Volusia County School Board Meeting March 28, 2023

001thank you I upload these pictures so also foreign I don't think of the land hey um [Laughter] [Music] foreign good evening everyone uh if you can hear me please I will uh love your attention for a minute we uh we have a lot a lot more people that we usually have as you can see and everybody's here for a reason through the agenda and we're very happy to have everyone here we're waiting a couple of minutes because over or feed that we use for televising that has a delay okay so in a couple of minutes we'll get started to finish that delay but in the meantime as we allow for people to come into the uh to the boardroom if you are part of something that is not one of the recognitions or announcements which

002usually lasts about an hour and a half of time from 4 30 to 6. if you're not and you are okay with giving up your seed for someone who is part of it we ask that you please do so if you if we already have everyone who's part of the recognitions and you're still standing I'm going to have to ask you to not stand inside but go outside and we're going to we have a TV and we're going to make sure that if when your group comes to uh on the agenda to be recognized I promise you you will be wreck you know you will be brought up we're gonna wait for you so you can participate I wish we had a bigger space but this is what we have and we're very happy with

003it but we're happy that you're all here okay so if you don't have a seat please feel free to go to the lobby where they have a TV air conditioning and we will call you in I promise okay we're gonna get started in a couple of minutes all right thank you all for being here foreign to Nashville Mr cologne we're waiting on you Mr Gomez were we able to fit all the students in okay all right I'll make welcome to the school board meeting for Tuesday March 28 2023 I apologize that we are starting a few minutes late but because the workshop ran over we had to wait because the video at home is delayed we had to wait till the video ran all the way through in order to start this evening's meeting I'm

004calling this meeting to order we are going to stand in just a moment for the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem the Pledge of Allegiance this evening will be from Ormond Beach Elementary the national anthem will be presented by New Smyrna Beach High following that we are going to have a moment of silence and reflection and tonight's moment is in honor of the students and staff members of the school in Nashville Tennessee that lost their lives yesterday we ask that you take that time to think of their families and loved ones so at this time will you please join me by standing for the Pledge of Allegiance good afternoon I am Miss hey the proud principal of Ormond Beach Elementary School and I am with Miss McMahon's kindergarten class and we're going to ask

005that you please stand and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance Jennifer [Music] foreign [Music] my name is Harley huddle I am the band director and course director at New Smyrna Beach High School and I'm here with students Grace and Emily two of our wonderful choir students and we present you the national anthem what's up at the twilight's last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars [Music] please streaming [Music] improve through the night that our flag was still there oh she does that Star Spangled [Music] leave [Applause] please remain standing for a moment of silence thank you you may be seated as I said before welcome and we appreciate all of you that are here in the audience with us in the Overflow area and those listening at home we're going to start with identifying

006all of the people that are up front with me starting on my far left I have Mr Carl purposes representing District 4. then I have Mrs Jesse Thompson representing District three we have Mr Aaron Wolfe our school board attorney on the far right we have Miss Celeste Gilmore she is our agency clerk she keeps us all straight then we have Mr Rubin cologne representing District Five next him is Mrs Anita Burnett she is our vice chair representing District 2. then to my immediate right is Dr Carmen balgeman our superintendent and I am Miss Jamie Haynes I am your chair this year and I represent district one items for approval on this agenda are items 1.03 2.02 6.02 16.01 through 16.21 public participation times for items on the consent agenda it will happen prior to us

007voting on The consent agenda we do have a specified 6 pm time which sometimes starts a little later based on student presentations for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Volusia County a total of up to 15 minutes will be provided for public comment at this time time will also be provided for public comment on any action item before a board vote is called on that item 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 items are discussed from the board superintendent attorney or any announcement or final approvals are made at this time I'd like to ask that each and every one of you either silence your cell phones or turn them off so that they

008are not A disruption during the meeting moving right along item 1.02 District vision statement and board member comments our district vision statement is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an ever-changing Global Society at this time I invite I'm inviting each of the board members to share any comments that they would like to and we're just going to start here on my far left with Mr persis thank you madam chair well uh let me just say that since though we haven't met since what March 7th was yeah because we had spring spring break and all of that so uh I want to say that I had the privilege of going around to all of the schools in the Ormond Beach area and a few in the Daytona Beach area with the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce

009and the mayor and a few others to recognize teachers of the quarter so that was always a great a great deal of fun and uh and it's a uh surprise for that teacher so that makes it even more fun when when we do that I'm trying to think some of the things I was at Westside Elementary School for uh a world Down Down syndrome day and I enjoyed going there and reading to students over there and there was a a special thing I I wanted to say to student about the volunteer from um about the well I'll let you say that there's so many things that we all did but I wonder I want to recognize the student that I think all of us saw earlier at the museum at the PTA re Reflections event

010so Ormond Beach Middle School very proud of Audrey Brown's Reflections entry winning at the state level and going on to the National level she earned an Award of Excellence so that that's awesome so we actually saw her that that night and to go to the National level that doesn't happen too often so congratulations to you Audrey Brown Miss Thompson so I also was at West Side Elementary for Down syndrome awareness and I will say they were the sweetest kids every single child that I came in contact with in the hallways they were just so polite and how's your day how is it going I love your shoes I'm like I love all of you um so that was great and I was glad that so many of us participated in that um I also got

011to be at the book battle which was at Daytona State which I'd never been to that before and it was amazing if you ever get the chance to go you have these to to read all these books and you know they have to memorize facts about them like little minute details and it's amazing they go up against each other they answer these questions and I will say they had this year Elementary the middle school and the high school and those elementary students they did awesome the other levels did too but I don't think anyone took it as seriously as Elementary School students so congratulations to everyone they're all winners cologne all right so my list is long because there's a lot of really good things happening I will start off and and it's been mentioned

012before you know it only takes one person to make a difference and Miss Samantha Brown Hepburn uh basically got our entire County to recognize a world Down syndrome day in honor of her daughter chrislyn and so East or West I wore my shirt earlier I still have it on if anybody wants to know that um and so I want to thank her for that and I look forward to many years of that advocacy our galaxy Rockets went to the um the Science Olympiad and uh it was the state competition I believe and they are going to be going to Nationals and what was interesting when you look at all the different schools that were going on to the national competition you know a lot of them were chartered this Charter that stem this stem that

013science this so to see them right there at number two kudos to those kids to their teachers who for many many years have made that Science Olympiad an amazing program also at Galaxy Mr Jackson was recognized as the mentor of the year for the entire District so that was super exciting Deltona Middle had their amazing Shake unfortunately I was not in town for that but we have 18 students that are going forward as well as their band got first place at the Universal Studios music festival and so we just keep winning it's amazing going to Pine Ridge is anybody here from Pine Ridge and so they had a senior admission day and I think it's amazing you know that time between the time a student graduates and actually signs up for college there's a big

014gap there and if you know sometimes that Gap what was planned to be two and three four months can turn into three and four years and so it was uh fun to see the pictures of the senior admission day where DSC came over to help bridge that Gap because you know it's super important also we had Reagan gatz who was the youth volunteer of the year for the entire District so that was super exciting and they're not going to tell you about this because they are very humble however Mr Arnold and Mr Wilbert who are the two teachers from the HVAC Academy HVAC Academy anybody up there we go they were recognized by the Florida College Access Network as the education innovators for 2023. so that is huge um almost done Crystal Apple superintendent will

015speak about that Deltona High is going to the model School uh conference that's exciting there's symphonic band and choir got all superiors Kudos I think I had that for Pine Ridge as well but everybody's looking at me funny so I'm gonna stop right there thank you all right Miss Burnett thank you um well a few of us were had the opportunity to go to Tallahassee and advocate for everybody here in Volusia County and I think we did a good job for that and hopefully we'll be seeing some positives come our way soon out of that last night Dr bled and her team led a business community meeting and it was phenomenal and and I just want to say we're lucky to have you you advocate well for everybody and you're making sure that you're out

016there trying to do the best for our students in the community so thank you thank you Dr Bachman um I'm going to repeat everything that Mr cologne said and just a little bit more no I do want to do a shout out to our futures Foundation as you know there's an their their non-profit they're truly supportive of our five goals and they had their annual um fundraising event last Friday many of you were there with us as we celebrated and I'm not going to steal their Thunder because they will announce at some point the amount of money that they had that that they have been able to graciously um engage stakeholders in contributing toward our campaign when it comes to campaigning for our students and campaigning for our staff so I'm very very grateful to

017Futures foundation and shout out to them and I and I more or less what call me officially so I'm gonna um tack on to the Futures Foundation piece because several of us attended the Caribbean party on Friday evening which is where it's one of their fundraisers where they raise funds in order to give teachers the mini grants to do projects and everything and so this lady is being very humble right now but I'm going to go ahead and tell um she put herself up where you could spend a day with the superintendent and I don't really think they gave her a choice I think they Twisted her arm and just said we're going to auction you off live and um I think that'd be a tough spot to be in you know you're being auctioned

018off live and you don't know what's going to happen but the great news is the auction for her raised six thousand six hundred dollars per teacher [Applause] and they were at 3 100 they were at 3 000 and two people raised their hand at the same time for Thirty One Hundred they were two people sitting right next to each other and the poor Auctioneer didn't know what to do so someone behind that said 3300 and then it was kind of like well could we like people instead of just one and she graciously offered to do that and I actually think we could have probably gotten a little bit more but at that point the auctioneer I think was overwhelmed and he just stopped but she brought in 6600 but um Mr colon and I did

019attend the chambers um here on the West side of the county the crystal Apple Awards and there were 31 individuals nominated from their schools for the crystal Apple Awards and it's a good thing we don't have to read those applications and everything because just when they announced who the four winners were and you heard about not only the things they did at their school but the things that they did out in the community it's just amazing and the four teachers this year were from DeLand Middle School George Marks Elementary McGinnis Elementary and Stark Elementary and I um I did not personally know two of them two I have known for a long time but I will tell you each and every one of them is unique But the teacher at Stark I think you could

020probably write pages about her she heads up every year of Veteran thing for Veterans Day and she just does the whole thing but I learned something new from her application that they read the other night she's got kids knitting and crocheting now even during lunch and making things that they are donating to the homeless shelter so I mean that's just art we have so many teachers out there that go above and beyond what's in the classroom and it was an honor to be there Mr persis joined me part way through the day on Friday but Friday we did um we went out and we celebrated and announced to some of our volunteers and mentors of the year were and so um Mr cologne mentioned Galaxy Middle School that was our first stop of the day

021and that was Mike Jackson and he's the mentor of the year and his speech he was surprised in the kids kept it a secret which isn't that great when kids cannot tell the teacher that he's going to get an award but um his words you watch kids faces and every kid hung on every word that he spoke but basically he said I was one of those kids and he said so that's why I'm here mentoring and making a difference for them and you can tell how much they appreciate it we went on into Pine Ridge High School and um I'll be honest we kind of broke a rule we I didn't see anybody in the little house where you're supposed to stop to check in so we kind of all drove one in to go

022into Pine Ridge but at Pine Ridge we did our youth volunteer of the Year and that was Reagan gatz and what an inspiration that young lady is and everything that she does to volunteer at her school and a well-deserved honor for her we then moved on over to Enterprise Elementary School where they took the family and Community involvement award this year for light up Enterprise and we we definitely surprised the principal her staff kept it quiet that we were headed there but I don't know what parts they'll put in the video or they were videotaping at all times but they may put a part that's kind of interesting of what she said at the beginning and then we moved on to DeLand High School and at DeLand High School we did the adult volunteer which

023was Miss Tina freed and she actually when they read what she does it's amazing so she's a parent that just stepped up because her daughter's in band the very first year there and said I will do whatever you need and down to she goes and picks up the rental truck she gets the equipment loaded she drives the rental truck to wherever the band is going to perform she does the uniforms I mean as she was there that day and we definitely overwhelmed her and surprised her but the students they played a piece for her not knowing and you could just feel how much they all appreciated what she did then we moved on over to Beachside which is where Mr persis joined me and we did Christine Sands who was our senior volunteer this year

024she started 30 years ago volunteering in a kindergarten classroom at Osceola with a teach a kindergarten teacher that is still teaching her child went on through Elementary went to middle went to high and went on to college but you know where she stayed she stayed right there in for 30 years she has volunteered in this kindergarten classroom talk about dedication and the teacher she's with will be retiring soon but we kind of encouraged her maybe she shouldn't retire we could probably pair her up with somebody new but I would encourage any of you out there especially if you have retired from a position go in and volunteer and kindergarten is one of the best places to volunteer though we ended our day at Sea Breeze High School and I say ended because it wasn't over

