Volusia County School Board Meeting Feb 28, 2023

001good afternoon and welcome to the Volusia County school board meeting today is Tuesday February 28 2023 and we would ask at this time that if you have a cell phone which would you please silence your cell phone so that there's no interruptions with calls during the meeting we always start our school board meeting with the pledge of allegiance The National Anthem a moment of silence and reflection and then a welcome today our Pledge of Allegiance is going to be done by charity small Elementary and our national anthem will be Creekside Middle will you please join me by standing greetings team Volusia my name is Joy Walker I'm the proud principal here at Terry T small Elementary School I am here with the amazing kindergarten teacher Miss Samuels and her wonderful kindergarten class today we present

002to you the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] one nation under God hello I'm Diana Deming the chorus and Orchestra director at Creekside Middle School today we have the Creekside Middle School show course here to present national anthem Atlanta [Music] we're still going to [Music] be foreign [Music] oh my God [Music] please remain standing for a moment of silence thank you you may be seated we appreciate each and every one of you that have joined us here this evening at the DeLand Administration complex and also all of you that are listening at home online it is my pleasure to introduce the members of the board and the staff that are here with me on my far left I have Mr Carl purses he represents District Four next to Mr persis is Mrs Jesse Thompson representing District three

003then we have our wonderful School Board attorney Mr Aaron Wolfe on my far right we have the lady that holds all of this together Miss Celeste Gilmore she's our agency clerk then Mr Reuben colon representing District Five our vice chair for this year Mrs Anita Burnett representing District 2. and then to my immediate right is Dr Carmen balgubin our superintendent I'm Miss Jamie Haynes and I'm your chairman for this year and I represent District One items for approval on this agenda items 1.03 2.02 6.02 16.01 16.02 and 16.03 moving on for our public participation times for items on the consent agenda you'll have an opportunity if you wish to give any public input prior to us voting for the items on the consent agenda we also have a specific time which is at 6 PM

004we do our very best to have that start at 6 PM but I will tell you that if we're in the middle of a recognition or we have students that are up front speaking we will allow them to finish their presentation and then we will do the public participation time at 6 PM that's for items of general interest pertaining to public education in County a total of up to 15 minutes will be provided for public comment at this time then we will have time provided for public comment on any action item before a board vote is called on that item if you wish to speak about it and then time will be provided at the end of the meeting for public comment for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Volusia County before

005items from the board superintendent or attorney are open for discussion announcement or approval at this time we're going to go into our district vision statement it's item 1.02 for those of you listening at home and board member comments our district vision statement is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an ever-changing Global Society do I have a board member that wishes to start foreign Miss Thompson so I just wanted I know we heard about it today but I don't think the Public's aware and I did get Miss kiff's permission to speak on this this morning over at Spruce Creek Elementary School we had an employee who gave the Heimlich maneuver and saved another employee's life and I was amazed I mean she and I went and I spoke to her and she said you know she

006was completely calm she knew what needed to be done and she provided the Heimlich maneuver and emergency officials were called and from what I understood the other employees at the hospital but she's all right her ribs are a little sore and I thought this was a great example I know we've been talking about kindness I mean I don't know how much more kind you get than saving someone else's life and she had her eight grandkids there as well and I mean like she just kept going on with her day and I thought it was amazing but I did and I spoke to Dr Belgium about this it brought to light that I asked her if everyone else knew the Heimlich maneuver if we were trained in that and she said that they weren't and so

007I think it's something we definitely need to address that everyone should know that especially in the cafeteria because I feel like there's a high probability that this could happen again but I just wanted to give her a huge shout out she is my hero for doing this so thank you Mrs Kiff [Applause] Mr cologne so there are lots of great things happening we could be here all night but something tells me nobody wants to be here all night and so I'm going to limit it to one thing which you know that that's hard for me but I'm extremely proud of our Deltona High School they have been selected to present at the model schools conference so a huge organization has looked at the work that's happening there they've been the top high school for the

008last two years in all Evolution Flagler they've put systems in place that other school districts other schools from all over the country want to come and learn what we are doing at Deltona High so a shout out to the students the teachers and all of the staff that supports the great work that it's happening there and we look forward to being a part of that presentation at the International Center of leadership and education so again shout out to Deltona High there's a lot of great things happening but that is super exciting so thank you Mr persis uh thank you madam chair a great story at Spruce Creek that's like amazing that's so cool uh well yeah we've been to uh I'm sure you all will talk about CTE teacher of the year and card presentations

009and all kind of cool things I was at Sea Breeze last week for the ribbon cutting of their agricultural program with Dr b and a few others from our CTE area and it just I think Tucker Harris is in the audience somewhere but anyway I just wanted to say uh give a shout out to the AG agricultural teacher there Craig London I think I have his name right and uh the reason why I'm saying that is because agricultural area and sea breeze that just don't go together and uh when I when I was at that school maybe three years ago and I remember pointing out to somebody you know what is that facility over there and they said that used to be your used to be the greenhouse and everything and it was just so

010run down and just looked like well someone needs to just demo everything here and get rid of it it's an eyesore and then I was there like I said last week and it's just vibrant and new and exciting and kids are just so thrilled and they have show goats and cows and pigs and you know um chickens and roosters and and rabbits and I'm thinking what you know and then they have a Horticulture area where the kids are going to actually go into business and sell flowers and learn how to run a run a business and I'm standing there and I'm looking at it still I'm thinking you know the you know the Agriculture and livestock and then there's palm trees and you can hear the ocean behind all that I'm just thinking it still

011doesn't go together but anyway it's working and the kids are loving it and just want to give a shout out to sea breeze and making good things happen over there thank you madam chair thank you Mrs Burnett um well how about those Mainland Buck lady basketball players [Applause] and the and the boys basketball is uh heading the same way so um hopefully they'll uh do well in their tournament and this kind of helps lead into the fact that I was at um Campbell at their Junior Honor Society program initiation and so all these things help our students make it into programs like that and then become successful and you should have seen the kids at Campbell they were smiling they were excited it was it was nice to see the support from the staff and

012the family the staff was amazingly they were just so happy to be there and support the kids it was nice to see and then as you mentioned the CTE uh dinner for the teachers um and the CTE programs that was an amazing program it was the other night and it was nice to have them honored as we honored all the other teachers of the year so great great weeks thank you all right and so I will wrap us up with a few things that haven't been mentioned yet Mr purses briefly mentioned our teacher of the year so we were out at Spruce Creek High and our teacher of the year was awarded a vehicle to drive for the whole year and it was a lot of fun I I will tell you high schools do

013everything differently if you haven't been to high school they have a lot of fun they had the band out there playing they had a DJ people were dancing there are some videos I think of them dancing but we had a good time giving her the car that she's going to drive for this year and we wish her the very best and we're hoping that you know she may come out somewhere at the top at the state level which we'll know in a short while but beyond that this morning um there were a few of us here in the room that we were over at Deland Thai and Delante was given the Danny Gannon School of Excellence award for this quarter and that was really neat because the students were out there part in that a

014group of them also and DeLand High is doing some wonderful things if you happen to be a parent or a Community member there you need to check out what they're doing because there's some great things happening on that campus and they actually have a large FFA program and when we were at the banquet last week for CTE we finally got to have a taste of what it's like to play musical bingo so if you live in DeLand and you don't know about how the FFA program raises funds for all the things they do for their animals and and all of the you know award ceremonies they go to and competitions and showings they have musical Bingo that happens once a month here in DeLand and if you check in with us we'll share the secret

015of where it's held but it raises a lot of money and we played it and so Friday night I went to musical bingo and I stayed there one time yes I stayed the whole time and you don't even listen you can know the songs but you don't have to know the name because they'll flash it up on the screen so it's not that hard to play but it does raise a lot of money but I want to give a shout out to all the parents and community members that came out to George Marks Elementary over the weekend because George Marks Elementary has their Barn up on campus and they put up fencing over the weekend and it was parents and community members that came out and put that fencing up so they're moving their animals

016in because they're going to go ahead and start at the elementary level then move on to the land middle that has a great FFA and then on to DeLand High and this is actually a good area for FFA yeah like we love the FFA program Sea Breeze loves it too you know it's just so um and then one final thing we all have to work together and I've said that many times we have to work with our cities we have to work with our County and and a few of us here this earlier today went over and we were at the Ocean Center for the county address and it was a wonderful opportunity to see the people from our cities and the county and to hear the things that are happening in Volusia County that

017are outside of the school system and that was also nice and so I know that I think they live streamed it so if anybody wants to check that out later and you missed it you can but if there's nothing else we're going to go ahead and move on and at this time we have to do the approval of the minutes item 1.03 for February 14th the workshop slash work session and for February 14th the regular session do I have a motion to approve the minutes so moved all right we have a motion for Mr persis do we have a second oh second that motion thank you Miss Thompson so we have a motion in a second is there any discussion if not I'll call for the vote all those in favor say aye aye any

018opposed at this time we're moving on to item 2.01 agenda changes Dr Balkan are there any agenda changes before the agenda is presented to the board for approval yes Madam chair I would request at this time that we remove item 14.01 which is the social media media litigation as Mr shinoff was not able not shanoff I know you're competition he was not able to attend this meeting but he is rescheduling for the March 7th meeting and at that point we will have that for that okay thank you so board you've heard that we're removing item 14.01 so I need an approval for the agenda minus item 14.01 do I have a motion motion to approve agenda has amended thank you Mr clone do I have a second I'll second thank you Mrs Burnett so we

019have a motion and a second any further discussion all right then we'll call for the vote all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously then at this time we're moving on to item 3.01 in thank you madam chair um before I I want to do a little shout out I'm not supposed to do this but I'm going to because there's a beautiful presence in our Audience by the way good afternoon audience and right out there in the middle you will see our former board chair if you see that over there [Applause] we miss our Miss cutberg but thank you for still being with us in presence here today all right so a couple weeks I love that you guys go first with your announcement because you really helped me out

020quite a bit perfect and a couple weeks ago uh the last board meeting we did talk about Atlantic high school and many of you were there with me Miss Thompson chair you were there several of you were there with us um Mr purses you were there also but I want to show a short short video because it really was a great ceremony we didn't have a video in time to show but as you know this is a four-year technical program where our students engage in Automotive Maintenance and light repair coursework and this culminates actually with dual enrollment opportunity for students that are enrolled in the program where uh during their senior year they get to attend Daytona State College and become fully fully certified so I believe we have a short video and we're cute

021on that video I would like to show the audience and again this will make the 98th program that we have in program academies in our district [Music] cutting the ribbon signifies so much to so many people who contributed to our beautiful new state-of-the-art garage and auto tech program we are thankful and grateful for Volusia County Schools for providing this opportunity to connect our students to a career in the ever-growing automotive industry it takes a community thing and anything possible so in Volusia County Public Schools I want you to know that we're truly truly committed to ensuring that our students have multiple Pathways to be successful not only those that are ready for college or will be ready for college but also that the CTE field it's definitely a new experience um try to help all

022the students out maybe learn something new that maybe a new career that they want to get into I work on race cars all the time with me and my buddies we have big garage I love it just another thing like another step up for this school the other thing this building will be a big like help out for all of us so today was our ribbon cutting for our Automotive Maintenance repair shop it's the first Automotive program in Volusia County Schools it is part of the career opportunities dual enrollment Grant so our students will work with Daytona State to take career dual enrollment with their Automotive program it's a four-year program our students will have the opportunity to take ASE industry certifications all four years and the outpouring of business partners and support that we've

023gotten so far in this first year is just is going to get bigger so we're very excited industry certifications that our students take are almost kind of like a pre-certification for the major certifications they would take in a post-secondary world but it's a great opportunity because it it's all ASE certification the same as Daytona States so these kids are already going to go into college having that knowledge or go into the workforce having that knowledge as well because there's a lot of employers out there that will just hire a student and then pay for them to get those certificate as well this is another amazing opportunity we're just very thankful for all the support that we've gotten and we can't wait to see where it goes [Music] [Applause] so I want to take this opportunity

024once again to thank all of our business partners who came together to make this happen along with the faculty and staff at Atlantic high school and to you board always for supporting the right work for our students second Mr cologne and I had an opportunity of sitting down and having a good conversation with the mayor of Deltona and I will tell you mayor Avila really has his heart in the right place but I am very fortunate and grateful that he has reinstituted the student of the month program so the student of the month for Deltona it's armonte my fee and armonte MiFi was recognized at the last board meeting and we want to say again thank you to Mayor Avila for reinstituting this program and to our student who happens to be Almonte attends Timbercrest

025um Timbercrest so congratulations to Mr Almonte special partner in education I had an opportunity of meeting last week with Miss Nellie lupoli and Miss Nelly lepoli they're doing quite a bit of work in the area of 32114 as you know they work very closely with Campbell Middle School with touristy with Mainland you know specifically that area but two things that they do three things that they do quite a bit in terms of support is that they have the food bring hopes program home brings hope program but also tutoring they pay quite a bit for the staff mem for staff members and tutors to attend these three schools and to work with small groups of students so we had a very very good meeting last week and she the the organization intends on continuing that work

026with with and partnership with Volusia County and I want to do a shout out to her and thank them for their continuous service to us and as some of you stated here the girls back basketball state championship right they brought it home and I will tell you that they fought hard because the scores was 62 to 61. so they really played a good game but the bottom line is is that they brought it home here to Volusia so congratulations to the Mainland High School girls basketball team [Applause] Mr cologne you talked a little bit about this but I I want to re-emphasize a little bit in terms of the International Center for leadership and education this is international and it's quite a prestigious organization as a matter of fact you could submit your application but

027it's it's vetted and they will really it's a team of individuals that look at the application they look at what you have to offer and they will determine whether you can meet you meet the criterias for presenting in this conference so it's called a model school conference because it's about best practices right and I am I'm very thankful to the staff the leadership and the staff of Deltona High School because they shared with me when they had submitted their application not sure not being sure if they would be chosen but we did receive that they were chosen so they will be presenting at the model school conference which I think this year will be held in Orlando in a few weeks and that is quite an honor and prestigious recognition so again congratulations to the

028team and for also for representing us the way we deserve to be represented so thank you everyone all right and I keep going Danny gaining School of Excellence award you talked about that Miss Haynes but I do want to do a shout out to Mr Joe Hearn he calls me superwoman but I think he's Superman to be honest with you because he wears so many hats and he does it so well so I want to thank him because he is the chair for the West Volusia chamber of education and also the chambers where the chain members from the chambers were there this morning along with our mayor who has two children in our school system and one of them attends right there at Deltona High School so thank you to the entire team um for

029not only you know what when when a school grade goes from a c to a b or a B to an a it's really the students right students work really hard our teachers work really hard and the entire Community the parents they do their part as well so congratulations to the entire Community for earning that recognition this morning I shared this a little bit before but it's important to know that how least restrictive environment how important it is and the state recognized Volusia County because they have a threshold where at least 77 percent of our students with disability should be in general education classes 80 percent of the day and for the first time ever no drum roll but first time ever Volusia County has exceeded that threshold so uh congratulations to the entire team

030it really takes a team of individuals to make work like this happen so congratulations our bargaining teams I'm grateful I don't know if Miss Albert is here but I want to do a shout out to miss Albert and the bargaining team along with Volusia County's bargaining team for getting together and two great announcements I will tell you we've been able to as you know ratify the instructional and we're in the process for support so congratulations to both teams and thank you for your leadership um and last but not least chair Black History Month I share that we every school was participating and many things were happening great things in our school to really celebrate all the Trailblazers right we have a short video to search to Showcase just some of the things and activities that

031are taking place in our schools you ready Mr Gomez go for it [Music] foreign [Music] that's right are are 2023 annual African-American read-in and we had um guest authors come and go to individual classrooms and read to our students we need to wait princess Primrose another family is trying to get in the elevator being this my first year I'm so grateful what a great turnout we had and from I just I could feel all the support and love from the community it was just it was just very very good feeling [Applause] Madam chair if I may I forgot one I told you we weren't gonna so this weekend Mr persis and I attended the World Language festival at Sea Breeze I saw Tucker back there and I was reminded of that it was a great

032event to hear um you know we have Hispanic Heritage Month and but to see all of these world folks come together and bring you know their uh outfits the one young lady sewed her own outfit hundred yards of fabric because it had Ruffles on the inside I'm sure there's a fancier name for Ruffles on the inside but between that song Dallas dance so shout out to miss kellemeyer and her team for putting on what was an amazing event at Sea Breeze and thanks again to Sea Breeze for hosting the event Mr Harris was there so again thank you for that thank you madam chair all right moving on board members we have an item that is 4.00 schools of character and Dr B will present this and it was going to be part of the

033announcements but it's been pulled out to be separate thank you thank you madam chair yes because we do have certificates so that's why we pulled it out thank you so School of character you you said it beautifully uh Miss Thompson you said yes it's all about kindness that's the month right so our team submit sends forms out to all of the schools and all of the principals that receive these forms and they complete these forms really nominating their either an employee or a student that has demonstrated kindness so this one particular form that that was approved for us to share here tonight and every principle completed these forms so it's a committee that again reads and they said okay this one is this is the one that we're going to celebrate but in particular for

034this one it's Miss Leah Miss Leah Graf from principal Jackson who submitted this form and he's in the audience and he explains in a nomination that he's observed this teacher which is Miss Leah Graf helping her neighboring teacher who is happens to be another kindergarten teacher Mrs Sampson during a time that she would she had foot surgery so Miss Graf would get to school every Mar every morning early and be there before Miss Sampson gets there so that she can help her take all of her items out from her car and to her classroom and sets her up and then at the end of every day she stays back and she will go and pick up all of the items and help Miss Samson get back into her car every day she did that for

035quite a few weeks and it's something that she was not asked to do but she she wanted to help out a fellow neighbor and a friend so we want to thank principal Jackson for submitting this nomination and we want to ask you for come on up if you can come up with your teacher Miss Graf [Applause] there are also that not only she's a teacher there but she also has some additional Jude issues also the view sort at um School so [Applause] would you like to share a few words principal Jackson because after all she's only the employee of the month for kindness so Mrs Graf is truly a servant leader that's what I really look for in a teacher I tell our teachers I don't expect perfection I expect Positive Growth mindset and I

036expect you to do our your best but I also expect us to treat each other with respect and the one thing I notice immediately with with Mrs Graf is that when Mrs Sampson she had her caught my eye immediately every morning I pulled into the parking lot Mrs Graf was there before I was she was waiting on Mrs Sampson she would open up the trunk Mrs Sampson I go y'all need help no we got it Mr Jackson we got our system down are you sure no we don't need you Mr Jackson we're all good she'd open up the gate you'd have it already open get her stuff Mrs Sampson get on her little scooter and then if there was a lot of stuff then Mrs Graf will go start recruiting people I'm if Mrs Graf

037was going to be sick she would have somebody Sub in her place and she would do the exact same thing in the afternoon and why what a model that is just not for our staff before our students as well if you don't think that our students were not watching Mrs Graf and how she was serving her colleagues and if you don't thank our teachers how she was serving her colleague um our all eyes were on her because of my eyes were on her and seeing that then our 700 and 37 students students so Mrs Graf I want to thank you so much for exactly being a servant leader and also serving our teachers and collaborating with me as a view Steward you do a phenomenal job so thank you I'd like for you to come

038forward for a photo that's a good job thank you congratulations [Applause] principal Jackson please stay in the front here because uh yeah yes can I continue yes you make it thank you chair well principal Jackson doesn't know this but we also are recognizing student of the month right and you're going to hear me say this now we were supposed to recognize student of the month but instead we will be recognizing students of the month because principal Jackson didn't submit one name he submitted a few but let me tell you a little bit of the story uh so the team of the students that the principal select he selected a few students Matt Coleman he received an email from one of his teacher Mr Matt Coleman who happens to be also the teacher of the year

039for pathway Elementary School right there [Applause] the proud teacher Mr Coleman wrote principal Jackson and explained how he has six students that are giving up their electives every class time to Mentor fellow students in an exceptional student education class now Mr Coleman said which is the teacher to Mr Jackson this is more than just a proud teacher bragging about kids in his class I have the special Area Teachers constantly sending me praises and messages about the involvement of these students with the ESC multi-students these six kids are Role Models not only for the third graders but for every kid in our school well after reading this submission it is safe for me to say that these six students are models of kindness not only for the school but also for our entire District so principal

040Jackson you can you can come up here because I'm going to call in the six students let's see if they're here I think they are and I'm sure moms and dads and family members are here as well so Colton Beck come on up Mr Colton back congratulations sir Miss Raylene giren [Applause] a large [Applause] scene Moses [Applause] Elizabeth Smith Anna Whaley [Applause] oh Mr Coleman is here come on up Mr Coleman [Applause] I also have my special Area Teachers come up here oh where are the special Area Teachers wow come on because it takes a village come on Village come on up [Applause] all right so this is uh I saw this email come through on a weekend this is our our guy this is my buddy Isaiah right here too he's from Mr Rodriguez's

041class and I saw an email come through with Mr Coleman and also with Mrs McCabe who's our media specialist and I saw this email and so what we do is we do our schedule to make sure it's inclusive we work really hard at Mrs Wiles and her team they do a phenomenal job with that and so we tried to get really creative this um and make sure that we partnered and we are really intentional with what we did it was outside the box our teachers looked at me like I was crazy at the beginning but they really bought in they did a great job with it um so basically though is or is that Mr Coleman these six students uh we rotate our different classes each quarter and the students here they did not want

042to rotate they didn't want to give it up they wanted to stay with their buddies they want to Mentor them they eat lunch with them they go to recess with them they do their special areas with them and it has been a true Bond and what we're also seeing just not with them but our rest of our classes is that it has been a true Bond as well you'll see students who have rotated out of that nine weeks they see uh their their friends they see them on the playground and they'll go over to the fence if it's a preschool class we have separate playgrounds they'll go over to the fence and they'll go over and they'll give them a big air hug or something like that but I will say this this is a

043true team effort because Mr Coleman and Mrs McCabe they were going back and forth they're saying we got to recognize them this is truly special so uh so I saw the character of kindness War come through and I said well we'll just give this a shot so I want to thank this whole team here I want to thank our parents because our parents play a huge part in the character of our and together it's a community I just get to write the nomination form and talk so that's all I get to do and smile and wave but uh but bottom line is thank you all so much very proud of all of our students and go Patriots Yeah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] will you please bring all of them forward we have a certificate for you

044and we'd like to have you in a photo foreign moms moms and everybody come into the Horseshoe she's gonna take a picture and then they're gonna stay please everybody good yeah get behind your child foreign [Applause] understand a little bit about this Florida Forest Service okay but don't you still have more pictures yeah so I have a lot of forest service and then Pine Trail that was it thank you to all the students and parents from pathways we love to hear about students showing kindness at this time we're moving on to item 4.01 recognition of Community member along with the Florida forest service and a portable donation so I'd like to introduce Mr will raulerson who is our forest area supervisor for the Florida forest service and I'd also like to have Dr Earl Johnson

045come forward [Applause] and also Brian Gregory good evening we appreciate you being here and we'd like for you to just if you have a moment to just share a little bit about a partnership that we had with you and what that partnership has done we we the way we work together is by having Partnerships whether it's with a city as I said earlier today or a county or with a forestry service hey um excuse me um I'm will um so we have a program the Florida Forest Service is dedicated towards wounded veterans um so I'm trying to give you a little history here so um the program started back in 2011 officially and I've been the coordinator in and we started in 2011 um we usually have to house we had to house our veterans

046so when we do our hunts we would um we'd house them what we'd ended up doing we had an old hunting camp uh up in Seville um that the guys up there were happy enough to to let us house our veterans and they would ask feed them also feed them to to great so jumping forward here we got word about these Portables that we're going to I don't remember who it was that we got the information from that they that you guys would be willing donate or do donate the portable portable um so we jumped on board real quick started making some connections started making phone calls Brian's father has uh just recently retired from from the school board we ended up getting a hold of one of those Portables and out of Pearson elementary

047school and had it moved to De Leon Springs to our uh um main headquarters for Volusia County and if and then the pictures here you can see uh I I think it was you how we had a party with those pictures um trying to get them to go through it was a mess but we any pictures so this picture in 17 and Pearson we were escorting the portable down the road [Music] of course that's what the inside of it looked like I'm not you know tearing it apart as you can see getting rid of all the windows that were in it to exit right this is kind of happy pictures nice um after we did all the work to it then we go into the interior wow um that's one of the bedrooms that's the

