design. Greetings Board Members, Superintendent. As little bit of change in the order

046of the reports. I have three for you tonight. We will go with security and software training tonight. Nothing to present on that one but tied to the action items tonight and I wanted to give background and action items try and four and we contracted with a company called safe plans years ago for a system called the E rip and the information portal and all the plans and drills and where we do our training. That company was bought out by navigate 360 and they have the upgraded essentially what the erip program used to be and now call that their Management Information Systems which is a more common phrase for that type of application or that type of software, so that's going to be action Item Number 3 that will be up for your approval. Essentially an

047upgrade to erip and we're looking for your approval on that. Navigate 360 has also when they came to us to let us know they were taking over they also informed us they were partnering with the group that does the active shooter response protocol. Some of you may remember that protocol and previous one of the protocols that we used in Monroe County. They developed a significant amount of age appropriate training with the other protocol and we reviewed that and with the curriculum team and they're very happy with it. It made ELA attractive option for active shooter protocol and happy to get on board as that as well and with the board's approval of action Item four we would put plans in place to transition over the summer from the current protocol summer to Alice and don't

048see a issue with the transition and all of the protocols are very similar and our staff now because of all the drills we have been doing on the current protocol they're very familiar with those protocols, so I just wanted to provide you a little more background on those items for you in case there's any questions, so any questions on that? Hearing none I will go back to the top. So we'll go into the update on the Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium field construction project. Working with the design team and we developed a Master Plan for the project that we're bringing tonight for approval and the action item. As you heard before this project will be completed in a number of phases but the first step in order to do a phased plan like that is put

049everything on the table and develop a conceptual design for the Master Plan. This design includes everything from the scope of work along with some other items that came up through the design team meeting so I will start walking you through the document today and remind you this is a consult recall plan and very early in the process and many details of the design can be revisited once we move towards a schematic design so I will call that design up first then I have a graphic after that. I don't know how well that will turn out. Can you see my cursor on the screen? We'll walk through the plan as depicted here. This is along Kennedy Drive. Can you see a little area, entrance area there that will enter into the bleacher complex and underneath the

050complex. Underneath the bleacher project the bleachers themselves are restrooms and a concession stand. To the left side of the breech believers is the visitors locker room or bunk room however we want do that and it's depicted as a bunch room and the right side of the bleachers is the home locker room and proceeds out into the football field itself. The whole property due to the environmental mitigation would be where there are not hard services for buildings would be artificial turf. Coming in from the other side on the recs week side and this is the shell that you can see better in the graph and I can relocated from the other side. You come in here to the concession and restroom facility there. To the right as you come in is a maintenance facility to house

051all of the equipment for maintaining the field. The bleachers around the field itself, the dug out, and the batting cage, the bull pen is in front of the batting cage on the inside of the fence line. On this side is the other dug out as well as the batting cages for that side and the pitching, the bull pen. This building here is a maintenance -- I'm sorry, a weight room for the facility and some parking in that area itself. I will bring the presentation up now so you can get a look at the graphical depiction and again a little more apparent for you. Let's see if I can make my laser pointer work. Okay. So again coming in from Kennedy a promenade area, the believers 3,000 feet capacity and come in the stadium either side

052here and underneath the bleaches again concessions and two sets of restrooms and home locker room here and visiting locker room here and parking for visiting buses around to the baseball side. Again entering from the Kennedy Drive there's an option to do that. you can see the shell there, the maintenance facility, the concession and restroom for the baseball side, dug out, batting cage, bull pen, the behaviorers themselves, and the press box installed believers and we're making sure there's an response from Poinciana and the band preps there and come over from there for the games and one of the additions we made during the design process and accommodate the band in coming over. So the next step is kind of two fold with the board's approval on this Master Plan we can move into schematic design phase

053but before we do that we've asked the contractor to do some preliminary costing at what we believe we can accomplish in phase one of the project considering our budget of $15 million. Based on what we've seen recently and industry reports and cost of local projects we asked them to exclude the weight room, the visitor's bunk room locker room and the maintenance room from phase one and come in close to the $15 million budget. We still have concerns with that based on what we're seeing. [INAUDIBLE] mentioned earlier in the meeting about the inflation we're seeing and we're witnessing it here on the local maintenance projects we're trying to do this summer and some of the projects bid out with the college and the facility are coming in above bid and with Sugarloaf and that's what we

054will do and once we look at the options available based on the costing provided to us we will bring back to the School Board for you to review and get further direction from you how to proceed. With that overall I think everybody on the committee was happy with the final Master Plan and hope that the board is too and that meets my presentation and I am happy to answer any questions. Where is the press box going to be? The foot fall press box is in the bleachers And the baseball one is -- [INAUDIBLE] And a completely new structure. The press box -- yes, we're using -- [Off Mic] field and not replacing the bleachers. I can't speak whether they have been warranted but they're been inspected and in good condition and we can use them

055and appropriate for the new facility. As far as the baseball score board goes has that been addressed? Yes. And where is that going? It's right here. So people from all of the stands will now be able to see the score board? Yes, that was based on input from the baseball side, Yes. And then what the distance to the out field fence on right, on center, and on left? We're working with the coach on that. I have Email chains with him and Mr. Prior, our facilities planner. He had initial concerns that he heard at a meeting it was limited to 300 feet which is not true. We can go as deep as 390 in right center and left center and we shared that and I think he's happy and remember this is conceptual schematics and all