025yet but for this piece it was and there we did our business partner of the year and that was the Gourmet Kitchen and the owner and her daughter who work at The Gourmet Kitchen they thought they were just coming to a business partner meeting at Sea Breeze High but we surprised them they truly do something that I think is close to our hearts so they've taken the multi-vee students at Sea Breeze High and they have them come and they have them work in their restaurant The Gourmet Kitchen and they teach them all of these life skills here's just community members that wouldn't have to open up their restaurant and bring students in but they have and so to honor them on Friday The Culinary department at Sea Breeze High had cooked a full lunch to

026serve to them and with the students and we got to talk to the students and learn about the things that they're doing there and you know you couldn't ask for Community Partners that would do more than what those two ladies are doing and you can tell they have a heart for the kids and the kids love going there but that's what we did on Friday and I will end it with that and we will move on but I have to tell you there are great things going on and we so appreciate every volunteer Mentor business partner out there that helps because you truly make a difference in the lives of children in Volusia County all right moving on to item 1.03 approval of minutes for the March 7th 2023 regular session do I have a

027motion to approve the minutes Madam chair I make the motion to prove the minutes as presented thank you Mr cologne do I have a second any discussion all right then I will call for the vote all those in favor of approving the minutes from the March 7th 2023 meeting please say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously moving along item 2.01 Dr balguban are there any agenda changes before the agenda is printed to the presented to the board for approval no Madam chair all right board members I need a motion and a second for the approval of the agenda do I have a motion a move to approve thank you Mrs Burnett do I have a second hey second that thank you Mrs Thompson so any further discussion all right then all those in favor of

028approving the agenda for tonight's meeting please say aye aye anyone opposed it passes unanimously moving on item 3.01 Dr balguban thank you madam chair board members as I listen to you share your announcements it's no wonder you can clearly tell how involved our board is and how committed you are to our vision and Mission and for that I want to thank you each and every one of you so a couple things I know Mr cologne several you I may not expand on some but I want you to know that if you have a kindergartner and you're getting ready to enroll your kindergarten student in Volusia County Public Schools we actually just opened up registration March 27th so that's for the 23-24 school year so I encourage you to sign your child up and we will

029have our Kindergarten Roundup between April 12th and the 26th you will receive each school will send out information regarding the specific dates and time and when you attend the Roundup you're going to receive all the information that you need regarding what the school year would look like so I I see some parents and here make sure you share this information with your community your friends your family it has actually begun also it's cool Library month so um it's it's April is is designated as the national school library month and I want to thank all of our Librarians all of our media Specialists for everything that you do you ignite that Spirit of thinking creativity sharing and growing because that's what learning reading does to our brain and our minds so thank you for doing that

030and I had a meeting with vaim and actually they will be sharing with us all of the different activities that will be transpiring at all of our schools and that will be at the upcoming board meeting I will share that but again congratulations and thank you all for what you do for our kids on a daily basis some past calendar items you're absolutely right you talked about the Down Syndrome awareness day and many of you celebrated with our students and staff in Reading I want to again a shout out to Samantha Hepburn but also she's the counselor at west side but she also partnered with the 321 Society and the 321 Society their mission is to provide a community that Community Support to all of our students and families with Down Syndrome so again thank

031you to three to one and Samantha Hepburn um a big congratulations goes out these are the schools that competed in the science of Olympia so for high schools we had DeLand High School they had one team there we had Spruce Creek High School who also had a team represented at the State uh championship for Middle School silversands Deltona Middle and Galaxy metal and as Mr cologne stated our board member Galaxy actually came in second place with the state competition at the University of Central of Florida sorry University of Florida so they will be moving on to Nationals next as you know and we're rooting for them Battle of the books I know I know our board members were there Miss Thompson several of you were there congratulations to all of the winners so for the

032elementary division we're congratulating in particular these are the winners Tomoka Elementary for the Middle School Division at Southwestern middle and for the High School Division it's the land high so we will recognize these winners as you've noticed I haven't said any names because we will be recognizing them at the April 25th board meeting they will be here and we will celebrate again uh thank you for Universe to University High School and to the uh the land West Chamber of Commerce for hosting that very beautiful Crystal Awards we're 31 nominees were there and to all of the principals for taking the time to nominate these wonderful teachers for what they do not just in the classroom but also in their communities thank you so very much now another item I am really really so I believe

033we do have a short video right okay good evening everyone welcome to the crystal Apple Awards on behalf of our achievement members the business Community I congratulate all of our nominees on a job well done thank you for all you do each and every day to go above and beyond in educating our future Workforce for West solution I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do every day to make our tomorrow much better place by the time and attention that you put into each and every one of the students that you represent that you work with all the educators from extracurricular to right in the class saying from the bottom of our hearts thank you so much for all you do you have been nominated by those who

034wish to publicly and boldly state to you this evening that you have a positive impact in the lives of others you are preparing your students with the skills to become the world's greatest future in Ventures scientists artists athletes musicians programmers Supreme Court Justices but most importantly with that love to understand that they are part of the community and that we must work and engage with our community your mom and that for our students so thank you very much and the winner is Christine Rickett Amy hockathan Kim Kelly long [Applause] foreign I have one more announcement chair and board members Mr cologne was there this morning with me at um the center for Deltona and as you know or may not know in every single one of our high schools this year we have the entrepreneurship

035in every single high school we have partnered with Nifty and also we have the J.A war with us right because we know how important it is for our students to have the opportunity to take all the learning that they're receiving and putting into a format where there's application to their learning so it was so it made my day and I think it made my month actually because we were able to see our students fully in action today at the center for Deltona and any of you in the audience that were there we had 31 judges and these were either elected officials or business partners that volunteered their time and they were there and we call it the pitch right so uh for CTE these students had an idea they they're all part of nifty that

036entrepreneurship course so what they pretty much did is that they've created a business proposal and our students were there they were dressed for Success this morning and they presented their business proposal so I want to take the opportunity to thank again all of the judges that were there all of the business partners we had Career Source West Volusia Regional Chamber of Commerce that the land greater chamber launch Credit Union Port Orange South Daytona chamber J.A of Central Florida and Futures Foundation they were there this morning now the winner will have an opportunity winners will represent Volusia County Public Schools at the Nationals in New York City but it was such a powerful event and I just want to thank everyone who made it possible and of course to our CTE Division I mean they worked

037you know quite a bit behind the scene to pull this off but everybody our school principals the teachers in every single classroom that works with our students our parents who are you know supporting our students day in and day out and obviously to the people that does the work right it's our kids our students so thank you for presenting so us so well and we will have a short video not at this board meeting but the upcoming board meeting so you can see I always say we have such talented students in our County they're good looking they're talented and the future be ready for them so that's a chair thank you moving on to item 4.01 recognitions of schools of character citizenship was the topic for this time Dr balkabin thank you chair thank you

038board we would like to announce our winners who exemplified citizenship and the winners are Nina Richardson and Grace Pinar from Spruce Creek Elementary I believe they're here in the audience these winners [Applause] recognized by their very own principal Miss Andrea Hall so to tell you a little bit about Nina and Grace their safety patrols at their school who decided to start up a group called Helping Hands and you could both of us yes both of you both of you yes both of you both of you are invited you can take a seat and you both look lovely so this they started at a group called The Helping Hands and what they do is that this help this group supports students with disabilities on their campuses on their campus the group has grown to 10 students

039so far and they work with each student at their school and it's about respecting diversity and everyone's differences these girls have also organized a food food drive actually at the southeast Volusia Humane Society Nina and Grace have come up with the motto that says Helping Hands we're here for you need a friend we will be there till the end it Rhymes too guys I would like to ask our principal Miss Andrea Hall just to share a little bit with us and then if you will come up and we can take a picture actually I think the young ladies have something too they want to share okay yeah well good evening Dr balgaman uh School Board it's my pleasure to be here this morning to or this afternoon I guess it's evening sorry it's been a

040really long day um it's my pleasure to be here with these girls um earlier this year I heard them uh probably maybe right after school started I heard them talking about this group that they were forming and so I asked a little bit about it and they said we're forming this group called Helping Hands and I said can you tell me a little bit about it and they're both safety patrols and so they they work in an area where our Pre-K students with disabilities are dropped off in the morning and our students from the multi-program are dropped off in the morning and they really wanted to be a good friend to those kids so I got 110 behind that I'm like okay how can I help you they designed their own shirts by the way

041they designed the shirts we had shirts made for them they've grown the club but what I love beyond the kindness that they're doing at my school is the kindness that they're trying to put into the World by doing the food drive for the southeast Volusia Humane Society Nina goes there quite often and reads to the cats that's something that is adorable and Grace has an idea that's our their next fundraiser is to raise money for Saint Jude's so I just I am so inspired by these young ladies and the good that they're putting into the world and the good work that they're doing and I could not be any more honored to be here with them this evening thank you all right is there anything you girls would like to share [Applause] I'm Grace Penner

042and me and Nina are going to write we have written this speech and we're going to um read it and I have such a desire to help others so she asked me do you want to start a club that helps the special education kids the little kids as well as other people I said of course so that was the beginning of Helping Hands I think Helping Hands has had the greatest impact on our school so we can hope ing hands will continue [Applause] ladies if we could have you come forward with your principal and with any family members that are staff that are here with you this evening we have a certificate for you thousand kids only two were chosen I've never had her they posted on our website and everything so you can take

043okay [Applause] we're now moving on to item 4.02 recognition of students for the Cambridge Scholars Dr balcovin I do have a staff member too under a character is that okay under 401. that was the student no okay sorry we're not finished with citizenship I was listen the girls impressed me so much I was ready laughs so we have a staff winner also we're recognizing a staff member for citizenship for the month of March and who is it it's Stacy Han Stacy Hahn is the athletic director at University High School and she was nominated by her wonderful principal Miss Chenoweth are they here please come on up so it may not steal the children let me ask Miss Chenoweth to share a little bit because I know what she said about Miss Han thank you so

044much um Dr bagban and school board members um I was excited to nominate athletic director Han for this particular recognition you know it's when we think of Athletics we think of wins and losses and getting kids into colleges on scholarships and so forth but a amazing athletic director will think of the whole child and she does a lot of work with um coaching up our coaches and so during covid she had a book study that she was doing and we got on a team's call I think once a week or it was once a week we got on a team's call and we talked about the book study and it was all about helping the coaches to develop and to share their experiences with each other and then this year she's moved out and now

045she has a Coach's Corner every month and she brings in the student um no not Coach's Corner um captains Captain's Table and she brings in the captains from all of the sports and she works with them has a presentation to help develop them into good leaders so that when they do go off into the world they've learned not only our Titan Creed knowledge courage strength and respect but they've also learned just how to be good citizens in the world and so miss Han I feel like just goes above and beyond and there's great athletic directors out there but I've got the best and she just goes above and beyond to just really aspire to help all of our students and our coaches to be good citizens in the world and she herself and her family

046are at our school and and they model that as well so I'm very happy to nominate her tonight [Applause] I was not planning to speak thank you very much I'm very honored and I love love what I do and I love working with our kids and um developing positive productive young men and ladies to to be successful when they leave our school and whatever that might be whether it's academic Health leadership Health um families whatever it's my privilege to help them thank you and if you'll come forward [Applause] congratulations instead perfect thank you guys [Applause] now we're going to move on to item 4.02 recognition of students for the Cambridge Scholars meet Dr balgeman thank you madam chair I would like to ask Dr Barrio assistant superintendent for high school along with Miss Carolyn carbonell

047to come on up um I am super proud of this recognition but go ahead if they miss anything I will insert um as I have the script here but go ahead good evening chair Haynes board members and superintendent Dr balgubin [Music] um I mentioned earlier today I am always excited to be up here um but particularly uh for tonight with the these Cambridge Awards we're recognizing one student um that was top in the country sends me of a song by Tina Turner Simply the Best we have um so uh there are I did want to say that there are different categories um for this for the these type of recognitions we have the Cambridge scholar award we have the Cambridge scholar Award with Merit we have a Cambridge scholar Award with distinction and then there's

048top in the country okay so I also want to say that we have students in every category we have a total of 86 students that have received some type of award we have uh 10 students that are or across the district that are distinction we have 19 that are Merit and we have 57 that are that are Scholars and every High School is every Cambridge High School is represented tonight in particular we are recognizing the top in the country so I will let um Miss carbonell drum roll so we are so excited you know for um most of you on the you know the Cambridge program started about seven years ago and um we had three schools that were on the pilot schools and Seabreeze was one of them they have on one of the

049original Cambridge coordinators uh Dodie Gaines who does a wonderful job so it's not a surprise to us when we see that their student received that top recognition so congratulations to Sea Breeze principal Harris Tucker and Alyssa Capell who was a top country top scorer in the U.S for the History exam why not I believe we also would like her parents and and principal Harris to come up as well absolutely last night you're Superstar right here ready [Applause] thank you all right have a good program there next item on the agenda is item 4.03 recognition of students that are state champions Dr valkovan thank you madam chair and board let us recognize some of our state champions now we have two that are represented with that represented here today we have DeLand High School with their