048kind of living room area okay um it's amazing what you can do with 800 square feet we have two bathrooms in there 188 comply and let me let y'all guys know that no tax dollars were spent on this we are not allowed to spend any tax dollars on this program it all has to be done through donations or through um our fundraisers we had one big fundraiser that we had for last tournament that raised eighteen thousand dollars for us and we dumped eighteen thousand dollars into this portable uh with all the work that you see that we've done to it um some of the wood you'll see in there is donated by five old fence boards that we pressure washed in uh and stuck up there uh the 10 you know we decided to do

04910 we try to make it rustic and what we tried to do so we've had two hunts since just just this year deer hunts and we're fixing to host two turkey hunts um here next month and then in April but Jacob degrom was a big help in helping us out with the with our fundraising event he was there at the golf tournament which brought a lot of fans in Jacob's a good friend of ours lives right down the road from our shop in office so so he was uh he jumped on board with us and helped us out so we're going to be looking to do another fundraiser um on the road to uh because we have we also feed the veterans they pay for nothing when they come in we and it uh it

050can cost anywhere between two and three hundred dollars for a hunt for for uh to feed the guys Brian cooking and I got it he's sitting here this him and another Ranger senior Force Ranger John Pasquale were the to setting up laying out this portable and making it happen it took all of my um all of my Rangers there to to to do it all but these guys laid it out and they caught they let it and um you see what we got and we also have another portable from you guys that are sitting at the relay Tower that's going to be turned into a residence for a fire so we're probably going to look at possibly getting another one for the same reason to turn into a house for firefighters to stay they'll know

051that housing is not cheap cheap not really uh afford a lot of it around and we have to live in big guys have to live in a certain mileage of their massage yeah after we got done with we talked about hey we would live yeah so we want we want to thank you for showing us what it could look like you know um but we we are happy to partner with you because we'd much rather partner with you and it be put to good use like this then it just be demolished right right so we are happy to have you here this evening and if you don't mind if you'll join us up here we'd like to have a photo thank you [Applause] thank you hey did you guys get in in the middle here

052oh oh thank you awesome you're right I know I know amazing thank you yeah no no way you're hanging out too much ah how nice this is beautiful very nice all right now we're moving on to item 4.02 recognition of students for the Sunshine State Scholars Dr balkabin thank you uh and it's a Volusia County um Family Affair here because we've got quite a few of our principals in the audience but I'm going to ask Miss Amy Monahan to come on up who's our stem specialist and Miss Carolyn carbonell I see she's here who's her High School director they're going to present the Sunshine State Scholars and invite our principals to come on up good evening chairman Hayes Vice chairman Burnett and esteemed school board members and a good evening superintendent thank you for having

053us tonight I hope I said all that right you know really do I need it the school the Sunshine State Scholars Program has continued since 2010 and provides an Avenue to showcase our top juniors in our County for the State of Florida so I did take out some of the things so I'm just going to go over it just a tiny bit because I thought Dr battlebin wanted to but I'll do it so this isn't a program from the Department of Education in Florida to showcase our top juniors in our state and basically the idea is that we're going to show you what's great about the State of Florida because we need you to stay in the State of Florida so that we have the top of and the best who we're bringing it back

054to our schools to our industry to what happens in the State of Florida so it's kind of um it's a raw raw for our students and kind of let them know what is available out in the community that they may not know about so with that in mind we are allowed to have two winners and one alternate and the district honor juries excuse me the district honorees along with their parents and a teacher who has served as a significant influence for the scholars will travel to Orlando on April 13th through the 15th for this extraordinary two-day program this is companies like Lockheed Martin Sea World you name it it's in all of our state universities so students will be recognized for their academic achievements and will have the opportunity to meet with recruiters from Florida

055colleges and universities the goals of the program are to recognize student achievement and to increase the number of students with outstanding stem credentials who choose to attend Florida colleges and universities this year's applicants are a testament to our school's quality of instruction and guidance which made deciding on our top three quite difficult this year's honorees have gpas above 4.5 yes and they've also recorded and we're talking about three students by the way over 500 hours of community service so doing the math that's quite a bit for each of them and their Juniors they're not seniors these students are leaders at their school and in our County we would like to recognize this year's Volusia Sunshine State Scholars and to present These Fine stem students is Carolyn carbonell our High School director good evening superintendent balgavin

056school board members we are so excited once again and I'm privileged to be here again this year to present our awesome high school students for this recognition the first student we would like to recognize if they will come up up with their principal we'd appreciate it the first one is from Seabreeze high school Akshay gup Gupta is an amazing student and a dedicated athlete he has maintained Straight A's his entire education he is involved with Key Club and stem Club he's part of the envirothon team and the Science Olympiad team his love for stem and science is very evident in his activities he is a three-year varsity basketball team athlete with his last two years being on the varsity Akshay is a kind considerate and thoughtful student that strives to do his absolute best in

057all Endeavors he is an excellent representative for Seabreeze high school in the Sunshine State Scholars Program and that is a recommendation from his principal Tucker Harris oh [Applause] our second recipient is from Spruce Creek High School Jacob Friedman who is also an 11th grader he is ranked third in his class of 617 students with a weighted GPA of 4.79 he is in the IB program and take stool enrollment classes he is in the marching band and concert bands and he represented Volusia County Schools in the international science fair with his project on micro Plastics he is an eagle scout Jacob is just a wonderful person and always kind always polite he is very humble but deserves all the recognition he receives he is an outstanding Ambassador for this distinction recommended by um his principal Dr

058Todd Sparger [Applause] and then the third student who is the alternate is from DeLand High vidha chaturi is a current Junior at DeLand High she has a 4.6 GPA and is ranked ninth in her class she plans on attending Duke University after graduation studying medicine she is in our IB program and serves a junior class representative for SGA she is the publicist for our theater program and has acted and worked as a stage manager for some of these Productions in the past she is also a member of the National Honor Society Spanish and science National Honor Society and participates in the Science Olympiad program so there she is with her principal Mr Jerome [Applause] yeah at this time we'd like each of you along with your principal to come forward for a photo I know

059the time okay congratulations are yeah thank you we want mom no she wants something I need a picture thank you yeah come here let me have your camera yeah remix what's wrong foreign congratulations I know we're all done but if I can have the students all the students the students and the board members board members hey congratulations again [Applause] we're moving now on to item 4.03 recognition of Community member and staff from Pine Trail Elementary Dr balgovin thank you madam chair this is our last before our CT presentation and I will tell you that I'm so very proud of this recognition because I feel like I have experienced this gentleman in so many roles I will tell you that he does not like recognition so the fact that he is here in the audience that

060it really shows how much he cares for for Volusia County the superintendent in the board and and all all of our District staff members and school-based staff but just to share a little bit with you Mr Michael did I say it correctly nin and vagi yes I did thank you sir for for that I have experienced him personally visiting Pine Trail Elementary when I was serving as your deputy and your interim and your deputy and I will tell you that this is a gentleman that seriously does not need to work okay he's very accomplished and very humble at the same time but he has two students that attended Pine Trail and from what I have noticed is that he noticed that there was a need there for help and every single day this gentleman would

061be one of the first individuals and I see Miss Tammy Fisher the former principal here to attest to what I'm saying one of the first individuals to be on that campus every single day and probably one of the last now I can't even tell you some of the things he's done okay he served as the maintenance person for Pine Trail he's assisted teachers he's assisted this uh students I mean whatever the need was he was always there he's done some things I can't even tell to help out Pine Trail but La this year you know he's he's again gracious and every single day he's there doing whatever it takes right and he shared with me and the principal and um that there was a need obviously for instruction in the classroom and so he started

062going from volunteering to serving as a substitute teacher for that class that didn't have a a teacher and he did that for a while and then when found out that the teacher will no longer be returning for the reasons that I can State he's decided to study and submit for his certification which he was granted and now he's the teacher he's a teacher at Pine Trail he is also a um he's he's in every uh DAC meeting that we have as you know because he's an advisory he's a chair for the advisory a representative for the advisory committee and he is also on the student advisory committee chair at Pine Trail so therefore he attends back but you know what I I said to him at the last act meeting I said I am I

063am so proud of you and so grateful that we have individuals like you in our system we have many this is just one example right and I said would you come if we can just recognize you at the board meeting he's like no doctor I said but you love me right he says yes I do I said well then you're gonna come so I I want to call him up and let's let's really we have a certificate for him here and um we would like to present this to Mr Michael ninenbachi you got to get up Sir you got to come [Applause] what a humble and truly an amazing individual s but I always say how much we appreciate it's gonna be photographed [Applause] okay we're moving right along to item 4.04 recognition of Taylor

064Middle High Career and Technical education the CTE program Dr valguban thank you chair I would like to ask our principal or a very proud principal to come on up Mr Jonathan Pierce [Applause] team is here sir bring have your team join you so you can share with us some of the great things that are happening as it pertains to CTE at Taylor Middle High thank you superintendent numbers and brag on Taylor High School um after watching some of the other principles go I had all these stats and things to talk about about Taylor but I think I could sum up Taylor in one word in this community we do we brag about ourselves being one of the last few Community Schools we have two feeder elementary schools that come to us and then they're with

065us until they graduate we push pull crawl them across that stage we are a family out there uh probably about 49 of our students come from Pearson Elementary 49 give or take come from McGinnis Elementary couple others thrown in there one of the things about our community is that some most of our students they're one or more of their parents graduated from Taylor and usually one or more of their grandparents have graduated from Taylor they don't leave they graduate from Taylor they go out they come back and they contribute to our community you already heard from one of our awesome alumni tonight Mr rawerson who gives back tremendously to our school so we're very proud of that because as we always say once a wildcat exactly and I can't be remiss I have to uh

066I have to call Dr Jose Colon up here he is our CT facilitator wow right [Applause] those of you that have been principals uh know what I mean when you say you get that perfect hire that's Dr colon he's only with us part-time but every day that he I see run into Dr clone Mr Pierce what can I do for today what can I do for our CTE teachers what can I do for our students he is just phenomenal employee and has really turned our CTE programs up a notch I can't brag on him enough uh taking his own personal time to secure business partners field trips he saw a need because of needing drivers to take kids on field trips so he got certified to drive the vans so he could take our kids

067on field trips so again I cannot brag on you enough Dr clone I'm glad you're here with us we also had several of our CTE teachers I'll introduce those real quick and then some of their students will come up and talk about their programs after our presentation we have with us Miss Tammy Collins who is our digital media program Miss Latrice Carruthers our business and marketing program the man deforestator Ms Jamie Davis our Agri technology and animal Sciences program [Applause] coach Kermit kiesenberry our health science program [Applause] have uh Mr James Kohler who is our construction program leader however he's also our baseball coach and is at an away game tonight could not be here tonight but first off I guess we have the PowerPoint to go through some of the programs real quick so

068first our of course you know our high quality staff that's our program specialist that we have for our CTE and of course high quality instruction again with Dr coulomb coming on board our instruction is phenomenal it's on board we are on track to test more students for their CTE certifications this year than in the past four years combined so we're very proud of that uh first up is like I said we went through uh the different programs that we have Building Trades construction we just last year added the electricity program which is growing this year with Mr Kohler our digital design business management Administration and Marketing Act technology and animal science and of course our health science Allied Health assisting some of our Building Trades and construction students this year for the first this is

069my fifth year at Taylor and it's our first year we had students from our construction program into projects in the Volusia County Fair and every single one of our students came away with a blue ribbon oh [Applause] I said Mr Kohler is also getting certification and adding our electricity program we have a lot of business partners and Partnerships helping with that they came in and remodeled his classroom adding all the electricity stations Miss more Stater Ms Davis doing our act technology and animal science programs a huge FFA program out at Taylor our digital design Miss Collins came on board with us uh started off doing digital information Tech some digital design and this year we were able to add AP Computer Science to our program of studies our business administration marketing and management Miss Carruthers

070came in this year for us moving out of math into that thing that program and I think we have four students competing at the state competition this year and of course our health science Allied Health assisting as Ms Haynes knows this has been a on the on the horizon for us it keeps getting out out there and out there pushing away but I think this year with Coach Q on board we've added Allied Health assisting and our goal is to add change our program into a Health Sciences Academy for 24.25 what we talk to our students about with that program is just imagine their power as coming out of that program as bilingual nurses and Physicians assistants and being on that track for that kind of things and of course we want to thank all

071of you guys for having us here tonight and always supporting us and being there for us and having our backs [Applause] and now I believe there's a short video that Mr Goodman came into date for us [Music] here in the Taylor shop we get to build all kinds of different interesting projects usually things that our own personal interests that we'd like to build later on some of us can get certified and go on to do things in this field and great careers it's just meant a lot that I can do this in high school so that way later on the road when I have kids I can show them look I made these things when I was in high school and you can do this too your learning Target today you're going to work with

072different type Tools in Adobe Illustrator and Export your files as a JPEG it's really [Music] really for Photoshop illustrator I really recommend doing it it'll certainly get you looked at as someone more capable it also if you're trying to move into a field that's more computer oriented it'll help you in that field this program is super useful if you're trying to learn more about the medical field and trying to just get involved in the whole medical program it helps me because I know what levels of Education I need personally what I have to do to succeed in my program and what all like skills and organization I need to be involved with it [Music] [Applause] thank you so now you'll hear from some of the students in each of our programs up first we'll have

073Brendan Markham and Sid Phillips for our manufacturing and construction [Applause] hello so uh the purpose of our manufacturing program here at Taylor is to help our students be prepared for employment Advanced Training and stuff uh in the building construction industry and our program our programs offer sequence various classes that help to prepare us for further education and careers and things in these fields and stuff and in the Agriculture and construction career clusters various construction trades as well as providing a fundamental and construction equipment we've got a couple different courses there we have building cons and construction going all the way up from one uh two and three and that allows us to become certified uh with hbi core certification as well as HPI green certification great job thank you next is our students representing our

074AG technology and animal Sciences programs Demi fierstad and Ty Davis [Applause] hey foreign okay I want you guys to Picture This I walk into my ad class on the first day of seventh grade I took this class because all of my friends said it was fun but on that day I made the best decision in my life I chose to join Ag and do FFA because I longed for the feeling of leadership and helping others and that's exactly what FFA is also by entering this class I learned that I have a huge passion for teaching Agriculture and my advisor has helped me gain more potential to becoming one in numerous ways not only do the fellow students create an amazing support system but also my advisors they've done so much for us and Taylor FFA

075it's amazing whether it be driving us places buying things so we can have what we want for our meetings or simply just being there when we need someone to talk to within our FFA we compete in multiple competitions me personally my favorites are forestry and ornamental Horticulture demonstration most people think FFA is just cows and plows but it's not we also strive to pave new ways for generations to come and take a lead whenever needed be thank you thank you uh good afternoon my name is Ty Davis I am the Taylor Senior Treasurer and um just to give a little overview on what we do at Taylor we have two Pathways that is the Agri technology and science Pathways and basically the main goals of both of those Pathways is to just increase the knowledge

076of the students to to help them become better consumers as well as educate them on different practices in the agriculture industry currently I am enrolled in the acting technology one course where we basic fundamentals of plant science animal science we learn how to build things in different shop projects as well as all the safety required to make sure everything stays safe and all that but with FFA there's more than just in the classroom there's also a lot of leadership roles and community service roles uh to so to start off at the beginning of the year when hurricane Ian hit Florida a lot of our community was without power and electricity so what the FFA did was we made pulled pork sandwich meals and when to parts of the community that didn't have power at the

077time we also applied for the living to serve Grant and were awarded the grant we fed out four pigs or four members that just weren't able to afford things at the time but with that also comes the competitive event side of FFA so I've also competed in profession proficiencies in what stage at State Convention but this year we've made it to state for a lot of contests including livestock evaluation and meets evaluation we also were taught we made 16th in the state for poultry evaluation thank you all right [Applause] um so the pulled pork came from pigs that we also raised um that we got the pigs from a local breeder and dealing on Springs on Highway 11. [Applause] I know next for our digital media program Christine Collins [Applause] hello my name is Christine

078Collins and I'm an 8th grade at Taylor currently I'm taking the CTE course digital information technology I'm not entirely sure what I want to do in the future but I'm considering architecture I do know that no matter what path I take technology will be a part of my future the digital information class has allowed me to become knowledgeable in Microsoft Office applications and now we are building our own website using HTML and CSS basics the software skills and the skills necessary to code like paying attention to detail will all serve a purpose in my future these programs also expose students to things that they would otherwise not be introduced to they will help give Volusia County students the confidence to take their first steps out into the world after we graduate high school [Applause] and

079one of the things I don't know if you guys caught that that Christine is an 8th grader because Taylor is a combination School 612 inside of our 8th graders are able to take High School courses as 8th graders so very proud of that accomplishment as well next up for our business and marketing program Bertha Velasquez and Victoria Sanchez [Applause] hello my name is Bertha Velazquez I'm 17 the senior at T do it Taylor Middle High and I am here on behalf of Miss Carruthers business ownership honors and in that class we are developing our entrepreneur mindset and also learning how to own and manage a business and like with its it's constructed in a way in which each week covers a new topic that enhances our entrepreneur skills and how to successfully and properly own

080a business and so we would have it so that it's each week is organized with an assignment that introduces the topic topic groups and for the rest of days or others would and all the topics we cover really to our own current construction of a new canvas and business plan presentation for the business ideas we have been developing since the beginning of the entrepreneurial Labs we do particularly provide the most help as they would apply the information we've covered to our businesses allowing further progression on our business plans which is helpful and um specifically I'm not going to be a business owner but I will be going into like business finance and become like a financial analyst and although you know I won't be managing a business the entrepreneur mindset and the skills the skills

081um help will help me um in the future be able creative mindset and approach things creatively to to make proper decisions in the future and also confidence within ourselves good job hi my name is Victoria I am a sophomore in Taylor Middle High School and I am in behalf of Miss Brothers for or business ownership class uh both of us next month were competing in the Nifty competition and I want to open a business After High School and this class has really helped me with that lean canvas for my PowerPoint to compete next month and I cannot stress how much Miss Craigslist has helped me with my PowerPoint and being able to see what marketing I can do in order to promote this business right after I graduate and this class is really helpful not

082even if you just don't want to make a business everyone has is so creative we get resources for presentations and we make backpacks cars tallest towers with very different materials and everyone has so many different ideas but we still all get to participate and present in front of the class and it is a great experience for everyone who isn't great at public speaking I myself is not very good at it but I have gone a lot of confidence at speaking in front of people that I have never met before and it is a great resource for anyone who wants to speak who wants to learn who wants to open a business with creative mindset awesome [Applause] speaking of that entrepreneurial mindset these are two of our student volunteers that come to almost every athletic game

083and run our ticket booth in concession stands wow [Applause] lastly for our health science program we have Freddie Scott and Talisha gillins [Applause] good evening everyone I'm pretty Scott a sophomore at Taylor Miller High School and I'm here today on the behalf of Mr Christopher's class I have now been attending his class for two years and it has been a very entertaining and helpful program Mr christenberry is a very inspiring teacher and he is dedicated in teaching the importance of the medical field as of last year I was a freshman and I took the medical skills course that class was very accessible because it was based off of real life events that one day I will be enjoying and loving I plan on becoming an advanced practice registered nurse because I want to help people

084feel better and guide them into the right direction the best way possible this course has also taught me the importance of handling the real life-threatening situations this year as a sophomore I am currently taking the anatomy and physiologist course this class has really benefited me to get a better understanding of how the human body works without this class I will not know any of the things I would know today overall after the two courses I have taken have aidened me to prepare for the my career goals and be ready for the real world and save some lives my advice to any student that attend any schools that want to be in the medical field I recommend them to take the medical skills and anatomy and physiology scores to prepare them to become something in life

085that's all thank you for listening [Applause] good afternoon my name is Felicia gillins I'm a sophomore at Taylor Middle High School and I'm here on behalf of Mr quizenberry class talking about how great of a class it is and how it benefits me to become the great student in my career that I hope to become one day I want to become a registered nurse and as of my two years with taking Quisenberry class I have learned great things about my career that I hope to succeed in what I like about Quisenberry class is in my freshman year first time taking his class which was medical skills it was so fun we did Hands-On stuff we did debates and like group work I liked it because it taught me things I didn't know about and consume

086maybe be something I might need to know in the future he is a great instructor when it comes to the importance of medical things he takes his students very serious and takes the things we learned series he helps you on things when you don't understand and make sure you understand it so you won't be confused as of right now I'm taking anatomy and physiology we are learning about the human body and its different function and how it works in our body and without this class I really wouldn't know anything and how the body functions work this class has really helped me get a really good better understanding of how it works this year we took two college tours and got to do a few Hands-On things and how it would be when I graduate to

087become sexual in life I plan on taking his classes my rest of my high school year because it is really benefiting me and how it could help me my advice for anyone at our school wanting to take wanting to go into the medical field is to take those classes it might help you to do when you might want to be want to be in life and to prepare for real life events I want to become a RN because I like helping people and wanting better for people and those courses have really taught me on how to deal with life-threatening situations thank you for listening as you can see we're very very proud of all of our Wildcats Al here at Taylor some of the things that students they're like hey are we bringing stuff for

088the the school board members we have we have to show them love for letting us come out here so we did put together uh some Swag Bags for our school board members Mr Gomez is going to help me with that we have a Taylor ID and lanyard for each of you and inside your Wildcat bag you'll find a polo and Wildcat Nation t-shirt uh a tailored notepad and a cell phone holder that was created by our construction students wow [Applause] they're they're right again thank you everybody School Board superintendent about we love being here presenting our things uh one of the things we always talk about with Taylor is that uh hashtag it's not that far so you guys are welcome anytime to drive out there and visit [Applause] thank you and at this time

089we want all students and teachers and staff to come forward from Taylor Middle High so that we can get a photo with all of you foreign for those of you that have joined us this evening and this may be your first time we've been highlighting that each one of our board meetings now for several months are CTE programs and I believe there's still one more CTE program to go for the next board meeting I think we've got one one more one high school left Pine Ridge High School will be our one for the next board meeting because we've taken this opportunity so that you can see all the wonderful programs and academies that are middle and high school students are involved in and so we want to thank Taylor because Taylor is a unique school

090it's sixth grade through 12th grade out there and so we've got middle and high school students involved at this time we have reached the 6 pm time but I'm going to ask I have 10 cards here there may be some more I'm willing to do all 10 but we need just a few minutes break before start the public input so at this time we're going to take a quick break and we will be back in here at 6 20 and at 6 20 we will start with a public input thank you for your patience we have a quorum there's three of us here so we're going to go ahead and start with public input I'm not sure where the other two are at this time I'm sure they will join us shortly so for public

091input as I said thank you for letting us have a quick break so we're going to do 10 cards instead of five each person you will have three minutes in which to speak and please note that we don't communicate with you we just take down notes and sometimes Dr balkabin has someone that will speak with you when we finish the public input so we are going to go ahead and start with public input I'm going to name the first person's name and if that person will come forward I will also say who is going to be next so that you are ready the first person is going to be rich yoast followed by Jessica Roberts Thomas welcome Mr Yost I want to read really fast so bear with me here because I whittled this down

092for like five minutes I practice as you know my name is Rich yes good evening my daughter's attend Seabreeze high school located in Daytona Beach this is our first year in Volusia County School Districts having moved from outside your boundaries and so far honestly I'm not impressed in November of 2022 one of my children is a victim of a felony theft crime on the campus of Seabreeze I was notified that your staff at school resource officer of which I still don't know who had recovered my daughter's stolen property from a suspect while advocating for my daughter's rights as a victim of a crime your principal Mr Harris threatened me repeatedly with trespassing I asked several times what exactly I was doing that would prompt him to threaten a parent of a student at a public

093school but with trespassing Mr Harris went so far as to close the distance and approach within inches of my face saying his best tough guy voice if you say one more word I'll trespass you you never did trespass me certainly never intimidated me despite repeated attempts to get Mr Harris where your District staff to justify this action I've received none Mr Harris in fact told me that it's his normal course of action to threatened parents with trespassing and does so regularly to this day Mr Harris nor Mr bario have been able to articulate anything that would justify such Behavior I was told by your District staff well this is his school he can run it as he sees fit excuse me but this is not his school it's a public facility funded by citizens such

094as myself if you're going to threaten a parent of a victim of a crime you better be able to articulate what exactly prompted such action my duty as a father to advocate for my children that's exactly what I did your principal just didn't like the fact that I wouldn't kowtow to his imagined Authority that incident went on and still hasn't been resolved the school resource officer and staff lost my daughter's stolen property for a number of days no one including the detective assigned to it even knew where it was turns out your administrative staff at the school kept it in one of their desks just because someone works at a school doesn't give them a right to be in possession of stolen property gets worse I've since learned there's a male student on campus who

