001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome as I call to order the May 2025 meeting of the Escamia County School Board. Whether you're joining us via our live stream or in the audience, we appreciate your interest in the education of students of Escamia County. The mission of Escami County Public Schools is provide equal access to quality education that embraces the uniqueness and potential of each student. We are united in our mission. At this time, I ask that you silence your cell phones or electronic devices. As a reminder, there are two public forum options. There will be a public forum for agenda items only, including the consent agenda and student and employee discipline at the beginning of the meeting. And then there's a public forum at the end of the meeting for any items pertaining to
002school school district business or public education. Additionally, if you are speaking to any of the items of public hearing, you will be called to speak during that agenda public forum. If you wish to speak at either of the forums, you must complete a form located at the back of the table, I mean back of the room, and bring it forth to Mrs. Harris at the front table. If you wish to speak to both forums, you must fill out a form for both. All speaker forms must be submitted prior to the start of the agenda public forum. This meeting was properly advertised in the Pensacola News Journal legal notice number 11220722. It is tradition of the Hisami County School Board to begin each meeting with an invocation, a motivational moment followed by the pledge of allegiance.
003this month, Mrs. Burgosh, District 4, will lead us. Thank you, chair. Good evening. I have the honor to um introduce Eddie Faircloth, who is also my uncle, but he's the pastor of Community of Christ Church in Jackson Street to um give us the invitation. Thanks for the honor and privilege. You so choose. Would you bow with me please? Father, knowing that according to your word, every breath and every heartbeat is a divine gift and every hair on our head is numbered. You are well aware of this moment and the necessity and importance of this meeting. Father, as each has gathered as one in unity of purpose, intent, and authority, they are a specific part of the mosaic of wisdom, will, and way. I pray for guidance, strength, and unity that is essential to the discipline,
004accountability, and responsibility required of each chosen servant for the edification, benefit, and profit of all those that are served. May Father God bless this meeting in and with the spirit of unity, purpose, and accomp accomplishment in the name of the greatest educator and teacher of all, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you. At this time, we will move to the adoption of the agenda. Mr. Superintendent, are there any additions or deletions to your recommended agenda? Yes, sir. Under section six, first reading, item D has been added. Under section 8, curriculum alternative ed, item A has been deleted. Under section 20, consent finance, item E has been added. Under section 24, consent finance procurement. Item Y, item Z, and item AA have all been added. Under section 32, operations, facilities, planning, procurement, item P has been added.
005And then under section 45, internal auditing, item C has been added. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Safe statute and schoolboard rules require that the changes made to agenda after publication be based on a finding of good cause determined by the person designated to presside over the meeting and stated in the record. Do I have a motion to adop to adopt the agenda? So moved. I'll second. Thank you. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? If no discussion, please vote. approved five to zero. Thank you. Moving into committee and departmental reports and special recognition. Mr. Superintendent, we'll start with PTA update. Yeah, Miss Gamble, glad to have you here this evening. Good evening and thank you for allowing me the time to update you on PTA in Escambia County. Florida PTA recently announced the state level
006winners for the reflections arts program and we are proud to announce that six of our students will be recognized this July at the Florida PTA leadership convention when they have their reflection arts awards ceremony. We congratulate all six of our students. On May 7th, ECCPTA in collaboration with Cox Communications held the Cox Heroes Students of the Year Awards. We honored students from 52 schools for their resilience and pushing through adversity and still succeeding at school. Thank you to the superintendent for attending along with several of the board members and district admin administers administrators. This event is an inspiring way to close out the year. As a recap of the ECC PTA year, here are a couple of highlights. We reinstated three non-active PTAs and chartered a new PTSA, bringing our total local unit to 30.
007and we are working on another that will hopefully be reinstated by the fall. We surp surpassed last year's membership totals by almost 100 members and we trained and assisted 135 volunteer leaders. We were out in the community at various events such as gallery night and the school district podcast of Palooa and WSRE's Be My Neighbor Day. All this while we celebrated the 100th anniversary of ECC PTA's charter. As for all of our local unit PTAs, they have been busy with end of the year celebrations for our students and teachers and are looking forward to a well-deserved break, as I know y'all are too. As the school year quickly comes to a close, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our PTA volunteers, Superintendent Leonard, all the board members, and our PTA
008principles for the support throughout the year. And we look forward to working with all of you next year as we continue towards being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Thank you for this time. Thank you, fellow employee. This will be a familiar face to all of us. Denise, do I need to read it again? All right, I'm going to the 2025 STEA employee of the year. Scami County Public Schools Office of Community Involvement is proud to recognize Miss Denise Simmons as the stellar employee of the year for 2025. Miss Simmons was recognized as the April Stellar employee of the month. Miss Simmons, please come forward with your co-workers, family, and friends. [Applause] Denise Simmons serves as the administrative clerk at Pine
009Meadow Elementary. She has been with the district for 26 years and has dedicated 10 years to Pine Meadow Elementary. Miss Simmons consistently exemplifies the essential qualities expected of an administrative clerk. As the first point of contact for parents and students at Pine Meadow Elementary, she welcomes everyone with a friendly smile and greets them by name, helping to foster a welcoming and supportive environment. Her approachable demeanor ensures that all stakeholders feel comfortable when discussing any questions or concerns they may have. Miss Simmons demonstrates exceptional efficiency in maintaining records and communicating with other schools. She promptly completes record request including the documentation of receipt times and dates ensuring that all communications are diligently managed. Under her leadership, the office operates seamlessly and both administrators and staff appreciate her meticulous attention to detail. Miss Simmons consistently strives for
010excellence in her work. She creates posters for the hallways that align with the school's theme, enhancing the atmosphere of the school environment. Additionally, she ensures that parent communications are distributed promptly and that questions and concerns from parents are addressed swiftly, fostering a strong connection between the school and home. Pine Meadow Elementary is fortunate to have Miss Simmons as a part of the team. Her positive demeanor, infectious smile, and strong work ethic contribute significantly to creating a welcoming and uplifting atmosphere. Tonight, Miss Simmons will receive a plaque and a check for $500 from Members First Credit Union. Y'all comes up [Music] That's wonderful. [Music] All right. Good evening. Good evening to the board. Superintendent Leonard, I am here again and I am so grateful for this honor. Every day I go to work by God's grace