050co-ed cheer team and Mainland High with their girls basketball team Dr Maria would you like to call them up yes Mr Beale just went out to get them because it is a lot of students okay so they will make their grand entrance we also have our principals that are here um Mr diggerolomo he's out here okay we would like for him to come in along with the land High just a little bit they're celebrating outside as well Mr castelli is here Dr castelli is here [Applause] closed captioning not available [Music] foreign [Applause] congratulations stuff is amazing oh I'm so happy you brought a basketball [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] and if you couldn't tell that was girls basketball that won the state anything [Applause] all right moving right along 4.04 recognition of staff for great people

051great Deeds Dr balgeman thank you madam chair at this time we would like to recognize more of our very very outstanding staff the winners for our new great people great Deeds Initiative for the month of March which was sponsored by Leonardi's photography great people great Deeds we honor one instructional in and a non-instructional VCS employee who go above and beyond to create that impact that's so very much needed in our schools and in our community so this month we honor Miss Deborah turu she is an intermediate teacher at Beachside Elementary as our instructional winner and Mr Greg Bastian a guardian at Spruce Creek Elementary as our non-instructional winner we have both principals that are here in the audience today and we see that they have their cheerleading team squad is they're here as well a

052couple things I want to share with you um Mr she has helped find and deliver free and low-cost Furniture to one of her students family after their home flooded Mr Bastian he split out a fire in a neighborhood just around I think it was Christmas day or right around Christmas morning before the fire department even arrived at that family's home these are individuals that not only are their top staff members but also they're so involved in their community and being that helping hand with big hearts so we recognize them and I think that out of everything that we would that thanks to Leonardo photography I believe that Mr Bass in what he loved the best was his own special parking spot right he had his his where before we could even leave the school it

053was already placed there and he claimed his spot so um we want to thank both of you again for going again above and beyond this is what our community needs and to be very Frank with you there is a saying out there that has very a whole lot of truth to it it's not what you say it's what we do as role models in our community that's what students look at right and we are here to be exemplars for the future generation and I think these two individuals are top-notch and that's why they're being recognized here so board we would like to I think we have a video don't we um Mr Gomez yeah okay [Music] first first recognition that we're doing for great people great needs and the reason why we're doing this is

054because we have the majority of our staff members are the silent servant leaders in this in our in our district right so it's people like you that show up every single day you're not looking for recognition and you're going above and beyond all the things I've heard that you do and those are the individuals what we need to highlight and Elevate and put on our platform I don't do things to get recognition that's not my goal in life I do it to try to help our school make Beachside a better place um for the teachers I mean for me personally I the answer to higher calling so for me I operate on that I've always said how special Volusia is right and Volusia is special because of all the people that are in the field

055that comes and show up every single day and they go above and beyond and they have great stories like yours and you know what you we don't get to tell your stories often but that's why this program is so important because we get to highlight people like you which is what makes our County so special and Elevate you for what you truly deserve to be I feel humbled and I'm really appreciative I had no idea and I just do what I feel is right every day and it's nice to be recognized go Bobcats [Applause] [Music] we'd like both of you to come forward with anyone that's here from the school or any of your family members and we'll start with beachside's photo first [Applause] congratulations thank you um [Music] thank you for coming here hi

056education excited for sure [Applause] oh I'm good thank you for this show he wants to share backstory oh we're gonna bring Leonard that's Thomas tell us the story I'm gonna tell everybody so it's can I share quickly just so the audience so actually I was so excited to have the opportunity to recognize Mr B because there's actually a back story and he just brought it up here he goes you need to tell the audience and look how they're paying attention now the back story and I said well why don't you tell the backstory Mr B go ahead Mr B hi everyone um so the first time Dr B showed up at our campus she was um out in her vehicle and then um she was there and I parking lot a lot I kind of

057know who's supposed to be at my school and who's not and I recognized her and I let her know you know introduce myself and learn there she was and so that was also kind of a surprise deal so she was kind of waiting out there she said oh I'm just catching them something like that like that but um so so the second time she came to recognize me I'll let Miss halt well once again good evening I've got the time of day right this time second time is always a good opportunity to get it right um first of all this man misses nothing so that's really what you want in your guardian right he sees everything he knows everything and so um I was in a classroom got a call from actually Mr Gomez and

058he said hey we're like two minutes from your school and we're coming to honor your guardian for the great people great deeds and I'm like Oh yay I'm so excited um so I'm gonna walk out to meet you all in the parking lot and I walk out and who's right there of course Mr B he's always somewhere in the vicinity um I still I believe on the phone with you Mr Gomez so I was kind of talking in code as I got past Mr B and I um radioed our assistant principal Mrs Richardson and I said you know I need to talk to you of course not on the radio because Mr B listens to everything as well so I said I need some help I need you to get him somewhere so we can

059get these people on campus because it's supposed to be a surprise um I believe she she first met you in building three pod and there was nothing going on so he's kind of scratching his head and some way somehow you ended up at the bike rack with her I'm not quite sure why if you were just dusting away pine cones talking about a scooter that was abandoned right which is not a normal conversation with Mr B in the meantime I'm trying to whisk um Miss Bristow from Leonard's Dr B Angel this whole team onto our campus to surprise um Mr Bastian and by the time I actually was able to get them into the office and he was on his way he said hey I saw somebody walking with a sign it was his sign

060he doesn't miss anything right you actually said we had a disgruntled parent and she and she needed me in the first it was a bike ride bike ride then the cafeteria and then the office so I was like pulled my phone up coming in I thought I was a protester or something big sign coming through and I'm like what am I getting into I like to know what I'm getting very glad you know if I could just say one more thing about Mr Bastian while I have the mic um this man is incredible he has loved revered admired at our school he builds relationships with kids every single day they trust him they work for him he encourages them we had a student a couple of years ago in our multi-classroom that was just not

061wanting to come to school you saw the video just not wanting to come to school and we thought how can we encourage him and of course Mr B gets involved finds out that this child wants to be a guardian when he grows up and so he's like hey man you know get your attendance right get to school on time get to school regularly and at the end of the year I'm gonna have a guardian shirt for you Dr B I know you saw the video it is a tear jerking video this child was so excited but the the big point is he got his attendance turned around he found what motivated this child and got his attendance turned around so that he was to school and that's just that's a small example of what he

062does every single day and we are very grateful to have him at Spruce Creek Elementary School you rock music thank you so we have one more recognition that goes along with our great Deeds great people and it's Leonard's photography for sponsoring this for us they have sponsored this in so many more again it takes a village right and it takes really all the right people in our village and we're so grateful to our business community so thank you again for all the sponsorship that you have been doing for us and more to come and we have a certificate for you [Applause] we so appreciate all of our business partners and community that support all kinds of things that are going on at our schools we're moving right along right now to item 4.05 recognition of

063Pine Ridge High CTE program Dr balguban Panthers are on the rise I would like to ask our principal the very proud principal Mr Reeser to come on up and I think he has some team members here with him Mrs Christina Rochelle kiss I said it correctly very good I'm proud of myself she is the facilitator for Career and Technical education at Pine Ridge Panthers On The Rise and they have their CTE presentation for us which was delayed from the last board meeting because a very special board member was not here um so take it away team thank you chair distinguished board members superintendent balgubin and we are so proud to represent Ms G my fantastic CTE facilitator and you're right Dr B the very proud principal of the panther nation of Pine Ridge High School

064thrilled to present to each and every one of you today as we do celebrate are rising up it's a movement and we do seek to serve the goals presented before you you see our high school career academies and programs we're very proud of the Innovative learning opportunities that exist at Pine Ridge High School it's a fun place to learn and the fun takes place in two academies that will begin this evening with as well as seven additional Innovative programs we're going to speak for about eight minutes we're going to watch a video for about two and then I'm going to introduce you to the stars of the show the panther Nation themselves I'll begin with our first Academy our Healthcare Academy and ladies and gentlemen and those Folks at home that might be watching if

065you have a student with an interest in entering the medical field Pine Ridge High School might be the place for you as the one and only home of a certified nurse's assistant program we're so excited about this program that houses 112 Panthers 112 in this Academy alone with a passage rate on a certified nurse assistant certification of 80 percent these students work in partnership with various community-based health organizations including Advent Health Halifax Trilogy and John Knox Village in somewhat of a co-op format our Healthcare Academy students go into the field for Hands-On work with real patients in the real Health Care setting while still as a high school student for an equivalent of 40 hours to earn that High School CNA certification a common pathway is that our students earn that CNA certification as a

066high school senior begin working under the CNA certification as they pursue additional post-secondary education and I am so excited about that pathway that provides payment up front and down the road with an Innovative Hands-On learning opportunity to celebrate our Manufacturing Academy I'm happy to have MS G speak to the prama program thank you Mr Racer thank you board superintendent we are thrilled that you allow us to come and share our CT programs with you um statistics have shown it is the reason students come to school stay in school so thank you for highlighting our programs very often we're asked what is prama what's Advanced manufacturing what is that and that has been a huge marketing opportunity for us to talk about so when we think about Advanced manufacturing that's when we're looking at CNC Machining

067that's when we're looking at welding plasma cutting 3D printing and Robotics these are the folks that are doing some really amazing things in our school under the guidance of Mr Javier Vega Garcia our students have been able to build design program and use their own created 3D printers plotters 3D engravers and even have gone as far as to create a portable plasma cutter table that we can use in different areas of school to help out some of our other programs so we have a great Synergy happening between our programs you'll hear our student later talking about a little bit of a win in a robotics competition so go Panthers something that we're also proud of is our affiliations with Daytona State we've had over the course of our problem of being in existence we've had

068about 11 students go through the Daytona State Fame program which is wonderful they earn a two-year engineering technology associate degree with two years of work experience happening at the same time and so this is invaluable for our students so our students are interested in mechanical engineering might be a great fit for our promo program and with that we're going to let Mr Reeser have the floor again and we're going to depart from our academies at this time to talk to you about some of our Innovative programs that are not yet at the Academy status I'm going to begin with our HVAC program which was the first thing that Ms Haynes told me when I first met her was you have a wonderful HVAC program that's brand new I'm happy to tell you chair Haynes there's

069250 Panthers in the HVAC program coach Wilbur is in the room with us here today he and Coach Arnold have led that HVAC program instilled passion in our students past industry certifications and at this time have a 100 percent job placement rate with an earning potential ladies and gentlemen of forty seven thousand dollars per year it pays to be a Pine Ridge Panther that's not all to talk about our culinary program and Chef Wayne is also in the room we celebrate Chef Wayne in the new life that he's breathed into our program if you visit us for any special events you'd feel the hospitality upon arrival you'd see increased passage rates on the National Registry and Serve Safe exams and new energy in this Innovative program our cyber security and digital design programs also are

070outlets for students with interest in technology and our students who are potential future teachers as we seek to grow from within and extend our family from the high school years into perhaps joining us in the ranks of the panther Nation faculty and staff we're very happy to talk about our early childhood education program these students are leaving with certifications that prepare them to work immediately in preschool and experience at this time a 100 percent passage rate if you've never seen it at Pine Ridge High School there's an active preschool in our school the young people ages three and four will brighten your day they'll make you smile and you'll see our high school students teaching them and you might be mistaken to think that they were already professional certified teachers they do that under the

071direction of our CTE teacher of the year Miss Christine Marrero and we're so proud of her ladies and gentlemen know you know very near and dear to my heart is our JROTC program I celebrate our Cadets major white and master sergeant Gordon and their installation of leadership within our student body Panther Nation ladies and gentlemen we'll go as far as our student leaders take us and that leadership is being bred within our ROTC program all of this fun also provides some industry recognized certifications you see the certifications listed before you is there's not just an opportunity to earn a high school diploma and perhaps dual enrollment in Cambridge course credits but also the many industry certifications available in the panther Nation at Pine Ridge High School what we're very excited about is the momentum that

072we've built this year to show an increased pace of earning of those credentials and I'm going to ask Ms G to speak to that thank you Mr racer every single one of our programs offers at least one industry certification we are looking forward to adding multiple certifications going forward our HVAC will be adding heat pump and air conditioning certifications our prama Academy we'll be adding a CPT or certified production technician certification going forward what I love about industry certifications they're aim for adults in Industry they're not really aiming for high school students and in talking with our student ambassadors that you'll hear from momentarily they're talking about it got them a job now some of our students who are certified in surfsafe or National Registry it gets them a raise right now while they're in