095likes to dress and portrays himself as female even adopting a feminine name wearing wigs and makeup to a pair of female the male students been using the female communal restrooms when I raise this issue with Mr burial he stated Mr Harris was totally unaware the student was using the feminine female restrooms which again I find hard to believe since Mr Harris has two daughters attending the same school I believe his feigned ignorance is a lie or willful ignorance either way clearly he doesn't know what's happening on his school as of last week this male student was using the same biological female students communal restroom to be fair while I was sitting here I received an email from Mr Barrios saying that the issue was addressed however I have no follow-up aside from that I really

096hope that Volusia County doesn't aim to become the next Loudoun County Baltimore Mr Harris took it upon himself to place a desk inside the boy's bathroom there are pictures of this if he chooses to deny it position of Mr Barrios Mr Harris was attempting to curb vaping in the bathroom while his reasoning may be just the execution is poor who in their right mind would find it appropriate for a grown man to sit in a boy's bathroom while they urinate in what world does juvenile boy's bathroom an appropriate place to conduct the business of a school principal at the very least this demonstrates poor decision making I have many other issues with Mr Harris and Volusia County Schools as a whole for whatever reason your District staff seems entirely uninterested in addressing these issues in

097any meaningful way rather they seem more interested in covering up and justifying poor decision making and inappropriate behavior the school doesn't belong to you Mr perio or Mr Harris it belongs to the citizens of students and it's about time you start acting like it thank you Mr Rios thank you following Jessica Roberts Thomas will be Cheryl Taft yeah hello thank you Lord for hearing me my issue also is with Seabreeze high school my daughter started attending Seabreeze last year mid-year my husband and I transferred down here from DC um at first same things seem to be okay unfortunately I think that there is very little to zero accountability at that school uh here's why my daughter has an issue of medical issue they have received the paperwork about her medical issue but I constantly get

098calls about her missing classes when I've called to say this is a thing she continued get in trouble for leaving classes on top of that there is a person who uses the bathroom her issue deals with the bathroom and she cannot go in there because she's scared that he's in there this is inappropriate there should be a separate restroom that is open for anybody who identifies as a different gender as it was in DC in DC the high schools have bathrooms for people who identify as a different gender which is fine but she can't go in there because it's not being taken care of and this happened today so being told that it's been taken care of and my daughter called me today to say Mom I'm in the bathroom and he's in here again

099this cannot happen we need to be more aware of our kids feelings all of our kids feelings not just the people who identify as something else we need to be aware of the other kids feelings too okay there are kids we're supposed to be advocating for them we're supposed to be raising them and bringing them up right we have to do that in a safe and secure and friendly and kind environment I hear all of these great things about sea breeze I've heard all of these great things today about sea breeze about the AG department and everything that's wonderful but I'm sorry to say I've seen none of that I've seen none of that if this month is kindness Seabreeze needs to get the memo okay because that's what they're missing the only person at

100that school that has offered any help in any way was Miss lagrada so thank you Miss lagrada I know that she's not here but thank you so used for her help unfortunately I have to say that that school is subpar at best right now I'm honestly thinking about changing my daughter to Taylor I'm just saying uh they seem like they've got it together but I'm sorry Sea Breeze does not okay thank you for your time I appreciate you thank you Cheryl Taft after Cheryl Taft will be Mrs Linda Cuthbert good evening I'll be reading comments from a parent Dan pronovos regarding the debate about books I entered the debate about books because I believe it is wrong to promote to books to minors containing explicit sexual content heavy drug use and large quantities of vulgar

101speech among other things I soon began to see two clear sides of the debate you had one side with people wanting to protect the innocence of children by limiting the unimpeded promotion of this material to minors the other side wanted to protect what they view as children's rights to read virtually anything they want to in the beginning I asked myself a question is there a line that says such and such material is appropriate and such and such material is inappropriate my conclusion is that there is a line for each side the gulf though between the two sides is wide the reason I believe is simple one side believes in God and has a healthy fear of him or at least they understand and agree with some of the principles of morality set forth in God's

102word the other side rejects God completely or they at least reject the majority of the principles of morality set for to the Christians who believe children should read whatever they want even if deemed inappropriate by God's word I seriously question your understanding of God I would at the very least point out that promoting inappropriate books to minors would be an anti-christian thing to do one side has a large list of books they find inappropriate and are attempting to limit the exposures of minors too the other side has a short list of books they question in fact the most commonly questioned by that side is can anyone guess the Bible very interesting why is that I believe it is because that side is an open Rebellion to God that side hates God or is ignorant to

103the truth of What God Says I hear people on that side say they want children to find acceptance of who they are they want them to be loved for who they are they want them to find a place in this world where they belong they want children to believe they have a purpose in life they want children not to be confused or want a cure for mental illness who could accept you and love you and give you a place and a purpose more than the one who created you who could clear your confused mind and guide you out of mental illness more than the one who created your mind Jesus said that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting

104life he said you would perish if you did not believe perish meaning you will be eternally separated from God and spend eternity in hell for those sins you committed against what God Said but Jesus Paid For Those sins so that you would not have to pay for it these books they are a distraction from God believe in him put your trust in the one who created you put your trust in Jesus who paid the penalty for all the things you've done wrong in your life if you want hope and love and reassurance put your trust in him thank you Mrs Linda Cuthbert followed by Terry furrer good evening Madam chairwoman school board members Dr balgubin I'm here to celebrate and to thank for governing bodies who came together to make an interlocal agreement for the

105benefit of New Smyrna Beach High School when New Smyrna opened 16 and a half years ago there was no traffic light outside I taught there for six years at the new school 20 at the old it was a definite need because students really do not use the best Judgment at times entering and leaving a high school so when I was elected at the first time in 2014 I tried for five years to get the county of Volusia in the city of New Smyrna to sit down with us and discuss a traffic light I did not receive any kind of assistance it was it took three superintendents three Chiefs of operations and a couple of city managers and a County Manager myself and Stephanie Doster hit a planning to make all this happen three years ago

106Dr Fritz along with Mr Aiken got the assembly and of course it was um covid so we met on Microsoft teams George rackenwald County Manager we also met with Mr rashidan who's the city manager of New Smyrna Dr Fritz Mr and by that time it was Dr shanoff myself Stephanie Doster and some of their Traffic Engineers all set down to discuss the possibility we all agreed it was needed the problem was the funding over the next couple of years we decided it's definitely necessary County started to design it plan it but by the time I left office in November the county of the loose the county of Volusia County Council voted for it the School District voted for it I was glad to be part of that vote but the cities of New Smyrna and

107the cities of Edgewater were not yet on board it took another couple of months the month of December and January because I was not in office I could go to the New Smyrna City Council meetings we were able to get the city of Edgewater on board as well as the city of New Smyrna so therefore it cut our funding so we did not have to use our half cent sales tax for a county piece of equipment but I'm very grateful for their city and county managers who joined in altogether and I was inspired at earlier with um Miss Haynes two two interlocal agreement with the city of DeBary for traffic outside of DeBary Elementary but I think I've got her beat with four governing bodies coming together to do the best for New Smyrna Beach

108High School I thank you very much I'm off to a baseball game now my grandson's playing Eustis tonight and so go cudas [Applause] Miss Terry fur followed by Dr Jerry piket hi I'm Terry fuhrer of Ormond Beach um I have come in here numerous times regarding this topic but I will go only back to August 8th August 8th I came in and spoke to the school board regarding a school trip to Washington DC for the inauguration um the trip was canceled by um the gentleman at the school that was doing it Christopher went I can't remember his name anyway he canceled it the trip was in January he sent out an email in September cancel it um yeah come to find out he canceled with a travel company two weeks prior to that um he

109canceled it based on the school board would not allow the trip um we bought the trip I bought insurance for myself and my daughter um and they're the penalty um of canceling the trip payment thing or something anyway I'm sorry um 219 dollars a piece for the insurance and the castle issue fee was fifty dollars a piece so I am out 538 of my pocket that I have been continuously coming up here for um I don't um see how they can cancel that due to you know well it was the school board this and the school board that and a million different answers but basically in the in the email where he canceled um and the same email he said oh but you can join our other trip in December to Italy okay wait a

110minute the school board okay a trip to Italy out of the out of the country in December but canceled inauguration trip in January that just does not make sense when I came and talked to their burial was asked to speak with me he did follow me outside and we discussed it at that time he took no notes so I don't know what he thought he going to do or remember he said he would follow up with me at which time he never did August the 23rd I emailed him again regarding the no follow-up at that time I have emailed all the board members and although I know none of y'all have nothing to do with it in the different districts I was trying to follow through the fact that he is not following up and

111let you know what your employees I know Ms haynes's um asked about it superintendent I know you have asked about it I know Mrs Burnett has asked about it and still I have gotten no follow-up even when you ask him to I know you've asked him to a couple of times because I've got one of the emails and he returned continues to not follow up can you please get me someone that will follow up with me at the blow me off that's the problem I mean the school board is just rude and that gives them a bad reputation thank you although I feel in good company if he's ignoring the superintendent then shouldn't feel too bad he ignores me Dr Jerry Pike it followed by Jenny Maddox welcome Dr pikes Madam chair members of the

112board business partners superintendent of schools remaining concerned with closing the achievement gap of our most underserved students and advocating against factors educational inequalities of discrimination I restate my previous concerns noting the connection of strategic plan being applied to underserved schools in the Daytona Beach Community and similar areas additionally Insurance systems and structures to recruit retain and develop high quality faculty and staff considering both areas have been of great concerns as related to Student Success so to ensure ongoing follow-up has the board discussed presented or finalized the superintendent's evaluation tool for the next evaluation perhaps modifying a combination of past and present criteria focusing mainly on overall student growth examples of current categories are high quality instruction high quality staff communication and Community engagement and without mentioning other categories I question how the board could logically

113defend the district showing reasonable progress in any of the above areas which represent 65 percent of the current overall evaluation we should also keep in mind that a number of our current schools have not returned back to their academic status held before March of 2020 which is three years to date so again I offer suggestions in hopes of aggressive actions being taken to address the Urgent state of our district let's start with ensuring that we have a team maximized securing Essa funding that's Elementary and secondary school emergency relief funding which is a portion of the three covid-19 relief laws allocating up to 190 billion dollars in aids to States and school districts this emergency funding is available until September 2024 to address ongoing educational challenges due to covid-19 setbacks so with available funding like this

114we can perhaps seek maximum funds to initiate school to work programs to underserved students resources for homeless families accelerated academic initiatives after hours virtual instruction dual enrollment support for entering 9th graders expanding Pre-K increase in professional development for faculty and staff upgrading technology advancements for interactive collaborative classrooms mental health Staffing and support around-the-clock tutoring services and much much more information our success should be determined by the decisions we make and actions we take right now to address the current state of our district thank you and please take action Genie Maddox followed by Mr Riley Nutt good evening Dr balgaman chairwoman Haynes members of the board my name is Jeannie Maddox I'm president of the Volusia school counselor Association and a board member of the Florida school counselor Association and a recent email I received a

115copy of the Volusia County School strategic plan as I read the plan it was easy to see how school counselors if used appropriately can be essential in the success in several of its goals so tonight I'd like to talk about goal one engage all students in high levels of learning every day school counselors are instrumental along with our school social workers and making sure students are free from the challenges some experience in getting to school your school counselors monitor attendance meet with students and parents offer small group counseling and call home when students are absent some school counselors create attendance contests between classes grades teams and between other Volusia County Schools students cannot be involved in high levels of learning if they are not in class students can be involved in higher levels of learning

116when they have physical needs that are not met as school counselors we know the students without running water those who are living in a tent or hotel those who are uncertain about where they will sleep tonight and those whose only nutrition comes from the schoolway cafe your school counselors work with the students too embarrassed to come to school because their clothes are dirty or their shoes are held together with duct tape your school counselors are the ones who kindly take the smelly student the one no one wants to sit by or talk to and provides them with basic hygiene items a place to wash up and clean clothes from a closed closet we know the students that come to school tired and unprepared because they are sleeping in the living room of a family friend

117tonight and who knows where tomorrow your school counselors know the children and teens there's more to high level of learning high levels of learning than high quality standards to help students be engaged students cannot be engaged in the high level of learning when they are dealing with mental health and emotional issues even with mental health therapists on our campus there are families who do not follow through with the requirements to put services in place school counselors work with these students who are uninterested in being around peers preferring to sit alone or silently on the edge of a group because they don't seem to have the social skills to engage with others or the ones who feel anxious about being in large groups or of people in the cafeteria Auditorium the students who don't seem to

118have the emotional fortitude to handle a simple correction from their teacher or a minor disagreement with a friend as a school counselor I can tell you post coveted we are seeing not only in academic Gap but in emotional and social Gap some students seem stunted emotionally behaving and responding one to two years below their developmental level there frustrated and engage in impulsive and inappropriate verbal behavior and actions when talking about their schoolwork students say to me I don't want to do this or I'm just not motivated school counselors are equipped to assist with these challenges and have the training to teach students the skills they need to face the post-coveted Developmental and mental health challenges your school counselors are an untapped resource ready to help students prepare themselves for high levels of learning in the

119Volusia County School job description for school counselors bullet one bullet out of 23 prevents school counselors from doing that job and that's the statement other duties as assigned by principal and administrator this phrase has been used by school counselors by school-based administrators and District Personnel to prevent school counselors from doing their job please take a time to examine what your school counselors can do to help Volusia County Schools be successful thank you thank you Mr Riley nut followed by Ryan Tisdale good evening Madam chairs award members and superintendent I'm here tonight to advocate for a replacement school for Enterprise Elementary I am the art teacher Enterprise and I'm not just the art teacher I'm also a product of Volusia County Schools I get emotional talking about this because I'm passionate about my students the school

120that I teach in is 111 years old it dates back to the second school or the second courthouse in Volusia County and when the courthouse was moved to DeLand in 18 the repurposing of the courthouse became a normal school for the teaching and preparing of teachers and in 1912 they combined the normal school with Stetson education program so Enterprise Elementary became a we didn't have kindergarten but we had first through eighth grade I was here in 2002 when there was a building on our campus that was built in they awarded you as a school board body awarded it to the Enterprise preservation society and in 2007 we partnered with you to pick up the building and move it to an adjacent site that is now across the street from our school I've also been on

121the historic preservation board for the county I am passionate about the community of Enterprise and the historic district that the school is in my classroom I with the school of Enterprise kindergarten through sixth grade and when I was in sixth grade we had 1600 students at our school we are at capacity about 650. that was before Deltona Lakes Elementary was created so I look back at the evolution of the buildings that are on our campus my art room was built in 1977. Deltona Middle School which was Deltona Junior High where I also attended it was built in 1967. so when we have this type of situation where we're approaching that Universal 50-year Mark it's common knowledge that most buildings have hit their their their lifespan I love my classroom it is the largest art room

122on the the west side of the county I'm advocating for a new art room but I hate to say goodbye to mine what I'm seeing is I'm also the user the steward at my school so sometimes before people will tell Mrs Douglas about a problem on campus they'll come and they'll talk to me first and I can tell you over this past year I've heard from so many teachers of and we even have a situation during our testing time um where there was no air conditioning and we had to delay our testing by a day so we're looking at a situation of buildings that date from 1952 1964. and 1977 and they've hit their life so I'm petitioning you tonight to seriously consider a replacement school for Enterprise and I guarantee that people of Enterprise

123will support you on this Mr thank you Ryan Tisdale followed by Rachel train I hope I said that correctly good evening superintendent valkabin and school board members my family and I relocated to Florida in November of 2021. my 27 year old boy spent all of kindergarten half of first grade in Virtual School due to covet we started looking for schools and based on where we lived the boys were zoned for Enterprise Elementary I researched on Google to get information on the school and the first picture I saw was what I thought was a church I then said to my husband why does the school look like a church and why is it so old in the area where we were there was another Elementary School which was DeBary Elementary I looked at that school online

124and there was a major difference between the appearance of the schools I then said to my husband I wish our boys could go to this to that school it just looked so much better than Enterprise being that we were not zoned for DeBary Elementary I just decided to enroll them into Enterprise I'm so glad that I enrolled them the staff is amazing and from day one everyone has not only been very helpful but they allowed for my boys to make the transition from Virtual School a great one I know that there's a saying that you should never judge a book by its cover but seeing how old this school looked I definitely had my second thoughts about enrolling my boys as a realtor I can tell that this school is not up to code I've

125heard a common phrase from several parents I went to Enterprise as a kid and the school was the same how does this District expect the same performance without equal resources modern technology and Facilities on another note I'm also a part of the PTA I have spent numerous times on campus and there are some things that I believe that the children will benefit if a new school was built number one safety the school definitely has an open concept most of the buildings were built in 1960 E3 when the world was a much safer place and you can have an you could have had an open concept newer schools have students in a closed building for more protection and this definitely concerns me the wife number two the Wi-Fi and the internet signal is horrible every time

126I enter the campus I never have signal on my device and I know if my device has no or very low signal I presume the devices that the students are using may not have as much signal usage as well when volunteering in the classrooms teacher teachers struggle to keep their connectivity and number three there also seems to be a consistent issue with the AC and a majority of the buildings it is very humid just the other day one of my sons said Mommy I don't understand why is our hot why is our classroom so hot and then lastly I noticed that the roofs definitely need to be replaced I could go on but these are some of the key reasons that stand out to me I have pictures I like to leave so that you

127can see what I've witnessed firsthand the staff and the students are so sweet they are well deserved for a new school and I hope you take my thoughts into consideration thank you and then I also have a petition that that was created by our PTA as well thank you Rachel train hello um I'm coming to you tonight and man I wish I could speak like those high school middle schoolers I apologize I'm very nervous um I'm coming to you tonight because last Thursday my daughter was um I received a call that the police were at her school that there was a group text message going around to her friends that a boy is going to bring a gun to school and kill her paraphrasing from what I've heard um it was long lines of don't

128get too used to this she's not going to be around for long I don't have the exact documents of the text message because the police report was just open and I've been at work so I haven't been able to pick that up but I do believe the hearing for this case will be tomorrow so um I could either bring that to you all or if you guys have that as well I would appreciate that um just so that you can have all of all the information in front of you um the incident was because the little boy the girl that he liked or his girlfriend mind you these are 10 and 11 year olds um dumped him or liked my daughter or he felt jealous they're 10 and 11 year olds they change boys and

129girls every week but the fact is this boy made a threat with a firearm on my daughter's life I did not press charges because at the time I got the phone call at work I didn't have very much information and I do not want to put a child into our criminal system I what I'm requesting is that this will not be allowed back on the school premises where he threatened a child because not only my daughter is at risk but also her other friends the teachers you know everyone involved so with covid we do have other options for this child to do online school or other schools but that he get the help that he needs emotionally but that this threat be taken very seriously because we don't know if this is a kid acting

130out throwing a fit because he's angry and he lost something important or if this is a legitimate threat we have had so many school shootings I've actually sent a statement with just a few statistics that I pulled up over the weekend of school shootings and deaths we have had just in 2022 and now in 2023 already there have been multiple deaths so I'm asking does this be taken seriously and then my daughter can continue to go to the school that she she just started the school she goes to middle school next year and these girls are girls that she just made close friends with and she does not want her life to be uprooted because she is terrified to go to school so as of now I I believe that the hearing is Wednesday I

131was not able to get any more information from the school but I just I don't know if it's even safe to send her on Wednesday or Thursday so so I just ask that this threat be taken seriously um and that there be a zero tolerance for death threats or gun violence on our schools even the sign out front says walking in here zero tolerance to the full extent of the law so I just ask that our children and teachers get the same thank you Miss Hazel okay that concludes 10 public comments we do have a few more public comments that we will address at a later time so we're moving right along in our agenda and we are up to the consent agenda do we have any cards for anyone that wants to speak concerning

132any item on the consent agenda everything I have is for one of the items later all right then moving right along Dr balkaman are there any items that are requiring removal from the consent agenda no Madam chair board members are there any items on the consent agenda that you would like to remove for further discussion if there are no changes and I'm hearing no changes from Dr Balkan or the board then do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda move approval of the consent agenda as thank you Mr persis do we have a second we'll suck at that motion thank you Miss Thompson so we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as it reads any further discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor say aye

133aye anyone opposed okay it passes unanimously now we're moving on to item 15.01 the human resources update thank you madam chair Mr West our chief of HR and along with Miss Stephanie Workman our director of Human Resources they will join us to provide an update this evening welcome Mr Wesson Miss Workman good evening board members Dr Bowman how are y'all doing tonight okay we have it out here we go I apologize I'm first hi okay we have our HR update and numbers have not changed significantly but we have filled some of our instructional vacancies specifically um since our our actually our last board meeting we were a little under 200 and now we're down to 177. um for this particular board meeting you'll notice of course our numbers are still excuse me significant in the

134area of Ese and Stephanie's going to talk a little bit about that in a few moments moving on to support vacancies our numbers are down a little bit as well so we've hired some additional folks um in our support area down to 205 still a significant number of paraprofessional vacancies which of course we know have been consistent throughout the year we did want to provide some separation data from for you as well up to this point we have 538 separations from the from the district or excuse me at the district level amongst of course support and instructional not including retirements retirements are 84 or excuse me pulling out retirement says 84. we have leave of absences also at 162. so that is as of up to this point and what we're obviously doing right now

135as far as the timeline is concerned is working with the allocations for our upcoming school year identifying those and we will be actually Distributing those before our next board meeting we've already met with the principals to review those with our program Specialists and will be handing those out in the next few days so I'm going to go ahead and have this Workman excuse me talk about some recruitment events that we have scheduled are going on good evening and as you know we are gearing up for the busiest time of year for recruitment every time I've reached out to Miss Fuller and her team over the last couple of weeks like where are you today where are you today so you can see that just in January and February they have been very busy going out

136to some of our local universities with Seminole State they did a they've been on all of the campuses they've also been doing some virtual Expos they did University of Virginia and they have a couple more of those coming up over the next couple of weeks they have also worked with Daytona State on some of our upcoming interns for the fall and one thing that we're very excited about is we will have our first para to teacher interns coming in in the fall we have four so we're excited about that and we're working with them on placement as well as making sure that they are given the opportunity if they choose to to continue to receive pay in benefits and and those types of things because we want to make sure that we don't lose them

137because they're they no longer have an income we have our upcoming recruitment events in March and you can see that it goes all over the state we have things in Flagler Florida a m is coming up next week there are some virtual job fairs with Georgia Southern with Central New York teacher recruitment day so we're hoping to look at it to pull some teachers from the northern part of the country as well as Northern Iowa so so Tiffany and her team are reaching out to all facets and all universities and colleges trying to recruit to to our area big thing we have coming up is our job fair which is scheduled for April 26th the Flyers have gone out I know they've been out on social media and have been distributed to all of our

138local organizations one of the other things that you may start hearing in the next week or so is our updated radio address and I'm going to play that now because it does reference how to register for the job fair so and get it yeah it's not picking it up I can hear it but I can't hear it in here it's outside I can hear it out there it's outside so anyway I can send that link to you if you'd like to hear it and it just they reference the job fair they reference the website and who to get in contact with if they'd like to attend with that we are open to any questions you may have Mr cologne it's a board if we look at slide number four our custodial is at 24. and

139that number is going to probably triple because we're taking on our custodians so I'm curious to hear what we're doing to try to recruit our folks who are working for the company to come work for us but I'm afraid that we may not be competitive enough in pay even in that realm there to to to get folks to come work for us I'm concerned there paraprofessionals I know we just uh thankfully got a contract together that's great but if you look at those numbers that's where we're bleeding and we really need to reconsider as we're going into the next school year where we put our our eggs in the basket because that number right there is going to continue to be very high and the last one that sticks out to me is transportation you

140know and those folks are tired you know they're giving us their all and I can tell you and Miss Carol can probably speak to this a lot of them are not really really young and so just over time we're going to lose some of these drivers and so again I I just I'm concerned and I think that if we don't somehow find a way to aggressively um compensate these folks we're really going to be in trouble next year that's just my thoughts and again I'm looking at the three biggest pockets and in our world that's called supply and demand and if you can't fill a position you have to do something different because if it isn't working it isn't working that was just my thought thank you thank you and that was for our for