011and hoping to make life a work life a little easier for those I work with. I'm inspired by the goodness and the kindness we share as a school family at Pine Meadow. My favorite part of the day is my morning greetings with my fellow co-workers. It's always with a smile. Good morning, Miss Simmons. Have a good day, Miss Simmons. And the favorite, most favorite part of my day during the week is on Thursday when somebody's going to say, "Happy Friday Eve." And my favorite favorite is Happy Friday. Yay. I am so grateful to Miss Morris and Miss Hail who work hard every day to demonstrate unity among the precious people we work with. I'm truly grateful for my super amazing family and friends who support me and love me every day. And to the board,
012Mr. Leonard, I'm grateful and humbled by the support of me and other district employees that came before me. Thanks to each one of you for your well wishes, your kind words and gifts and flowers. Thank you. I love you. [Applause] Congratulations. Yes, sir. Let me turn Mr. Before we go. Yes, sir. I just want to let everybody know that right before I got I got word that our Northview Lady Chiefs won the first game in the Final Four 14-6. So, they will be playing against the I think it's Trenton. I'm not certain, but they'll be playing tomorrow for the state championship. So, well wishes to them. Yes. Yes. We will now begin the agenda. Public forum. All forms must be submitted at this time. The purpose of agenda public form is to allow members of
013the public to address the school board regarding any item on tonight's agenda, including items for public hearing. Speakers must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the policy and posted on the agenda. You expected to be respectful in your address to the board. You're also asked to use titles and not individual names. Personal attacks against school board members, superintendent, staff, employees will not be tolerated. Please direct your comments to the chair. Personal attacks against other speakers and outbursts during another speaker's time will will also not be tolerated. If you fail to follow these guidelines, you will be warned by the chair and subject to removal if violations continue. Each speaker will be allotted three minutes. Miss Odin will serve as our parliamentarian. Miss Boswell is our timekeeper and will start the timer with your opening remarks.
014The buzzer will sound when your time has elapsed. When the timer sounds, please bring your comments to a close. First speaker we have tonight for public forum agenda items only is Mr. Larry DS. You have three minutes and you will speak to two different topics. Mr. DS, is he is he in the hallway back there? How long should we wait? We move on. Okay, we move on to adoption of the minutes. Next on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Item A, April 10th, regular board uh workshop. I'll move the minutes. Second. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. Approve five to zero. Thank you. Item B, April 15th regular meeting. I move that we accept the minutes. I'll second. Moved in second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. approved five
015to zero. Moving into items for first read item A policy 7320. Can I get a motion? I get I'll motion that we accept that and I'll second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. It work approved 5 to zero. Item B, elementary code of con of student conduct. I move to accept the elementary code of conduct. I'll second move and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. approve five to zero. Thank you. Item C, secondary code of student conduct. I move that we accept the secondary uh code of conduct. Student conduct. Mr. Williams, before we go down this road, I just I want to check and make sure that we are not duplicating efforts. Um you may recall there was some discussion at the workshop that I um I had suggested that we add some language
016some contingency language regarding um cell phone usage by high school students in the event we were chosen as a pol a pilot county. Um I believe that is what is reflected in the second version. Um I think that this current version uh item C should have been deleted. Uh, is that Mr. Is that correct? Okay. So, this should have been deleted. Um, the correct version is item D. Okay. So, we don't need to vote on it. We just move on. So, I would I I think that Can I ask them to delete item C? Sure. Like to ask the board to delete item C. I make a motion that we delete item C. I second that motion. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? Please vote. Excuse me. And just for the boards and the
017public's information, this is just for advertising. This is not for final adoption. This is just the proposed language that will be adopted at the August meeting, I believe. Okay. Item D. I move that we accept the uh Hold on a second. Okay. The the approval for delete and C hadn't popped up yet. Okay. Now it is now. Got it. Approved five to zero. Thank you. All right. Now, are we ready, Mr. Williams? Yeah. Item D. Yes, sir. Okay. I move that we accept the uh revision revised copy of the secondary code of conduct for students. I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. approve five to zero. Thank you. This brings us to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. A second. Are there any items
018to be pulled at this time? I will be pulling item 17B, contract with community action service. due to serving on that board of directors. Are there any other items to be pulled? Hearing none, let's please vote on the consent agenda minus the one pulled item. approved five to zero. Next item uh next the pulled item 17B contract of community action. Can I get a motion? I move that we uh we move that item uh 17B. You got it. Okay. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. It's not coming up. Rose on. Can we vote by a show of hands? I'm saying it. Sure. Yeah. Can we vote by show of hands? U approved four to zero. Yep. Thank you, Ollie. This uh takes us to item 44, moving into items from the the superintendent. Item A,
019agreement for legal services. I'll move that item, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I'll second. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. Did you have any discussion on it? I've seen it. Mr. Cautious was going to work this time. Let's vote by show of hands. Approve 5 to zero. [Music] Internal auditing. Last we have item internal auditing item A, inventory report. Can I get a motion? I'll move that item. I'll second it. Any discussion? Please vote by short. I was just going to say for the public, we talked about it in the workshop, but in in the the many years that I've been with the district, it was it was great to see that 14 of the 16 sites that were audited for u equipment and and stuff had zero discrepancies. and and
020the th h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h hundreds of thousands of items that are out there being looked at, counted and and uh accounted for. That's just amazing. So, I want to thank our accounting department, but I want to thank our school leadership for what they've done to make sure that they know how to do that inventory and and keep account of every item down to the last laptop and so on and so forth. Please vote. All right. Approve five to zero. Item B, controlled open enrollment review. Can I get a motion? I like to move that item. I'll second. Been moved
021and second. Any discussion? Hearing none, please vote. approve five to zero. Okay. Item C, appointee of audit committee. Can I get a motion? So moved. I'll second it. Has been moved and second. Any discussion? Who is the appointee? I am Thank you. I think I think you guys Thank you, Mr. Fisk. I have to have abstain for voting on this. Did Did we decide? Yes. I think there was a discussion that you were going to serve. Yes. Yes. No, you you can vote. It's absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Fesco. I don't think this insurers to your personal benefit. All right. Has it has been moved? I can't remember. It's moved in second. Yes. Okay. No discussion. Please vote. I probably vote no, Mr. Fascco. Just because you We're going have to do it by hand. Okay.