073high school and that's meaningful for our young people so to talk about our certification results we are still testing at the top is our year-to-date results we've have so far 155 students who have passed uh compared to 118 last year we are rising we're testing more students we are doing great things and I thank you for that so at this time I will invite the IT team to dial up that video we have a two-minute video and then we'll hear from our students in very brief remarks and adhere to our 20-minute time limit thank you Itt [Music] this year I'm actually in the CNA program we are actually the only School in Volusia County that is that has a CNA program and I'm really thankful for that and this year we are partnered with John

074Knox getting all this practice is really beneficial for us and it's the best way to learn because we're interacting with real patients instead of the mannequins we go to John Knox we're directly paired with Advent Health you get two certifications that you can use in the real world as a 17 and 18 year old which I think is pretty cool and I think the community involvement just really helps jump start especially if you want to go to college just kind of the Outreach and getting to know people in the community foreign program I've always been interested in technology my dad has his own little thing going on in his garage and he's working and stuff it's Springs back good memories and I thought I wanted to get into it myself I like your program teamwork

075is a very important thing in the work field like once you get out there and actually do jobs teamwork is really important and that's something you need to learn in high school and build [Music] this is the a-track program here at Pine Ridge it's a four-year program we offer three limit ready certifications and that's electrical heat pump and EPA this program doesn't just restrain you to a track paths you can go with it and it opens many opportunities for these students it's benefiting me me because I know that I have a steady and good job after I'm out of high school so this proud principle can tell you all day long they are learning at Pine Ridge High School is innovative Hands-On and fun but ladies and gentlemen directly from the students experiencing it beginning

076with the healthcare Academy students good evening my name is Sophie Hedrick and I'm here on behalf of the Pine Ridge High School Healthcare Academy our Academy is truly amazing and it provides every student with experiences that are necessary to excel in whatever career path they choose by the end of my senior year I should have both my CNA and my cmaa as long or as well as with other certifications such as CPR and stop the bleed after high school I plan on attending the University of Florida attending med school and then becoming an obstetrician the Pine Ridge High School Healthcare Academy has not only taught me responsibility but it has really given me perspective as to how to step out of my comfort zone and Excel in my goals our Academy has shaped my entire

077High School experience I'm honored to be representing it here tonight thank you foreign good evening my name is Brianna DeLorme I am a senior at Pine Ridge High School and I'm the vice president of the healthcare Academy because of this program I was able to become a certified nurse assistant this year and also earned my CPR certification the academy has had a huge impact on my high school experience because it's confirmed that the medical field is indeed something I'm interested in this program is also great for those who are interested in health care but aren't exactly sure what specific career they would choose in this field we have so much fun in this Academy and the friendships I've made over the last four years will forever be special to me after graduating I'm looking forward

078to pursuing a major in biomedical science and a minor in music at the University of Florida go Gators I've taken several courses in this program that have prepared me for the pre-med classes required for my career track at UF and I also want to just say a special thanks to miss lurkins who's who is the director of the Pine Ridge Healthcare Academy because this wouldn't be possible without her and thank you guys for your time [Applause] thank you Brianna and Sophie at this time we're bringing up for you our Advanced Manufacturing Academy students hello everyone my name is Alexandria and I am a member of the Pine Ridge Advanced Manufacturing Academy during my time in the academy I've worked on the Fusion 360. I've done CNC machinery and now I'm currently working to practice sorry

079I've been practicing coding at Arduino um in the near future I hope to get an LLC with the help of my dad and enter the realm of inter entrepreneurship what I like about the academy is the freedom to work alone or with friends in the beginning of the school year I have worked with some of my friends in the class and we were coding with a robot and we are working together and learning how to code with um Arjuna Arduino hello my name is William Faulk and I'm in the advanced Manufacturing Academy we just recently won first place in our battlebot competition which is what I really that's honestly my favorite part about the academy we just recently we just recently designed a new battlebot that we're going to work on coming into this new

080season to give everyone a new look um I plan to become an aerospace engineer I'm going to go to Georgia Tech After High School and I plan to work on the space cope Space Coast Building Rockets I really enjoy the freedom we get in this class um we can choose to either work with friends or like she said work by ourselves it's a very open free environment you can do anything from making shirts to coding um we also have we also have certifications I'm currently working on my Fusion 360 certification and that's it future is bright the future is very bright at this time students representing our HVAC Academy as well as our culinary program will share out beginning here first with our HVAC program good evening my name is Connor I'm here in the

081program I have received my employment clinical certification it has allowed me to get a job right out of high school actually I have a job before I was out of high school I have a job right now um so as soon as I [Applause] as soon as I graduate as soon as the last day of school I can start working um and going into this field it gives me so many opportunities it's not just constrained to HVAC you have the electrical side of it you have the plumbing side of it you have so many different sides to it and things that go into it and you learn all of that in our program throughout all four years uh it gives me you know coming out of high school it's big you know people come out

082of high school not knowing what I'm what to do and I'm coming out with many paths to go to it good afternoon my name is Eda tabana and I'm representing the culinary program at Pine Ridge High School my favorite thing about the culinary program is the ability to be creative you're not just following a recipe you're making the recipe your own the most valuable thing that I've learned in culinary is working with others I myself as someone who did not like him work to work with others but culinary has taught me the value of teamwork now without my teammates I couldn't do anything I love them so um uh culinary also offers certifications like ServSafe and National Registry which I am also both certified in and I think my chef chef Wayne for all the

083support that he has given me throughout my journey in The Culinary Department these certifications not only help students inside of the classroom but outside they are guaranteed a higher paying job which is good for all students whether it be um these certifications could influence skills not only in The Culinary department but outside and we're here to change students live little by little thank you [Applause] students and to fill our final two minutes that do remain our JROTC Cadet as well as our agriculture program and that agriculture program is represented as well by Ms Davis who's in the room with us today as well oh my apologies I forgot the early childhood and digital design my apologies Early Childhood first good evening A very wise educator Murray Montessori once said the education of even a small

084child doesn't aim to prepare them for school but for life my name is Molly saracusa and I am a junior Ambassador for the Early Childhood CARE program and in the program we provide the sipping zones our preschoolers need to succeed inside and outside of the classroom within the program I will earn the Child Development Association certification this guides Early Childhood professionals as I work towards becoming qualified teachers of young children in the program I've also learned about the developmental processes of young children preschool cleanliness how to make and teach lesson plans as well as other very important social and professional skills that can be used in a vast majority of careers not just education this program has allowed me to find my passion and have my foot in the door of a career in education

085and after three amazing years I will be graduating high school with a CDA certification and plan to go to college to become a high school English teacher thank you all for listening [Applause] good afternoon my name is Wyatt Blair and I am here representing the digital design program at Pine Ridge High School uh three months ago I joined the class and I have successfully passed Adobe Photoshop entrepreneurship and small business and Adobe Illustrator after graduation I would like to open up my small business and use my skills that I've learned in this class I better myself with marketing skills and using Adobe Photoshop to make better marketing plans and everything like that thank you [Applause] thank you students and now for our final presenters from the AG program and you saw the cows and the

086goats those are for real on our campus if you're in a bad mood in early childhood doesn't do it for you to cheer you up come see the goats because they always will help out again and ROTC hello my name is Caleb uh I'm here as a FFA FFA representative from Pine Ridge High School if you had told me in eighth grade that I'd be standing here with the opportunity to talk to you all about FFA I would think you're crazy then in ninth grade I had gained confidence 10th grade I saw more Improvement now I'm a junior high school and I have been given this amazing opportunity to show you firsthand the confidence of FFA can uh offer to you you're throwing it into SAE cdes and ldes and you're pushed to be your

087best when it comes to my newfound confidence I use it in school with FFA and after was showing animals and tractor driving FFA has helped me improve For My Future Self [Applause] good evening my name is Cadet second lieutenant casady and I am here with the afjrtc program of Pine Ridge um ninth grade I was definitely really shy didn't have a lot of friends I didn't really like talking um going into the afgh program and where I am now has been the biggest sleep I have ever seen for myself the confidence I have built up just solely on that program and helping me find friends that I never thought I'd have and a family within the core that I absolutely appreciate everybody for um we have a whole bunch of different things that we do

088um with the drill which helps with confidence with speaking we have Cadet leadership programs as well as the flight academies and a whole bunch of things um being a flight Commander the chain of command has helped communication has been absolutely amazing with everybody and I it it's definitely a really good place that I've been thank you [Applause] Madam chair that concludes our presentation today is a great day to be a Pine Ridge Panther and we are so proud of Panther nation and our student ambassadors from Pine Ridge High School Panthers Rising [Applause] yes and staff that is here with you to come forward for a photo and we so appreciate this presentation yes all right the company for me thank you [Applause] [Music] we go there we go next month at the end of next

089month [Laughter] his energy is okay we started right at 4 30 after finishing a marathon workshop and so um I've been asked to allow a quick restroom break so we are going to take a quick restroom break we will be back in here in 10 minutes at 6 30 PM we are going to do five cards they are five items that are not on the agenda to vote on this evening so there are five items of general interest I will call when we return I will call the first and second person so that you know who's coming next and we will have those five items then we will move on through the rest of the agenda at this time all the other cards I have are tied to specific items thank you and we will

090see you back at 6 30. it is warm or maybe because they have the door junk food tonight well oh yeah it's one of those names it's just one of those things born members at this time I have four cards of general interest that um are not attached to any voting items then I have one card for policy 427 three cards for policy 503 and 21 cards for policy 320. so at this time we're going to start with the four items for the of general interest since they are not attached to an item we're voting on this evening first up will be Jacob Eland followed by Genie Maddox so Mr eeland is he here or out in the Overflow room I'll check out there all right in the event Mr Elin returns we will pick

091him up later this evening so up is Miss Jeannie Maddox and she'll be followed by Dr Jerry pikeet welcome good evening Dr balgavin chairwoman Haynes and distinguished board members tonight I'd like to point out some of the ways school counselors could be more effectively utilized to help achieve the Volusia County School strategic plan goals one and three specifically address the unique training and skills possessed by school counselors as I mentioned at a previous meeting goal one high quality education cannot take place with students who have unmet physical and emotional needs students who are hungry dirty sick or have experienced trauma and loss need the help of our school counselors who are uniquely trained at all levels to address these student challenges goal three of the Strategic plan focuses on the safe and supportive environment 3A

092utilize District supported multi-tiered systems of support mtss and social emotional learning practices school counselors do not have the academic background to lead the mtss teams in our schools however many are voluntold to this position school counselors can best support mtss by using their skills to help teachers create ways to support and monitor student behavior in the classroom school counselors can support teachers and students by offering student observations teacher consultations small groups for skill building and individual check-ins to build one-on-one Connections in student accountability standard 3B standardized discipline processes provide consistent alternatives to suspension school counselors are not disciplinarians but have skills that can benefit students who are struggling with their behavior or need the redirection after finding themselves involved in the discipline process school counselors can train students in Conflict mediation strategies providing a school-wide

093program of student mediators to help their peers resolve small conflicts before they become big problems that lead to suspension students helping students is a more effective use of administrative and instructional time it not only provides to students with an alternative fighting but allows them to learn a more positive way to resolve their conflicts school counselors can also use their small groups and individual check-ins with students who are struggling to make good behavioral choices 3C supports School leaders to build a positive School culture at their buildings school counselors can support School leaders in building a positive School Culture by providing insight and training to their colleagues on using student mediation strategies for handling trauma-informed students student developmental stages student de-escalation techniques and relationship building with students just to name a few 3D enhance student support enhance

094support around school safety school counselors can support school safety with presentations and school-wide initiatives educating faculty students and families on suicide awareness student wellness indicators bully and Cyberbully awareness training Internet safety and kindness school counselors can do so much to enhance the Volusia County School strategic plan the problem is a lack of understanding about who school counselors are and the assignments of non-counseling Duties that consume their days we need the help of you superintendent superintendent balgeman in each of you board members our area superintendents directors principals and assistant principals at middle elementary schools and high schools to stop using school counselors as the junk drawer for our school by taking away unrelated duties and allowing school counselors to do what they do best provide a conference of School counseling program that allows all students to

095reach their potential thank you Miss Maddox Dr Jerry piket followed by Carol Sawyer Madam chair members of the board superintendent of schools remaining consistent with ongoing concerns as related to ensuring the success of underserved schools advocating against factors that promote inequalities and discrimination in education I again urge this governing board to assess my concerns In fairness honesty and follow-up Madam superintendent you received an email formal request August of 2022 by concerned community members to discuss the state of Daytona Beach Schools you mentioned several groups you met with and noted those parties agreed to set a date to discuss topics of concerns however please note I was on the list in the original email and have not been notified of any meetings requested on behalf of the superintendent to date which is over six months ago