141us that there's not much you can say about that but I will say about the custodial piece since that was the first one we have been working obvious um since our contract is ending with with that company we have been working with our hiring managers with our principals in actually contacting reaching out talking to the custodians that are working with those companies right now and so um you're right we we obviously have a need there and um we are going to have a number of allocations since they are rolling over into our schools but what we're hoping is that uh particularly because we already have them all at middle and high school or we have the allocations in middle and high schools and that's where the majority of our vacancies are because those are usually

142larger numbers our elementary schools will have probably fewer custodians and what our hope is is that they're going to keep their the people that are currently there at those schools because they've been working there and they have that connection with the community and the schools so that is definitely a an issue that we're working with and Stephanie yeah and I just want to add that one thing that we are going to do is we're going to have four Regional job fairs specifically for custodians in the four corners of the district so we can try to help recruit for those new schools that are opening with the custodians next and one more and one more thing that was interesting because it was in the contract and and I mentioned this to Dr B uh just briefly

143and I know that this probably has some negotiation aspects to it but in the contract for the foreign teachers there was a provision in there where the uh company provided some sort of loan for folks to be able to move to this area obviously they're going to have to make first and last rent and all of that and so I wonder if something like that that maybe we could do to help folks who are coming to our area maybe we can attract them somehow setting up something like that where you know they still haven't gotten their first paycheck but at least they can [Music] um put a a down on an apartment and be able to work again just one more thing we may consider doing that may help some folks who are new to

144our area to be able to acclimate and join us again just trying to think outside of the box um as to what we can do to get folks to come anyways that's it thank you thank you Miss Thompson I just had a quick question on Transportation with the 29 people is that on a ratio of one route per driver actually that the 29 is split between drivers in attendance and it's just split about 50 50. so you're thinking about roughly 15. okay drivers okay thank you that's it are there any other questions thank you the next item is 16.01 this is the ratification of the proposed collective bargaining agreement with the Volusia United Educators for instructional for the fiscal year for 2022 through 2023 this will be presented by Mr Marquette Mr Mark West as

145whoever he wants to bring with him we would also like to invite up Miss Elizabeth Albert please Ms Albert would you come forward thank you I apologize I apologize for my cough also folks sorry allergies absolutely so we are very very excited to uh to bring before you this evening approval or recommendation for approval for the ratified proposed collective bargaining agreement with our Volusia County Volusia United Educators apologize um for the instructional unit for the fiscal year 22-23 um just want to give Miss Albert the mic for a few minutes we've had a great bargaining session and uh a lot of good conversation so miss Albert well thank you Mr West and Dr balkabin Madam chair members of the board last week or the last time we were here I acknowledge the hard work of

146both of the bargaining teams so I'd just like to do that again thanking everyone who participated in this process we're very happy with the outcome we had at the end of it all 2 825 yes votes to 133 no votes so of the total population of the bargaining unit that's about two-thirds the folks who voted and that that's a 96 percent approval rate of those who voted so we're very very happy with that outcome and so now it's up to you thank you that's our recommendation is to accept the proposal that we are bringing forward to you um that we've agreed upon thank you is there a recommendation from the superintendent we have decided did everybody sign okay all right so I recommend a chair ratification by the school board of the negotiated and proposed

147collective bargaining agreement between Volusia United Educators for the instructional staff effective July 1st 2022 through June 30th 2023. thank you Dr Brockman board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent this is actually one time where I'd almost like to pass the gavel but no I won't because I don't think there's a problem um do we have a motion to approve I enthusiastically move to approve thank you Mrs Burnett do we have a second I'll second that motion thank you Miss Thompson so we have a motion to approve in a second is there any further discussion or comments I'm excited all right then we'll call for the vote all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously [Applause] before we do this signing I do want to make sure that the teachers

148are aware of what the statement will look like I know that's awesome so um actually while we were meeting sitting back there I started working on the first payment which will be on March 9th the payout of the retention supplement that was agreed upon so that's for those teachers who have 10 or more years in the district followed by the longevity payout which will be on March 31st April 14th is when they will re be able to see the new salary slot reflective of their new pay increase to their hourly rate and for those who will be receiving the advanced degree supplement for those grandfathered individuals that's when they will see the Retro for that and then the overall retro that will be taken back to the start date will be on April 30th so

149this was advertised at all the polling sites so they were aware and we can make sure that it is shared again if okay so I'm going to restate it just to make sure we heard it correctly March 9th which is coming up very soon there will be the retention supplement for anyone 10 years or higher March 31st will be the longevity supplement April 14th they will see their new salary in their paycheck and if they have an advanced degree they will get the Retro piece for the advanced degree now that's for people that are already aren't grandfathered in that have correct because there are some that are grandfather that are the grandfather these are the grand hired prior to July 1 2011. okay all right then April 30th they will see their retropay from beginning

150of the school year whenever they started up through now yes ma'am that is correct I think that's wonderful thank you very much we are happy to hear that yes be ready we have to have blue can I sell this on eBay oh yeah please I have to come here is Mr persis left but he'll hear so just before I'm sent back to my seat I'm sure you know by now but we did reach a tentative agreement for support today prior to the meeting so we are almost free and clear heading heading on to bigger and better things so I have a question so when do we start negotiations for next year tell me when you're ready wait tell me I have a reaction about that first okay so you reached a tentative agreement today how

151long is it going to take before we know if you can ratify it we can we'll start the process the only problem is that we don't really have a lean timeline to get it advertised before your next meeting because it looks like it's going to have the vote will have to occur at the end of March because and spring break kind of throws the monkey wrench into that but we all need spring break so some some people don't get spring break but yes I'm happy that you are okay so then just so that that group knows that won't come before us before March 28th correct because we have a we have obligations as far as the Landrum Griffin Act and the law that we have to follow for the period of advertisement of the tentative

152agreements and to fully inform all of the members of the bargaining unit on the provisions of what we're asking them to vote on we can't rush it okay that's fine and then I agree with Mr cologne when are we starting bargaining for next year tell me when I think you need to start in April quite frankly on any items or language you want changed and I wish that you could be ready on July 1 once we know what the amount of money is that's coming you know whatever comes out of the budget so that we could go ahead and start with that I'd really love to see because remember I'm old and I've been around a long time there were there was an occasion back in the day when I started and I think Mr

153persis would agree with me where we started the school year off knowing what the raise was or what we were getting and to happen a long long time ago yeah yeah it hasn't happened recently no it would be nice this weekend on that line with that line of thinking that really was the intention of what we attempted to do prior didn't work but if you are committed to that we're absolutely in favor of doing that because it also makes us as a district more competitive to those folks who are looking to secure employment if we can say to them this is the contract that's ready to go for you when these other districts are still trying to work it out we are we become more competitive so if you truly want to do that let's

154do it one of the problems was that in the summer people were here meetings was a you know but you have to work around that I mean if you need it but your team much like last summer your your team will find a way to come together and get that work done and because it's a reopener year we have salary in two language items that's it so so very quick process if we are ready to that's why I suggested could you go ahead and do the two language items like start in April and get the two language items I mean I'm sure you already know what you want your language items to be let's hash that out now and then as soon as the budget's released if we could go ahead and start with that

155piece because you know I'm going to say this as far as the board goes you know this past year on July 1 we didn't we didn't hold back on the fifteen dollars per hour because you know ideally it didn't have to happen until October 1st but we we all got called and and you know I think it was a unanimous thing we wanted them to start at fifteen dollars per hour and that was what we leaned forward on because our goal is whatever amount of money is coming down or whatever is dictated I mean we want it in people's pockets sooner than later and for the longest time I've said please you know I understand we may not be able to pull it off in August or September like we used to do I think

156we still could if we made a true commitment to it but I think people should have it before they go home for the holidays and that it's the last it's not been happening lately and and I feel for the people like even if you look right now with the teachers their last piece is not even going to come into April 30th and if we're not voting on the support staff until March 28th and that's only if they ratify it you know um we're looking at probably May on that well I mean and Stephanie may work a miracle I'm not putting her under any pressure like she may be able to pull it off sooner than that and I would greatly appreciate that but it's just it's a long time to have worked and not seen

157the money and I do know that at least with the support staff everybody went to at least 15 to start the year and and I have to preface this with in August of 2021 we were at not was it 9.87 cents an hour or something like that and so if you think about it when we this past August we were already at a minimum of 15 for everyone I mean so we're making progress and and they're not going to take credit but you know Mr colon and Mrs Burnett and I were in Tallahassee last year and we asked for that we said we need to get to 15 sooner than later and they did listen to us on that piece now they didn't listen to us on the other piece when they decided to throw

158other rules in but some of us are headed back to Tallahassee we'll be in Tallahassee while you guys are enjoying spring break but we'll be advocating you know for all of our teachers and our staff because we realize that pay is important we just need the money to come down from Tallahassee without a lot of restrictions and that's my that's my message this year I'm going ahead and telling all of you I thought the message was pretty clear last year with what we did but they decided to put restrictions on it so maybe this year we can remove some of those restrictions but thank you all right that's my message all right moving along to item 16.02 interlocal agreement between County Volusia and the school board of Volusia County for shelter expenses it's going to

159be presented by Mr Kevin penley one of our if you've never done shelter Duty it's it's a Hot Topic Madam superintendent Madam chair board members thank you these these item 16.02 request the board's consideration or approval to enter into an interlocal agreement with the county of Volusia concerning the operation of shelter agreements if the board will recall this contract was previously approved and sent to the county they requested some changes as it related to our language for required local match that went through County Council and their staff and the proposed revision came back where the county is willing to do that to the extent that it EMS that the federal government FEMA does not already cover so I think with this language the compromise has been reached and would recommend that the board authorizes to

160enter into that interlocal agreement all right so Mr cologne I am not in favor of this contract particularly because of the language in number three and our responsibility it says that we are responsible to provide shelter facilities and Personnel to staff such facilities including but not limited to bus drivers which we know we have a duty there cafeteria staff custodians as far as I'm concerned I would stop right there language facilitators that's the County's problem and administrative staff to operate the shelter traditionally we've used our APS and our leaders to operate the shelters and for four years I have been trying to get us out of that business I think we need to have an administrator in the building that has keys that can provide access the custodians Etc but I don't think it is

161our duty or responsibility to operate the shelter that is the County's Duty and for that reason I will be voting no on this agreement thank you thank you Mr Columbus Thompson yes under number two under the county responsibilities in the bottom it says in no event will the county reimburse School Board expenses for a storm even where local contribution is not required do we have a list of the requirements for approval for FEMA for reimbursement there's no list it depends on we submit reimbursement requests directly to FEMA under this contract FEMA basically makes that determination as to what it's just like an itemized expense report where they go through but I don't believe that there exists a list of items obviously if it's something on a list that we're not allowed to bill for we

162wouldn't do that so I don't have that list okay thank you this is Burnett um what did we get I know we were reimbursed in the past but was it the full amount of what we paid out I know that in the past with uh I believe it was Irma that we just had back in in the fall where we were back charged essentially for items that we had submitted at that time we were billing the County under the former contract and the county submitted reimbursement requests to FEMA and there were items that FEMA disallowed under that that they back charged the county the county back charged us it was about 99 000 I believe um so there are I don't know what those items were I didn't do the application but it can be

163materials time that weren't if someone didn't turn in a time sheet for example that they could you verify that might have been something that was those types of items and that's part of my question was um we were reimbursed for all of the time because I know we paid them every minute that they're there and so I mean we should be getting reimbursed every dollar that they are there that we are paying them I I agree with you Mr cease can you provide us with a he might have a little bit more detailed reporting on that Mr cease who's our chief operate Chief Financial Officer and currently we um we applied for two hurricanes um reimbursements right now and we're actually opened up FEMA claims for both of those this current year with those claims

164there's categories of expense in the shelter reimbursement expenses we submitted all of our claims for the first hurricane of the year and we're currently compiling that information will be submitted for Nicole so going back to your your question yes one of those things that they look at is our policies um whenever when we're getting reimbursed for expenses so that's all that information was shared with the FEMA and uploaded to them and then they'll study that information and then they'll um we'll get reimbursement based on um on what we hopefully with everything that we um related to the hurricane shelter I don't know if that helped or not basically what Ms Barnett is at Arch Vice chair is asking whatever I our payout is to staff for example in terms of expenditure that we're getting a

165hundred percent of that back yeah we're anticipated to get 100 back but we'll have to wait to hear back from what they actually end up paying us for I don't know for sure I can say but through that process they review our policies and procedures on pay and then but with the anticipation based on how we wrote that this last year um we were anticipating that we're going to receive 100 reimbursement for shelter cost this upcoming year we filed on our own outside of the going through Volusia County this year because we didn't have an agreement in place so we just filed with FEMA directly this year so what We're working directly with FEMA right now Mr cologne so in the same thing on number three it says when requested by the county so when

166the county requests the school board will provide shelter facilities and staff including but not limited to okay again we're we're letting them tell us and there's no mention in here of School nurses but we know our School nurses run the special needs shelter we have a shortage of nurses we don't have the Personnel our teachers are tired our administrators are exhausted they want to be with their families the thought that we are giving what we don't have anymore that we don't have the luxury of people anymore we have the luxury of the buildings and if you notice they go to they open our schools before they use their County facilities leaving us to hang when it comes time I mean there is nothing in here I mean we no longer can give what we've always

167given and there's no mention of School nurses on here at the request of the county so whatever they say yep you're going to provide it it's not limited to I mean this is you know we we did Mr Wolf's office did a uh Statewide and I'm sure not everybody's gotten this because I this this is like Groundhog Day for me they did a Statewide search of different counties and what they do for their schools and you know it's great because Volusia County says we open more shelters than everybody else did in the whole wide world okay but we also started school two days later as a result of needing to make sure that things were in place and were good and so again I want us out of the shelter business we do have a

168statutory requirement to use our buildings but even this language doesn't say anything about school nurses so as far as I'm concerned we don't have to have any School nurses there but we know that that's not what they're thinking we know that they want you know and and I remember four years ago when a family with a ventilator was turned away from the hospital because they didn't have a diagnosis they were turned away from the shelter because the nurses couldn't take care of them and so we who did they tell them to call they told them to call the school board they're the ones in charge of the shelters we don't need to be in charge of the shelters or run the shelters we need to offer our buildings we need to make them comfortable we

169need to make sure that there's somebody with keys who can make sure our stuff doesn't get destroyed but you know I think we still have time to work on this language a little bit and it's what I've been asking for for four years going on Mrs Burnett thank you so on number two it states in there that the county will provide law enforcement personnel and Emergency Medical Services so by that statement I would be under the understanding that we would not need to produce any nurses but maybe we should make that clear within the with our number three that's a question the state statute requires that we not only provide the shelter facility but also necessary personnel and that's what this agreement attempts to do is to Define what necessary Personnel we can and are

170willing to provide we can't do that to the exclusion of all others that's why it says but not limited to we attempted to define the numbers of for example School administrators to administrators two schoolway Cafe workers into custodians the county did not accept those terms certainly go back to them again but the state statute is ambiguous and requires necessary Personnel so that's what we've attempted to do in this negotiation with the counties to Define what that those numbers look like in our last contract did it include language facilitators that did include that it did thank you agreeing with what Mr cologne said would it be possible to Define operate the shelter because that seems like a very broad term and if the county in the school district are working together it just seems like it

171puts a lot on the school district so could we Define the word operate that means to open and have the the shelters available that's the building part of it it's a necessary Personnel is where we come into more ambiguous terms that required definition in agreement um you know operate means to open you're in charge well keep in mind too let me just say this that we don't all of the shelters are not school-based shelters the county does have its own shelters that it opens but we don't operate those shelters we just operate the schools this only applies to those public school facilities that the statute requires us to provide as an emergency shelter when the county requests that we open those Emergency Shelters thank you Mrs Burnett thank you um do we can we get

172a list of the schools that are listed as shelters and the list of the county buildings that are listed as shelters each year Dr Johnson's Department defines which facilities are maybe stood up to use the term as a shelter and who the managers are for those who the Personnel to staff them will be that's all determined based on a list that's annually produced but I'm happy to provide that to you do we have one for the county you mentioned that there's County buildings that aren't schools do we have one of those no no they're not County in our schools but the county operates separate shelters for example the Ocean Center was except the Ocean Center was stood up as a County shelter the county has other buildings that it operates its own shelters this is

173just for school facilities used as an emergency shelter during times of declared emergency thank you Mr persis do you mind if I say something real quick so in the past the only shelters that I know that they opened up the Ocean Center this time because of all the flooding okay and they didn't have a place to put people but in the past my understanding um is we've only watched them open the fairgrounds up and usually it's not one of the first places it's opened although they did start opening it when we started having some difficulty where they were bussing in the homeless to our school sites where we had families and we ran into some problems so then they started opening the Volusia County Fairgrounds buildings for that purpose because I've done this a long

174time probably longer than what I wish and like I'd love to remove us from this the reality is they have to use our school buildings and each year a list has to come up because it has to be which building is rated you know for wind mitigation and at what rating it is and we have to have different buildings that some that can be special needs some that can have animals some that are housing families people don't understand the work principles and their staff have to do because you even have to have you have to we've had to use the Raptor system now that we have it to check people in to make sure that we don't have someone coming in with a criminal record and then we have to have a separate place for

175those people to go um for that so I've had to do this so one of the things that I will say that I've never understood and I believe Dr Johnson is going to do a much better job at this than maybe former people did I got my assignment one year and I had to pass eight schools from where I lived to go to this signed school because nobody took time to look at well where do people live and and unless you're unless you're the principal and you drive quite a distance we really should be looking at if we're going to have to continue to do this which that's what it looks like is that we assign people to the closest school to where their own home is because that makes it easier for them I

176mean I was a single mom and had to do this so you know I was faced with finding someplace else for where my children would go or taking my children there with me and sometimes I mean we've gotten better at separating people but there's a lot of crazy things that go on at shelters I mean there are people that bring alcohol in and they arrive drunk or get drunk okay there are people that bring drugs in believe it or not you've got them in an area and they make out okay and that's putting it nicely I mean there's just a lot of things that go on and until you've spent time in a shelter you have no idea what goes on there but it is a burden on our principles it's a burden on our

177custodians Our schoolway Cafe our bus drivers because we do ask them to leave their own homes and either take their children with them you know or their families or their animals or find someplace else to put their own family so that they can report and do this and I remember this month is kindness and ultimately when weather like this hits we all need to pull together we need to be a community and we need to show kindness to everyone and we need to help each other out but my biggest thing with the county through all of this is every year you hear them take credit for all of this and yet I don't see them walk into these buildings I don't see them walking or roll up their sleeves and help out I understand they

178may be sitting at the Emergency Operations Center you know watching what's happening and I understand a handful of people need to be there but they're not on the front lines and it's a tough place to be and so I know Mr penley and we're not shooting you like you're the messenger right now and I don't want you to take this in any way at all personally but we have reached a point where our staff's tired I mean and it's just one more thing and I will tell you years ago we didn't get paid for it even like it's nice that people get you remember we didn't get paid it's nice now that we pay but it's just still what we're asking them to do so you know and if you've never done it you just

179don't understand what it takes Mr purses thank you for letting me speak um well you know I come to this personally I mean that's what I did all my life and I can't tell you how many times I was a shelter manager and and Deltona which I always thought was kind of funny you know that was had to travel 35 miles to go there but um to me it just came with the job I mean I you knew it as a principal you know you're going to be a shelter a manager and that's just the way it is and 12-month AP was going to be expected of you likely and in fact we had situations where an AP or someone didn't go and lost their job because it isn't like this is optional you you

180have a duty you need to show up and if you don't show up then too bad [Music] I think even though it is a it is you know tiring and at the great deal of satisfaction from it too because you are helping people who are obviously very vulnerable or they wouldn't be there in the shelter so you have the general population shelter you have the animal shelter and you have the special needs a shelter sometimes the site would have all all three as you know on the same on the same so I think personally principles are the perfect people to run shelters because we are used to handling large groups of people and we use pretty organized and we know how to set it up you always have a lot of Co-op cooperation with the

181Volusia County Health Department they're the ones that usually provide the nurses when I was always running a shelter the nurses were always Volusia County health health people they weren't they weren't really school school way Cat Cafe has always been in there uh and uh you know you hate to say you're trying to make the best out of every situation right so schoolway Cafe people they were great I mean they were fun the best part of the shelter was eating you know making food uh and snacking and eating and passing the time and yeah I mean it's it uh no one wants to be in the shelter and that nobody wants to open a shelter uh but uh when hard times come you got to step up and you know you just got to do it

182and and make the best of it when you and I were doing it and you Jamie we we didn't get paid no there's no such thing I mean getting paid are you kidding so uh uh I was looking at the um at this interlocal a a little local agreement Uh Kevin if you could point out any any significant changes from the the first one that you could tell us about um no just seeing the red line the county sent it back with the additional language we had asked that the county take up all of the required local match and they wanted some parameters put around that language they're willing to reimburse us the required local match for anything that FEMA doesn't cover but that's the only you know substantive change as to the okay the

183money side of it correct we had already agreed on the other terms okay but I I appreciate you knew you know you you uh wanting to uh you know say Hey you know everyone's tired and we've got a lot you know what law enforcement people are tired too and they step up I mean when when there's an emergency um you got to do your job you you you don't as principals we don't say we're ever tired you know if there's a need right you just do it I mean I can't imagine saying you know I'm tired I I just don't want to do that extra work if it's if it's part of my duty part of my responsibility and being a shelter manager always was if the time came it was expected that's what you

184got got to do and it's not like someone calls you one hour before you know how hurricanes are we hear about them two weeks before they come and so it's always on your mind it could be it could be it could be so you have plenty of time to get ready for it so yeah I wish there was another group of folks maybe who had that responsibility but I I think in this case it's uh it's part of a principal's duties if I may for a second uh Madam chair School Board member superintendent Valkyrie um I understand what what you're saying in regards to your your concerns uh one of the things that we're doing right now Madam chair is the fact that we're working on Hurricane preparedness for uh this upcoming season um unfortunately

185by the time I right now what we're going to we're going to point is we're going to we have our different tiers of shelters on both sides the East and West we already have those shelters however we're going to have enough opportunity to reply prior to as it relates for the urban campers the urban campers over at the Fairgrounds this year air grounds during the Hurricanes this year at the the fair was an affair at the fairgrounds so they did find a building here of Step Up that's the name of the buildings of those Urban campers as opposed to putting them into our facilities we will they 've spoken to the have had conversations on being able to get a facility ready prior to the storm so we can go schools in the age supposed

186to keeping those uh shelteries in our in our schools and lastly in regards to way in which we are working I just the district in law enforcement and different municipalities have been very open and to our so we're looking to continue those uh relationships with the the county and municipalities as it relates to our storms I can remember in 2004 when we had those three hurricanes I was living in Daytona I was opening up a shelter in Heritage Middle School my wife my wife was there and my flooding and and you know but uh I'm serving the community and you know I am so and we didn't get paid for it but I was doing myself so um we will be better [Music] be very collaborative ly thank you Dr Johnson Mr cologne can we

187establish a minimal Staffing model so we're going to say we're going to provide two people two custodians two because the county in 2021 had 3 800 employees so in my time here we've opened up one year we opened a few shelters up we opened pride and Galaxy eventually closing Pride because it was empty this time around we opened the land Mainland and all right so again we're talking about four or five shelters and so that four or five shelters is taking 30 administrators 40 administrators to staff so if we had a minimal Staffing model where we're going to provide this many people and you're going to provide x amount of people because right now we're holding this whole bird the people burden we are grateful when Evac shows up and hangs out we're grateful when

188the beach Patrol shows up and hangs out we still have Guardians there why because they know their buildings they know I mean and just to give you an example and this happened at Galaxy there was a situation where someone with mental issues went into crisis and they couldn't get that person out of there and so they had to deal with I mean we're not talking about the shelter from you know we're really we're talking about mental you know there are things going on in our community and these shelters are volatile and so if if we say Okay so we're going to provide this this and this now they know they need two law enforcement personnel there not counting on our I mean let's establish some minimal Staffing where we're not running the entire show because

189I mean this is not our business what what does I mean this the one patient at Galaxy was flinging blood I mean why should an administrator have to deal with that and he was violent why I mean and so again I think that you know they have 3 800 employees you know in different capacities you know what maybe you work at the tag office today and tomorrow guess what you're going to be at the hurricane shelter and we're going to share that responsibility but right now we are absorbing a hundred percent of the burden and I've been to the shelters I I am someone who has to report to the hospital when there's a hurricane I work on transferring people from One hospital New Smyrna and Palm Coast they all have to evacuate we bring