022Can you vote by show of hands, please? Prove five to zero. Okay. I move so yes. This brings us to our public forum. Uh the purpose of public forum is to allow members of the public to address the school board on any matter uh regarding education and administration of our schools. In this setting, we as board members are not compelled to answer questions or respond to you and typically will not engage in back and forth dialogue in this venue. However, this board and the superintendent will note your contact information for a response if appropriate. As always, we invite you to contact any of us by phone or by email for followup. Our meeting times and locations are posted on the Escamia County District website. Speakers must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the policy and
023posted on the agenda. You are expected to be respectful in your address to the board. You also asked to use titles and not individual names. Personal attacks against schoolboard members, superintendent, staff, and employees will not be tolerated. Please direct your comments to the chair. Personal attacks against other speakers and outbursts during another speaker's time will also not be tolerated. If you fail to follow these guidelines, you will be warned by the chair and subject to removal if violations continue. Each speaker will be allotted three minutes. Miss ODM will serve as a parliamentarian. Miss Buzzwell is our timekeeper and will start the timer with your opening remarks. The buzzer will sound when your time has elapsed. When the when the timer sounds, please bring your comments to a close. The first speaker we have tonight is
024Charlie U Barger. Barger Charlene, I'm sorry. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Charlene Berger. I'm a high school English teacher and the mother of three children who have attended Escambia schools since kindergarten. I taught in Escambia Middle Schools for 7 years, moving to a virtual setting in 2020. In general, my children of I and I have very a very positive experience in this county. I'm here to speak about an issue affecting my current senior at Escambia Virtual Academy. Something you may have read about in the Pensacola News Journal yesterday. The school has refused to call him by his preferred name at his graduation ceremony on May 27th. In August of 2023, I signed and returned the district's parent consent form, created in accordance with Florida Florida law, allowing students to be referred
025to by a preferred name. Since then, all teachers and administrators have used his chosen name consistently in writing and in speech. That's been the practice for 2 years. The form states this name will not be used on legal documents, which I understand. His legal name can appear on his diploma, but nowhere does the form mention graduation ceremonies. Diplomas are not given out at the ceremony. So, no one will be reading the name from a legal document. It will be read from an index card. His preferred name should be in focus. So if whoever fills out those index cards simply writes the name that I consented to, it will be called at graduation. When I asked administration for a policy related to this issue, I was told there isn't one. It's just a practice. I was
026also told that this practice exists because allowing preferred names would be a hassle and that some parents might choose inappropriate names. I find that insulting. Parents in this district deserve to be trusted, especially when they're following your form, and anything that will make students feel accepted and respected should be done whether it's a hassle or not. I was told by someone else in the county that this is in a practice because of Florida law. That law actually protects my right to decide how my student is referred to in school. And to answer the question many are asking, I do not have immediate plans to change his name legally as that cost $400 in the state of Florida and I am a teacher. A student's name is not just a label. It's their identity. To refuse
027it is to send a message, we don't see you. That's not a message any graduate should receive on their proudest day. You have the power to change this practice into one of respect, dignity, and trust. I ask you to choose compassion. I am here today. Thank you. Next speaker we have is Rob Bennett. You have three minutes. Starting off, I'd like to say I'm encouraged that you're going to be on the audit committee. Um it's the supervision is needed. Um the last meeting they had uh advertised in the news journal was April 23rd. They gave you 48 hours to of notice in the paper and also requested ADA accommodations be notified to you guys 48 hours before the meeting. It's the second time that's happened. Told you guys about that last year. They've had about
028three meetings I believe this year. None of the meeting minutes have been posted on the website since April of last year. Told you guys about that last year as well. I believe this same chairperson is still the chairperson on the committee since for the last 15 years voted on I believe twice maybe three times since I haven't seen all the minutes yet because they're not published. This chairperson who is the atlarge member is my understanding was asked to be on the committee by the current internal auditor in 2009. And if you read the minutes from 2009, the internal auditor explained to the committee that the atlarge member was usually the chairperson. So they voted and that person became chairperson. They voted again in 2024 and they may have voted since then. Okay. The old charter
029actually had the chairperson of the committee do the review of the internal auditor. So it's great to appoint your supervisor. you know, I'd love to do that. Doesn't work that way. Uh the 423 meeting, news journal, it's on there. It's not on your website calendar, not on the audit committee meeting. It's not on the internal audit website. If you guys really want transparency and people to come to an internal audit meeting, let people know when it is. Publish the minutes that say when the next meeting is. Have dates that are set to have those meetings. The dates I believe that are from the July meeting that they set haven't been adhered to. They've been adjusted. I want to ask a dumb question. How many people here have been to an internal audit meeting in the
030last two years? There needs to be a lot more oversight. I'm very encouraged that you'll be there. I want you to have teeth and back up all the documentation and the correct use of the charter and make sure they're following it. They decided not to vote for a chairperson. Then they decided they didn't need to vote on a vice chair because they felt they didn't need to even though the charter specifically says they must do it annually. So here's the audit committee that's not following their own rules. That's overseeing the internal audit committee who oversees all the departments to make sure they're following the rules. Lead by example from the top down. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Keith Bowling. You have three minutes. Oh, excuse me. We You have six six