096so again I asked this governing board are we going to follow through with our commitment to have open meetings with concerned citizens or do we need special membership of organizations you designate to meet with to hear concerns this to me is called plan politics which is biased unfair discriminatory treatment to other members of our community so exactly how do we ensure that concerns are being heard and fairly addressed what is actually the protocol for Community Advocates when discussing anything with the superintendent Madam superintendent do you actually take full responsibility of ensuring that Campbell Middle School and other underserved schools are being provided with the necessary resources to ensure its success simply stated Madam superintendent you are actually responsible for the current academic downfall of Campbell Middle School under your Authority as Deputy superintendent Campbell Middle

097School met academic standards as required by the state until after a principal appointment under your watch Campbell school grade dropped below Florida academic requirements which it is currently today so information there's a lot to be said about America's history so here's a quick history lesson in education for you superintendent to reflect on what your current role is today as a leader of all Volusia County Schools so history tells us that our first general education boards in the early 1900s was created by a man named John D Rockefeller and of course close business advisors Andrew Carnegie and Frederick T Gates grandfather of Bill Gates the board was funded with over 100 plus million dollars in agreement that this would be an education system designed not by a nation of thinkers but a nation of industrial workers

098so when we do not ensure that all kids from every school receive a quality education even today 100 plus years later the design of the industry worker continues on but mostly in communities that depend on us as leaders for a better tomorrow thank you Dr piket Carol Sawyer good evening Dr Baldwin chairwoman Haynes and board members Carol Sawyer New Smyrna Beach I would like the board to consider adding some time between our school start time and end times with the number of bus operators we currently have and I don't see it getting any better in the future many of our buses are arriving late to the high school in the morning and then in turn arriving late to the Middle School keep in mind that we not only drive home school home routes but we

099also must transport ese students that go to schools outside their area school which is a big deal when assigning these stops to existing routes we need to keep in mind that our bus operators must have time for restroom breaks the routes may look like they should work on paper but that is not reality most routes are built from one school to the next without any break time in order for the bus to arrive to the next school on time however the bus operators will stop for the restroom and therefore start the next school already 10 minutes late many of our bus operators have a good work ethic and therefore try to do whatever they can to be on time this impossibility causes frustration with the bus operators and it also creates frustration with the school

100administration because of late buses coming to schools and then at the workshop this morning I listened to Mr clone talking about more buses for the CTA CTE program for Emery riddle and all I can think about is how are we going to do this adding some extra time between the schools will allow the buses to arrive on time to the schools and will help team Volusia with morale and frustration I am sure you are aware of what happened at New Smyrna Beach Middle School the week before spring break I personally feel that adding time between schools and allowing the buses to be on time would help with some student Behavior my suggestion is that we allow one hour between all schools start time and end times to allow the buses to get to the schools

101on time this will boost morale and camaraderie with transportation and the schools go team Volusia thank you Miss Sawyer has Mr eiland come in all right then at this time that ends that part of the public input and we are moving on to item 5.01 on our agenda this would be any public participation concerning items on the consent agenda at this time I don't have any cards for anything on the consent agenda all right then moving on board members we'll start with Dr Balco and Dr bagban are there any items requiring removal off of 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 um I would like to pull 12.07 12.08 and 12.09 it can be in a little

102cluster because it's regard to all three of those 12 .07 12.08 and 12.09 all right is there any other board member Adam chair I'd like us to discuss 10.01 just in summation 10.01 the jewel litigation okay anyone else Mr persis or Mrs Burnett thank you all right Ms Thompson if you don't mind we'll go in order and we'll we'll start all right are we good for discussing it and then voting or do you guys want them totally pulled no no just just uh the same Clarity we talked about this one's GC here yeah I just have some questions for Dr Johnson okay we're going to start with Dr Johnson I don't see general counsel is upstairs oh okay then we'll go ahead and we will start with 12.07 followed by 12.08 and 12.09 so Ms

103Thompson Miss Thompson um yeah and Dr Johnson you and I have talked about this but I just want to make it clear um everyone so this is ring all three of those are the beach volleyball courts that are that we're voting on tonight and so I just wanted to be clear on the the company that we chose to do the beach volleyball courts um and how the bidding process worked and why we have that company Madam cheer School Board member superintendent balgeben the company that we chose for the beach volleyball court is Associates and based on the Florida statute I think it's 236.055 which if we have and and don't call me but it's 2 30 something but when we have um Consultants that we retain what we can do as a district based on

104statute is that if the project or Capital project is less than four million dollars that we don't have to go out for bid now if it's a design architectural project then that that threshold is two million dollars so as opposed to having to go out to bid chose Gail Associates to three beach volleyball courts and as you see and I think it's it's 13.01 we're going to ask the board to board um to reapprove some of the Consultants that we have on retainer okay so also for clarification that means even if there are any other companies that may or may not be able to do the project for a different price or use different materials since we have this company within our umbrella of Volusia County Schools that too we go with correct correct and

105if they choose to be one of our preferred vendors they they can apply to become a vendor for uh Volusia County Schools and is there a timeline when someone would apply or is that open all year long open all year long clarify after we vote tonight this will be closed for these three particular projects yes um thank you very much anyone else have a question about that I thought he had a question do you have a question yeah go ahead so we didn't put this out for bid at all um per state statute we didn't have to because it's less than four million dollars now keep in mind he he drew your attention doesn't happen every board meeting but a lot of our board meetings we re we vote to add people to the perverted

106vendor list because they've done all of the paperwork and requirements and met the guidelines to go on to that preferred vendor list and there are there are laws about the dollar amount because like if even if something needs to be done you know it comes up and all of a sudden the roof is leaking in a building they take someone off of the preferred vendor list for that that's already met all of the requirements for us correct but we don't have sand volleyball courts in any of our other schools right now and what just stuck out to me as I was looking at these is one of them is 247. the next one is 226 and the next one is 240 I would imagine they'll say there's different conditions and that's the reason the cost

107is different it's just I would imagine if we were doing a contract for 750 000 even though these are three at 250 that we would put that out to bid I can't imagine they were already on our preferred vendors because we don't have any sand volleyball courts so it's not like the roofer that we keep on retainer so we basically said okay this is the company we're going to pick for this eight hundred thousand dollar project rather than saying what are the other you know allowing others to bid on this that's just a little weird I mean well in um if I may almost every board member you board meeting you we don't have to go out for bed because the state statute um and this company that we have doing a volleyball course that's

108not all they do they can do other uh jobs as well construction jobs okay like I said it's just it's just weird and I think that's something we probably need to look at in the future because just because you can doesn't mean you should and while we look at this as three independent two hundred thousand dollar projects it's a million dollar project it doesn't reach a million dollars but it's there are near bouts by the time by the time the change orders are done this will be at a million dollars and we just had a million dollar project that we did not offer to our potentially to those in our community to be able to bid on so I know that we've been waiting on these sand volleyball courts forever if I hear about it

109one more time about Spruce Creek um I know there's a lot of people listening because they've been dying for these volleyball courts I actually thought they were almost done um but cool this is something we have to look at later this thank you um so the the group that was selected do they have a good reputation within our Organization for the work that they've provided um I I cannot tell you any work that they've done um specifically in our district but they have done work for us before and they evidently have a good reputation or we would not have chose them for these projects and how many work or you probably can't answer this right now but what is their history with their work order changes um and I can't increase in costs once we've

110already given them work I can't tell you what the change orders have been historically you know but I do have that document almost complete for the board actually I was looking at it while I was sitting over there so I will have it to you before the week is out on the change orders from July 1st to date so but I can't tell you about the change orders because the work hasn't began understood for that project but I didn't know about their history with work order changes because we have lots of history with work order changes um and and so that is a bit concerning to me as well and I I know we want these done because you and I have had many conversations as well but but we do have to do it

111in the right steps thank you Miss Thompson so have we seen any like projected plans I know that we see a lot of presentations on many projects that we have going on do we have anything like that available from this company for these projects once this board approves it then I can get those plans to you then we'll start working on their plans and so I don't know how this process works but is it unheard of to take it back and bid it out to see if we could save possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars are we too far down the rabbit hole we can do whatever the board desires Madam chair I'm just putting this out here and you all can all shoot me down I would honestly like to see bids on this

112project because I do believe that many times we in consent agendas pass forward things and it costs us a lot of extra money and all that adds up and you know we're looking to save money in this district and there's a lot of ways it can be used I would like to postpone this and have it go to bid Mr purses um and I'm not against that someone just said Spruce Creek is dying for this project so you'll have to deal with that principle but I'm just teasing you you know that there isn't any harm in putting things out to bid other than it delays the project because they're going to have to go back to the drawing board write up the uh the whole scope of the work send it out out there advertise

113it for the amount of time bring back usually they have a committee that analyzes the bids and into determine if they're all qualified contractors who meet our requirements and put it back on this board so it'll be it'll be two and a half more months before I could be wrong but we have to go through the RFQ process but what I was going to say was in regard to change orders typically those come from us the the customers create change change orders not the contractor so it's when the customer says you know oh I I want to add this or I want to add something or this isn't quite going the way I wanted can you add another you know something or rather that causes that a change order when they make a bid they

114got to build it for that for that price and they're going out on a limb because they don't know if the cost of the materials is going to go up during the during the construction process so um I think that's a miss a misconception sometimes contractors get blamed for uh for the change for the change order only time the contractor comes comes back and does that is if there's some something like the found the foundation they learn isn't going to be suitable to build a building then they come back and say look we can't build it it's going to create a change a change order or any other safety thing that they run into they have to come come back to us and make us aware and that could always drive drive the cost up

115but I I think I think if you're if you're going to go down the road of asking for bids I think the Board needs to think care hopefully about okay well is there a threshold amount of money like if it's a project is a million dollars or more you wanted to go out to bid I don't think you want to go out to bid on every quarter of a million dollar project but you know if you did you would just have to realize that there is another cost involved with that and that is the cost of time so in in particularly with a lot of the HVAC issues that we're dealing with right now I know something that's going to be coming to the board in regards to phase and it's going to be about

1162.5 million dollars you know um and based on statute we are allowed to go ahead and do that project without bidding that if we bid for everything that's over x amount of dollars then we're going to prolong the time that it takes for us to get our projects done which is going to put a burden on our customers at this point will be our schools um Miss Burnett thank you um as you mentioned it's in we're following State Statute and guidelines I I'm okay without the bid but I would like to see about tabling this and having some of the questions answered and bringing it back to the next meeting if that would if that would be okay but I understand your your We are following State Statute and so therefore we are in guidelines

117um for for that but the few questions I think are appropriate to get answered thank you Mr cologne so moving forward and we can Workshop this late you know another day but I think it's important that any no bid contracts or approvals that come before us are denoted as no bid so that we can see it um beforehand mind you up most of our agenda items have multiple documents attached to them I for one knowing a little bit of the history for of this project and not in favor of holding off I think um this will hold off potentially months and months and once we get into the school year this may not happen in time for the beach volleyball season so the sooner we can get it done the better but I think we

118do need to look at some of our practices as it relates to you know just because we can doesn't mean we should and um while we look at this as 250 000 project I look at it as a million dollar project and looking at the the folks who are doing the work I don't see anything on there about them doing courts or anything not to say that they're not qualified to do courts but that's not their Forte um and so I think think we can do better next time but I would really really truly hate to slow this process down at this point at at the risk of the next season all right so it's my turn we have state laws to follow and we're within the guidelines of what the laws say we follow

119the process to get preferred vendors we have them go through the entire lengthy process of filling out paperwork making sure that legally everything is in line for them to make that list we vote on approval for that list and then we issue them a certificate and it's done annually and in the event that a problem comes up we address that problem we've had this area we've done internal audits on this area to make sure that everything is followed our job as board members is to vote on any item that is going to be at the fifty thousand dollar threshold or exceed it so that's why it's on the consent item I hear what each of you are saying right now we are within the law there were policies written during the 2014 to 2018 time

120frame that dealt with change orders you know because there years ago was a bit of a problem that you know we would take the low bid and say someone bid a hundred thousand and the next person bid 175 000 well then we would all of a sudden you know see all these change orders come in and then that project that we thought was a hundred thousand went to 200 or 225. my thing is I think a lot of and I'm not saying everyone but I think a lot of the people that we work with um our contractors are HVAC you know the maintenance people all of those groups that either provide services or goods for us through the purchasing department and the approval piece they've learned what we will do if you do the wrong

121thing I mean we made an example of someone a year ago that chose to do the wrong thing and we didn't pay for part of what they submitted because they didn't have the records to back it up my thing tonight is if you are wanting to step outside of what the state statute States and you're wanting to have more control and you're wanting them to put these out for requests for proposals then what I say you need to stop and think about is this it is going to cost money all right because it's going to cost money and time on our staff to put out for proposals of anything under what were required right now and they're going to be putting them out already to preferred vendors it's going to I guarantee you show up