190them over nobody wants to go to uh and so you know I am that person but at the same time I've been to the schools and I see what's going on and even when it's not a bad hurricane we've got seven admin seven administrators hanging out there's more administrators than there are patients I mean I just don't like the open we're going to run it if we're going to provide you two custodians one maintenance person you know then you all need to step up all the other roles that the that the org chart says need to be filled with County Personnel let me tell you I bet you the tag for agency folks don't have to come over they're County employees you know the elections folks and I'm sure they all want to join in

191on helping the community too and we want to give them the opportunity to do so and that way we're not chasing but that way we're not chasing millions and millions of dollars later in fact you just met it we just got paid for Irma and had to pay back Irma was when 2015 14 17. I mean that was six years ago you know the money doesn't come fast they can raise their millage if they go into a deficit we can't you know again I think we just all right I'm done sorry no we do offer these shelters as a community service and and I can appreciate what Mr Purser says and I do agree with what you said a staffing model would be nice I don't know how quickly the county and and Volusia County

192Schools could come up with one of those would would that be something possible that we could do in a in a fair amount of time in order to make this happen before hurricane season um from my perspective I do know that uh T's had at least two deputies there or enforcement officer also at our special needs shelters to the health department they are the ones that work our special needs even though we still have Traders filters they they assist with that Staffing formulas I can work on that and reducing those numbers and seeing what we can do in terms of working with the district I don't know what we can do it from a legal standpoint we've been working on this contract for the better part of 16 months currently five years I've been working

193on it with the Staffing model be able to have an addendum to this contract if we were to get the contract approved tried to put the Staffing model in the language and the county rejected it so we can go back if that's the board's pleasure but that's the way contract negotiations work we have to go back and forth and they propose language we propose language the language that you see had been previously agreed upon and now we're going to have to change that so if that's the board's pleasure and when when um we do get that funding return to us that rebate refund whatever um will we will you be able to give us that number please and what our expenses were okay thank you Dr balgeman so I just want to share a couple

194things when I started here I I remember some of the things that Mr Collins was talking about and I think in the past we were assigning our administrators to these shelters what has changed and we're trying to abide by that model and I'm hearing some of the things that you're saying actually one of them it's a really good idea is that we sent out a list way in advance and we asked for volunteers now mind you you may volunteer today and said it's going to be okay but depending on if a storm were to hit us in that moment depending on what's happening right with you or your family you may not be able to serve so we've had a that volunteer list and we've had a few employees that could not serve but we

195also had a waiting list so then we pull from the waiting list to cover for those employees that couldn't serve and I think if we were to continue to employ a model definitely that needs to be a process that we continue to to assert ourselves with so having a waiting list right in addition to a volunteer and a waiting list but at the same time I like the idea of shared responsibility and I remember because I sat quite a few times and had meetings with our County officials and also with our team and we did quite a few debriefs one of the statements that I heard from our county is again like what you said there's a shortage really when it comes to people right Personnel getting people to serve but we're doing it on

196a volunteer basis and a waiting list right also so I'm thinking if we were to have that conversation and share with them how we do it and see if they can also emulate the same process you never know there might be some employees that will say put me on that volunteer list and and and I don't on a waiting list right so that it becomes a shared process so I like that the other thing I was gonna I I actually agree with you on this one we do have to come up with a staffing model um depending on how many students or or evacuees that we have in those shelters because I did see an issue along with Staffing there was more staff than there was people right so that definitely make a note of

197that um ah Dr Johnson and there was one other item and it just escaped my my mind at this point in time but if it's the pleasure of the board to take this back Miss Haynes and ask for a shared Staffing model we can definitely do that Mr persis now I don't think we should have a staffing model and I'll tell you why because there's a protocol when the county decides there's an it's an emergency to open them up and that's done with a great deal of deliberation because because no you they're they are watching the storm and they're trying to figure out when it's going to hit you don't want to open up the shelter too early you don't want to open it up too late and it's just as you as you know

198with hurricanes it's not an exact science so usually they error on opening it up a little bit early right you want to be ready it takes a while you got to let everyone know okay this is it we're opening it up boom everybody report so you do it and you get there and you got to set it up and that takes a little more time than what you would think and of course you want the principle there the people the people that know the facility I agree you need those people there not someone from the tag office you need the principal of that school with the keys with the with the cus custodian which is assistant playing principles with his school Way Cafe the set that thing up all right you don't need other people

199there all right then you got to set it up and then you wait and you wait and the storm may turn or make or it may come quicker and so you have to staff it like worst case it's coming people are coming it's staff up and that's what we do and then if the storm isn't as bad as he thought turns the wrong way then you start letting people go yeah we don't need everybody and then best quesadario you close the shelter down the first goal of the shelter manager is to close the shelter you open it and then you want to close it that's what you you do so you could not say when we open up a shelter we're going to have four people because if the storm comes you don't want to

200put people in Harm's Way by having them drive to the shelter when the storms coming oh we need more people well you should have told us that ahead of time because I'm not putting my family in danger of myself driving to the shelter because you shouldn't you know you should have told me that 24 hours ago so that's why it's just not as much as you like to say it's you know you always like to be practical about it but hurricanes are not that way and it's just hard and that's why we often do open up a bunch of them and then end up closing them very very quickly but I would rather us do do do that than not open up enough or not have them staffed fully and then say Oh we need

201more people or we got to open up another one it's it's late yeah so we can get criticized for opening up too many and or having too many people there more more staff than people that happens but once we get criticized otherwise we get criticized for not doing it right we've done exactly that and as you said hurricanes are fluid yeah so you have to wait for the right timing because you you will need certain amount of individuals to open up and be ready just in case you don't know how many and it's really hard to tell us because when we open up a shelter that also means we're closing the schools correct and we don't want to do that unless we really have to and so it's and I was referring to a staffing

202model in terms of like for example if if we're going to have a volunteer list and a waiting list that they have one also oh yeah you know so in addition to yeah I'm sorry madam chair if you don't mind Miss Burnett what what I'm proposing is if we need 10 people we've got the five and where are your five instead of us being the 10 and I agree the principle I mean you need to have people who know the building but based on what you just said we don't need one Guardian we don't because arguably we just said there's two Sheriff's Office and so if the Sheriff's Office agrees that they're going to provide the two sheriffs for each shelter then you don't need a guardian arguably now we can work on that model

203my point is not to diminish the amount of shelters or people it's to share the responsibility and we still need to keep folks you need the head custodian he knows every door every key in which color you have to have the schoolway cafe I agree they don't want anybody in their kitchen you can't have somebody come in who does not know how to operate that absolutely it's brunette thank you I was just going to say this is an example of your opening statement today working together and and I do think that this is and you know what we have to continue to do is working together and and you're right there's never a perfect solution um we'll always hear Critics on you open too soon you didn't do this you didn't do that we hear

204that at the hospital as well but we all do take direction from the county on that it's just it's a it's a difficult situation and I think we're all just trying to make the best of it and make sure that we do make sure we get financially reimbursed and that we take care of our community it's it's a very uh balancing very much a balancing act I'd like to make a motion that we send this back uh to the county and not approve this tonight that is my motion okay Mr cologne has made a motion does anyone want to Second his motion I'll suck in his motion all right we have Mr clone making a motion Baptist Thompson seconding it do we have any further discussion yes I would like to since it's taken you

20516 months to get to this point I mean what what has been the sticky issues um because you know 16 months is a long time personnel and money that's our problem too I know it's a New Concept but yeah well it seems like the money side we've got it worked out the required local match was the the last sticking point and how we because in previous contracts required local match was solely on the school board to fund and we made the same argument about the county being able to increase its tax revenue that we do not have that luxury because we are funded by the Florida education Finance program and our FTE dollars not taxes the county unlike us has the ability to change its military we do that luxury that was the sticking point

206with the county on the required local match and then then what was the issue then with the Personnel we we made the same proposals for defined Staffing at two administrators two schoolway Cafe to custodians that sort of thing the county did not want to have that model at that time Mr Dyer knows it well so I'm going to say this because there's several of us sitting here that have lived through no pay to do it if you didn't show up you risked being demoted from your position and or losing your job because that's what was expected of us with that being said I'm going to look at the two of you that work for hospitals think about this for a moment you know your hospitals you know your departments you know your areas when we

207say we want them to share the burden of personnel okay we're talking about someone that more than likely has never stepped a foot on that campus okay so they know nothing about that campus they don't know where anything is they don't know how to operate you know any of the systems on that campus Because systems are different on every campus like I can't even go onto each campus and there is a single way to operate the air or the lights or you know the cafeteria equipment and everything so it's our it's like our home it's like would you want to invite someone else into your home and put them in charge of running your home you're not going to want to do that you're not going to invite somebody into the hospital to take charge

208of parts of the hospital when they know nothing about it okay so we have to be there because we are the people with the knowledge all right you can ask somebody you know if they want to volunteer and they can come on in and put on a pair of gloves and a hair net and they can serve the meat bills but we run a liability if they start turning on ovens and things like that that they don't know how to operate you know or what if they change the temperature on the refrigerator or the freezer or something like that or they have not been through safe skills to know how to prepare food and things like that I mean we all can go in and serve breakfast and lunch but I'm not equipped to run

209that so we have to have the people there to run it it's no different with the buses you know we use our bus drivers because they have the CDL license and they know the area that they're picking up from we can't put anybody in that bus driver seat and ask them to go drive the buses and pick the people up as I said I'm not going to shoot the messenger here Mr penley has spent 16 months trying to work this out he has hit roadblock after roadblock he worked his way back around it the bottom line is it's our community we're part of the community and these children their ours okay in the aspect of we provide a place for them to learn and let's be honest most to the families that come into our

210shelters are coming in because they're in an area that's going to flood or the home that they're in can't sustain the winds or the damage or they won't have what they need and so we're providing a safe place for them because our buildings will meet that and when we invite them into our school buildings which are like our homes we need to take responsibility and look I've been over here with Carl and Dr Johnson okay and I've never thought it was right but how do you invite somebody like I'm not going to leave my home and invite somebody else in and let them just do what they need to do because they don't I mean our schoolway Cafe people are prepared they know which food they can prepare if they have electricity they know what

211food they can prepare if they don't have electricity and I like you know I'm all for a shared model here's what I would actually say we've got to staff it but if the county would be willing to ask their staff who would like to volunteer because I have a feeling some of their staff at times ends up in our shelters because their home may not be safe or it's going to flood and if they had a list and they people would volunteer and say you know I live close to DeLand High and I'll go over there and I'll do what you need me to do I'll put gloves and a hair net on and help serve breakfast or lunch you know or I'll read to the little children you know to keep them calm during

212this time or you know I'll hold a baby I mean we we have from babies to into Barry the first people that came to University High one of the last times we opened up are the elderly and a lot of them are they live alone they're widowed and they live there in the um modular home piece which they can't stay in okay and they just need somebody to know that they're safe so I thank you Mr penley for all the work you've done I know that it's been hard I know that they have fought you every step of the way I feel the fact that you've gotten the money piece arranged which is a blessing because I'm happy we can pay people when for years we didn't pay people I mean and I think that's

213why now that we've gone to a volunteer list even like who wants to volunteer that's why we've got people that are volunteering they're like hey I can volunteer and I'm getting paid for it and so my only thing would be go back and ask the ask the county how about a volunteer list we're not going to ask you to prepare you know we're not going to ask you to run the equipment or whatever but you know do you want to ride the bus and help people get on and off the bus do you want to help serve breakfast or lunch you know do you want to be the person that sits there and stays awake at night to make sure everybody is okay for a few hours I mean I think that's a reasonable thing

214to ask of their employees because they do take credit they get up there and say look what we did all the time and we don't get any credit um but that's where I'm at all right Mr cologne so to answer your question we get nurses from all over the place who come to our nurses hold on who come to our facility who their badges don't work at the doors that we have to make sure that we get their badges working their the Nova meters for diabetes we have to get them into there we have to make sure that we do all of these things so that they are successful they are visitors in our home we have to show them around we have to show but they come because there are too many patients compared

215to the amount of staff we had because we just took in 20 30 of those patients yes our staff is still there yes you put on every hat that's imaginable moving things around vacuuming floors like I did the last time to arrange for sleeping areas for the night time you know the custodians are busy everywhere else so we were tasked with preparing our area so people could sleep at night and there were folks coming I mean what word you know again I'm not saying that school Way Cafe is not there but because they know they're building they know the ovens they know all of that I just we are not getting it's not a shared responsibility we are owning it and I just think it should be more Sheridan and you ask the question and

216that's why I answered it you know and and I'm the one who has to figure out okay who's coming from what hospital and make sure all of these moving parts and I've done this for three hurricanes so I kind of have that institutional knowledge of what it takes to bring people into our facility and what things are going to work or not their badge is not going to work in the cafeteria so we have to make sure the kitchen people know that you know have them write it down so we could then take it to HR and they can talk you know those are the little things and so I just think again it's unfortunate that we went back and forth for 16 months and we made no ground on Personnel we don't have Personnel

217we just saw what we're deficient and let me tell you something nobody wants to be in the hospital and leave their family excuse me nobody wants to be in a school leaving their family at home unattended nobody does there will be some people who will say I'd rather come to the shelter because I'd rather not be alone that's great that's what shelters are for but that's that so Mr Marcus some of the seventh some of the employees bring their whole family to the shelter by the way and their pets in fact many of them that's the that's the norm now everyone just brings the whole family there and it's like a picnic you know but I would just say to your point when you're in charge of the shelter you want to have other school

218people there there are people that we all know and they know schools and they just we just fit and to bring people in from other agencies who've never been in the school never been in the building don't even know how to get from from the parking lot to the cafeteria I mean that's not a person that I want because that's another burden I want people that know schools and here's what we got to do we organize it I also want to know the schedule Who's going to be here you know we usually work 12-hour shifts and so you just schedule it you know who's going to do it and you just and you and you and you communicate because I know your school email and I know how to get in touch with with you

219I don't know from from the county I don't know how to get in touch with these people school people we all speak the same language and we know how to get it done the other thing is I think we're focusing a whole lot about our burden opening up the shelter you don't understand or you don't think about the County's burden on the hurricane itself who is it that is out there cleaning all the roads all the debris that's all County taking care of that who's putting law law enforcement on all the roads to make sure people are not that's all County Personnel County Personnel is involved in so many things as far as other aspects of the infra structure and traffic traffic lights going out I mean there's so many things that are going on

220we're thinking about our responsibility with just the shelter but there's a lot more to a hurricane than just the shelter it's everything else in the county so I can see why when when they are having a contract they're thinking okay storms aren't pretty you School guys you take care of the shelters will take care of everything else and that's kind of what they're saying so I think it is a shared responsibility to protecting our community during a storm event we got the shelter side they got everything else that's why I'd be in favor of going with the con contract because with me the big issue and I think you said it Miss Burnett was the money you know waiting so long to get reimbursed that was always uh difficult we've worked out the money side

221good with the person outside okay so we have a motion for Mr cologne to not accept the contract and we have a second for Miss Thompson is there any further discussion on this piece all right then we have to call for a vote let me be very clear what you're voting on if you're voting I you are voting that you agree with the motion that we will not accept the contract if you vote nay you're voting that you may be willing to accept the contract because you don't want Mr penley going back so we're going to call for the vote all those in favor of not accepting the contract please say aye aye all those in favor of possibly accepting the contract saying nay nay all right that motion fails two to three so I'm

222going to turn to Dr belgaum and I'm going to ask you for what is your recommendation well I love this part when you're the superintendent so let me get this clear two board members are saying that we should take it back to the county and three saying that we move forward with it is that correct chair that's correct only I think we will need to hold a vote on that if here just just point a parliamentary procedure about I'm chair of the superintendent has a recommendation on the table here is what I recommend I recommend that Mr penley meet one more time with with the county oh that's honest just to share just to share what what came out here tonight and see if there's enough if there's a way that we can obtain a

223list of volunteers right if the answer is no it's no but and we can have it here for the next board meeting and I won't be here next meeting so I would love to see this five to zero because this is really important to us and the work that we do I would not want in the future like for example if there was another storm that comes our way and then we know how that works this is something that's important to us and I want to give it its due diligence we have time where normally we're talking about this like at April and it's like noon tomorrow we have a little time okay so you've heard the superintendent she's made a recommendation that Mr penley go back to the table one more time with the

224county and ask if they're willing to have a volunteer list of individuals that would agree to assist at the school-based shelters am I clear on that you're clear and it will be under the direction of our staff that's operating the show do we need to vote on this vote yeah I think there should be a motion and bring it back at the next meeting after Madam chair if I'd like I'd like to make a motion that we uh continue this uh for the next scheduled school board meeting based on based on the recommendation of the superintendent I'll second that motion discussion Mr pendley said it that's why this is called negotiations this is the first time we're seeing this come before us now he's got to go back to them and say hey they know

225how this works he's been involved a lot Mike Dyer knows how this works Madam chair I might recommend that you invite the County Attorney to come to the next board meeting for him to discuss this with you amen okay so we have a motion in a second and what we're voting on this time is the superintendent's recommendation that Mr pendley will go back to the county one more time and have a conversation with them about them asking their staff if there's any volunteers that would like to assist not be responsible for opening or running but assist at our school-based shelters Madam chair yes when I think of the word volunteer I think I'm not getting paid well our volunteers ours are getting paid and it's called volunteers now so I think that needs to be

226clear like if they're volunteering if we're paying anybody we pay everybody just just a point Madam chair if I might through the chair the board did change the policy in 2021 to increase the hourly rate and include overtime for hours above 40 serve during a week in a shelter so there there is a a change a recent change to the board's Sheltering policy as it regards overtime pay for employees Pearl it it's so much better than what it used oh oh oh oh I'm I'm I'm thrilled for everyone um I mean if they have to do the work it's great that they're getting paid I'm just trying to integrate how a county list of volunteers would in any way shape or form assist us in our duty and other words say there's 10 people from

227the county that say they want a volunteer and I just don't know how that would work I mean as a manager I which which what I I'd get assigned to volunteers and then but do I have any authority over them if they don't show up or they're not there I mean you know what I mean they're not they're not one of uh they're not a Volusia County employee so by what right and I'm not going to be calling George George rechtenwell and saying hey what one of your employees didn't show up that said they were going to show up and I expected that person to show up and and and the way I see it um it's the first is to to look at the list and see if we have any volunteers once we

228have a list of volunteers then the part of the whole planning is that we will have our CEO sitting with George and they will work out that obviously volunteers is just that volunteers right they may or may not show up but we will have a process or a system in place and they will have to work under the supervision of the individual that's running like as we've stated here for the most part it's principles and their APS that are in charge of those shelters they will work under their supervision definitely you will exercise a great deal of judgment you will not put that individual in the cafeteria to go ahead and prepare food or so forth but kind of like an assistant and I'm just saying if we were to run into a situation where

229we really have a shortage and we've exhausted our list I guess I'm you know we wouldn't know the qualifications of the current the person it could be a who knows what kind of job this person would have whereas our school Personnel are qualified assistant principles principals people would master's degrees professionals you know I mean I mean I'm saying I mean we're talking about people who are going to be caring for other people who are going to be given a responsibility you delegate that out you know I want you to be in charge of this group with 50 people and making sure everything goes well well if I'm an employee that's never had a responsibility like that it's like what you know I mean that can be kind of frightening particularly in shelter time after you're

230there in a shelter for a while people a little antsy it isn't uh it isn't real easy keeping everybody happy in the shelter so again I'm I'm I'd rather have RP people who I know are trained and I they know how to handle people I'm I'm in favor of and you know I I usually support whatever recommendation you have but I think in this in this case I'd rather stick with the con the contract stick with our own people let me ask Dr John said you've been working with the volunteer list and the waiting list how did you foresee it this year how how did it go overall did we exhaust in utilizing all those Personnel that were listed on the list or no no we did not those who couldn't get them to the

231shelters we were able to get about another person to come in to take that person's place you know when we had Ian the during the storm wasn't the bad part it was after the storm which created the most uh problems for our community and we had of the X amount of shelter managers that we had I wanted to switch them out and you know what they did not want to go home and you know when you look at Mayland high school and Mr castelli and his staff when um the flood happened in that 32114 area code they were inundated with people I was able to Mr costelli his staff want to leave gold they didn't want to really school to another administrator and he stayed there from the beginning this is something else that you

232might not know we're talking about EOC but we have an feoc our facilities our Emergency Operating Center which is at Olson so it is it is our school-based staff that's there and then we have to communicate to the schools on an hourly basis minimally and if there's someone that's at the respective site that does not know our school-based Personnel it's hard to articulate what's going on in the needs of those schools so I run between the EOC and feoc for the most part you you know what's in there the different municipalities they are working viciously to to help us navigate and work with our shelters so it's it's when you are on the outside looking at I live it you know even I mean I was both storms I'm in the in the the weather

233out there running between EOC and feoc and um because transportation that me from Volusia County Schools but I need to be able to communicate with each individual school and I when I go to felc you know I'm able to talk to you know my schoolway Cafe all people are there and they know their people at their respective School so um in regards to seeing if we can get additional support and volunteers for the county that's something that I can do I don't know how we can work that out in language but that's something that I can work with the county manager and the director of EOC to see to see if we can get volunteers and we can start working on that you know because because you can say we could put it in language

234here it's just that volatility but it doesn't necessarily have to happen Madam chair so I have a question so we're talking about folks running what preparation do we give our principals in training to run a shelter that's another good point there they have to have go through the training that we did July because it was done a little bit later than normal but they have to have sheltered training and what they need to do in regards to how to run a raptor system how what happens in the event that that someone who has a record comes in how do we deal with those situations so we take them through that training and every one of our principals and administrators go through that training regardless whether you are going to be a show though there is

235training that's involved in this and if we don't know from the county level who is going to be in our shelters we can't provide them with trainings or do we know their background thank you my my comment was just going to be the whole volunteer verbiage you can always say that that we are looking for a list of those willing to work in the shelter instead of using the word volunteer and then the other part of that is if they're coming from the county of Volusia wouldn't they be the responsible party for the payment of those employees not Volusia County Schools yes so there's the the money piece there so if you don't mind I can say when we when we sit in our employees to a couple different districts to help you you are

236correct because those districts were responsible paying for our employees they sent us a check from well no they were paid you were paid to do shelter duties duties but when we send our employees down to Lee County they paid our the their share we don't we didn't have to pay is that correct we didn't have to pay overtime for those employees because Lee County reimbursed us for that or Madam chair in light of the explanation it's been given what the kindest scene if you like to to go over this again and let's see I'd like for you to go ahead can well no we have the problem is we have a motion and a second so we have to vote on that piece before you can make another recommendation it's to approve it or not

237the motion was what continue uh this matter to the next school board meeting okay so if it dies then we can take another recommendation did I make the motion that you withdrawing I made the motion we'll pull my motion I'll pull my second I recommend Madam chair and board members approval of an or local agreement between the county of Volusia and the school board of Volusia County for the reimbursement of payments of school shelter expenses for the clear Emergency Shelters all right you've heard the superintendent's recommendation do I have a motion I'll make the motion to approve the contract as presented and as asked by the superintendent do I have a second thank you so we have Moshe a second is there any further discussion I wish we would have workshopped this noted that's my

238word from you all right we have a motion and a second if you're voting I you're voting in favor of the contract moving forward if you vote in a you're voting against the contract so all those in favor of the contract moving forward based on the recommendation of the superintendent please say aye aye aye all those opposed nay four to one thank you all right we're going to take I'm giving you um nine minutes you have nine minutes you have to be back here at 8 50. all right welcome back since 16.02 was finally decided we are moving along to item 16.03 I have I have six so yeah this is what happens I have six comment cards on this item and what I think I'm going to do is allow Mr penley to explain

239the item that's okay with you and then we will take the six Comet um six individuals that want to give public input and then we can move from there into discussion and questions okay so Mr Bogan I'm sorry I I would like to ask Miss Hazel too to join Mr Finley I'm always happy to have moral support yes superintendent thank you Madam chair members of the board item 16.03 request the board's consideration to authorize advertisement of an oven I'll see three two zero media selection of print and non-print materials as the board will recall we have a cycle for revising our policies this is being requested at board requests to come out of turn for revision there are another 19 policies that stand ready for consideration in March I just want the board to be