056of the details can continued to be discussed. My concern with the out field that we have kids hitting balls beyond 400. Understood And it screws up the numbers when you shorten it and right now Key West is a draw to play on our field but the minute we make it too small no one is going to want to play here. It's our intention to maximize working with the staff based on the constraints And I am looking at the bull pen and a single one for each side? Currently as depicted, Yes. And there's room to have two? We can discuss those details absolutely. Okay. A lot of what baseball has now isn't even in this depiction? Specifically what? The double bull pens -- Again that level of detail can be sorted out in schematic design. If

057we need to make them double that can be looked at. Okay. The storage area for them? There's storage within the concession restroom building and under neat the press box as I understand it. Their gym which is the only gym available to them some like other sports that have it at school. The gym training area they call it that's the weight room in phase one. If the weight room is excluded from phase one as I predict will be we need to provide something for the existing equipment And where will that go in. To be determined. So this is going to come out wrong and sound a little bit rude but what's the point of this depiction? . This Master Plan, the previous plan will lead us into schematic design. So all these changes that we're talking

058about right now are going to change at the schematic design level? Which changes specifically? Distances for the out field -- Yeah. The double bull pen. That is easily addressed in schematic design. That's what I am asking. Yeah. This is to say how pretty it can be -- I mean if you want to get more specific I can. The distance is about 390 and 340 to center field and that's a constraint based on where the bleachers are. It is what it is but we will maximize that so you have one distance of the out field fence as 342? I believe dead center is 342. I don't -- Again that's based on where we had to put the bleachers based on the city setbacks that are not currently in place. So this whole schematic is kind of

059squared out whereas the original field is more of an angle in order to give baseball longer out fields. We've now flipped it so that basically the front -- I'm going to talk about where the catcher would stand faces directly across to the middle of the football field rather than than being angled to get more out field space? I think that might be deceiving based on what we're look at on this view. Orientation of the baseball field is exactly the same as it is now. The reason -- The [INAUDIBLE] makes it look different. As stated the bleachers had to come closure because of the a setback requirement from Key West. That's where we lost some of the out field. [Off Mic]. We have not. Have you tried? We can look into that And then the other

060option for the football bleachers is to make them thinner and higher. We can certainly ask that question if that's the board's desire. What is the shortest field right now with the distance? I would have to get back with you but I think these numbers are very similar to what you're talking about at founders park. At [INAUDIBLE] what is the shortest? It's 409 in left center and 406 in right center so -- Center would be the shortest. I don't have the center dimension right now And what do you say the left and right field are in this concept? It can be as far as about 390. So if you're getting 390 you get 342 with the center so you're losing 40 feet. In other words, we know right field and left field line is longer the

061way and center field so the way it is now we lose 40 feet from the ends to the center. From the ends to the center but I don't know what we're losing from the current center dimension to -- I don't have that dimension and again this is all conceptual. We will come back to the board looking into the things brought up in regard to speak out variances from the city, changing dimensions and heights of bleachers. We can look at all those things if the board is concerned. I agree we should look to see what variance we can get and even a little -- I mean the problem is in the center and maybe we can do something with the center of the bleachers and extend them out a little bit and go into a little

062semi-circle into the center a little bit. Right now the center is 360 feet and our out fielders are already running into the fence to catch balls and those balls are hit into the bleachers. I mean there isn't -- you know the rules have changed and how much we can do and how much we can get. I don't know I think it would be asking a lot to make it bigger than it is now but at least if we can get to somewhat get to what we have now the only other answer is put a baseball field there. We have to have both field there is. We will take that direction back to the design team and we will have answers for you when we come back to you for schematic design or before that if

063we run into -- But you understand you could do a little semi circle in the center of the bleachers there and looks to me on one side you have more room. You can come down on the side now. I think that would be a challenge. Then you will lose capacity on the bleachers. You have to give and take on everything but I don't think you want to shorten -- do the best can you to not shorten your fences. We have the direction to look at it, yes absolutely. Can I ask are the baseball bleachers going -- [INAUDIBLE]. Yes. I guess you're limited. You need to have a back stop behind the catcher and looks really close there and have no room to go back anymore. Because we're using the bleachers in their position we're not

064dealing with the setback issue on that side. If we put new bleachers in -- We would have to move everything closure. Move further in? Yeah. Okay. I was going to argue about the bleachers but you could do a lot of work on repairing them. We could look at options of refurbishing as we do with a new facility we want everything looking good. Yeah. Do what you can on trying to keep those -- We will and we will come back to you with options. Any other questions? What kind of fence suggest going to be around the baseball field? There was a request for temporary fencing so we're looking at that. the option we're using at in the backyard would be something we could consider. It's a product we looked at very closely that is not only

065used there but a number of other fields across the country to include high school baseball fields and again no hard decision made on that. In fact if we maximize the out field depth we may want to look at a more permanent fence option. I think if you talk to softball you will hear that the non permanent fence suggest causing a danger so we want to look at more permanent fencing on the baseball field. That's the first I have heard of that but we will look into it. If we ask for a variance from the city is the City Commission making that decision? I assume. Or would the Planning Department do it alone or could the City Commission grant the variance? I assume it would be a Commission decision. So it would be a political decision,

066at least to get some space -- Mr. Griffiths I can clarify that for you. It goes through planning. There's a local planning agency. It goes up in tiers. [Off Mic]. Right. Commission has the final authority. Correct so when staff takes it up and go to whatever level. Typically -- depends what it is and there's conditions for everything. There's tests for variances as to the impact and evidence you need to show and yes it should be evaluated whether it meets those exceptions but it starts out at the staff level and if you have a negative staff report it could become political is what I am saying. The negative consideration moving the bleachers back is space available for the entrance and the cueing and we'll bring the advantages and disadvantages to you when we look at it.