031minutes. You've been donated. Uh from Steven Mack. Okay, I see you, sir. Thank you. You have six minutes. Failure of the book review committee, which I sit on for district two. We have a broken book review process to remove books. We need the process to allow books to be uh We need the process to allow books to be age and subject appropriate. One community member, one review committee disqualify review committee members who don't have the will to be objective to either allow or disallow books according to content. I hope the superintendent will just pull all the books and end the corrupt and misuse process. Now, uh there's a difference between the school district choosing a books for the library and the many titles donated without review that are now contained in the library. Those are
032the books that should be immediately removed. There are some very inappropriate books that are on the shelves of our school libraries. How did they manage to get there? Publisher donations without an in-house review for compliance of state statute 847.012. Here's my inside view for the book review committee from from the of the book review committee. Although the makeup is meant, excuse my eyes are a little okay. Although the makeup is meant for one member from each district and the three and three from the school administration, we have multiple instance in instances of a single community representative sitting in up to three committees per their own admission uh during the process. Are the same three school representatives also on more than one review committee? That's a question I don't have the answer to. I don't know
033but they too should be restricted to one review committee. Folks in in folks in committee conversations have bragged and have I have confirmed to be true that these multiple committee members do sit in multiple seats which takes away from the the community at large for representation. They also undermine the intent of discerning what the standards should be. I've experienced at the review in admission to comments all 12 criter criteria violate the statute intended to protect the students. These include profanity, sexual behavior, uh drugs, alcohol, brutality, violence, uh aarent aborant behavior. Manner characteristics are presented in context, language, cruelty, political positions, and religious or portrayal of religious practices and ideology that do often uh offend. Still, many continue to override the common sense decision of the application of those terms and approve books to to be
034included. The implementation of the process is backwards and used to used to slowly allow all and any of the questionable titles not subject to parental consent. As a result, quality literature is surrounded by more salacious literature that that appeal to a lower lower moral standard. is not maximizing student choice to choose the higher level of works with literary skills from authors wi from which they can grow. Temptation over education is the net result. This is also this also circumvents parental rights. We could try to fix the process or we could just remove the books not properly placed in inventory. Anyone who then wants to could request a review to enter a book into the system rather than to remove it because there are too many titles that don't meet the statutes criteria. It's the optin
035to enter the system that protects our parents and students from many of these books. adversely to have parental control of what their children uh are given available to read taken away because of the inclusion. So, a far worse example with opt out not knowing what the library holds. It's impossible to task parents and students to be subject to a uh to poor literature content chosen by other interests that are not responsible to the parents uh as only a parent can be. Books need to be completely removed that don't meet the higher standard as discussed in the ruling from H Hills Hillsboro County Court case that was just ruled to remove questionable books. Then we need to also tag all books that have entered the school libraries without review. I could go on, but what is
036what this comes down to is we don't need money spent on lawsuits. The book review is corrupt and designed to be slow. It's also up to the authority. It's up to the authority given to our school superintendent whom I respect greatly. Um who I support and take uh I I ask support and take the next step. Also, a copy of this uh will be given to you after the meeting and I thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Paula Montgomery. You have three minutes. Thank you. We have the idea of community values that gets bandied about that I hear and especially when we're talking about books, whether or not to keep them or to remove them. And it seems to me that using the book review committees is a barometer of
037those values. You have people from the community who sit on these committees. Some people think this area is solid conservative. Uh currently, if you're paying attention, you'll realize that we're not a divided community, but we are a thoroughly mixed community. There are people with passion about both conservative and liberal ideas. The opt out option for parents who want to avoid certain books or certain classes of books even um takes care of a lot of the problems as I see it. The system we have now is working in that it resent it represents um and respects the mixture that we have in our in our county. Uh I know it's slow. It's painfully slow and we're getting impatient with it. But to do things right, you have to have patience. Permitting each parent to examine ex
038to uh express his or her own values by opting out and using the community committees to make a general barometer for our community values. It seems to me to be working or restricting and removing or keeping books in the f it's working to keep the books or not keep the books in a fair and equitable manner. And thank you. Thank you. Next we have Mr. Aaron Snider. You have six minutes. Aaron Snder and you have three minutes donated. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you. Good evening, board and superintendent. [Music] Um, I haven't really wanted to come here for a while because firstly, the whole issue of of the books is just aggravating beyond uh anything I can imagine. I because I don't give pornography to kids. So talking to people about giving sexually erotic
039books to kids, it just makes my head want to explode. But um so I I would move more to I would ask you all to vote to abolish all the sub public schools in Escambia County because if if we can't be adults or parents. I don't again I don't give pornography and erotic books to kids. I'm not going to go up on the street and say here's some erotica. Would you like to read about this guy sleeping with his mom? So then we have these books and we're supposed to accept everyone. So what is the accepting? The accepting is this guy wants to sleep with his mom. And then when I read that then I can care about my neighbor. And that's the lie of the devil that everyone keeps saying this gives you empathy.