240mindful of that as we go through tonight the request to advertise amendments to policy 320 incorporate recent legislative changes to uh chapter 1006 28 of Florida Statutes that requires an adoption appeal process for media materials library books and what you see before you is consistent with what has been our policy 320 and incorporate specific language that each Media Center shall provide materials selected in compliance with Section 1006 28282 both A and B Florida Statutes and then footnotes there those Provisions that are cited in section 20228 as it relates to the obscenity statute of Florida law which is already in the books that's there is no significant change to the way the statute reads or to its incorporation by reference of the obscenity statutes in chapter 847 so what you see that I have done there

241is specifically reference 1006 28 and then attached in footnote form the language from the obscenity statute in the definitions that are contained in those footnotes so that an individual does not have to go between Statute in order to read what is required I'm happy to breach my rule and never read to you but I will be glad to read those statutes if you want Madam chair if that's the board's pleasure but I think that those are already spelled out and we are trying to keep this policy from being unwieldedly by incorporating all of the obscenity statute definitions at 847.001 but those that are specifically referenced in the obscenity statute 847.012 so with that Madam chair just bring compliance clients does contain and has contained a provision for school level committee review and for district level

242review of appeals of books that are found to be offensive other than that there are no changes to the policy and I would recommend for your consideration that we advertise these amendments so that we can bring them back at the March 28th meeting thank you so at this time we're going to do the public input and I'm going to read a disclaimer before we start at this time I'm I've looked around have any children or minors under the age of 18 in this room is there a child in this room that I'm not aware of all right then this is for those of you that are listening at home if you are viewing this or listening at home and you have with you your child or a child that you're the guardian of or is

243that your home or wherever you're listening to this that is under the age of 18 we are asking at this time that you have them exit or shut off this tape so that they cannot hear this and so I'm going to call up the first Speaker followed by the second speaker the first speaker will be Miss Jennifer Kelly followed by Miss Crystal McClure good evening the proposed changes to policy 320 to include the language of the current Florida Statutes is a good addition however it doesn't nearly go far enough this is an opportunity to not only bring the policy in line with current laws to include hb7 and hb1557 but to also address problem areas in the other sections of the policy one of those areas is the challenge process having attempted it myself I'd

244like to share my experience on November 7th 2022 I attended the first book challenge meeting at New Smyrna Beach High School in attendance was the principal the school librarian two assistant principals the district media specialist myself and another parent when we entered the conference room there was a sheet of paper placed on the table at our seats it was titled New Smyrna Beach High School demographics broken down by age academics and relevant statistics under relevant statistics there were things listed such as how many teens have had sexual intercourse by the age of 18. what percent of adults and teens identify as heterosexual or lgbtq what percent of high school students have seriously considered suicide in the past year how many of those were lgbtq statistics on Volusia County drug overdoses data on how many students

245have experienced trauma how often students at New Smyrna Beach High School have used alcohol or marijuana in the last 30 days I was puzzled as to what any of that had to do with sexually explicit content in the school libraries we were told we had one hour for the meeting although we had several books to review it only at the time only allowed for two their titles are me Earl and the dying Girl by Jesse Andrews and damsel by Elena Arnold content was read aloud from both bookstore in the meeting I'm going to share an example said the board and the audience know exactly what I'm referring to because I've been accused of trying to ban the classics the portion of damsel read aloud was a scene that explicitly explicitly describes a character undressing another

246character to engage in sexual activity that includes this language running his fist across her Downing nest of hair between her legs he then pushed his fingers inside of her his fingers knuckled deep leaving her bruised and undone in the scene where one character gives another character a hand job that includes the language he used his hand to wrap her fingers around his yard it was hot and hard with a wet drip at its tip it moved up and down until a jet of warmth Spilled Out of him and trickled down her hands for me Earl and the dying girl a section was read aloud was a scene where they were discussing eating in this 20 line section eating was mentioned nine times to include discussion on eating 20 in eating technique suggested to add a

247little honey mustard or Heinz 57. it's Kelly next is Crystal McClure followed by Jennifer Dickinson this is continuation so for me Earl and the dying girl Not only was that said but there was also a profound amount of profanity which included once pissed twice followed by seven times 53 shits and if that's not enough sprinkle in another 53 if you want to see more on this book or the others you can go to booklooks.org they're all listed there when they were asked the questions at the meeting they were completely irrelevant to these books because we were supposed to be talking about sexually explicit content instead the question was asked have you read the whole book why if you bite into a rotten apple do you finish the Apple no and just so you know when

248the books are put into the library they don't have to be read cover to cover to be placed in the schools the next one was what is the theme of the book I'll let you think about that one have you read anything concerning the author's life well this is Disturbed now that was uncalled for but our kids are reading this and when they read it hear it see it it goes into the back of their mind as a second nature and language two weeks ago I had to sign a consent form for my teenager to watch a movie in one of your schools it was a PG movie um but yet minor children have access to these kinds of books without parental knowledge consent or any guidance whatsoever then in the meeting we were told

249they would make a decision if the two books would be removed or stay and they would let us know in three to four days if they would decide if it would stay and we wanted to further challenge it those two titles will continue with the current policy process this means the books will be reviewed by the district level committee then to the superintendent and possibly to you guys for a final decision that would take months I asked since we had moved to the next step with the first two books could we set up a meeting with the next two books and start that process I was told no by Chris Smith she told me the first two books had to fully complete the process before they would start the next two and get this and

250if the title is at another school it would have to be re-challenged at that Volusia County school as well with hundreds of titles needing to be challenged the current challenge process would take years because if we have a hundred books and we have 20 schools you can do the math by the way the school-based decision by the principal and librarian at New Smyrna Beach High School was that those two books should stay so they're there please please take this opportunity to not just put a Band-Aid on policy 320 but to really make a change because you are policy makers make a policy change that will protect our children and follow the law thank you Jennifer Dickinson followed by Rebecca sorry good evening board members and Dr bhagavin my name is Jennifer Dickinson I'm from DeLand

251I'd like to discuss policy 320 and something I feel needs to be implemented because the current vetting process has been ineffective at keeping books with with sexually explicit situations or even content that can be traumatic for our youth to be reading without parental consent out of our libraries Florida State Statute 1003.46 States teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard for all school-aged children Florida State Statute 847.012 States harmful material sale or distribution to minors or using miners in production is prohibited 847.012 gives leeway to school approved instructional materials and has been taken advantage of under the guise of literary value If the child to be or child were to be wearing a shirt with a content on it or a video was shown with some of this content it would

252not be allowed under your current policy addressing the issue so why should our books not have the same restrictions we have learned that we have many books in our libraries they do not promote these ideals and go into graphic detail about sexual encounters and violent abusive situations I would like to propose that we develop a vetting system that has keyword searches for the titles that would like to be purchased you already use keeper and Gaggle for all technology used for school purposes why has the same consideration not been used for our library materials if I cannot email you a passage from a library book because the content is blocked inappropriate by the system you use then it should not be on the shelves at our schools another issue I've been have seen with the vetting

253process that these books are being authorized in our peer-reviewed system meaning only people in the literary Community we should also be getting input from actual community members parents students who have read these materials we should want a more well-rounded approach to content that is clearly subjective in nature we are all here because we want to provide the best education for the children in our schools keeping materials away from our children that can be harmful to their healthy development is important because Society has become so desensitized to so much that we see the consequences and the statistics of unwanted pregnancies divorce rates drug and alcohol abuse violent criminal Behavior the rise in mental health issues for children is completely unacceptable is and as the adults it is our job to protect these children from harm let's

254make a policy that is clear and detailed so there is no wiggle room for gaming the system make policies like you have for dress code and video materials with clear definitions of what is acceptable we want it to be strong for the sake of the children in their innocence they hear and see enough that they have already grown up too fast in this age of Technology let's keep the focused on education and not sexualization in our reading materials thank you all for working with the community to make this a new policy a priority thank you Rebecca sorry followed by Anna Hannon good evening um so with the when we consider this policy I want you to think about how we can you know even make the language a little bit better than our Florida statute

255the Florida statute 1006.28 does say the school board is responsible for the content that's in our schools including the media center so the liability falls on you so this is really important for you guys too um the the problematic language in the Florida Statutes itself will talk about what's harmful to minors and then we'll say and lacks literary value so I mean that and is a problem just within the Florida statute itself so I'm a part of one of the book review committees and I went to the training and in the training that we received it was shared the library Bill of Rights and Chris Smith had had some slides what her interpretation of that was the library Bill of Rights from the Ala is written for everybody so it's not specific to children and

256they're going to err on the side of not you know disallowing any book they're very anti-censorship so that like anything would go it's not a Florida document obviously it's not directed towards minors so the questions that are on our form that we have to answer are does the book have literary value well the book I received out of Darkness received a prince award and so when I asked Chris Smith I said how many or when did we get this book it was written in 2015 how long has it been in our media center and she said oh will it won an award so probably right away so this book's been in circulation she's going to get me for our meeting how many times it's been checked out and all that information so we can know

257um but we're you know answering questions like you know did it what's its overall purpose was the purpose accomplished um does um does reading or listening to this work result in a more compassionate understanding of human beings I mean just there there are questions that are completely irrelevant to it doesn't have explicit sexual content um so unfortunately I read this entire book um I would have stopped after the first page if it was me um so I read it cover to cover and I'm not going to read it from it the worst Parts because I don't ever want to read this ever again and I I don't even think an adult should be reading this so I color coded it but the lime color is just the language so also includes the n-word suggest suggestive

258talk objectifying women um you know a lot of hate speech um you know racist and hate language the pink is the sexual encounters between the teenagers in the book blue is all the you know disturbing images violence racial violence Force Gun use by a minor sexual abuse including a minor or involving a minor excessive masturbation masturbate masturbation involving a minor and an adult pedophilia violent rape of a minor resulting in murder murder by gun and gun use by the minor to murder the child um so I mean if this book is allowed I don't know what isn't um it's I don't recommend it for any age group honestly um and I think the author could have written it with the same purpose and accomplished it better without all that content so um I know that

259it's eventually going to come to you Dr balgeman uh is a wonderful thing so I do recommend that you look at the page numbers and consider that as you make the policy that we you know and not these committees thank you Mrs sorry Anna Hannon followed by Kim short the proposed policy 320. references Florida Statutes which clearly Define criteria so that some books will be vetted by those definitions then we have gray area books that have mature content and should require Parental Guidance and permission which I did not see included in the policy revisions we hear both sides of the argument one parent says they don't want their kids to read mature adult content books without them knowing while other parents say they don't want restrictions on their child's reading selections all parents I'm sure

260would be agreeable to have the option to give written consent for their child to read mature rated books we give permissions through our school internet blocking certain websites parents pre-g-13 or R-rated movies and English classes give out permission requests for an assigned class book so obtaining parental permission for Education consent content is not new one example of a rating system is booklooks.org and I'll distribute it to this to you all afterwards rated from one all audience to four minor restricted the rating determination is for the work taken as a whole while the cited content alone may justify a higher rating the work taken as a whole may have mitigating factors that lead to a lower rating with parental permission for mature rated books we can't go wrong with airing on the side of caution therefore

261opt-in permission is best if we want to honor parental permission and obtain active permission and encourage parent engagement opt in permission promotes discussing discussions at home of what you're giving permission for and increases awareness of mature rated books your child may be reading whereas when you go with opt out the school gives blanket permission to all students without parental consent parents have to be on the alert and take an extra step for an opt-out form and messages can get missed or misunderstood opt out is only enforced at book checkout and the book can still be read in the library it puts the burden on not reading a book a parent opted out of on the student and the school does not meet their obligation of the written parental requested opt out please consider a rating

262system and a parental opt-in policy thank you Kim short I have the had the experience of being on a committee for Mainland High School and reading a book and I'm reading a book right now for another for the other committee that I'm on that will meet uh on Thursday night and just like the ladies have said so far I think that we're all on the same page that a policy needs to be created and I think that the School Board needs to do the heavy lifting on this because I'm seeing a lot of division Within These committees and within our school population and with our families and I don't think that that is ultimately what's going to be good for any of us as a school system so I think ultimately that is what I'm

263asking for you guys to do I know this is a lot of a lift because I there really isn't anything out there that's going to address this but I also think that it's important to say where we're headed our legislature is very clear on the fact that they know that all of our our uh our legislation right now is not where it needs to be but they're going to be making changes make no doubt about it they're going to close any little loopholes they're going to make it more more explicit they're working with families every single day to make sure that it's stronger so that our families feel like their children can be in school and not have this stuff around them I think we need to take the most proactive approach we do not

264need to be every single thing to every single child we do not need to provide every single thing all the time to them in these books there's stuff that just doesn't belong and I think that that just can't be said enough I I'm sorry but when I start reading a book on page four and we're talking about masturbation and hard-ons and ejaculation and premature ejaculation and by the time I'm done reading the book I'm not even sure what it is that I got out of the book because it's definitely not a literary work of art it was more of of a coming of age with a whole lot of sex my mind always goes to what are we telling publishing houses when we have the purchasing power that we have as a school district I

265always go back to money when we spend money on things that I think desensitize children and we have it available to them we're sending a message to publishing houses that they need to go and ask more authors to write more of this that's an enormous amount of responsibility and I don't think that we've really as a school district or any school district taken a hard-line look at that because I've talked to a lot of media Specialists and they really are buying books because they have won awards that's a marketing tool guys that's what my degree is in I can tell you all day long how you make things look pretty and how you sell it so we need to start doing what's right for kids and get ahead of it and I know this school

266district has the talent in it to be the leaders on this so I'm excited to see what's going to happen next thank you all right so board members you've heard Mr penley and you've seen the policy and the changes that he's made in it to the policy in red I speak for a moment when you look at the changes I'd like to direct everyone's attention to page two um actually no I mean page one page one in the red section if you look at what is written there about the harmful materials in Saline distribution and it even goes down to describe under um number three you know how we cannot knowingly know that this is not appropriate for a minor and it goes into talking about when there's a picture a photograph a drawing whether

267we have a sculpture in school a Motion Picture film for a similar visual representation of an image that is of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual context sexual excitement sexual battery all of you can read that and it goes on into it my thought is um some of us have already looked at some of these books that are being challenged and there are some that it's very clear that that's I mean I hear the questions they're being asked and and that may be entirely appropriate for a book that comes up where somebody maybe just like my thing is history is history whether it's great history ugly history okay and I've never wanted to change history because you're supposed to learn from history when this first started I thought there's no way I truly

268after all those years of being a classroom teacher and an academic coach and a district mister I said there's no way there's books like this in our media centers because I would have never had a book like this in my classroom and so as these books have come up and I don't want to read them I mean I've skimmed some of them because here's what I know about reading when they first walk in the door teach them how to read then the rest of the time we teach them how to learn from their learning from what they're reading we talk to them when they're little about visualizing like we have them draw pictures you know of like what's the character doing and this I mean that's what we tell we tell kids to picture it

269in their mind this they're only little for this period of time it's you blink I mean I know when you have that baby in your arms you think oh this is like never going to end but you blink and they're all grown up okay and as and when they're grown up they can make their own decisions and I'm even saying you know parents can make their own decisions it's like I've said before there are home topics and then there's the academic side of school what parents choose is home topics in their home that's their choice okay but we've brought items into our schools and we're breaking the law and we didn't do it personally we didn't go out and select these books and we didn't bring them in but somehow they got here and and

270I do and I do want to say this to Ms short it is marketing I mean I mean even when we were teachers you know they would come in well when this classic book fair comes you know what what do kids want like it's all in how it's packaged it's all in how it's marketed and you stick a shiny you know silver sticker on there and say this parents go well then that must be a great book okay I think parents are becoming more aware of looking at books but I never bought a book even at this Scholastic Book Fair that I didn't preview because and sometimes I went looking for Unique books I mean one year I had a little boy that to get him to read it needed to be have a motorcycle

271in it okay because that's what he was interested in because that's what his dad had a motorcycle and it's you know and that's what kids want but I I don't know why this process is taking so long I understand there's a process here but years ago when I looked at this process when we've had some books challenged you saw the need for it all right but I simply said in my mind it's as simple as a checklist of here's the title here's the author here's the ISBN number because some titles are similar that way we know which book we're talking about and when it comes to sexually explicit to me it would just be a simple checklist does the book contain any of these items incest rape sexual um you know content having sex just

272you know bestiality any of that kind of stuff and if you answer yes to any one of those then is it just mentioned or is it described in detail and in my opinion we're finished like we don't have to say how does it make us feel or what's the literary value because I'm struggling with asking parents and community members and teachers and media Specialists and administrators and District staff to to sit on committees and have to read these books themselves because it doesn't leave you after you read it even when you're an adult and you read something it sticks with you if you hear a song it sticks with you I mean that's the way our minds are programmed and so I'm looking at this part of the law here and it says that we

273can't have a book or a pamphlet or a magazine or Printed Matter however it's reproduced or a sound recording that contains any of these things and I'm not even I mean tonight we even heard about the language piece like I'm not even here arguing right now the language piece I mean I don't talk that way I raise my children to not talk that way but I understand that some of that language is commonplace in homes so I'm not even talking about the language I'm talking about books that we have seen and at excerpts that have been given to us where sex is taking place rape is taking place incest is taking place and it's not just the mention of the word just rape but it's described in detail and I don't think I'm not gonna

274I'm not gonna break the law and I'm not going to have children have access to that I I kind of like the idea of the opt-in you know because truly when we take that opt out piece it's like we're already giving permission for every child and if their parent never fills out thing then we just already have assumed they can have access to all this I mean I don't think any of this belongs there I think there will be a few books that may fall in a gray area that may only have I talked to someone earlier today about one that it only has basically like two paragraphs out of 300 pages that to me is kind of a gray book area I mean and I still think if right now when IB classes or

275Ace Cambridge classes give out a book list parents have to sign or state I don't want my child to read that book and you we have to give them an alternative selection all right we have when we do the changes program parents have to sign for their child to participate in the changes program and none of this is being discussed and changes program if we're going to show a PG movie or a PG-13 movie or an excerpt from it parents have to give permission for that I mean that's the way it's been from the day I started teaching and you have to be able to show too and I understand there's reading for pleasure you know and and getting kids to read but I'm not taking someone's short childhood away from them and that's and

276I know I normally in this position I speak less but it spells it out there whether we realize it or not and we shouldn't be putting everybody through this Thompson so I agree with you I we a lot of these books are breaking the law and I think we do need to add in to our policy that if a book is removed from one school then it needs to be removed from all schools because the law doesn't change from school to school it's you know Statewide I love the opt-in idea but I do think we need to look at books and see is it pornography like if you took it to a park and read it to small children would you get put in jail and I talked to someone up at the doe about

277it and I was like can you please define pornography for me because I feel like that can be interpreted in many different ways by different people and they said Webster's dick Webster's dictionaries definition so I think we need to also Define what pornography is and how it cannot be in our libraries but I all of these books are available at the Volusia County library either in hard copy there's only one that's not available in hard copy and they are all available in ebook and I do believe that if it is important for some child to read this they all have access you know to the Volusia County Public Library if they need it in their life so I don't think that we need to be the facilitator for these books thank you Miss Burnett um

278thank you so does this policy go far enough with defining terms such as harmful to minors pornographic material does it go far enough into doing that I'm chair to respond um the obscenity statute 847.001 contains definitions pornography is not one of them and that is due to case law because pornography was highly debated back in the 70s if you recall or at least some of us may have recall of those cases that came before The Supreme Court on pornography so the Florida statute does not define pornography however in 847.001 sub chapter or sub section 7 defines harmful to minors and it I'll again break my rule and read that harmful to minors means any reproduction image characterization description exhibition presentation or representation of whatever kind or form depicting nudity sexual conduct or sexual excitement when

279it a predominantly appeals to a period shameful or morbid interest be is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material or conduct for minors in C taken as a whole is without serious literary artistic political or scientific value for minors that is a definition that is in our statute currently it is applicable through 100628 it's applicable to our current policy as it exists now this policy as it's been revised simply makes that Express and puts those definitions there on the page so that you don't have to cross-reference sub section 12 defines obscene subsection 18 defines sexual bestiality subsection 19 sexual conduct section 20 sexual excitement and section 21 sexually oriented materials so those definitions are already in Florida statute I would hesitate to depart

280from Florida's statute because I think you're inviting other challenges on a necessarily want to want to be involved in stick with the Florida statute as my advice thank you Mr cologne it's funny you should ask that because at a reason school state school board meeting you know or as I'll call it choir practice the choir directors wanted the attorneys to come and Define what harmful to minors was and guess what the organist and all of those who are musicians attorneys could not Define what was harmful to children they couldn't Define it they could not tell the Florida school board the choir practice they could not tell the Florida school board this is harmful to children we can't say that having this book on the Shelf or a child reading it is going to cause them

281harm as defined by that so it's still in a very gray area where they can't even figure it out you know the mom's groups which are going up and advocating are banging their heads up against the wall because it makes no sense because they say one thing but the law says something different and they can't all get in the same sink with that being said I personally and I I was grateful to have it written out and I can tell you I don't think we've been following our own policy the problem here is in the details of the review process I think I'd like to hear a little bit more on that but there are some books that are on our shelves that go against this right here bottom line and I've gone through some

282of them I sat the other day and went through a bunch of these books and went to the pages I even read to Karen imagine that okay I said Karen story time we're gonna read BYO no that wasn't byobtyl or something like that and I started to read it was very uncomfortable it was clear that that doesn't belong in our schools it goes against our policy based on how we have it except we didn't spell it out we said go look at the Statue and I said dependently respectfully Mr penley I said I don't go look at the Statue it says statute one two three four five what does that mean and so I don't think I think where we are today as it relates to some of the books I'm not talking I'm talking

283about sexually explicit it's in our policy we just haven't followed it and that's problem number one the fact that we sent these book homes some of these books home with parent when I could pick up the book and start reading and tell you you know this is like whoa the fact that you know and and I'll even go a step further and I said you know my Blockbuster red curtain comment the other day and I and I don't know that I agree with with having a consent only because the reality is is if you have to give a disclaimer for parents to make their kids go away or not be in this room that does not belong in our schools that's the bottom line [Applause] was embarrassing that you had to say that but I

284had to say that no it's embarrassing you know if if I couldn't take that book and I wouldn't do that to us we saw how that worked out in other counties but if I started to read that book right here I should be able to read any book that is on our shelves from this forum so the whole world can hear it and if it can't pass that test of obscenity of nudity of sexual then you know so I think that's where our first problem was and and you know again I'll say this because we're all learning the state can't even figure it out and I agree the laws are going to get harder they're going to get more descriptive they figured out they didn't go far enough you know this is for anybody who

285thinks this is going away it's not if you think the book should be on the shelves then you might as well move out of Florida I mean let's be let's be real this is not going to get easier let's have these challenges for books that are hard you know does it talk about a time in history that in a way that blah blah blah blah blah those are going to be the hard ones some of these you re you're like what okay and I've had some fun with this because I've been able to show some folks that you know indeed there are some books that have made it on our shelves that are not appropriate and I have yet to have one person say to me oh that should be on ourselves they're like what

286what I'm not saying there aren't some crazies there's crazies out there I love them and I call them crazy all the time but in a lot of these instances they eat I think that doesn't require a review process the review process is let's read it and if most adults look at it and go whoa that's in a school then that's it it's over we're gonna have enough time to battle the ones that are rough that are really going to pull on the strings of our community that we're gonna have to make hard decisions on and that we're going to have to stand up to them that we're going to have to stand up to the governor and say you know what I'm you know there are going to be those times that that those times

287are coming those times are coming but these right here and I'm not even talking about books on sexuality okay I'm not even going that far I'm saying there's different family makeups like it or not you know I'm talking about sexually explicit books something I can't read right here in front of a room full of children okay so I think the devil is in the details I think policy is already there we just haven't been following it and I think that from a state perspective they took their finger off the pulse and you know we didn't put safeguards in place to keep libraries appropriate and you know they're fighting for that now too I mean there's a lot of things that haven't gone on but the reality is this is not going away and you know

288let's let's spend our energy on those that truly are controversial and these there's a group of these books I mean like I said I sat and read them a few minutes all it took me was like you know it's like this is really in a school no that's my thought I think the policy is fine but it comes into how we Implement that and do we actually follow that and I don't think that a book that goes against policy needs to go through a 600 part evaluation because if any you know and it goes back to what you said if a adult you know and I'll use it and I'll use the word for example the word right now in our society is not considered the same thing it was what I was growing up