067Almost seems like we need a new schematic and doesn't take take into account just football. The schematic design is coming up. This is not that. ) talking in the background) and we're over 400 and at the corners and now in the 300s and it's all because of the football bleachers not be able to setback more. It's definitely something that needs to be addressed before we start work on this project and I don't want to see us taking things away from baseball that they have paid for, created and made space for. Again this is conceptual. I would like to move forward in schematic design and bring it back to you as we progress with the project. Okay. Pat have the football people been deeply involved? Absolutely. Coach Hughes is part of the design committee And soccer?

068And we have a community rep as well. Okay. The athletic Director is on the design committee and representing all of the other sports. We use it for soccer, football and baseball. We're leaving that option available, Yes. Okay And I just want to reiterate my request to be invited to all future meetings on the field? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay thank you. I'm not done yet. Am I done? Are we doing Sugarloaf. Are we doing community input. You have to do the Consent Agenda. [Off Mic]. I can come back. Yeah. You're there. Go ahead. Go. Yeah. Okay. My last report is on Sugarloaf school. We're making good progress on that project and provide you an update especially for the Board Members that don't go by it everyday we thought would bring you up to speed. I

069wanted to show you a live shot from the camera that I can update right now. Columns are what we will support the entrance way covered entrance way that you will see in some of the other graphics that we have, so making good progress with that. We will go to the PowerPoint now. This is the live view. There's another picture from an elevated picture. Can you see that the walls are up. The roof is on. You can see one of the concrete columns up right there, so really coming along on this project. This view is a little bit dated but I wanted to show you the view from the first flow looking up through the supports for the second floor up into the roof that was just being completed at that time of that picture. This

070picture is a little more recent. Again the first floor you can see the second floor decking is in place and they're starting to frame the walls in. Even more recently here you can see again the first floor. It's got the HVAC ducting going through and you can see a couple of the classroom doors right there in the middle of it. Finally a look at the second floor with they're actually pouring the slab in that picture right there so you can see the slab going in on the second floor. Now for a quick review of the phasing over time as we work towards the time completion in May of next year. This is kind of the status quo. Right now you can see the roof of the building. It's not completely accurate but around this timeframe

071based on the plan we originally put together. In the fall we will continue finishing the classroom building and start renovations of the office building as well as construct the transportation office, and then in December we will reach substantial completion of the classroom building and set it up for the teachers and students to occupy coming off of the holiday break, and then once we get through the holiday break in January we will work towards the final site work setting up for final completion in May and then finally we will walk through some of the graphics that you have seen before. This is essentially the parent drop spot looking into the entrance way. There's that covered entry way that you saw the concrete columns already go up on. A view from the north looking over the project.

072A little bit from the Northeast. We are going to do some covered walk way work and some fencing work on the existing route and just one more final shot from the entrance way. That is the new entrance way to the office. So moving right along very exciting, very exciting project and we're very happy with the progress on it, so I stand for any questions on the Sugarloaf project. I was actually looking up to tour the facility on Monday. The projects have been great. It's my understanding it's perfectly on time which is amazing because we know things can happen so being on time is huge. They have had some challenges with supply chain and had to adjust accordingly. Fabulous work there. The one thing I want to make sure that with all the money that we're

073putting into our new buildings that when Sugarloaf is completed it's not going to be three different colors like the entire campus will be a single paint color I hope. We're working on that with Mr. Unky similar to what we did previously and make its uniform. Cohesive. Okay. And I also understand that the county is now working with us to playground improvements. Can you give me a little bit of information about that. Preliminary conversations putting an inter local agreement together but yes absolutely. Mr. UNK Yleading this effort with the local Homeowners Association. Right. In conjunction in coordination with the county but absolutely. We're in preliminary conversations about what they can provide. We're actually going to put some equipment in there that could be used by citizens and by students and the county is talking about maybe

074maybe putting stuff in too And is there any vote, motion, et cetera that this School Board has to make in order to move forward with those things that the county and others are willing to help provide on that field? Yeah. The Interlocal Agreement will ultimately have to come back to you. Will we see that? We're just getting it together. Okay thank you. Any other questions? Thank you Pat. At this time it's citizens input. Time is limited to three individual speakers and five minutes for the designated group. Transfer of time and/or groups is not permitted and submitted to each Board Member and to the Board Secretary prior to meeting will not read into the record. All statements must be addressed to the board and not address members individually and Board Members will not engage in a