040So when I read smut is supposed to make me care about people. We're we're our brains. We we know better. you you all are a little bit older than me, but we know better. None of our parents taught us that because they weren't teaching us garbage. So, you know, one thing I would like to ask you all just on a personal note cuz it's the devil is th this preview, this like no disparaging remarks before you speak. That's the devil. that was never happening. So now we're saying that three or four times before a speaker gets up. I I don't like that. Um I I think we could do better. I think that just takes people to decide, you know what, I'm going to risk my whole life to do something about this. Just going
041to risk everything. Don't care. And if you're not willing to do that, then Christ has called us to do that. Plain and simple. There's a cost to being a Christian. It can cost you everything. So what's the point? I'm a Christian, but there's no cost. I just do what I feel like or bow down to stutter. So please for Yes. Thank you. Yeah, that was true though. So we we can do better. We we can make some waves about things that are true. Apologize for the stutter remark. Um we we can make some waves to do what we know is right. We're adults. So brushing this away. We need to move on to education. There's no education if people are walking in. They're able to look at a book. There's no way for any child
042to know when they go into these libraries. They don't know what's going to be in those books. It's a minefield. They have no way of knowing. So, you can say opt out. Still no way of knowing. You can go big pick up a book that looks it has daisies on the front of it. Inside it's about girls sleeping with together. So, what are we going to do? Bible says to be doers of God's word and not hearers only. You know, the Bible talks to us about poking our eyeballs out. So, if we're supposed to poke our eyeballs out, Jesus said to gouge your eyeball out instead of lust. So, it seems to be pretty serious to God, what are we going to do? We have to actually make a decision to do something. So, I
043I appreciate it. Appreciate you all letting me speak. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, three minutes, Larry DS. Larry Dallas Junior Plumbing LLC because feal matters. All right, let's get it on. All right. What I got here is a uh it looks like a doctor's uh bag, but this is all vaccine insert sheets from the vaccine manufacturers of your favorite MMR2 by Merced Spike Vax, all that garbage. And it is garbage. But I just want parents who may be watching this to know that they don't have to chemically inject their children. Corporate chemical injections called vaccines. They don't have to do it. They can go to the to go to the school to go to any of our public schools. They can go to the health department and go to mission.com which is my website
044and they'll see me go through the whole process just to show them how they can get their exemption. You believe we got to have an exemption for freedom. That should that should be the default setting, right? Uh you know, I think y'all are still sending my son uh vaccine updates for my granddaughter. She's eight, about to be nine. She's not going to get them. And I'm waiting for y'all to go up there and say, "Snatch her out of school cuz she ain't going to have the exemption either. No form. She's just going to keep on going until somebody snatches her out." Now, we're paying for the schooling, so I don't think y'all got a right to do that. And I hope more parents wake up to that fact. But uh also I want to make
045a public records request right here. According to chapter 119, public records act, state of Florida, I can do this. I would like to get all uh information, data, costs for the food that's provided to the kids, whether it be vending machines or food in the cafeteria, all food. I want to know how much we're spending. I want to know who we're buying it from. And I want to know if y'all know what's in it. All right. Uh, as far as the books go, get the books out. If you wouldn't read it to your six-year-old, 7-year-old granddaughter, grandson, if y'all wouldn't do that, get it out. Donate them all to the public library. They can all go get it. They can go get it right there. They don't need to get it in our school. That
046way, at least a parent has to take them somewhere instead of this opt out nonsense. Uh, let me see. The conservative and liberal. Y'all hear that? Seems like that the liberals are more con are more liberal with our money. I don't want to pay for this garbage. I don't want to pay for these books that are garbage. I believe they're garbage. Basic basic education doesn't include include learning how to do sex acts with gays, lesbians, straits. Don't matter. That's not part of the education. Thank you. Thank you much. Our next speaker, Mr. Rick Holes. You have three minutes. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Miss Oda, Mr. Superintendent, good evening. We've got a huge window of opportunity as leaders here in Escambia County School District to do the right thing. Um, it appears that our
047new Florida Attorney General, James Umeyer, is not messing around when it comes to the enforcement of Florida statutes and the protection of our children. He is not messing around. That shouldn't surprise us because we have a governor who's not messing around either. We have a governor that doesn't have a problem firing a prosecutor for not enforcing the law or removing schoolboard members for not doing their jobs. You all have no doubt read the letter that he sent to Hillsboro County to the school board to the superintendent. Uh and he's not messing around at all. He says things like this. The school board bears the affirmative obligation to remove these materials and others like them, not only from the classrooms, but from the libraries. And he wants it done immediately. Some people learn by touching a
048hot stove. I have one of those in my house. The other ones are smarter and they're like you. You don't need to touch the hot stove on this. If the laser beam of attention was on you right now and not Hillsboro County, what would you do? Let me tell you what Hillsboro County did. They removed 389,000 books. 389,000. Because listen, we listen to people like Vicky Bagot every month, every week. No personal attack. Oh, excuse me. Sorry. It's not an attack. I mean, this is But just just do not use the name. Okay. Sorry. It's it's it's fine. It's it's fair comment. It's it's fair. Okay. I mean, she's working so hard to to put the spotlight on stuff that is here in violation of the law. Now, we have the attorney general agreeing with
049her and agreeing with you. This stuff needs to go and it needs to go. Now by contrast to my knowledge since your you took uh your ten tenure a year ago this month as interim we have removed one book one book was a 44 tie broken by people appointed by the board uh and we've removed one book hills we have three books that Hillsboro was directed to move and they're on the docket for review by the book review committee. Get the lowhanging fruit, pull the books that have already been directed to be pulled and others like it and then as you mentioned in the workshop, sir, from district 2, apply the same laws to the library as to the classroom and do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker we have is Darel
050Warren. You have three minutes go from this tall. Okay. Good evening to the chair, to the board, to the superintendent. I'm glad you're feeling a little bit better. Um last Thursday I was not able to attend uh the workshop and I hadn't had a chance to um view the workshop. Um I received a call from W on Monday and they wanted to um discuss the proposal of increasing the superintendent salary by 55,000. I recognize that the superintendent is deserving of a raise and I don't think anyone in this district would disagree with that. What your employees are asking is why so much. I understand that that was a state recommendation but the law also said that we needed to get to 475 which we could not do overnight. It was a gradual climb for us