289you can watch it on TV they'll say it there the word so there is a societal Norm piece to this but there are still words that are not societal norm and I'm not going to say them that doesn't belong in our library period you know and like and and there may be an instance where it's one page out of the whole book then you know what we take out the page and the rest of the book still has its value I guess you know if it's a section I I don't know what to tell you but you know I some of this is easy thank you Mr persis thank you madam chair uh so Miss Hazel if I could ask you what what's the situation now that my understanding is there's 19 books challenged is

290that the word we originally received a list of over 70 I think it was 77 I might have that number wrong it might have been 79 or 77. better we originally received a list of books um that and and I want to address something this challenge process wasn't written for a list of 77 books so when when you get a large list like that it is a cumbersome process to go through this it was written it was designed to be for one book at a time if there's a concern about a book um and so I I'll absolutely when you bring 77 up that that will take a long time worth it yes but it takes a while the original list was I think the it was the intent that those books be challenged there

291were a couple of people that brought them to our attention it wasn't just one the challenge process was started for several of the books and then withdrawn however we had the list and we made the decision as a leadership team that because we had this list and we knew that these are potentially books or they're not books that any of us had read so we can't say for certain but the their books that were sent to us that potentially violated the policy or violated the um statute so we felt an obligation to review those books that was done at the school level the the books were divided up by the schools that they were at because not all these books were at all the schools and they were all at high schools and I think

292one or two middle schools there were a few Middle School um very few of those the books were divided up they were sent to the schools where they were housed and the schools were told to have a committee to review them following these guidelines if there was content in it that was questionable then they were referred to the district for a formal challenge we originally received 19 formal challenges we have sensed just this week received three more so those are a little late in coming that there was communication from the school level those will also be reviewed as well and those are going through this formal challenge process which is why there are 19 committees in order to get the work done by as quickly as possible we could have one committee which is what

293we will have moving forward however then rotate the people out but in order to get it done quickly as possible that's why 19 committees were developed so so now there's 22. well we haven't formed those other committees because we just got those titles today but but there will be so the 19 uh challenge books are from that list of 77 correct how was it it was that a decision that you made then did you choose the 19 of the 77 no the the school committees the schools reviewed all 77. and the schools recommended 19 of those 70 well it actually is 20 something now to go up to the district level committee I see okay in regard to the uh the parent opting in peace reading the statute it was it would be for those

294books that in that subsection C I guess it is taken as a whole is without the artist political or scientific value you know well it actually it's for anything oh I understand that but Ray ish area when you look at taken as a whole and does it have any other value I so for the parent options we we do have and we have three levels and we had sent out it's on our website the forms that are used parents can have full access to the media center which includes the the young adult section where where most of these titles would be housed they can have limited access where parents specifically describe what it is that that they want to restrict or not restrict or they can have no access so there's three levels of access

295that they can they can utilize and we have sent that out and recently under the direction of Dr bagelman we'll be sending that out again so so parents understand what each of those levels mean I mean I'm you know we have the information available yes yeah I mean I can't speak to white people specifically I can say that the selection of the materials follows policy and legislation in the the selection of materials is done by a local school media specialist media committee and the principal approval and um that piece is both in policy and legislation okay so given the the statute and the this policy now everything in red here red color so would it be incumbent on the media specialists to make sure everything on the shelves is in compliance of on the school

296board at you no no the school board has the ultimate decision if they continue the challenge talking about what's available on the Shelf the school media staff shall in accordance with school board policy and District procedures coordinate the selection of educational materials in our district that every school has a media committee and those selections are facilitated through the media committee the principal Consulting with the media specialist is responsible for the final evaluation and selection of materials for the school's media center so I would see how that would that would work for books that are new maybe coming in coming in correct and that will now we have a process in place um and again that you know we talk about implementation we have a process in place where books are to be weeded and reviewed

297each year and media Specialists go in they look at the number of books that have been checked the number of times the book has been checked out like if I've had a book for five years and it's never been checked out right that might be one they look at the age of the book they look at the con there's several factors that they look at and media committees also can be a part of that review and I will tell you that since this legislation has come into place the the Department of Education and I think it was referred to by one of the comments did release a training that all of our media Specialists it's a requirement that they take from the Florida Department of Education which did include the error on the side of

298caution language um and we have our media Specialists are sending us when as they complete that it was just released in January I believe and as they complete that they're sending their certificates in we were waiting on three um as of last week to send their Men We Believe they've taken it but we just haven't got their certificate and then are you in agreement with the notion of a book is uh is not considered suitable at school a that that's just not or should be not suitable anywhere in the district or does it have to go school by school by school you asking Rachel Hazel's opinion are you asking that's a little dangerous okay so I um let me just say this I think it depends and I know that's kind of a wishy-washy answer

299but I think it depends on because the local decision lies within it I think there are certain topics and I think we're talking about them one one right now where if it's if it's that egregious and not appropriate it's not appropriate now this is Rachel Hazel's opinion I would do want to address though and I'm glad you asked that question um when a when we were referring to the book is is only challenged at that school and only removed from that school that's at the school level challenge if it does go through the district process then it then it is we always look to see also where the books are housed so if it's a if it's a district Challenge and it was ruled not so suitable and then remove it from all the schools

300because then it becomes the superintendent's directive I know the word minor is you know you know zero to 18 right um it's comforting to know that these books that we're talking about have really just been at High School high schools except for you said two or three people in Middle Schools yeah I don't have the exactly maybe at middle schools if you have any so I asked a little I I made reference to the opt-in piece in this hand abroad I know it's always harder to um get get that information rather than opting out but do you are you feeling like the system we we have now covers that with those three ways we have it those options we have it available um I I can't speak to what would happen if we switched systems

301and how much more participation we would have or less participation we would have um right now if we don't receive an opt-out form then full access is granted but it is available are you familiar with this rating system that I have seen it yes there are two types of reviews there's crowdsourced and there's peer-reviewed when we the reviews were available for the Committees to look at if they wanted they weren't um they weren't automatically provided with the books and we did both crowdsourced and peered reviewed for that do do these committees when they meet are they privy to uh this book has been ruled unsuitable in 35 other districts in the State of Florida or anything like that do that I don't believe we've gathered that information no so they don't really I I haven't

302seen that information so I don't believe they have I didn't know whether doe has any that we've not been provided with any list no no no doe provides instructional materials they don't provide self-selection material lists doe never says to Florida school districts you cannot have this book on your show no no but they did send us an email saying that we now could not use an SEL program a year after we brought it to their attention of what the content I I understand your point that they can react but they don't say ahead of time but I mean we all got an email yesterday or the day before from commissioner Diaz telling us to not using I saw that yeah and and we brought that program to their attention a a little over a year

303ago yeah well Dr malcolmen I mean how how do you I mean I missed that are the media center Specialists hat as well I mean how do they navigate this I mean or we don't want any of our employees being you know fined or going you know serving jail time or anything so so what what what are we doing as a district to pre to protect them and give them the guidance that they need so I would go back to a couple statements that were made I think that we did have a policy to what extent everyone understood the procedures that a company that policies what's questionable at this point in time what type of accountability system were in place to ensure that it was being filed is what in question to this point in

304time so let's fast forward let's come to where we are now um as we know the governor has sent out and doe has sent out a memo that was that was clearly intended for every media specialist for them to understand that they are to exercise caution and good judgment in the selection of materials so the accountability piece that we've put in place here which is like a safeguard is that we are we have sent that out that training to all of our media Specialists we have a list of all of our media Specialists and we're making sure that they've completed the training successfully and that we receive a copy of their completion of the training so that's an accountability measure that we have implemented here and we have their signature that that it's been completed

305that's accountability second is that we want we we've done also in in addition to that training every memo that we've received we're ensuring that they're receiving that memo and that they are there is a read receipt that it's been that there okay it's going to be followed that's another safe card in place the other item that I will share with you as it pertains to this policy in the next step now and it's all depending on what happens here this evening tonight is that we have a principal meeting and we're going to start with layers now where every principal and assistant principal school-based team they were on they will understand this policy because we're now also doing monthly updates which is new of all of our policies and revisions of policies to all staff members

306I don't know if that was happening before I can tell you from the time that I've been here I have not witnessed that happening so it is happening now right because it's important policies that's what governs our processes so they're receiving monthly update in addition to that we know so let's take it where we are right now we don't know what's in the on the shelves in some of our media with the media selection in some of our schools that's the bottom line that's that's the honest and Naked Truth at this point in time so what we're going to do is that we need to provide some type of assistance to our media specialist so I've asked Miss Hazel to convene a team and I've shared this with my designee which is Miss Kelly she's

307putting together a team that will we will start with elementary schools and this is it's supposed to start next week but they're going to be going into elementary schools working collaboratively with the media specialists at that school and the school-based team basically to you can go into Destiny and put certain keywords in and you'll be able to pull and see what's in so basically what do you want to call it a streamlining looking to kind of get an idea of what's there and if there's any materials that we need to pull off the shelves and have that school-based team along with the team review that's that's another safeguard that we're putting in place but we also have because we do realize that there are some parents that may not want their student to access any

308materials trust me 67 000 students that we serve they are families that that you know for whatever reason and you have to show respect for that so if the parent does not want the child to access any material from our media center that's where we have that form that's being sent and we in in Focus we're going to create a a spreadsheet almost like in focus for every enrollee in those schools you know pretty much like when you check off that you've received all of their registration documentation for it kind of the same uh premise so where the parent will have an opportunity if they don't want their child to access any materials from the media center they can indicate that and we and the media center the person that media the media specialist will

309have a complete copy to know who can access materials or not so those are just a few of the and then we've made also some some minimal changes in terms we do have a coordinator now that will be spearheading that would be the media uh the instructional media special well not specialist a coordinator we've upgraded that position that will be working closely with Miss Hazel so I like Elementary then you're going to go to middle middle and high yes yes get through all levels by the end of the school year all levels yes that's quite a task it is quite a task but you know if you never start you'll never finish I know and again we can go back and sit here all night and talk about what happened or what then we have

310to take it from where we are right and what we need to do moving forward no I I feel comfortable with this policy I mean I think as as long as we are we are in compliance with state state law I mean that's what we need to be that's first and foremost and then there's any uh are you suggesting any changes to the challenging process or anything like that or to be honest with you I think it's a fair process because it begins at the school level right it begins at the school level where every school is part of a community so if you're a parent of Coronado and you have some questions regarding a material you complete complete form the team convenes they pull the material they review it and they will see whether

311it's appropriate or not if you're comfortable as a parent with a decision that was made then you are if you're not then it comes you you further the challenge process that's when it comes to the district level that's when our team reviews it and I think I think it's sequential and I think it's fair yeah and if it sets a school level um you become aware of it though even though it's just at the school yes level yes and so if if the school set Ting the parent really didn't want it to be on the Shelf comes to us you would you would be aware of that and the parent uh of course the school wouldn't be forcing that um that child to have that book in other words if the parent doesn't want their

312child to have access to that book that that's not going to happen absolutely not yeah and again if the parent is not comfortable with this the decision made at the school level it comes to us so that's the second part of the challenge right right so then the district committee committee will be reviewing the materials yeah I'm just thinking let's say the same title is challenged at 20 schools and 20 schools to keep it on the Shelf yeah but then to the district look at it and go well wait a minute you know challenged maybe we should take another look at this ourselves as long as long as you're aware of it and let's go back to the statement right that our governor made in the memo that was sent exercise good judgment yeah I

313understand that and and you know this here's it's one of those things you're going to make everyone happy with with all of these kinds of things but you gotta you have to always there we're on the on the side of caution I appreciate the the women um they were all women yes they were uh that spoke tonight and because of our there are some books I'm sure that shouldn't be there and and I'm sure there will will get them off the shelves but you know we have thousands of books I can't even imagine how many thousands of books books you know I mean thank God for Destiny and I'm sure 99.9 of them are are perfectly uh you know placed and at the right level so but it's a it's it's just a it's just

314a process that we can't I think we just can't take a broad Russian say well any book that has the word blank in it is a bad book no no we we can't can't start going going there it's I'm glad we have a good thorough process well we will continue to evolve but I think for now you know it it it's the way moving forward and if we have to tweak it later anything else Mr purses right now Miss Burnett thank you well you're right we can always continue to improve every day that's we have that opportunity um but right here in the policy under objectives um two objectives for selections of materials it's like the second paragraph materials that will enrich and support the curriculum so I think right there is a big a

315big hit I don't think any of the books that were read tonight my opinion support or enrich any of the curriculum that we have um so to me that's an easy answer right here that that should be done um so I think that that's something that we need to consider you know if if it doesn't support the curriculum it's a done deal there should be no other work to do um and then the approach that that's what's on the shelf that that is a big undertaking but they've gotten there because somebody hasn't had oversight and that's a problem and so we have to find that oversight where wherever you decide that will be um but I I just think right here we're done enrich and support curriculum that's it so would you like to hear

316my idea sure so once once we get this going again going back to the process that I've enumerated for you moving forward we would have kind of like how we do our internal audits you know for that we put the teams that we've put in place we need to have something like that moving forward just to make sure again that randomly we're checking into schools looking to make sure that that everything is exempt again I think it's been Decades of not looking into what's there and it's accumulated to where we are so we need to continuously ensure that there is some type of a measure in place right so that we don't get back to that and would that include any purchases being made be um sent forward before the the I'm sorry any suggested

317purchase before it is made that way we're we don't get them in the schools again well to be honest with you it goes back to exactly what you said curriculum that supports right so and that's one of the things that we've been saying to our principals and to our school-based team but miss Hazel and I talked about coming up with a rubric so we're researching right now looking at what what are some of the rubrics that the other districts may have when it comes to selection of materials so it's more objective in nature as opposed to subjective and does this include classroom books because I think the classroom light that's a very good question uh Vice chair because the classroom libraries will abide with the same procedures correct and if I understand correctly from past

318uh conversations those books must be cataloged and available for anybody to look at yeah we purchase what is the what is it called the the scanner as we purchase a scanners that will upload I forget the computer program name but that will upload um all no it's not by teacher um it's by school so any any books that are available in the school from the teacher classroom libraries we're develop we have a system for uploading that um got information and it's publicly available just like our card catalog is available now that that's not available yet because we haven't begun network of of scanning those with the exception of one school that we did a test a pilot on and I mean because we want to encourage reading we just want to encourage appropriate reading right

319we are not we have not told our teachers to take their and and I don't want them to we've not told them to take their classroom libraries home or pack them up but we are going to be in compliance with the statute that says that we'll make those available and back to the crowd source and the peer review so those are the current sources we use now to basically do a book rating so to say or there's no reviews they're not all rated okay because obviously something has slipped if these books got in and they were approved through crowds or is it crowds peer reviews are what was previously required if they've gotten in and they were peer reviewed I'm I'm very disappointed but well peer reviews are very are different than the crowdsource reviews

320as well and they they don't list always the same criteria and that was what was previously prior to this legislation prior to to this implementation that's what was required in the media but we haven't ever wavered from having a media committee at the school that makes those selections and I I think there's been some good points made here about it comes down to implementation and the details that those that has always been since I was at an elementary school in 1999 or in 2000 and we had a media committee I was on it so well and if we're relying on volunteers to come in and be part of that that's part of the that could be part of the issue I mean families are busy they work some of them work two and three jobs

321so we can't let that um Fall Away Dr B would you be able to look into some kind of um ratings um programming for us such as I think it was books books um I wrote it down but books book looks thank you um I and I'm not asking us to spend more money but obviously we need to spend money in the right way and if that can help us remain in policy and provide the appropriate books I think it's money well spent so we will look into it Miss Vice chair because I will tell you that there are a few depositories that we've used previously that were deemed to be appropriate yet some of these books got into the system so I think this however with the with this policy now and the the

322heightened awareness of this policy that hopefully um it will be more streamlined moving forward but some of these depositories that were considered appropriate they were not necessarily some thank you Thompson could I just right before you speak could I draw everybody that's up sitting up here go to page two of the policy at the very bottom of page two it's the little number four and starts with sexually oriented material in red I don't want to read it out loud I wish each of you would read that and then Miss Thompson will be up for speak for Speed so I just have a quick question if the books are in the library and they're taken out for review and they don't support the curriculum and they go against State Statute can we not just remove the

323books instead of going through months and months of you know reviews um we can make that I I'm going to refer to my Council the problem is is that that supersedes the procedure that you have currently in pi pile so there is a review process that calls for parent input and that's what I'm afraid if you go to Simply Having the superintendent make the call you're sidestepping your procedures for Parental input and so even if it goes against State Statute because it says in our policy that we have to go through I just feel like some of these books like Mr cologne said are so obviously like don't need to be in there policy requires that a committee review the books at the school level if there's a challenge made to a book a book

324that's what's required can we rewrite the policy then that's what we're doing that's what we're doing I want to bring everybody else's attention to another part though that's in the policy that I didn't even realize until just recently so if you go to page three and look at Roman numeral 5 where it says challenge materials if you just read that first statement and a b and c and I think a lot of our principals didn't even know this if I were to walk in as a parent or a Community member or a grandparent or whatever or a teacher and say I have an objection to this book it actually starts with the principle the principal can read the book and you know by getting it from their media specialist and the principal can actually deem

325if and so the principal could look at this and say it breaks the part that I just told you to read you know bullet number four and the principle can end right there the principal can take it out of circulation and that is how there have been some removed that I didn't realize and so I think there's a lot of I think we need to do some education of our administrators and say to them you have the power as the leadership at your school that if anyone walks in because it's anyone some people are wanting to think this is only a parent but it can be a teacher because that can also happen a teacher can come across the book that says I want to challenge this book I don't think it belongs here or

326a Community member you know because they come in to read to a class and they pull a book out of the basket and they're like what is this I'm reading so I I think to tell you the truth if I were a principal today at a school and these books that we've looked at came to me it'd be over because look as I said at the beginning with my little checklist does it mean any of this and that's what number four talk I mean number four tells you that number four bullet in red all these books we've looked at they have all that so like it's done it doesn't have to be this long drawn out process but I don't know that we've empowered our principles or explained to them you can you can do

327that you don't have to break the law you can Rectify it right then and there at your school all right listen do you have anything else okay Mr cologne I was going to do some reading but I'm changing my mind you're proud of me you were you were worried about me but but I'll tell you even this guide my book TTYL is actually number two out of five and if I read to you what this says which I'm not going to because I'd probably need to do another disclaimer about now she was worried about me reading and so I I think it starts with us establishing from a policy standpoint what our policy is because the reality is if these books got on the shelf and they were against policy and they shouldn't have been

328there to begin with then what are we challenging I mean they didn't belong there to begin with and so I think it goes back to some legal language that you said where if a re sorry if a reasonable group of adults with social norms and don't get me wrong social norms in Monroe County are not the same as social norms in Volusia County Dade County Broward County and that's where the state kind of flounder a little bit because they you know not only did they not tell us hey this book is wrong here it's wrong everywhere because they didn't want to do that they went on to say it may have some cultural value here but not there or I mean so with that being said I mean even this none of this is perfect

329and this is hard because this is stuff we've never we have no guidance from fldoe they were they're not going to spell it out they're trying to get legislators to spell it out and they're not spelling it out they're saying one thing and doing another um this is hard but I I think again I mean I'm gosh I want to read because people don't realize what we're talking about the public has no idea what we're talking about and no I'm not going to be in the newspaper tomorrow and so I just think that again if if it goes against our policy and you know what's interesting is we really don't the reality is you can go places and they'll tell you what page to go to and I'll tell you this book is a number

330two in the content based rating there is two paragraphs that are of concern and one sentence on page 15. so if the rest of the book here you can read ing if if the rest of the book is of literary value then maybe we put a sticker I I don't know but you know this this I mean number two comes next to number one and zero is for everyone and this for me is probably closer to thank you I mean it's closer to maybe a three and a half and so again I think we I think the policy is good I think the policy is there it's the devil is in the details the devil's in the implementation I think Dr B knows her board I think Miss Hazel knows her board I think Mr

331pendley's sick of us tonight um not just tonight [Music] laughs truth comes out I mean you know so I I trust in the conversations that we've had that were headed in the right direction for some of these that are easy like I said the hard ones are coming this here I can't even read this out loud no she said I can't yeah and so and this is and this is on our shelves so that's I'm done thank you I am good I am good this Burnett thank you I was just looking at the the wording on number five that you had pointed out on the challenge and on a where it says individuals may register their objection to the instructional material with the principle of the school where the individual knows the material to be

332in use I think that we should add to that and give the principle in writing um the ability to remove the book because it doesn't say that there that they can remove it I know because I think it assumes you understand it under B where it says the complaintant shall meet with the principal and school-based instructional personnel which Which choice I think it should be with the principal and could include that to discuss the objection should the issue not be resolved because it's if it's resolved at that point we need to say should the principal agree then they remove the book and then it should be if the issue is not resolved then it goes on to that next level which are the School committees and I do agree because I I also said it's

333not real clear but that's what it's supposed to basically mean and we have some principles that have exercise that are free because they've made the phone call in and found out that as the leader of their school they can right there and be over with so we probably I think how can we word that better isn't it apply that and see yeah I yes tell me I'm sorry madam chair I apologize for interrupting uh that that was going to be my point as well subsection three does does the responsibility for selection of materials being on the principle the principal Consulting with the media specialist always has that responsibility for maintaining the appropriateness of the selection and media materials so I have no trouble at all amending subparagraph five challenge materials a to add language that

334you know upon review a principle may direct that a material be removed well and I know that principals have the right to review what's going to be purchased all right however principles have a lot on their plate and we can't ex like when there's a if there's a media committee that's making the selection of like what the order is going to be principal can't read every book that's going to be on that before that purchase order is sent in like that they don't have that time on their plate um I know that so many of them are trusting the people that whether it be the media Specialists and or individuals that are serving on that media committee but look where we're at right now the pro the problem is we're not writing a policy right

335now to go along with the state statute so that we've we are good in our schools we're looking at a policy because somewhere it fell apart somewhere someone or several people placed orders for books and brought them into our media center and they broke this the law okay and or and I'm not pointing the finger because I I don't know who to point the finger even at at this point like I'm not going to blame a principal because if they have a media specialist and that is their specialty and that is what they're trained in and certified in and they have a committee Carl knows as a principal you're going to trust that group because they have to take all that coursework to know what to follow and and they are part of even a

336Statewide Media Group it's just like we're part of a Statewide school board group where we go and get updates on any piece of legislation that's changed that we're responsible for and we come back and change policies so I just I know that it says the principal and I understand they're leaving their schools but I think some of them just signed off trusting what was coming in and I can't put that burden on all of I can't put that burden on their shoulders at this point in time I think they're going to have to some of these schools where these books are at that break the law they're going to have to have some heart-to-heart conversations with who is their media specialist and on the media committee and I think we need some very specific training

337before we get to spring when they're starting to want to order books I'm to the point right now that it's like you put the policy in their hands you give them training on the policy and you have them sign a form that they understand what the policy says just go back to that little bullet point number four I mean that bullet point number four says if the books got any of that stuff in it don't buy it because if it shows up on your shelf and you put that list together you're responsible at this point but I do think in number five we need to make it clearer for principles that the first step is anyone that comes in with an objection parent teacher Community member grandparent Guardian you know anyone volunteer comes in with

338an objection it starts with the principle and if the principle deems that it is breaking the law it can stop right there and they can remove it now it's good some of these books that should be very simple because we've seen them so the ones that have some gray areas yeah then they go on to your school-based committee discussion on and if they can't agree there then yeah they're going to come up to this level but right now I don't know that we'd have to have 19 committees because I think easily probably a half to two-thirds of those books it would have already been finished if you go back to number four number four alone would have taken them all out that bullet point down there this is brunette did you have anything else you

339wanted to say um well on the on the under C on that same number five challenge materials do we do we actually need to read the entire book certificate certification that the complaintant has read the entire material do we actually need that piece and it's number four so for those who had a question it's the law you have to read the whole book all right thank you I concur with my learned colleague this is how you have to end since 1996. it's there you have to read the whole book sorry sorry you have to attest that you read the whole book so you're either going to lie about it or you're going to read it as I tell people I'm not watching you I'm not I'm not reading all right thank you anyone else does

340anybody ever sorry so does anybody have any proposed changes to I haven't heard anybody I we just gave it we gave him proposed changes on the part about the principle that it starts with the principal and and I think we need to put in there under the selection piece um I think we need I want it spelled out that media Specialists receive specific training on this and I think they should sign a form don't they have training then you know okay think about this we've looked recently and Carl agrees me how many principles do we have that have less than five years experience so probably quite a few yeah and they had all the same kind of trainings that you had as a principal no okay how many media Specialists maybe are less than five