075dialogue with public commenters and all speakers agree to comply with Code of Conduct per the code and will begin their presentation by stating the full time and their city or town of residence for the record. Do we have anyone registered to speak? Yes Mr. Dick. John jokum is representing the lower Keys group and representing five minutes. [INAUDIBLE] [Off Mic] and I usually talk about educating and don't indoctrinate and teach our kids how to think and not what to think and the Mission Statement was a perfect example of really great job of getting rid of Black Lives Matter flag out of the high school so congratulations on that. There was an article by keys weekly on March 14 by Charlotte twine entitled the "great resignation" and school district struggles to find teachers and as of March

0761 there are 47 openings. It didn't address a few things and this is where the Law Department is going to pay attention. Perked right up didn't you? So in August you have a referendum for a tax of half a cent. You should ask why these people are leaving? Maslow hierarchy of needs basically food and shelter is the number one need. If you don't get this passed it would be a $10,000 to $14,000 pay cut for these people. That's significant and for the number one need on the hierarchy they could leave, and where the law aspect is you're not disclosing this to the 47 openings that they may get a pay cut of $10,000 to $14,000 and it's a collective action lawsuit. Since you're a lawyer or most of you are or went to law school

077look up damages. You have left yourself open for a lawsuit because of the lack of disclosure. You need to address that. now I personally think you have time to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Okay which is a pleasant thing because the school year isn't over yet. You also need to address your current employees of this matter so they don't go after you. Now you have notice. It's on the ballot this tax. If it doesn't pass well there's consequences. Elections do have consequences as the great Hussein Barack Obama said. Now Warren Buffet had three rules don't lose money and make a profit and rule Number three and look at number one. Just disclose this. And you missed up so badly on this and appears you as the board is going after the teachers union.

078You do have some disclosure. Now the teachers union is woke. They're pushing an agenda. Educate do not indoctrinate. So and 14 days from now all these teachers are going to come to you and they're going to want to know if you're going to cut their pay. They're going to be negotiating that Mission Statement and that Strategic Plan. They're going to say put in no critical race theory and the result which is the law. You're not giving anything up. No ESL. You actually have inclusion Teacher of the Year I believe and not patriot Teacher of the Year. If you had a patriot teacher of the year that teacher would tell you different than our Attorney General that the first time there was a domestic terrorist was the Boston Tea Party. People like me speaking is not

079domestic terrorists and this election will be about taxation without representation. Your Mission Statement embraced Communism and as Donald Trump said we had gas at two dollars a gallon. Now we're looking -- if Biden is elected we will be at seven. The people. Their money back. They're going to say no to this tax. They're going to hit the teachers union and hit the national bank. It's up to you to address the lawsuit. Give full disclose and you are it appears again as you want to talk the teachers union. God bless you. You're addressing this wokism. You're doing a great job. I yield the balance of my time to Chairman John [INAUDIBLE]. Our next speaker is Ms. Carol Garcia she is representing the Key West community garden and is requesting five minutes. Hi. I am Carol Garcia

080a resident of Key West. I am here to tell you about the wonderful things that we do at the gardens on School Board property adjacent to the school. We worked in partnership with Monroe County schools and served this resource since 2008 want we thank you for this opportunity and honored you placed your trust in us. Our partnership makes good sense. We strive to educate Monroe County. Today we want to bring you up-to-date on the ways we're fulfilling our mission at the garden. My husband and I are proud members of the class of 1973 and grateful for the education in run run. Chris served in the air force and worked at [INAUDIBLE] for 34 years of service and I was a middle school library media specialist for 30 years. We understand at its best school prepares

081us for life. Lessons we learn make us adaptable, solve problems and ensure our sustainability. The community garden is truly an outdoor classroom. Mother nature holds classes daily and students of all ages attend lessons have been the gardens are made up of 25 plots and equal amount of land for communal food production and communal plots are worked by committees of gardeners. We offer a free membership to all school employees and teacher teachers to bring students to the garden. During COVID restrictions made it impossible to reach out to the community as we have in the past but now that COVID is at bay our art, science, health and nutrition, language arts and others will bring them to the garden and bring real world examples of concepts in the classroom making lessons interesting and relevant of the garden

082has a long stand relationship with the Montessori. Students attended to plots in the community garden. From a grant from the foundation of the Florida Keys we created their own. Founding member Debut worked with teachers to plan and construct beds at the school. This project has been extremely successful and students are harvesting healthy produce by countless lessons. We're neighbors with the [INAUDIBLE] and visit gardens to learn techniques and teach us what they know. We are happy to have a relationship with keys to be the change. This year we donated a plot to allow students to grow food and share with their families. We agreed to designate four for next year. This will enhance our joint educational mission and provide nutritious food to the community. We can't wait to have students in the garden. We offer opportunities

083to students. Students learn by doing in the garden and activities include composting maintenance and sign painting. The hours they earn can be applied to bright scholarships and club membership. Each year the garden holds lectures and workshops open to the public. This year offerings include a workshop on composting and harvestings seaweed to enrich sole and talk about native plans and pollinators and help the bees and plant propagation workshop. Our volunteers provide over 350 hours of service annually to maintain our space. Members of the garden, community partners and Key West students all help with the task to sustain this educational resource. These hours do not include the time that people spend cultivating food and plots. Member pays fee to share the cost of soil, seeds, equipment, and supplies and to keep the pests out and we are