122in the bids that we receive because now they're going to have to complete an entire proposal and if you have not read what those proposals look like and what's required they're going to have to do that and they're going to charge us more also I'm willing to go down that path if that's what you want and you want to create a policy that says we're going to put everything out for proposal but you're looking at a staff that already and under Dr Johnson's leadership he not only has purchasing building planning facilities maintenance transportation and schoolway Cafe he's going to probably need more staff in order to do that in the purchasing department which is going to require additional funds so I am open to hearing what you want and we can move forward with making

123changes if you want policies for this piece but at this time I would just want it to be very clear that the district and the District staff have followed the law and the process that is currently in place I do agree with Mr cologne I think it would be nice if on the items that we're voting on on the consent agenda it states whether it was put out for bid or not typically we know if it went out for bid because there's the sheet attached that tells you who the companies were that bid on it and what we selected but those are the larger ticketed items when we're looking at that I am happy to recommend to Dr valgabin what the majority feels that we should do but these students are waiting for this and

124we could be detrimentally holding them back from being able to have beach volleyball for this next school year so I will start with you Mr cologne I move or I won't move but I'm in agreeance with moving forward with this one Mrs Burnett I I concur Miss Thompson I mean I I would love to see some questions answered and the bidding process looked up but that's okay Mr persis yeah I think I I think we should move forward with with this one and I think if you the board wants to have a workshop about the pros and cons of putting uh projects out for bid that are at the 1 million threshold or 2 million whatever whatever the number is I think we need somebody from the facilities the people who actually write these bids

125up to come and tell us how much time it takes and what's involved and what the expected outcome that we could you know get from putting outfits for for smaller smaller projects that'd be in favor of that but I think in all fairness to the people that put this up here they don't facilities I'm sure it doesn't want to be in a position where they get this all set and ready to go and then it comes to the board and the board says no put they need to know ahead of time okay if it's a project over a million dollars we're going to go out to bid but I don't think we should make that decision here right now I think that should be done in a workshop with facilities people that we can ask

126questions to so I'm in favor of moving forward with this one all right Madam chair I just suggest that we vote on these individually seven eight and nine okay so we're going to pull 12.07 12.08 and 12.09 out separately to vote on but before we get to that we need to hear from Mr penley on 10.01 because Mr cologne has a question so Mr penley could you come up and join Dr Johnson laughs Mr Bentley how are you so we discussed this in the workshop today and I just wanted to be clear if we engage in this litigation what is the cost to the district which litigation the jewel litigation we're on 10.01 I understand that dual litigation is a proposal for settlement not to engage oh that's the other one oh Dover it's over

127okay you know what we're good thank you I got confused with the uh so the social media Giants one and the baby that's the vaping that's on for an action item later perfect I have a question for that one later we'll be ready so if I I want to make sure that I'm clear on this we're going to leave item 10.01 in and we're going to vote on the consent agenda item at this time with the exception of we are removing items 12.07 12.08 and 12.09 that we will vote on individually like do I have a motion to approve the agenda I'm sure I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda with the exception of 12.0708 and 12.09 we have a motion and we have a second any further discussion all

128those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed nay you're opposing the agenda with those oh no I'm sorry I thought we were voting on The 12.08 or it's 12.07 12.08 12.09 we're getting there I will agree with that we're voting on The consent agenda with those removed okay I'll agree with you on that okay let's call for the vote again let me State what we're voting on we are voting on The consent agenda items as they read with the exception of 12.07 12.08 and 12.09 which are being removed to be voted on singly do I once again have a motion for this motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of 12.07 12.08 and 12.09 thank you Mr Kelowna Mr purses going to call for the vote all those in favor say aye

129aye aye any opposed okay it passes unanimously we are now going to take each of the items that were pulled separately to vote on so item 12.07 is the guaranteed maximum price Amendment for the sand volleyball court project at New Smyrna Beach High item chair I'd like to make a motion that we approve 12.07 for the courts at New Smyrna Beach High second thank you so we have a motion and a second any further discussion then all those in favor please say aye aye aye all those opposed nay all right it passes four to one we are now moving on to 12.08 this is the maximum price guaranteed price Amendment for the sand volleyball court project at Spruce Creek High School do I have a motion move approval of item 2.12.08 thank you second all

130right Mr persis and Mr cologne any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay it passes four to one we're now moving on to 12.09 this is the guaranteed maximum price Amendment for the sand volleyball court project at DeLand High School do I have a motion I'm trying to make a motion we approve the Sam volleyball court project 12.09 on the agenda okay do I enjoyable second thank you Mr Burnett so we have a motion and a second any further discussion all right then I will call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed nay all right it passes four to one we are now moving down to item 15.01 thank you gentlemen for the HR update Dr balguban Madam chair board members it is

131my absolute pleasure to call Memphis from Mark West our chief of Human Resources who will provide you with an update this evening thank you Dr Bachman thank you chairman um Haynes and board members thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to uh present the HR update to you tonight um I don't have my handy DND helper who runs everything for me Stephanie tonight so maybe maybe we can get Miss Hazel to come join you thank you she is wonderful with that thank you please thank you okay um yes it's hopefully Stephanie will be back tomorrow um after a personal thing so keep her in your thoughts please so um at this point we're very excited to present the HR update for this week um we're gonna a couple of things we're going to

132present present the instructional vacancies first so I as you see as of the month of March of 2023 we are at 184 vacancies what you will notice however those um that truly if we take a look at that 86 of those are in the classroom in regards to core teachers intermediate to non-core and primary teachers so those numbers have actually decreased across the board the areas of course that we're still high-end is Ese and our support teachers so we have a little bit of hopefully some good news that we're going to be able to present a little bit as we move along um for next year support vacancies are at 231 where our highest numbers of course continue to be those paraprofessional vacancies and then moving on we've just collected some additional information of separations

133you'll notice that other than retirements um we have 537 since the start of the year for a total of 630 separations and we have a broken down by month and then our leave of absence is there are at 159. so but just some kind of interesting and and to keep everything in perspective here we've actually hired 1 690 employees so it's the start of the year um so we've hired over double the number of um of separations that have come into play in in leave of absences so we've been working hard to fill some of those so recruitment is very important to us but of course also retention so along those lines Miss Fuller has given me some information along the lines of what we're doing in the Recruitment and Retention office um principles have

134promoted the mentor opportunity to our interested teacher leaders on their campuses and our office has actually sent out interest surveys and held four optional webinars to get more information and answer teacher questions 119 of those teacher leaders actually completed the interest survey and joined the webinar of those 119 87 have confirmed interest and availability we're still waiting to hear back from a couple of our schools but our next steps you'll notice is our mentoring and action book study at the end of April through May the 26th with Volusia leads facilitators and we actually have our Volusia mentors Summer Academy coming up in June on June the 7th and 8th at the Brandon Center so we're very excited about what we're doing with retention um you'll notice with recruitment after four rounds of interviews we've actually

135completed our pool interview phase to identify the top teacher candidates for VCS from our International teacher candidates we're very excited with the experience our cultural exchange teachers are going to be bringing with them we were able to identify an impressive group that we're excited to introduce to principals in our next round and of course that's going to be at our April in our job fair on April the 26th and you'll be hearing more about that we've actually have 570 new teachers that have successfully completed their tip program this year our office has been updating School sites with congratulations and completion notices we're applauding their hard work and support of all the offices and teams that support and train our new teachers so that's part of that retention hook that we're keeping our new teachers in

136with our instructional transfer Fair registration opened last week and the transfer fares are going to be held virtually through the nose no careers platform and that's going to be from April the 10th to the 14th our office is currently assisting teachers to build their virtual profiles and compiling a master list by school to supply principles for when the fair officially opens so far we have over a hundred teachers that have registered to participate that so remember that's our own teachers that are in our district right now and then we have our VCS instructional job fair just under a month away so we are really gearing up for that okay remember it's going to be both virtual and in person at the Ocean Center and our office is working with the team at the Ocean Center

137to finalize the event space details as well as offering webinars to support virtual candidates in building their virtual profiles so we're promoting the event on six different radio stations as well as using digital ads on streaming sites and external job posting sites we've also promoted with our local University Partners as well as continue to reach out through the recruitment events for certified eligible candidates we're excited to offer and we have offered letters of intent to our spring interns who participate in the job fair and have successfully completed their program our March recruitment events you'll see that we're almost through the Munch of marks with we're active we're ongoing you see that we've hit a number of our colleges and in April we're also hitting uh our a number of our universities such as Florida International

138Kent State University University of West Florida University of Central Florida we're also included in the great Florida teach-in and of course our job fair is going to be the most Exquisite of all so we're really excited about that we've got our flyer out here and I don't know if that technology works or not let's try it gets out there we can hear it Elvis yeah it's not working oh it's outside well that's great it basically is saying hey come to the job fair it's at the Ocean Center and it's on April the 26th so we have that up on our website and um we as I said we're we're doing that through our radio stations we're doing that on our our websites and so we're very excited about uh that upcoming event so moving on

139we're just uh we're running about a million miles a second so about this time are there any members that have questions Mr cologne you have a question or is that that's old huh awesome thank you thank you so much I will say the next meeting we're gonna have a special guest I'm going to have Mr cease come up with me he's shaking a lot of Staffing 52 allocation meetings together so far we have 25 more to go and he's done a phenomenal job so I'm going to let him share a little bit of about what we've done next meeting next weekend thank you guys can't wait we will see you at the next meeting okay all right moving right along all right we are now at item 16.01 ratification of negotiated collective bargaining agreement with

140Volusia United Educators view for support staff for the fiscal year 2022-2023. um Dr balgaman thank you madam chair Mr West will you join us again please our chief of Human Resources Miss Albert would you please come forward I was very excited about this past weeks ratification yes hence the agenda item that we're bringing for you we're bringing before you tonight been able to come to an agreement and have ratified the collective bargaining agreement and the tentative agreement for our support employees of View support bargaining agent so we bring before you the proposal that we have tonight and we're looking forward about that would you like to I would at least two so again Madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr bagelman we're very proud of this agreement it's not a perfect deal we know

141that but it is providing some of the largest increases for our support professionals that we've seen in a very long time and so we want to thank you for the additional Revenue that you are able to provide and we're looking forward to continuing that great momentum as we start to negotiate for 23-24 you're with me Mr personal I'm with you right all right and I'd like to just take a moment to thank the members of the bargaining team of Valerie Jessup who is our Executive Vice President for support professionals Lori Miller who's Executive Board member Jeanette Oberst Dr lakita Howard Joshua Claire Bethany cook and of course Miss Workman and Miss golden they are instrumental in making deals so that was that was so again just the statistics here 855 yes votes 132 no votes

142so that's 84 approval rating of those who voted and we're looking good so we're ready for you to seal the deal Dr Bachman do you have a recommendation yes thank you Mrs Albert thank you to you your team and to our VCS staff members who contributed so with that said I recommend ratification by the school board of the negotiated and proposed collective bargaining agreement with Volusia United Educators view for support staff effective July 1st 2022 through June 30th 2023. okay board you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do we have a motion to approve motion to approve as presented do we have a second oh second so we have Mr cologne and Miss Thompson any further discussion so what I'd like to say is as soon as we vote we'd like dates so I hope

143Miss Workman gave you dates because that's always the Hot Topic okay if you don't have dates you're going to have promise I will put that out [Laughter] as workout dates she does all right because that's that yes ma'am the hottest topic once we vote on this is when are they getting their retro pay their summer pay their uh they've been shared with the bargaining unit members so uh the last payment and I apologize for not bringing those with me um the last payment is in May for the Retro but they are I believe the first payment is at the end of April then there's a payment on May 15th and then the final payment is the end of May that's already been done so your team is on it that payroll department so maybe we

144could just get an email with what they are because we get I'll send them to you and I said thank you we get asked all the time okay so we have a motion to approve in a second any further discussion okay then I will call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously and we are so happy for that group yeah all right we are moving next month all right we are moving along actually I think it's here item 16.02 um approval of the salary schedule for the 2020 to 2023 proposed non-bargaining employees yes here we go I'm so sorry um but I yes we're bringing before you the proposal uh that we recommend the approval of the salary increase for non-bargoning which includes our professional Technical

145and school-based and District administrators um we are looking at a at a at our increase of approximately 2.5 percent for our non-bargon employees with additional increases for our professional and Technical groups such as our nurses deaf interpreters School Guardians and head custodians to increase them um to say between a five and a half and six and a half percent raise for those those categories we're also looking um in in line with what we're doing with our teachers of increasing our Advanced degree supplements uh increasing that from a thousand to two thousand for specialist degree in two thousand four thousand for doctorate degree we're also looking to increase our substitute teacher in those critical shortage areas hourly rate wage for middle schools and for our ese substitute positions by an additional dollar per hour we're hoping