051but we finally got there. You have a lot of employees who are working two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke on W about us being ranked 54th in the state in for average teacher salary. We have been told constantly that it's going to be difficult for us this year because of the decline in student enrollment. We've been talking to employees about, you know, the money might not be there. Teachers and support staff have been giving given this reason and they've been told that they no longer have a job at some of our schools because of the loss in some of these units because of the decrease that we're projected to have. It's going to cause possibly larger class sizes. We're looking at bus drivers. They're already making
052double backs. So, what I would like for this board to consider as we prepare to go to the table to negotiate salaries that the board will remember that your employees are looking for you to take care of them also. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next we have Melanie Eubanks. Three minutes. Thank you. After last Thursday's workshop, sometimes it's not what you say, it's what you didn't say about removing pornography. The board and the superintendent were asked about finding a different review process to remove filth from our media owners. Everyone was silent. The media specialist was brought up about talking about opting in and opting out. It's not working. And we have this obscene, sexually explicit material in the libraries. The board and the superintendent have made it obvious. It's just too much pressure to set
053community standards. The risk is too great. Whose report are you believing? Who will you offend? Who will you not offend? On Thursday, a reference was made to Nehemiah and rebuilding the wall. And it has taken longer than it took Nehemiah to rebuild the wall for him to rebuild our schools. It's because you're a greater institution than yourself and you're part of a much bigger establishment. However, I remind you Nehemiah did not put himself in a position of compromise. He was concerned with pleasing God, not man. Here's the question. Why are these books that represent the image of a person or a portion of the human body which depicts nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, beastiality? I can't even say the next one, the sad mass abuse and that which is harmful to minors still
054in our schools. Why do we not allow harmful content to minors? Why do we have that? There's no reason for it. I urge you to eradicate these pornographic books. The superintendent along with the media specialists need to follow the law. They together can remove them. The sexualization of our children needs to stops. Truthfully, pornographic literature is not appropriate for any age, including all adults. Pornograph pornograph I can't even say it. It's addictive. It destroys men, women, boys, girls, families. It is not int we don't need to introduce this into our schools and provide it. Let's obey the law and remove them. Not because you're going to be forced, but because it's in your heart to do what's right. There are higher authorities. And if we don't listen, I pray that it will listen. The school
055board might want to reconsider what was suggested by one of the school board members last week to do something different. The committees aren't working. People who um don't agree with them, they're not represented well. If you read the comments on the forum, you'll see that. And last Thursday, it was demonstrated in this room that you're not against the pornography. And if you're not against it, then you're for it. You have to speak up. Thank you. Our next speaker, Miss Vicky Bagot, you have six minutes and you had three donated from Gary Bagot. Gary Bagot. Okay. Good evening. By now, you have all read the scathing letter that our attorney general sent to Hillsboro County School Board and Superintendent reminding them that their duty to protect our children means adhering to state guidelines regarding instructional materials
056for all students. In this letter, he gives specific instruction specific he gives specific passages for material considered patently pornographic. Writing that quote, "The school board bears the affirmative obligation to remove these materials and others like them, not only from the classroom, but from the libraries." And he wants it done right now. The one phrase though that he never uses is something that our re review committees love to say and that is taken as a whole. Instead, he reminded the board that quote, "These materials expose students to harm and lack any legitimate academic purpose and that they must act immediately to rectify the problem." He even quotes from three books that are currently on our list of books to be reviewed, even though they obviously violate the law and should have never been made available to
057minors to begin with. Listen to this passage from What Girls Are Made Of, a book that I submitted in September of 2022. It's already been pulled from other counties in this state. It's about a girl's experience with a vibrator. Is this educationally appropriate, Mr. Leonard or board members. I let my knees spllay open and find my slit with my fingers. The soft hooded nub at its apex and I guide the red rubber ball against it. My back arches and I hiss in a breath at its first wonderful terrible contact. The rest is about remembering Seth's tongue doing the same thing. What about this passage would require this book to go through a review committee? He shares a passage from a book called Beautiful, which the attorney general also advised Hillsboro County to immediately remove. Guess
058what? I submitted this book in October of 2022. Again, there it waits to go through a so-called review committee. Let's listen to this passage specifically from the AG's letter. He knows what it feels like to be on top of me, that I don't move. But I am small and thin and pliable, that my breasts are perfect size for his hand. Does it hurt? Does it feel good? He asked me. I would not be traumatized if he died on top of me. His shrinking, shriveling dick still inside of me. Let's look at another one that the AG mentioned called Breathless, which I submitted in September of 22 as well. I let him kiss my breast. Next, my panties come off all at once, both legs at the same time. And he's looking at my body. He's
059getting a condom. Now, you can feel him, all of him. And there's the surprise again. Not pain necessarily, but the surprise of my body registering something entirely new. Since our review committees have started back up, only one book has been completely removed and that was the one where the paid district members could not vote because of a tie. So, the community had to break the tie. Mr. Leonard and board members, you should be very concerned that we have district employees who are voting to keep this mess in front of our students. Very concerned. Our attorney general obviously is. You should be as well. We have had school administrators, librarians who have ordered this inappropriate content in the first place, and some teachers have voted to keep it. Our review committees are flawed. They are being
060instructed to skip over the sexual content. As a matter of fact, in the so-called notes that the district media specialist sends to me, members admit that there's sexual content, but that it is necessary to the theme or taken as a whole, the sexual content doesn't matter because the kids are already exposed to this. Hardly ever is the law even mentioned, except for some people. Our district is in the hot seat. I promise you the new attorney general and commissioner of education are monitoring what we are and are not doing. Why haven't we already removed every book that has been removed from other counties in our state? I have gone through these lists. Currently, we have 235 books to be reviewed. If we make this smart move, we would have only 88 books to look at.