084solely a cost recovery organization. We do not generate a profit. All money collected goes back to maintain the garden. In closing we want to thank you on behalf of all the citizens of Monroe County that are affected by the glee community garden including Monroe County students, kids and mark house and Keys to be the change and of course the members ever the garden that provide the time and the treasure to make it all happen. We look forward to many more years working with you, teaching, and learning and growing as the community garden. Thank you so much for your time. Our next speaker is Ms. Patti [INAUDIBLE]. Good evening everyone. Thank you for allowing me to be here. I really have nothing to say exempt they're great. They're great stewards of our garden and I would

085hate to lose that opportunity to have every one of them and I think Pat and others are handling it in the way we need to handle it and I think you're aware of what is going on based on the Emails you're getting from glee and mine so I don't think there's any need to spend more time on this so thank you very much. Our next speaker is [INAUDIBLE] and Mary [INAUDIBLE]. (phone ringing) approximately Well hello. Hi may I speak with Ms. Mary Feld. Yes speaking. As you requested you have joined the meeting of the Monroe County School District board toes address the board during this segment and the meeting is held at Key West City Hall and you're joined by speaker phone. Your comments are limited to three minutes and you can start by introducing

086yourself and give your comment. I will alert when the time is up and you may begin now. Thank you. My name is Mary [INAUDIBLE] and I live in [INAUDIBLE] Florida. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts today regarding part of the presentations to the students in the Sugarloaf school. My concern is the continuing broadcast of CNN into the classroom, home room time period for sure, maybe other times in class as well. My question is who is in charge of the material that is being broadcast? As I understand it the program of broadcast on YouTube. According to the CNN website parental control consent is required. Does anyone in the administration review the broadcast prior to the presentation or are you just taking the word of CNN10 that it's appropriate for school age children? The

087advertising says it's for grades seven to high school but one commented on the CNN website that she shows it to her sixth grade class. Have any members of the School Board viewed what is presented? Has the Superintendent viewed the broadcast? I took the liberty reviewing the material that was offered on March. There was a time varied lengths from one minute to 1.2 minutes to two minutes and subjects varying on the conflict in Ukraine to the war drone malfunction experienced by entertainer Katy Perry and Lionel Richie on the American Idol program and a rip in the derriere of her exceptional tight pants but adhering to the theater tradition. We seem to have lost the call. Would you like me to call back or shall I continue? (phone ringing). Hello. Ms. Feld this is healthier calling from

088the Monroe County School Board. Keep dropping the call. Our next speaker is Ms. Tia and she is representing mom is requesting five minutes. Good afternoon. My name is tia and I'm a chapter Chair for a local mom's group called moms for liberty. We have been getting some wonderful feedback from moms in the area on their hopes for the schools. As a big proponent of House Bill 1557 and 1467 and also the fairness in women's sports act all been by our Governor I am excited to see how the district handles this monumental task making all the changes these bills and new laws require. As the Board of Education you're required to oversee the district and ensure compliance to all these changes by July. This is actually a huge task for such a short time and as

089parents we are hopeful this task is taken very seriously. Our first big step is audit all the schools to see where we stand in each location. As parents we see that different schools in Monroe County often interpret policy differently. As a board it would be great to provide a little more guidance to the schools on expectations and try to provide parentses with a bit more consistency in what the schools are doing. This is important because parents are looking for transparency in what the schools do. When individual School Administrators make different decisions there's often no oversight or accountability. Whether it is updating the public daily with current curriculum changes ensuring that teachers are not teaching outside their wheelhouse, ensuring teachers and staff are not promoting personal opinions on the walls or in the classroom, sharing all

090medical and mental health services the school provides, and informing parents of any changes in the social structure of the school we need someone watching each school to avoid lawsuits. I would like to ask the board to add parents to whatever task force is created to address these bills. My husband and I would be happy to be a part of this. I would also like to ask for a parent liaison position to be created in each school to ensure compliance and work with parents. I would suggest this person not be under the school but separate to avoid influence or intimidation. This person could report back and work with the board so there's more communication and consistency throughout the district the bills are wonderful because they address a real issue. Parentings want to be informed on what

091the school is doing on multiple issues. This way they can make choices whether they're comfortable having their kid going to public school at all or opting out of a few things that are uncomfortable. When we don't inform parents or policy is different throughout the district parents get suspicious. Now is a very tumultuous time and parents are skeptical and not trusting of schools. I am hoping by following each step in the bills we can have parents trust the schools again. We want transparency on all the actions the schools take for their kids and the kids around them that affect them. Together we can work to continue to create schools the whole community can be proud of. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Tim Cullors. Thanks for having me. Tim Cullors, [INAUDIBLE] key. Our children are

092not Guinea pigs. You're saying thanks Tim. We know that unfortunately what we have been hearing from parents that some of the teachers and Administrators don't understand this -- at least some of them aren't acting like they do. The kids should be taught facts not random programs that somebody dreamed up or an academic drummed up or untested programs. As you perform the upcoming audit on the schools with the bills that just passes I hope you get the point across to the Administrators and teachers. Any new program they come up I would request to have one the program name, who created it and where it was created? What purpose and intention it has? And where it's already been tried and proven to work? Without those three points it would be indeed an experiment on the children. I