146that's going to take care of some of those recruitment issues that we're looking at there for our substitutes Dr Bachman do you have a recommendation Yes Man and chair I recommend the approval of salary increases for non-bargon and professional Technical school-based and District administrators Madam chair I have a question yes so Mr West so this the non-bargoning group doesn't have anyone to negotiate for them correct so percentage-wise to it you know what we did for our teachers and mind you it's staggered based on longevity a lot of that was based on longevity we did it for our teachers for our support staff we did the same something similar as Miss Alberts said you know wasn't perfect but definitely helped to remedy some of the compression what I'm afraid of is we're actually doing less for

147non-bargoning than we did for everybody else and at 2.5 percent I don't think we did 2.5 percent for anyone and so my question is did we consider like we did for our teachers like we did for our paraprofessionals did we consider that compression piece of looking at longevity of say a principal who's been here 27 years to say you know what we've got compression here which we know we're dealing with this is what we did for our teachers we said so for however many years you're here you're going to get x amount of dollars if you've been here I think it was like what ninety dollars or something like that I mean correctly if I'm wrong was it like 90 bucks I don't remember it was like 90 bucks for uh longevity though for every

148year that somebody was here as a teacher they got 90 bucks was it one hundred dollars okay so cap that 1500 and that's an addition to the salary increase we're not offering that to our non-bargaining employees who've served us for a long time none of that additional give that we did for all of these different groups is denoted here other than a 2.5 percent raise we have always traditionally stuck with not exceeding what we do for our instructional Personnel so if we did two and a half percent for instructional Personnel then our non-instructional folks would not get that much this year bargaining worked a little bit different because it depended on how long you were here in my opinion this 2.5 percent blanket doesn't even begin to touch someone who's been here 27 years as

149a principal because they don't get that extra ninety dollars of or or even our non or even our non you know I don't know that that six percent increase for nursing is going to be enough to bring folks out of the private sector to come work in schools um so for that reason I am not in favor of this I wish we would have looked at this and looked at what we did just like you know the what what we set before was we will do no more than we did for instructional and that's what they've always kind of I'll say the word swallowed and had to live with but the thought that we would do less for them now is is really not working for me so for that reason I won't be supporting

150this thank you Mr persis um I think Mr cologne makes some very good points with this it's it's this one is to me one of the most difficult ones because it covers so many different categories of employees I mean it's it's it's it's all over and it's hard for me to um because of the different categories and because of the different qualifications needed for each of those categories and the job the demands the difficulty we have a filling vacancies in some of these positions is acute and as cute as we know so uh I was looking at it Mr cologne's specifically at the not so much the principles but as from at the facility Department I know we are we are losing people and um uh I suspect part of that is because of money

151salaries and what they can make in the private sector and uh I I don't know whether Mr West that you feel like like you had to give everybody the same even though they're not the same talk talk me through that and help me understand absolutely so part of the reason that we we selected the professional technical group particularly getting a higher percentage is because that was really the the primary group that we felt like had that compression issue that we're talking about um actually what we did with our nurses is not only to actually put their raise up but also to um kind of like similar to what we've done with our ask me group and our view support is to cut off the the starting salary of of of you know which we moved

152it up okay so not only do we add a 6.2 percent raise but we basically removed we moved the entire pay scale up so that they would make more coming in okay and we did that with all of those professional technical groups um the the fact of the matter is is that we would love to be able to afford to give our non-barging folks which by the way we don't have anybody that fell into that category of the minimum wage thing in this group um so we did feel like that at least the bump across the board of that two and a half percent uh would be fair even for those folks that have been here for a number of years because we're changing the salary scale we're not just rolling them up a level

153and or if they're capped where they don't get a raise in other words they truly are going to be getting a raise so it's not that they're if they've been here for the maximum number of years and they're at the top of their step they don't get any more so we try to address all those issues with this this proposal the recognition of course is that you know um since the folks in this category typically do make more than our folks that are bargained and the support categories of Butte and ask me okay we realize that they're going to get the larger percentage of course increase but with the funds that we had available in regards to that we felt like this is the best proposal moving forward so thank you so as Mr West

154said this encompasses a very a varied group of individuals so what I would say is if you open up the attachment that says non-bargaining school-based administrative proposed schedule for the year what you're going to see is something very different than what you see when Miss Albert's negotiating for teachers okay because teachers lost the ability to have the step piece in 2011 because of legislation that changed it but if you look here at this piece there is a tear piece that is built in still for administrators so there is not a compression piece for administrators what has happened to administrators in the past is there were a few years where they got no raise or they took a pay cut okay they're what because they're part of non-bargaining because the money was needed to cover the

155other but there they continue to move up or depending on what their job title is if they go from an 11 month assistant principal to a 12-month or they go into that principal category they go from an elementary to a middle to a high level they go position so there is not as much compression there the compression once again in this group was more with our lower like our Technic our technician group under Dr or with as we see the nurses the deaf interpreters and in order to be a nurse a deaf interpreter those you have to have specialized credentials in order to do that so if you look at the overall thing here they have brought back in the advanced degree supplements which is what we brought back in for our instructional staff and

156they've reinstated which is neology entered job description and they have raised the substitutes who also fall under here and so you have to balance where your greatest need is versus what money is left this is the last group they only get the pot of money that is left and keep in mind every time we go into an executive session and we make decisions for the bargaining groups the money we typically pull from comes from this group because they tell us up front on day one how much money we have so to ask them at this point in time after we've already set in executive sessions and agreed with them where how much was going to instructional how much was going to support how much it was going to ask me and now say well wait

157a minute you know we want more money here Adam chair I'll assure you that I've brought this up in every single call that I've had because we are doing I think you said it just right we're giving them what's left and so if I'm making 18 an hour I just got a 45 cent raise that's all thank you I just don't think it's right and if and if you're making 65 dollars an hour yeah I uh understand this and I understand why we're where we are and and I support it I just think that what we need to do though is you remember um you will remember Jamie when I get this right I think it was and no the 90s that uh you know just because the way things develop with salaries and negotiations

158and administrators uh they came in and they said you know we got to do a one-time correction they call that a correction and they came in with the um and uh analyzed the non-bargaining come compared salaries with other districts or in some cases with the private sector and they said okay and then they met privately with each of us and said based on our analysis where you're going to get x amount of raise and it's not like an x amount of raise every year it's just that we feel like this is out of whack and you should be here instead of here and so you know and and they did that I would wish we could do something like like that and and again it could include assistant principals print principals but it also would

159include that upper level but literally it included every level of the non-non-bargaining thing it sounds like you've done some of that with a the uh with the technical but again with maintenance maybe with some facilities some folks that aren't in afscme it's the people that aren't in afsme too which are a lot of folks they're not in view they're they're they're not in support could take a look at that because they don't have a voice like we just said they don't have anyone advocating for them and so we're we're their voice right right well you've heard me say I think we should look at them by the level that they're at because you know even a year ago and Mr West knows that I brought it up this year could we take the lower levels

160like levels one to four or levels one to five and could we go ahead and address those because that's the group that started at the 15 or 17 an hour they're the lower group but when you get to you know when you get to the 14 to 17 level that's a whole different group do you know what I'm saying so you know I'm not opposed to Breaking I mean I've always wondered why you have from this level one which is the lowest pay to level 17 which is the highest pay all grouped into one category okay I'm not opposed if we want to have a workshop um about breaking this into groups do you know what I'm saying so that but I do feel that they did some of that because they took some of

161these categories that our highest need categories and they that had compression pieces because the group up here does not have the compression piece okay they don't it's the group down here that got the compression piece when we had to push everybody on this end up to 15 which is what happened with ask me and support so you know I'm not opposed to that I'm not opposed to saying we're going to look at levels one through four as a unit whoever Falls in that or one through five or whatever and then we're going to do the six to nine you know and then the 10 to 12 or 10 to 13 and then the 14 and up you know I'm not opposed to that because at different times I've been on different yeah myself and you

162have too I mean we were on the instructional at one point then we both moved to non-bargaining at one point and yeah I I mean when I moved to non-bargaining I took a dollar 36 cents per hour pay cut right off the bat in in where you enter in when you're in in that field you're stuck there I mean every raise then is built on what level you kind of they put you in and so sometimes it works sometimes here's where we're at if we're not going to move forward with this tonight and we're asking them to go back to the table no I'm not we're going to have to have an executive session we're going to have to ask where are they we're going to Mr cease is gonna you know have a fit

163over there because every time remember we asked him for some more he just looked at us in horror I will say this um while Miss Thompson and Mrs Burnett and I were in Tallahassee we did exactly what we said we were going to do at the February 28th board meeting we went up there and we talked again about the compression issues that we have and we were very clear I went so far as to say as always we have thanked you I mean we went from 39 to to 48 something now as starting salaries for teachers but I said you could created the compression we followed your rules we got to 47.5 before even other districts did but then you changed the rules and so we Mrs Burnett and I were in a meeting with

164um our representative leak and he said he felt as if we were going to be pleased but granted you know we don't know until July 1. I know okay but you know they're there's talk about that dollar we send up we're actually going to get the dollar back look at how much we had to go through I mean we went through a lawsuit we lost it we've gone through all that part with the DCd but they're looking at changing the whole way that they allocate the funding for the first time in how many years and you know when leak I think Lee the first time he ran if I'm correct ran on trying to change that well you know he's getting ready to term out and it's taken this long that's true you know because

165my question was if we're going to finally get our full dollar back tell me what you're doing with Miami-Dade in Palm Beach who've been taking our percentage of our dollar and how are you going to get that past them and they're like well we're coming up with a separate you know category I'm okay if because my biggest thing has been we give you a dollar and you give us back what 90 are we down to 90 96 cents or something and that adds up quickly so they're telling us we're going to get money and that we're going to have more flexibility we'll see see when it arrives but if it does I think we need to then I do think we need to come together and have discussions about that that's awesome I would agree

166with that all right Mr cologne did we have any did we even look at any longevity for folks who've been here a long time for any of these positions so if I've been a uh if I've been in a non-bargaining district position for 27 years did we even consider that for that group not for this group because as Miss Haynes is stated and as we said um what we've tried to do this year with the money that we've had the majority of our money went to those areas that we had to raise for example the minimum wage hit us pretty hard to get everybody up we went from 10 and 11 an hour straight to 15 for everybody in that correct we also of course with our teachers Julie you know with the tsia funds

167and with the additional funds that we added to that did add on that retention bonus as well for for them not bonus I'm sorry supplement retention supplement as well and then with our support we've been able to do that um but as Miss Hayne said the the longevity is built into the salary schedule As you move up you know you get the steps and and you move along so that's why two and a half percent for for everybody I realize we would love to be able to provide more for everyone but um that's what we could do with the money that um we've been provided so thank you any further discussion all right thank you Miss Haynes I recommend the approval of salary increases for non-bargaining professional Technical school-based and District administrators you've heard the

168recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion move to approve thank you Mrs Burnett do I have a second that motion thank you Miss Thompson any further discussion okay then I will call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed all right it passes four to one and I would hope that you could provide us with pay dates I definitely will do that tomorrow okay thank you thank you all appreciate it and and also let them know so that they know yes ma'am we'll put that out thank you moving along to item 16.03 I know Mr penley we're going to need you to go ahead and come forward for this item this is the so um the social media litigation piece where we'll be voting for whether or not

169we're joining Ruben side good evening Madam chair board members item 16.03 on your calendar on the agenda tonight request the board's consideration or participation in social media litigation that is being proposed as you have previously approved tonight a settlement agreement in which the board was represented at the district was represented by the Franz Law Firm uh concerning Jewel this is a similar type mass action case against purveyors of social media tick tock Instagram Twitter for damages that we have incurred in responding to various challenges for mental health impacts on students for increased suicidality that sort of thing um the terms of the proposed agreement are similar to what we saw in the jewel litigation the friends law firm and co-counsel the Doran Sims wolfen Union receiving contingent fee of any recovery of 25 percent less

170costs and Recovery to the extent that there is a recovery made in the case in the event that there is no recovery in the case the contract calls for the law firm to Bear all costs and expenses of allegation there are various Provisions that are to the board's Advantage here with no Capital outlay are required by the board to participate the normal terms of the contract apply and what the superintendent uh is asking for years for consideration to be allowed to exercise any documents and participate in this litigation on behalf of the board with that audience or any questions Mr cologne is the cost to us to participate in this lawsuit no dollars and just for clarity my firmal act as a co-counsel and we'll get take a 25 of the 25 contingency fee that