061And of those 88, around 90% have extreme sexual passages with things like, "Suck my and make a wish, put honey all over my balls and pecker," or, "What a tight little sugary she has." Those are passages from books that in the past two weeks, review committees have voted to keep in our schools. I am giving you a book tonight. I've already sent it to you. Help yourself. It's already on the state list. Please do what's right. Remove this stuff. Currently, we have 45 books on the resolve challenges list. Of those books, all have already been on the state list with the exception of 12. This is not being proactive. It's being counterproductive. The time has come for you to do what you know to be right. When you are lukewarm in your actions, you're only
062usable to those who are determined to alter the morals of our children. Do what is right. Especially if you have Jesus in your heart, you have an obligation to Thank you. There are no more speakers. Um, this would conclude our public forum. Is anything for the common good? Yes, for the common good. I I just want to let the board know because we're underneath sunshine. I can't talk to y'all, you know, outside the meeting, but I sent Mr. Leonard the email about these two letters, one from Manny Diaz and one from the attorney general with the samples I got in there. We better get serious about this cuz I tell you what, he won't be fired. She won't be fired. That one back there won't be fired. But the governor removed each one of us
063if we don't get our act together. So I don't know what's going on with this thing, but we got to cease and end it. It can't go on for another four years. It's simple. If it's got pornograph material, you can't use no loophole. Look at the samples they provided you in here. The attorney general, he has a new office called the parental rights office. Now, that federal lawsuit, it'll work its own way out. Okay. What I'm worried about is whether this board is going to get a letter. So this next month, this next workshop, we need to take action. And I told Mr. Leonard in email, I'm only one of y'all. You know, I don't have no power. But I said, for God's sake, the stuff that they told Hillsboro to move. Are they taking
064legal action against the board members? That letter went to the board members. Okay. We need to at least remove that out of there. and pornographic material don't need to go to no book committee. Okay? If you got a problem with uh with your media specialist, determine what pornograph they need to go to their training. They need to do their job. I don't mean to get excited here, but it's just every time I come here and I listen to this stuff coming in. It it it does nothing to close the achievement gap to increase educational uh possibilities for these children. It's worse. We know what this improper content is doing to kids from every different way to get it. Higher suicide rates, higher self harm, more mental health issues. We should not be in the sex
065business. I'm going to add the letter H to it. Okay? We shouldn't be in anybody's sex business. So, um, but that was my advice to Mr. Leonard because when that governor puts three or more new board members on here, he will start they will start firing people. So, um, if you hadn't read these things, please get a copy and read it. F. Um, I at this point I had other things I wanted to discuss for a moment, but I want to follow up with this. I concur with what Mr. Adams said. I I think that if there are books that have been removed, have gone through a process somewhere else in the state and have been determined to meet the standard for removal, it is a no-brainer to say they need to be gone from
066here. Also, if if indeed there are 200 and some books that could be gone tomorrow, then let's get them the heck out of Escambia County. There's no reason to go through with this. um the the length of time that it's taking for the committees to go through, maybe we do need to look at a different process. If it means coming back to the board to read those those uh titles, then we need to read them and we need to make a decision. Apparently, the process has not worked to be unbiased and and if we are the ones who represent our districts, maybe we need to do it that way. So I think at the next workshop, if not before, we need to have a discussion of how we will change these things, how we will
067do it, how we could speed this up. Again, if these books have been deemed inappropriate, ineligible, and removed from other districts in the state of Florida, then I I don't see that we have a reason to delay for them being gone from here. Also, now that being said, I need to jump to another thing and it's a a a point of personal. I made the I I made a discussion or I brought up the idea of the superintendent salary and what the state had recommended for the superintendent. I was naive, I suppose, to think that there wouldn't be some flare up backlash. Um, I've not been hung in effigy yet, but um, I was a teacher. My wife was a teacher. U, my family, my son and daughter-in-law are still in the system. Uh, I
068definitely am concerned for teacher salaries. Okay. I also want to publicly thank Darzel uh, Warren in her interview with Channel 3. Um, I wasn't thrown under the bus, nor was anyone else. Uh, and and she understood that the problem is budgetary and and there's going to be some difficult things ahead. I don't dislike the idea of if indeed everybody in the district got or the majority got between three and 4% if they had x number of years this past negotiations then maybe we do gradually increase the superintendent salary until we get to the point where it meets that state recommendation. Again, it will cause some people to feel less unimportant or ignored or or whatever. I I would give you the money this very second, Mr. Superintendent, because I think you're doing a dang good
069job. Um, you have a responsibility that others could not even imagine. And so, um, that being said, u, at some point in the very near future, we will discuss this further. I'll make it an appropriate legally defensible motion that can be put on the agenda and voted on by the board as to how we do that or we'll have more discussion about it at the next workshop. I'll put it back on along with some ideas of what we could do. I I know that I don't want to say too much because I'm not negotiating for you know that we have somebody who does a great job with that. But I would like us to take a look at what other districts have done in terms of providing additional funding for teacher salaries and at some