093yield the balance of my time to the Chairman. Our next speaker is Ms. Simon [INAUDIBLE]. Simon peer, Key West. Nice to see you again. I will start with a quote from Ronald Reagan 1964. "freedom is never one generation from extinction." based on statistics on the program for international student assessment the U.S. ranked 40 of 72 in mathematics, 25 of 72 in science, 24 of 72 in reading and the Pew research showed overall research that the U.S. ranked 38 out of 71 countries. Per a U.S. News and World Report Florida ranked 16 in the U.S. for Pre-K through 12. Let's do statistics. That's the top 1/3 in the U.S.. I didn't see Monroe County. I didn't look that up. In years gone by the U.S. ranked much higher. For example in 1990 the U.S. ranked six

094in all of the world so what happened? That's what I'm going to focus on here because I'm going to keep these things in mind when you do these audits. II suspect that many of the people left in the room graduated high school maybe about or before 1990 and that's pretty important because all of us who did we came from an era when education was the development of basic skills like reading, writing, arithmetic and the civic method so we may not consider besides technology aiding in instruction much has changed in regard to the purpose of learning regarding the skills development and the ability to actually think, question and solve problems. Shortly after the federal Department of Education was formed things changed. Around 1985 Palo Ferrari and wrote a book "politics of education, power and liberation" that

095basically puts context above content for learn and he's shaped how learning went forward ever since then. In 2006 the Secretary of Education -- the U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret spelling signed an agreement that merged the U.S. with Soviet union education system. I know this sounds crazy but look it up and I say all of this to spotlight School Board parents listening and Administrators it's to you to look into the curriculum materials to determine real skills are being taught and socialist indoctrination is being weeded out. It's in there and you need to educate yourself to understand what it looks like so you get children back to learning and lead them away telling them what to think. Our freedom is closer to extinction than ever before and we have the opportunity to raise the U.S. and Monroe

096County standards in the education internationally. Thank you. Our next speaker I will be making a phone call to. I am calling Ms. Jenny Donaldson (your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice messaging system) Our next speaker is Mr. Martin McGee. Thanks for having me. Martin McGee, Key West. I wanted to talk to you for a minute about excellent movie. It's called "whose children are they?" It was at the regal theater recently and it talks about the current issues that face the schools. I wonder how many people have seen that movie? Well it's unfortunate. It's a tremendous movie and with the job you folks have it's a movie that you absolutely need to see and I would hope the Superintendent would ask all of her principals to come and see that movie and if you

097could do it probably be great if you could have all your teachers see that movie. It lays out in simple, simple easy to understand format all of the many, many issues that we keep hearing about in different formats and different circumstances. I would ask you to write it down if you haven't already heard of it and check it out. I am sure it's available although it's not in the theater right now. It is available to be seen. You can purchase it. I'm sure it's not -- it wouldn't be difficult to get it. It's whose children are they?" As said said a minute ago you need to educate yourself as to what these issue. I'm sure you feel that you have knowledge but when you see this movie and you see all the many different subjects

098and all the controversy that is out there you can't help but be educated. I know your job is to educate the kids. Please make sure that you're educated too so you know what to look for. Thank you. Our final speaker is a phone call and I am going to call Mr. Bill bowl. (phone ringing) . Hello. Hi. May I speak with Mr. Bill bowls please. Yes. Mr. Bowls as you have requested you have joined meeting of the Monroe County School Board to address the board during the citizens input segment of the meeting is held at Key West City Hall and you have joined via a speaker phone. Your comments are limited to three minutes and you can start by introducing yourself and give your comment. A timer will alert when your time is up and

099you may begin now. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is bill bowls. I live on Big Pine key. I have been a Monroe County resident since 2012. I want to talk today about two bills which our Governor recently signed into law, bill 1467, the educational materials and term limits bill. The bill 1557 the parental rights bill. Both of these go into effect July of this year. Now, as if the board and the administration didn't already have enough things to do putting bills into effect is going to take some work. The 1557 parental rights bill is pretty clear in its language but you will eat up administrative time creating policies and procedures. It's it is clear the [INAUDIBLE] company which does our policies and procedures and for 37 other school districts should be able to do

100most of the work efficiently. Similarly the term limits part of the other bill is pretty straightforward. However the language of the educational materials and training requirements of 1467 says what to do but it is not very specific in the how part. The bill could be satisfyed in a variety of ways and it will likely evolve into different ways for different districts so I have a suggestion. We have a current school district policy, policy 9148 entitled Citizens Advisory Committee. I think it could help us. Per that policy the board may establish Citizen Advisory Committees to perform a definite function that must be assigned in writing. The committees must have the majority of the district staff appointed by -- okay. A majority of the committee with consistent district staff approved by the Superintendent and the board. The

101procedure requires that the committee is chosen to be as representative of the community as possible. School Board Members must be ex-officio members of the committee. I think such a committee would be a welcome response to the public out cry for more involvement in Seth the educational process. It would also perform a very useful function for the board. Per the procedure upon completing its assignment and submitting a report the committee shall either be given a new problem or be dissolved properly. This board will have the sole responsibility to dissolve any Advisory Committee and shall reserve the right to reserve this power at any time during the life of any committee. Thank you for hearing me today. Thank you for the comment. We're up for the Consent Agenda. Thank you Mr. Dick. All items listed on Consent