341years experience I think there's quite a few so have they had the same training that a media specialist that's been doing this for 25 years has had no and we and remember the last couple years we've been in the middle of a pandemic in covid and people in places and meetings not happening or stuff being expected to be done virtually and and it's no one's fault it's just that's what we've been under and and I talked to someone today that said the training I think the training piece is just not even been there or the or drawing their attention to you are responsible or this is what the law says I mean we're spelling the law out in a policy yeah I'm I just I just think media Specialists and all the schools are quite

342aware of what's what the statutes they I mean they're they're on it you know that they're I I want I mean I I think they are through their immediate associations I agreed with you but then how these books end up on our shelves well I mean how they got there but who knows I mean that could have gotten in two years ago five years ago ten years I I don't know I I think this is good moving moving forward I I never realized till I just saw this that any Resident could challenge a book don't even have to be a parent that's a scary thing they're out there I mean that's the scary going from County to County actually I mean that can that could clog up a that's time so much well but think

343about it we do have I mean we had a very strong volunteer base prior to the pandemic we had a lot of volunteers that came in you know chamber members rotary members just community members and they're coming back now you know that we're over that hump and if one of them were to walk in because the teacher just went down to the museum and filled a basket of books because we used to do that you know and have their and they're going to pull a book to read with kids or to help a child read if they come across something like this they should be able to bring it to the principal's attention I mean there was a question recently about teachers the teachers wanted to challenge a book and the question was well can

344a teacher challenge a book well absolutely why can't they challenge a book if they find a book is it is not appropriate Madam chair if it's appropriate yes um so what I've heard and obviously because of the substantial substantive changes that have been requested by the board we're not going to be able tonight to bring this forward I'll have to go back in and make these edits but let me just confirm if I may Madam chair through the chair that there are changes to be made to section two paragraph to each Media Center shall provide materials selected in compliance with Section 1006 28 2A and I'm going to recommend striking the number two following that because I want to be more inclusive of the state statute to reflect all of section 2A to include the

345footnotes noted and I want to correct the record there is a definition in 847.001 for child pornography I don't think in the reason that I did not highlight it was because I don't think it adds anything to the media print and non-print materials policy because it speaks specifically to images photographs that are pornographic involving minors engaged in sexual conduct so obviously that's going to be subsumed by these other definitions typically for sexual conduct and sexually oriented material that are already included in the statute so I was trying to cut down on a few footnotes I'm happy to if it's the board's pleasure to put pornography in as a definition well all right as you see appropriate sir I'm I'm happy to include the entire sanity statute 847.012 and the definitions of 847.001 there are a

346lot that do not apply for example adult adult entertainment establishment adult bookstore adult theater special Cabaret unlicensed massage establishment these are all defined terms under obscenity they just don't apply to us so um relevant ones and that's why I was debating on child pornography there because I didn't want you to leave the with the impression that it you know I was being too specific when we looked at just pornography child pornography is defined but it's related to images computer deviate sexual intercourse all of those things we can simply reference and include by reference 847.001 definitions if anyone goes to them but then highlight in the body of the policy itself which is what we're trying to do to include those terms so that people don't have to cross-reference to State statutes too much without being

347over overly burdensome when it comes to the policy language itself some of these books though do have drawings diagram um that are child porn yeah they are is it the board's direction to add a footnote to media material selected in compliance with Section 1006 282a Florida statutes for a definition of child pornography yes yes everyone okay with that yes uh following on Madam chair of the wheelchair we will include a specific reference and my recommendation would be at subsection 3 responsibility for selection of materials to include language directing specific training for media Specialists and signing a form acknowledging training on on the end stage the more I think about that I just want to make sure that we're saying by that statement that the media Specialists are the only ones purchasing books so should we

348make that to include anyone purchasing books or or materials here it just specifically says media Specialists so they have the training specifically I mean ideally okay so I'm going to put myself back in the classroom and so I'm you know in a classroom and I'm going to buy books to put in my classroom Library ideally if I break this policy for the law I think the verbiage should include anyone purchasing or providing books thank you how's our how's everyone else feel about that I think the state's got that standard when they started looking at classroom libraries and cart cataloging them so I think that that's consistent with the intent yeah the the intent is that you're not going to buy anything that falls under well the intent is that the public can see all of

349the books that are in our policy is what's going content is the intent of the card cataloging for cloud for all materials because it's not just library books it's all reading materials I think because right now even when you talk about the curriculum piece of like reading materials or for math science I should say the state has to have them on an approved list before we can even look at purchasing them some of these were on their approved list too from their Clearing Houses my opinion is if we're putting on their media specialist purchasing it purchasing it should be any one purchasing that yeah or providing all right Mr penley what I'm going to do is take the board's Direction I will circulate a draft and then we can massage through your comments to me

350individually and I will make those changes and then we'll bring this back uh for further consideration with the other policies so here's the here's the question on that piece Nick he can't bring it back to next week's meeting okay because we have a meeting next week that is too soon and the uh the agenda already went live so we're looking at we're doing a workshop in the end of March where we're doing other policies I think that that's when this policy should be brought back if that's okay with the rest of you and now what I'd like is when you get the policy together and you've done a great job with this you send it to us individually so that we individually can give you feedback that way I'm not seeing what Miss Burnett says

351or she's not seeing what I say we can individually give you feedback and if you would then take that feedback so that when we come in on March 28th to the workshop we've got it and hopefully in the workshop it'll be good to go to then go on to the board meeting for a vote I understand I'm happy to do that thank you just one more confirmation we're going to add in section five challenge materials after a that will explicitly state that the principle upon review May remove materials deemed in violation of Florida law words to that effect again subject to the board's atoms and drafts other than that I I have no other substantive changes it's kind of there but it's not spelled out so if you go in to challenge the book and

352you the principal meets with you because you're complaining about a book and the principal reviews the book and says I agree with you and I'm going to remove it from circulation we're done okay if the principal and you can't come to an agreement then it's going to the next step but are we done at every school now at that point we're done at that school but that book will be registered at the district level that it was challenged at this school and was removed from circulation and then at that point I coordinator's responsibility to alert Dr balkovan and Miss Hazel that this has been challenged and then they need to do their due diligence to see where else it is at like who else has it so for the workshop I am less concerned about

353the policy and more concerned about the and mind you the how doesn't you know I think that that principle piece is more of a even though it's in there like you said I think that's more of the how than the if and I'm more concerned for the how we've thrown around a lot of ideas we've thrown around a lot of thoughts but knowing the how will protect our folks and I say Protect because you know we we can protect the principal from right or wrong in policy we can't protect them from public opinion and if a principal makes a determination solely and I'm going back to what Mr pendley said if a principal makes a determination solely on their own to say this is inappropriate and trust me there's not take long okay I think

354we really need to spell out that there is further review to not leave that person by themselves hanging so that you know while that process is happening you know I'm the principal I have to go through Miss Hazel and whoever the district is so that they can also uphold the why and so and I give you the example of the Rosa Parks book that we went through and what happened well uh somebody said they didn't feel it was appropriate and correct me if I'm wrong if I'm using the wrong terms they didn't feel like it was age appropriate for the students it was reviewed and within a few days it was determined this book is appropriate that principle was put I mean I I don't even remember how that all played out anymore but there

355were people that were left to hang including us over you all took Rosa Parks off the shelf when in reality all we did was we reviewed a concern the court of public opinion drug us through the mud it filled the room up I remember it filled the room up when in reality you know so if we're gonna you know I'm more concerned about the how than I am the the policy like I said the policy is there followed him so that that's what I'd be more concerned about on the on the workshop I think that that's where the detail is is it going to affect one school does it affect all schools how are we going to raise the flag you know is it not raise the flag what if the principal says you know

356what this book doesn't belong here let me throw it out it's no longer in my school all they did what they were you said they were going to do but that didn't then Echo across the district I don't know if you guys have time to figure that out I think so miss Hazel I need you to think about that I'm not making you think about it tonight our current practice just so that that everyone knows is I and we have had books reviewed at and thrown out at that level where they come in with the school and they meet with the principal and the principal says this is inappropriate the books go away but our current practice is that at that point um once we know there's an the they have the conversation I'm sorry

357it's getting very late and the um instructional materials at the district level looks up what other schools have that book and they have alerted the other schools that that book has been discussed and removed from a school that those schools should then review it so I mean we currently have that in place we just don't spell it out and this it's not in the policy but we it's in our procedures procedurally that's a procedure I need an sop okay cool we don't know if you got a copy this but we're happy to share our copy with you the two documents that we receive because this flowchart looks very good it was given to us by some of the people in the audience okay the clerk has a cop you're sure you don't want to talk

358about this at the next school board meeting no we're going to talk about this on March 28th in the workshop at a workshop in a workshop and hopefully come to a consensus to make a vote in the board meeting perfect all right none of the other policies that we'll be bringing forward at the workshop are at the 28th are controversial in any respects when we set the plot stage for the telephone policy I know we have a lot of old policies we're updating okay okay um any other comments on this section okay because we're going to we're removing it and we're not going to vote on this tonight in a motion do I need a motion okay I need emotion move Madam chair we table this until we a workshop on March 28th but I

359have a second second all right I have a motion in a second that we table this policy until the workshop and or board meeting on March 28th all those in favor say aye aye anyone opposed all right then the next thing on is public participation and I have one card so don't pack your stuff up yet um Ashlynn promenos hello I know I'm getting older but I grew up in a time when I knew marital Acts were meant for marriage that sex was something this is uh could have explicit stuff for children that sex was something done in the secret in a taboo subject sure there were kids participating and you were a loser if you weren't one of them of course there were also children being sexually abused and that was kept quiet not

360to say those children didn't understand what was happening to them was wrong but it wasn't something you could read about in your public school library like you can today now we have adults saying there's no such thing as mature adult comment content that a child should be exposed to everything and there's no innocence to protect what's wrong with this idea I can think of countless things like unpre unplanned pregnancies STDs School dropouts and a massive amount of teen drama I think the difference between my day and today is that while things were happening that shouldn't have been it wasn't promoted by adults the public school system didn't teach me how to give a how to have anal sex and the details of the pain after why I should let someone choke me until I almost

361pass out and enjoy it I didn't learn graphic details of kids being raped and what it felt like to have a dry penis penetrate against someone's will how they cope by doing drugs and alcohol how many using it was to escape this trauma while short-lived when it wore off only to repeat and stay in this horrible cycle we now view small children as adults with mature Minds who have the mental capacity to count the cost of premarital sex I'm grateful to have been raised in a public school system in a time that my school librarian or teachers would have taken this opportunity to strip my innocence for me they just let me be little library books in my school taught me life skills and moral values that's exactly what these books are missing there is

362nothing in them that inspires good or how to be a productive adult there's no responsibilities or a kid explaining how to get a job and hold it there's no how to be reliable trustworthy respectful where are those books being promoted I could think of many ways that kids reading books about kids having a purpose to serve others and how they could too would be better time spent books have been removed from this County without parental input already and bypassed by this current policy one specifically had graphic images of two women in active oral sex there's current loopholes in this policy and I hope Volusia County is proactive and makes a very clear explanation of sexually explicit content so principles and media Specialists know the expectation two laws are not addressed in the current policy hb7

363and hb155 nowhere in Florida statute does it say You must read or certify that you have read the entire novel that is from the Ala American Library Association which is not in the Florida statute I'm happy to join the volunteers that have signed up to help vet these books thank you we're moving on to the last item on the agenda tonight which is item 18.01 and brunette first thanks so while we're here I know there's three of us I think going to the legislative days and we had a very long list of what we wanted to talk about or go over can we kind of Pare that down while we're here so that or or we can vet it through Mr Wolf but since we're here we need to have that conversation before we go

364up there so so I already stated earlier tonight one of the things that I plan on talking about this year and that is the the funding for teachers and I'm still going to bring up the fact that you know we met the goal last year and got to 47.5 which was what we had to do um we're now at 48 something but I want them to give us the flexibility with that funding so that we can deal with the compression piece to take our experienced teachers and pull them up I mean that that's my number one topic that was my number one topic last year and I'm still going to talk about it and I'm going to add to that piece if it's okay the compression piece that we're now facing with our all of

365our support staff and everybody that went to 15 because we've created now a compression p for that you know one of the other things we talked about last year was the SEL videos which you know we now know that somebody did listen because he sent out a memo and told everybody you shouldn't be using this product in these videos but my number one thing right now is going to be the um the funding piece for staff staff teachers and stuff one of the ones I wanted us to to ask about was the retired teachers coming back sooner than a year because I think that that really impacts us greatly or it could impact us greatly in in filling some sub roles for for our students so that's one of the things I think we should

366discuss and I I do think I've talked to some people about that and I think there's a piece there's an issue with that as in there's something in the law so they should change it so we're going to have to change the law if we in order to get them to come my thought is if they retire you know the end of the school year let them sit out for the summer and let them come back please you know we need people right and that would that would help you know and I think that that would benefit everybody I mean the teachers are getting paid their retirement um they're able to come back and hopefully do what they love and um bring some institutional knowledge back to the school or to this the way the

367law is or the way it's set up right now they have to sit out a full year and by then they have found other things to do right and I'd like to capture them seriously I'd like to capture them sooner I agree with you on those Ms Thompson do you have something that impression piece absolutely so gentlemen you're not going with us but we're happy to share a message the the the compression allocation is big for us because they take away 11 12 million they put back in for right if they don't put in that four and a half that's another four and a half that we're not going to have and and make sure you mention our flexibility funding on the local capital outlay okay representative traymond you know they're both on board they're

368ready to go so let them know that you appreciate it and Chris Chris Carmody is hell do you have anything else Mr purses main things I'm I'm seeing where now that hb1 they're starting to figure out how much that's going to cost so maybe there'll be some pushback against it but that train is rolling if I if I was there I would probably actually use the same thing I talked about the last time with with the whole world wants us to talk about Reading Writing arithmetic but we've got these uh five hours of Mental Health Training good or bad that were Champions were championed after Parkland and you know we get constantly beat up for it because we don't stick to Reading Writing arithmetic but we are required by law to talk about certain topics

369that in you know in in conversation they they oppose but the law is still there and we're still required to do it example you know the Ingenuity that we brought up the last time we were there and of course nobody listened and now all of a sudden we get an email we're not using that software anymore but you know if I were there that would be because again that the public as a whole doesn't know that we have to cover those topics and so when we when we call the house and say we're going to be covering these topics you know you've got people saying well you know I thought we could talk about that in school well we don't have a choice and all providers are approved by the Florida Department of Education and

370so that would be my topic if I were there and to go along Mr persis with what you were saying with that house bill one so we got through the wedding like a week ago and early Monday morning or early early on Monday still um I had the opportunity to go to Miami because you know some of us have heard Dr Carvalho speak who used to be the former superintendent and you know that means brilliant I mean people need to acknowledge he was brilliant and very forward thinking because he you know 12 to 14 years ago started rebranding the public schools in Miami as magnets Public Schools yeah and he he was smart because I believe he saw what was coming with public education and he figured out a way to Rebrand it and open

371it up where they apply for you know do you want to go to the high school that does the Coast Guard piece or this or that and just the the one school that we spent the bulk of the time at is actually a pre-k through 12 sitting in downtown Miami and they had just closed their application process and they had 500 on the waiting list just to get into Pre-K alone for this next year but they had almost 5 000 students okay 5 000 students that the parents wanted to take them to a school in downtown Miami all right and they have to transport them to I mean when you're when you're there's no green grass out there there's nothing in that downtown area and but yet you visit the school and it's it's beautiful

372like what you see and what's happening but he figured it out you know when he looked at the different things that families were interested in or kids were going to want to do and they were going to want to have a job in this field and all that and they catered to that and you know Seminole County's done some of that Seminoles County's got some magnet schools and I think I think we're going to have to have a long hard look at how do we keep the students here you know and we've been making progress with our academies and our programs like opening an auto tech opening an HVAC adding electrical those things are things that parents are like okay yeah I want my kid to have that chance so that they can walk out

373the door and be certified in this and ready I mean we heard from the Taylor group you know tonight the things that they're like we can already go out and do this and I think we've got to look at that because but I think we also have to speak about the fact that if you're going to let the money go out I don't think just this twice a year that we check to see how many seats you know well we used to call it cheeks or in the seats right um that if the money goes out and a month later they come back I think the money needs to come back or maybe the the payouts need to be in one month increments to wherever they go or something because we we're losing money and

374that right there cuts into even what we can do with salaries and things or all that because we're losing money because they start out there and they go to the private school or the charter school or Now The Homeschool piece although The Homeschool parents are not happy about any of this they go to The Homeschool piece but then they come back into us in two months but they come back with no money and we have to and and then that's impacting all of our kids so I think I mean does anybody else have another topic they think we really need to hit and I think we need to stick to three or four because otherwise it's over sensory okay go ahead um so I know I had sent Dr Johnson an email but I I

375just kind of want this out there before we make any plans on the rezoning and that is the Beachside West Side Champion the recent conversations that we've had that we get an update from the Daytona Housing Authority since there are members that have been displaced and that way we kind of know what their plan is before we start putting kids in schools that make no sense so that's that and then um can we ask a member since we're not part or allowed to even listen of the oversight meeting the half cents committee whatever we want to call it whenever we have anything that is on the consent agenda or the agenda can we make sure that somebody from that committee has been invited and if they can't come because I know that there are volunteers

376if they can't come can we have a their their leader whoever their leader is in that group give us their opinion you know of what we're voting on like how they how they came about it so since we're voting on it we we've got this committee together we'd like to hear what they have to say about it right okay and then um let's see my last thing my last question is um can we this is for you again Dr Johnson sorry um can we get an update on the projects that have required change orders specifically to price changes because um I think that that's something that we need to be mindful of and I know there are a lot less than they used to be but if we can get a spreadsheet that included the

377project what the increase was and who the um who the vendor was so that we can look to see if the vendor if there's any consistencies with the same vendor asking for price changes thank you all right I'm done now thanks Mr purses a couple of things I wanted to compliment uh angel I think you just your your communication and your marketing and I can't even count how many time good things you send out but I think it's awesome and I know it takes a lot of time but and I think you have two new people that joined your team yeah was that the one girl that took the photos Okay and uh so uh I just wanted you to know your your noticed and I Know It Takes a takes a great great job

378with that um uh the Enterprise school is that what you were referring to in your in your comments anyway um yeah I mean anytime as many schools as we build there's always another one that we need to rebuild and build again or add to the list so yeah yeah I'm all in on that too uh and lastly I'd like for us to take a look um at that uh narcom is that what it is um I think it's something that we should ex explore I'm not saying you know that we jump in and and and do it but I do think it's something that we'll eventually perhaps want to do and and and I know there's different ways of going about it I know with nasal spray or the in the arm and and I

379know it's depends on on the need and so forth but anyway I just think it's something we ought to may I know we discussed it at cabinet again on Monday this is probably the third time that we did and actually Captain is on my one-on-one with you guys along with Mr pendley to share some additional information okay yeah just don't want to be what is it that you're on Captain this week or the following week the okay it's either this week this week or the following week that you're on the schedule for this week okay it's this week it's this week so you'll hear more you'll hear more about it yes yes ma'am tomorrow's March 1st how about that huh yeah is it all right my goodness uh and the way this meeting's going we'll

380still be here yeah that staff's going Bang I asked you Dr Melvin last last question easy question the Dr Johnson's here he may not he may know the answer just about the uh the timeline with Charities small as far as the groundbreaking apron we're looking at April I believe for groundbreaking ground breaking I'm sorry please let us know so we can make sure we can be there oh absolutely Johnson you're making notes of all this right but but definitely we're not going to do it without you that's why April it'll be April 30th I'm sure no Johnson said in April thank you madam chair thank you yes sir thank you great job thank you I have three things uh Enterprise I think I'd like to hear more of the history I've heard it but I

381think it'll benefit everyone to hear it Enterprise was slated to be replaced uh right before Osteen flooded out and so they got next because Osteen needed to be replaced and so Jamie was there in 1888 there were three buildings so there's that um you know I love you Jamie um another thing I want us to look at and I'm just dropping is here development is a Hot Topic in our in our County and um I have nothing better to do on Monday night so I listen to our commission meetings and of course they come here on the hot seat for growth everybody's concerned about irresponsible responsible growth in our County and one of the things that happens a lot is you know the fir you know the first thing the Commissioners will say is well

382did the school board approve it well the answer is always yes but the reality is that we don't even know that it even went and so I think that that would probably be a good topic to Workshop just to understand how all of that works how we are not an approving body versus a reviewing body and furthermore I have no problem taking the blame for approving something if indeed we did approve it but it never comes to us for approval so I think when we look at concurrency one of the things that's a Hot Topic is you know concurrency only looks at cheeks and seats it doesn't look at do we have enough teachers it doesn't look like do we have enough staff and so when we get issue these approvals do we really have

383the capacity you know is it a school that has and mind you that's a moving Target so those are the three things but again um those are three things just off of what you said that I am reminded of thank you and everyone hold on so I had the chance yesterday to go to Woodward Elementary and put a hard hat on and a vest along with their Sac team and walk through the additional pieces of the building so I wanted to let all of you know that because this was really just for their Sac team to go and and they reached out and asked me and so I went here's what's disheartening about that that original building there that we've kept and we're not you know and I have fussed and fussed about it because

384of the bathrooms because of the lack of a strong Wi-Fi and people can say oh no it's fine no it's not I was in there it can't use your cell phone I mean or it you can't connect the new building is going to be beautiful it really is in the new cafeteria they're finally going to have a cafeteria that's a decent size but that's an old it's an old school but we didn't it bypassed us like there was no castaldi report done and you know I a part of me almost wants to say on all of these old schools that the decision doesn't get to be made somewhere else and we're left out of it where they choose not to do a castaldi you know and look at the building and the condition of the

385building I think it's a good idea to do that you know but we've had buildings that have been circumvented and somebody else has made the decision on what to do and so here's where I'm at we're facing even right now with the two current elementary schools that are being built that the decision that is costing a substantial amount of additional money at both of these schools never came to us to make a decision on and so I don't know how our responsibility is for policy and anything that's fifty thousand dollars and above and how a five million dollar decision is made and it doesn't come to us to be spelled out that someone made a five million dollar decision and and granted and the people sitting here they didn't make that decision I'm not pointing

386a finger at anyone that's here in a position right now it was Prior and and that there's no real return on investment of that additional five million dollars being put in so I want that to stop I don't want to be in the situation because ultimately we're going to be the ones that have to explain to a community why a school building is costing so much more and and we can talk about the prices going up and everything but it's more than just the prices going up and then we for the longest time we get the updates of like the 20-day attendance the 40-day attendance the 60 and the 80 and I don't know if maybe it's just me but I'm not getting those reports anymore that show me what the attendance is like when

387we get to the like when we got to the 100 day we didn't get the report that said here's where the schools are at what I personally would like to see though so that we can be proactive instead of reactive I'd like to have a workshop where they come and give us some updates on which schools are at capacity which schools are under capacity which schools are over capacity and we have some real heart-to-heart discussions also based on where the growth is I mean I've been saying for at least three years we need to be paying attention to what the city councils and the county is approving for growth I mean I hadn't been here six months and I walked in and said they're building these apartments into Berry and they're adding you know the

388third phase to Riviera Bella and they're adding these homes and everybody looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and I'm like where are we putting these kids well fast forward to now it's not just the apartments and we're on the fourth phase of Riviera Bella but we're 730 homes into Rivington and we have no plan of what to do in that Community or where to put kids and well I know you have an idea but the problem is even with your piece they need to bring the reality of you have buildings that are anywhere near 50 years old on that campus that we're going to have to keep okay and that's still going to make a mess I mean it really is so I just I'd like a workshop on where we're

389at capacity wise where we're at with the buildings that have been skipped over because I I know where you're at and reservations and reservations of what growth that we know has right because the I know there's Parts on the east side that are booming but the West side's not stopped I came here 36 years ago and we haven't really stopped on this side and it just keeps growing I I mean basically every school in Deltona has been built in the last 35 years except for Enterprise Elementary which is an Enterprise and I know and I mean that's that's the case of what we're dealing with over here I mean there was DeLand High and since then we've added Deltona Pine Ridge and University and so and because I think we're gonna have to make some

390tough decisions to for to do some rezoning where we're really overcrowded versus where we're not and I think we need to start looking at it now the elephant in the room yes everybody knows that's the elephant in the room all right anything else anything Mr Wolf nope I am so sorry that we did not get out of here on a timely manner tonight thank you no it's not yet