070point have an a a very open discussion here to say do we need to move forward with similar initiatives and if so this may be the time to do it because of the way the election cycle works. Thank you sir. Anything else Mr. Har? I concur with Mr. Adams and Mr. Fetssco. The book review pro process is entirely too slow. It's not moving at an acceptable rate to serve the community as we were elected to serve. The book review process is one that uh is is is very touchy in my opinion because of the federal lawsuits that we have. But I after the reading the attorney general letter and after uh listening to input from our community, the bottom line is this. There's stuff out there in our schools that do not need to be
071there. That's the bottom line. Now, the process, how we get there, getting rid of it, you know, is is vested with this board. And I think we're it's time that we did something different. So, and that's my take on that. and and I'm I'm willing to listen to anything. Many minds are better than one, you know, and I'm willing to listen attentively to anyone who has some suggestions on that. But the bottom line is this. I agree with the uh my two colleagues over here. We need to move forward with this. It's 22, 23, 24, and now we're into 25. Let's get on with the business of educating boys and girls and less with these side issues and things. Now I want to address the superintendent of school salary issue. Um all of us have
072received many comments. We've read the social medias and and the other things that are involved with that. Um our superintendent is doing a great job. Ladies and gentlemen, he has uh he has moved this district to the point where we uh we no longer have any D's and F schools. Uh he has taken on a very challenging uh responsibility. uh just the number of phone calls and emails he gets in a day is just overwhelming. And I fully support him in that mission, but a $50,000 raise is not in the cards at this time. You know, and and I say that uh and this is a personal opinion, you know, that's a board decision. Uh it it does it's bad optics for our community. It's bad optics for this board in my opinion and it's
073one that that sets the precedent that we don't need to set at this time. At one on one note we had Mr. St. Seir tell us about the financial difficulty that we're facing and in the next breath we hear about a raise and if you looked at social media it was brutal. It was brutal on this issue. And we have a superintendent that is respectful, that's honest, who does a good job, and I support him 95% of the time on the issues that he have. He signed a contract with the school district with this board for $172,250. And in that contract, he gets a car and not a car, but he gets travel expenses and other initiatives. Never got the car. But yeah, I'm sorry I misspoke there. You don't get a car, you do
074get a travel allowance. And then there's an incentive in there. And each December, we review the superintendent's contract. And when we review when we review the contract according to the matrix, then he is eligible for uh an an additional amount of money somewhere between three and $5,000, I think. Is that correct, Miss Odum? in the contract. I don't know what the actual number is, but if if his eva most current evaluation is um effective or highly effective, he's entitled to the same raise that other administrative personnel received, which would mean when we redo his when we when we do his evaluation in December, uh if the matrix plan is is affirmative to what the contract says, then he would get the same raise that the other employees get, which would be 3%. So, uh, I'm
075not opposed to looking, as Mr. Fetssco said, to incremental increases to bring the superintendent online. But I also agree with Mr. Fetsco. We have wonderful uh uh employees in our district. Uh, our ESPs are wonderful, our teachers are, administrators, all of it. So, we I think we need to look at that as a whole as we're moving forward. All of us in this room, all of us love the Escambia County School District and we want what's best for this district. And when we talk about salary, as Mr. Leonard said the other day when he was here, it, you know, it's uh it's uncomfortable, you know, it it's very uncomfortable to sit and talk about your salary. And I I was watching him as we did that and I could see that he was very uncomfortable
076with that. But it's not only with the superintendent, it's with all of our employees because we want all of them to make the very most money that this board can afford uh and they can negotiate and get, you know, and but we want that for our community because we love our community. We love our employees and we want we want the best for them. So, uh right now as we move through this process, the superintendent will get the same raise if this matrix plan uh follows through on his evaluation in December. And beyond that, if the board wants to add some more to that, but it it would have to be in conjunction, in my opinion, with all the other employees in the district in in relation to what they're getting. Now, I think I've
077said enough. Yes, I'll be quick because I know that people want to get home to their families, but I do concur with all my my board members. Um, this book issue has been going on way before I started in on the board. it but it needs to be at the end. We need to come to conclusion and follow the uh procedures. When I read the AG letter as well, I got very concerned. We need to go ahead do what's right for our kids, do what's right for our our families. Um about this superintendent's um salary. Um, I am willing to listen and work with you and as all my board members um to highlight the bet the great job that our superintendent is doing. Mr. Chair, one followup. Um, I do want to say, Keith,
078I think you're doing a great job. I I was one of them getting a lot of phone calls today, too. Okay. And um, you know, um, and and I explained to some of them, and I don't know how it happened. And I guess you were getting that much money when you're interim, you know, and then when we made you permanent, we never adjusted to the base salary. Okay. So, he's kind of got a little compression problem over there like the teachers had, you know, and uh I I believe we can look at performance standards and stuff and see if we can come up something over the next year or two to get get them up a little bit back to what the other superintendent. But, uh but basically, I believe that's what happened. He he
079just got caught down at that lower level as a interim and then when we went made him a permanent superintendent, no adjustment was made. Okay. So, uh so anyway, keep keep working especially on this issue that we're that we need done, you know, quickly because I don't think the state's going to wait around a whole long time. But, uh but anyway, appreciate it, sir. And thank you for all the comments. I concur with my board members and no no need to go any further. Uh this meeting is adjourned.