102Agenda items are considered routine and not controversial by the School Board and approved by a school motion. There is no separate discussion of these items. Prior to this meeting Board Members had the opportunity to review each of the items and may request that any item be removed to an action item for consideration. I recommend approval of the Consent Agenda. Move. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none the Consent Agenda is approved. We're up to all the reports have been done, so legal. I have spoken with you before this meeting and communicated the issues you V I don't believe there is anything else to discuss but if there is I am here for questions. Thank you very much Mr. Dick. As you can see there's a lot of wonderful things happening in the district as we

103demonstrated during GEMS and our wonderful national award winner. Just to bring you up-to-date we had excellent budget meetings with all the schools. We're currently during testing. Testing seems to be going well. Both the curriculum team and Dr. Murphy have been visiting schools to make sure everything is in order. Last week we celebrated our APs in the school. This week we're celebrating them on social media. This is the month of the military child and we congratulate all of our military partners and really appreciate the work that they do in the schools to support us. This is also autism awareness month. We're having activities to support awareness. Project lead the way. We've had visitors coming to our schools to see the fine work going on with this project and we're excited about the delivery of that program

104in all the schools. Our bargaining meetings are going very well and have a positive tone. We're excited about that. We're very excited about our website refresh. I hope that you all have been feeling that it's much more -- you can gain information more easily and we're continuing to work on that. Thanks to Mrs. Acervata for that and please check out our social media and particularly our Facebook pages to see what is happening in the school district and representative of what is happening in the classrooms and also very informative. We were to have a Strategic Plan presentation tonight but due to surgery of Mrs. Levy we're delaying next meeting and we will look at goal area one and two at April 26. And thank you Ms. Conn. I want to say that Sugarloaf is looks fabulous

105and especially for me on a daily basis as I drive by. For anybody who is concerned about the traffic pattern as a result of the work that we're doing it seems to be very much in order. It could be better but we just don't have the double loops that we used to for now this seems to be the best possible option on Crane Boulevard. Will a citizen had come up to me and in my opinion they had a very good idea. We do exit interviews of staff and their idea was to do exit interviews of some of our seniors. What did high school give them? What did they feel they were missing? You know some of the questions and the answers may help us to inform and create a better educational experience for our students

106in high school and I don't know that we have the time necessarily to do an exit interview on every student, but ones that A, drop out, or B, do something a little different we may want to pick a smattering of students to do that with. Something I had called Mr. Lefere a couple of weeks ago I noticed at Sugarloaf the school start and end time signs for traffic are not the same as the actual school and start times and so if we have that going on at even more schools that could cause a possible issue, so I would like us to sort of look up on that and see if we need some of the signs in the school areas changed, and then finally I know most of our media censors are in fact lead

107by media censor specialists. However, it's my understanding we're short a few so I am just wondering what we're going to be doing moving forward to make sure that all of our media censors have actual specialists? I'm going to check. I believe we have media specialists in every school at this time. Okay. Can you make sure there's at least one they're not certified as a specialist. I will have the certification looked into. Great thank you. And just as a side note I support glee and I support [INAUDIBLE] the change. The garden is a wonderful addition and anything we can do to help them I would be definitely for. Mr. Griffiths. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I think everyone knows I have been on the board for a while and every year or so we get special speakers

108and they don't always have their facts right but they come and they go. One or two -- sometimes three, sometimes you have three regulars, but I'm sensing in my 30th year we've got a group forming that is very interested in what we're doing, and they have got some good points. They don't always have their facts right because they don't a lot about what we do, but they all got these same common points, so I just wanted to say after listening for the last several months that we better listen and I think some good ideas have come out of these public input sessions, and I am hoping that we can incorporate some of the thoughts into our strategic planning because you know parent input is a good thing, and I just think we could educate the

109parents that are real interested in what we're doing and I think it's an opportunity for us, and I really am excited about taking that opportunity because this is a movement that is starting and we always thought it was one speaker, two speakers but the Keys have a movement and it's Keys-wide. I just wanted to say that Mr. Chairman. That's a good thing. Mr. Highsmith. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to say I was happy to see the GEMS given out to coach Roberts and coach Moller today. Their dedication and volunteerism is remarkable. I think it's a shape that we don't don't pay anything and we look at transportation costs in the district and six out of the seven years the high school had the lowest transportation cost paid by the district and in many instances

110by tends of thousands of dollars. If we can find money to pay bus drivers out of Miami to transport our kids I think the least we can do is give these folks that are stepping up to help our programs a few bucks to say thanks. That highway is getting more and more treacherous to travel e specifically driving a big bus and waiting four, five hours for the game to happen and drive our kids safely home. It's a hell of a responsibility and quite a incredible gift they give to us and frankly it was interesting to hand them the GEM and see the numbers and you know a certificate and a plastic cup is what we're giving them and when we're paying real dollars to all the other transport folks and I would like to see

111us do something different. That's all I have. Thank you. Sue. I was -- I don't have much to say today. I did get to go to the Olympics and an inspiring place to be and got into conversation with the coaches from Presidential Award for Excellence and Miami-Dade and they're in general teaches and they get supplements to coach Special Olympics and it's my understanding that we don't do supplements for our Special Olympic coaches and I know we're looking at the whole supplement that was review and I just want that to be considered because they're making huge changes in people's lives and sort of along the same line that Bobby is saying and if we're paying some people to do things maybe we should have fairness across the board. I can get a nod of the head

112from each Board Member on this so is every Board Member -- start with you Dr. Woltanski. Are you for us to go forward to approve the referendums for the half percent and the school safety? Correct? [Off Mic]. Yeah, you voted on -- I just want to know that you're in support of us trying to get it passed this summer on the ballot? It's not a trick question. You want us to pass it. You want me it to give a little background on that? Go ahead. Because each of you as I said earlier you can go out and say I like the half mill and I want to pass the half mill. Can you do that in your individual capacity and as a capacity as a Board Member you can say how you feel. You're politicians.

113You can't do that and what you can't do is speak as a whole and Mr. Dick is asking if there is a head nod and I will draw it up and you're all unifying and wanting this to pass and why And then you can say speaking for the board. I have been around working this as John Dick and Chairman of the board and not speaking for the board. I suspect you will all be working for all the groups and you have the ability to say it's not just you speaking and you at this time are speaking for the board so if everybody is in favor of this we will have a Resolution. You cannot speak for the board unless we do a Resolution first and we will bring it up at the next meeting. Yes,

114yes, Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution at the next meeting. We'll have it. That's all I have to say. So now at this time we will take -- we have to do -- we have to close the regular meeting and open up a Public Hearing for -- let me see what we have. We have -- It's a job description. We have job descriptions and policy first reading. First of all is there anyone to speak to either of these items? Okay. Now it's up to us. The first reading is on the job descriptions for the Management Information Systems. Yes. So we are overhauling our organizational plan with Dr. Murphy leaving and we're kind of reorganizing and so we're saving money and we're going to be able to report to you on that and bev can kinds of give

115you a description of what this job will entail. So we're looking at consolidating kinds of our ERP department and our student information services department and as was said through that process I'm looking to reduce the overall costs because we won't need as many people if we consolidate that and provide information basically for all student and financial information from focus and this one group. Any questions? Okay. Go on to the first reading of the policy five two two five. So we're bringing this back to you after our efforts with contacting local heads of churches, minister, pastors and priests throughout the Keys, and we have come up with a list of religious holiday that we neglect the needs of the Keys, and it is a much condensed list from that that was presented and we believe we

116can follow up on this each year and make it our own, so these are the pastors or heads of church that have responded and these are the recommended holiday based on that poll. Go ahead. I will say for the record that I appreciate the effort but it still doesn't meet my concerns so I'm not going to be able to support this policy either going forward -- [INAUDIBLE] [Off Mic]. Teaching and learning. Yeah, if if you have questions on any of these people are here to answer your questions. Any questions on any of the first readings of the teaching, learning, accountability, assessment and the Human Resources? There's a fifth one as well. Yes. Operations and planning is down there And the fifth one. Go ahead. Policy 1216 dress and grooming for administration, staff and instructional personnel.

117I am not understanding why these changes are coming forth and some have been seen maybe lip service to certain items that I just don't see necessary or understand why we're doing it. Mr. Russell. Can I speak to that. the biggest change here is in the very last sentence and the board -- professional Administrators and right to address with their gender identity with constraints and other -- [INAUDIBLE] guidelines. That's the addition for the board. If you're comfortable with that that's fine. If not that can be taken out per your recommendation. Either way from a Title 9 or Title seven perspective when we get into gender equity type matters where that could come into play for us if that should arise. This is something that neola suggested. Has there been a statutory change? No, again it's recommended

118to us us in hey good place if we get a Title seven or nine challenge from an employee and each of the policies in front of you has that sentence at the end of that policy for you for review. Okay. Another question Item D seems like a new item. All Administrators shall dress in a matter that doesn't cause damage to district property. Have we had Administrators doing that? No. I think that's one of those ones where you -- [INAUDIBLE] put your best foot forward and don't do something that could result in a harmful lawsuit of something you're viewing and viewed as inappropriate to the educational environment. I'm not sure I can support this one either. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Well at this time then I will recess the hearing on the policies and go

119back to the regular meeting. [GAVEL] And we're up for the first -- let's me see -- approval of the budget summaries. So I recommend approval of the budget summaries for January 2022. Move approval. Second. Is there any discussion? Are there Any no votes? Hearing none the budget summary reports are approved. Secondly I recommend approval of the Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium conceptual Master Plan. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? Yes. I feel that the conceptual Master Plan is not close enough to what we need in actual design in order to okay and vote for it. We have a beautiful football field in the backyard. We're trying to give them a second beautiful field over at Tommy Roberts rec and in my opinion baseball is not getting what it needs when it's the only high school

120believe baseball program we have in Key West and I just can't support the conceptual idea without a better idea of it falling into what is necessary on the actual field. Anyone else? Call the roll. Mr. Highsmith. Yes. Mr. Griffiths. Yes. Ms. Conn. No. Dr. Woltanski. Yes. Mr. Dick. Yes. Motion is approved. Number three I recommend approval of the contract with navigate 360 for the Emergency Management suite. Move. Second. Is there any discussion? Are there any no votes? Hearing none the Emergency Management suite is approved And lastly I recommend to approve the contract with navigate 360 for their safety and security training institute. Move. Second. Is there any discussion? Are there any no votes? Hearing none the motion is approved And that concludes our business. And the meeting is adjourned.