171the France Law Firm just like individual litigation so there'll be no hourly charges to the district not to exceed 25 percent right total correct thank you any other questions Dr Bachmann like to make a recommendation Madam chair I recommend a proof it's been a long day I recommend approval of the contract with France Law Group taking legal action against social media concerns okay you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have someone that would like to make the motion absolutely I'd like to make the motion that we enter into this litigation all right Travis thank you all right so we have a motion and a second any further discussion all right then I will call for the vote all those in favor of entering into the social media litigation please say aye aye anyone

172opposed passes unanimously we are now moving on to item 16.04 which is the authorization to advertise the amendments to the school board policy 202 which is the establishment of the attendance areas which we discussed in this morning's Workshop so this impacts Turi T small and Tomoka Elementary and we have Mr pendley and Dr Johnson here with us Madam chair school board members superintendent algovin um I'm coming to ask for amendment to school board policy 202 for the rezoning of students that are that are zoned for Tomoka Elementary but they live in 232114 area code we're talking about 38 students the impetus of this request is because we don't want students to move twice and the students at Tomoka will be moving to Aussie then once their school is built they will move back who are

173zoned for Tomoka and live in the 3211 area code they will be zoned at that time to so as opposed to waiting two years to rezone those students we're asking the board to rezone them for the next school year 2023 2024. thank you madam chair I recommend I recommend approval to advertised amendments to school report policy 202 establishment of attendance areas to modify the Tomoka Elementary and turiet small attendance zones you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion move approval Madam chair thank you Mr persis do I have a second I second that motion thank you Miss Thompson so we have a motion and a second to the establishment of the new attendance areas for school board policy any further discussion uh Mr Burnett thank you and just to clarify I

174asked the same question this morning at the workshop when we do this there will be additional resources such as teachers aides what have you given to Terry T in order to accommodate those additional students currently we still follow statue with the 22 for interior at tier T they have additional resource teachers there to provide the individualized supports for those students yes ma'am thank you any further discuss Mr cologne yeah so Madam superintendent can we ask Mr vayed Dr Valle to come up and share had a great conversation with him regarding the educational impact and you know not only these students as uh individuals and where they live but what we know as far as educational impact this is going to be both leaving to mocha and going to Terry T and I just wanted for

175the sake of the public that we do have just a you know he definitely made me feel better that we were going to better serve these students but I'd like them to share some of that because I know folks are listening and folks are worried Dr Vai yes good evening Madam superintendent Madam chair School Board member some and everyone out in the audience um so one of the things that we want to consider as we're thinking about um moving our students um back to for example turiti Elementary is to understand that our students also go with the resources that they have with them so meaning that in Turkey small being a title one school we also have District resources to support our students to be able to mitigate even some of the learning laws that

176they've experienced over the last few years we have a district personnel there there's a lot of hands on deck that is happening there that you don't always see in some of our other schools that are doing well academically I also wanted to bring up the fact that with next year um with the learning gains being equated back into the students performance even our students that might still be a level one or a level two I want us to just think about that come this time next year we're going to have learning gains equated back into the equation so even a level one can show enough progress um and you know that's obviously a positive thing and it will be equated within the school grade formula as opposed to this year was just proficiency thank you

177madam chair I recommend approval to advertise amendments to school board policy 202 establishment we already made a motion that's right sorry we'll stop to discussion we're going to call for a vote at this I'm glad you're paying attention it's okay we're going to call for a vote all those in favor signify by saying aye it passes unanimously thank you and Dr Johnson thank you for the work you did on that yes thank you thank you all right we are moving on to item 16.05 but we do have public input for this particular item because this is involving policy 427 which is employee technology use so miss Albert would you please come forward to speak huh okay introduce the topic go ahead Mr Madam chair board members on for consideration is item 1605 authorization to advertise

178proposed amendments in adoption of proposed policy 427 employee technology use all right we've introduced this and we did talk about this in the workshop this morning also so Mrs Albert you have three minutes thank you all right thank you madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr bagelman so uh when I listen to the conversation that occurred today during the workshop around the employee technology use I thought that the conversation was very interesting and it it brought to light the fact that as much as we remind our members that whatever they do on their own device if they're connecting to the byot or they're using the Wi-Fi then the district can access it as much as we remind folks that your school computer is for work we have to continue to reiterate those messages so

179with the changes that are in this policy and I guess my comment is not going to be specific just to policy 427 we we had a very riveting conversation 309 the homework one I thought that was fascinating and 410 too I think what I'm trying to ask of you and and the district folks who are here is we really need to train people we really need to make sure that the messaging is explicit that we're clear that we're all saying the same thing and that we're saying it multiple times and getting it to folks in multiple ways because what I know about our folks is that they are showing up to work every day and they're putting out the fire that's in front of them right now and they're doing everything that they can to

180support the learning needs of the children and run our schools and work sites so when we have a significant policy changes like we see tonight I think we have to over train if we will and I know Volusia learns was mentioned but not everybody goes to that and quite frankly I encourage people to take the summer off you know but I guess what I'm asking then is just a real dedicated effort to making sure we share this information clearly and over and over again thank you thank you Dr Kuhn has arrived not even being asked do we continue Madam chair the next three action items on the agenda are what I'm referring to as the technology you haven't voted yet he's he's talking about them so that we can phone because they call them the

181technology Suite that's what they did this morning in the workshop so we're going to talk about all three Madam chair board members The Proposal on the table is to a strike all of policy 518 use of electronic Information Services and split that policy into two new policy the policy 518 with the field and in its place for the first of the technology Suites is the proposal for policy 427 personnel and it would establish appropriate use for technology by Personnel that is being proposed by the technology department and with me at the diocese is Dr Matt our Chief Information Technology officer him to address any questions that the board may have I will remind the board that we did previously Workshop this item today so all of the requested revisions to the extent that there were

182have been made in and this policy stands right ready for members of the board Madam chair superintendent I'm the chief technology officer Matt Kuhn and I'm here for your question since I've already proposed this during Workshop superintendent makes a recommendation I just would like to State this is so we're clear we had a policy 518 that covered technology use for everyone it had from students to support staff to non-bargaining to you know instructional and even though that was updated and a lot of that language the language in especially the student part we've already been following this was splitting that policy so that we have separate because they're separate entities you know for what they are are not doing and um and then the other one is about the software piece which Dr Kuhn explained in

183detail about what's happened with the software and I totally support what you're doing to set up so that we can screen this and make sure that it's safe in our environment and there's no issues because the minute they bring it in and something breaks they yell at his team which it's not their fault if they did not preview so we're going to take these separately Dr valgaman will you please move forward with the recommendation for the policy for 427. yes Madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise proposed School Board policy 427 employee technology use okay you've heard the recommendation this is 427 employee technology use do I have a motion I'll make the motion thank you Miss Burnett do I have a second I'll second that motion thank you Miss Thompson

184any further discussion I'm sure I won't be supporting this tonight I find it very difficult that we created a techno employee technology use policy without engaging the stakeholder groups and I did bring this up before so I won't be supporting this tonight okay this is to advertise correct it is not to put it into place correct all right I just need to make sure you understand it all right we're going to call for any other discussion okay okay I I would like to say something I just want to um reiterate what Miss Albert said I do think that educating is very crucial in getting this out and getting it implemented properly I agree 100 with you all right so we're going to move forward I'm going to call for the vote all those in favor

185of advertising the proposed policy 427 employee technology use please say I I all those opposed okay it passes four to one to advertise the policy um Mr penley could you take just a moment and explain the because we do have people that have maybe never listened or hear so they understand what advertising and policy means and what the next steps are yes ma'am pure pursuant to Florida's rulemaking procedures under chapter 120 Florida Statutes it's required that public agencies first consider at a public meeting any changes to rules of General application then those once the draft language has been submitted to the board discussed as we did today in Workshop an open Workshop session considered for advertising at an open Workshop as we're doing or at a legislative meeting as we're doing tonight that policy then

186must be advertised for a period of no less than 28 days in a publication of General circulation in the District which we do through the Daytona News Journal and once that period of advertisement and public comment has expired we bring it back the next board meeting for adoption thank you all right moving on we're now going to look at the next one in the technology Suite which is to advertise the proposed policy 219 student thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise proposed School Board policy 219 student technology use all right you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do we have a motion move to approve thank you Mrs Burnett second thank you Mr purses any discussion about the student technology use then we will call for a vote all

187those in favor of advertising policy 219 student technology use please say aye aye any opposed that one passes unanimously now we're moving on to item 16.07 the authorization to advertise the proposed policy 527 which is software selection adoption and retirement thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertisement proposed School Board policy 527 software selection adoption and retirement you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion move to approve thank you do we have a second I second that motion all right we have a motion and a second any further discussion yes Miss Sprint thank you again I just want to reiterate what I had said this morning at the workshop and that is to make sure that the staff understands that they're not being told no they

188can't have something but there is a process to go through so that we're not duplicating services or basically financially a financial burden um for having duplicated or software or something that could cause harm to our internal system thank you we'll keep that in mind and we will put that into our implementation thank you Dr Mr cologne well this includes software that is potentially purchased by a School Federal programs a Sac let's say they have a program that they want to support at the school and they want to fund what this also apply to them this will apply to any software used by staff or students one thing not mentioned in the workshop this morning that I should have is that it's also to take care of a rule that has recently come down from the

189Department of Education about student data privacy so it's it's uh it's about a lot of things you know making sure software will work properly but it's also about following the law and making sure we're protecting student data so it's across the board thank thank you any further questions then I will you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent and I will call for the vote that we move forward with advertising the proposed policy 527 software selection adoption and retirement all those in favor please say aye any opposed it passes unanimously we are now moving on to a 16.08 authorization to advertise the proposed amendments to policy 205 transfer and withdrawal of students Madam chair board members item 16.08 request authorization to advertise amendments to policy 205 concerning transfer and withdrawal students no substantive changes have been

190made to this policy and it simply updates the legal Authority and laws implemented as we previously discussed in Workshop superintendent thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendment to school board policy 205 transformed ritual of students motion to approve I'll second thank you we have motion to approve an emotions second it any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed the motion passes unanimously we are now moving on to 16.09 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 309 homework the risk of ruining my stuller humble to get these done item 16.09 homework policy requests the authority to advertise changes to policy 309 to include the suggestion at the workshop the regular be stricken from regular homework assignments and that we retain the

191language that homework will not be assigned as a disciplinary consequence it also brings current the legal Authority and laws implemented section of the staff of the policy Whoever thought that a policy that contained two sentences would be such a hot topic for those of you that were not here with us earlier in the workshop this was a Hot Topic um I believe it was described as a scintillating conversation Dr balgren yes Madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 309 homework you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion move approval Madam chair thank you Mr versus do I have a second I'll second thank you Mrs brunette any further discussion okay then I call for the vote all those in favor

192of advertising the homework policy 309 please nay it passes four to one he wants that discipline he wants homework to be given for discipline I don't know give them sentences to ride tonight at home [Applause] all right we are now we are now moving on to item 16.10 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 410 duties of instructional personnel Madam chair item 16.10 requests the board's authorization to advertise amendments to policy 410 duties of instructional personnel which is found in the Personnel policy section that pursuant to the board's Direction at Workshop amendments were further made striking the corporal punishment authorization other than that this policy brings current the legal Authority and laws implemented as it relates to duties of instructional personnel thank you Mr pendley and I do appreciate that you um did strike through

193line eight so Dr balkaman thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 410 duties of instructional personnel all right board you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion I motion to approve thank you Ms Thompson do I have a second second thank you Mr cologne any further discussion okay then all those in favor of advertising policy 410 duties of instructional Personnel please say aye any opposed okay it passes unanimously we are now moving on to item 16.11 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 412 employee Personnel files Madam chair board members item 16.11 request authorization to advertise amendments to Personnel policy 412 concerning maintenance of employee Personnel files there have been no substantive changes made this amendment would merely

194bring current to Legal Authority and laws implemented at this Point all right Dr balgeman thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposal amendments to school board policy for 12 employee Personnel funds you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion I'll move to approve thank you Mrs Burnett do I have a second second thank you Mr persis any further discussion then all those in favor please stay aye opposed it passes unanimously we are now moving on to item 16.12. authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 413 the UN unfair Labor practice charges Mr penley Madam chair board members item 16.12 request the board's consideration for advertising amendments to policy 413 unfair Libra practice charges there's been no substantive change to the chapter 447 as it

195is implemented this simply brings current the legal Authority under the current Education Code thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposal management School Board policy 413 on Fair Labor practices charges or you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve motion to approve advertising policy 413 as presented all right we have a motion motion second that motion thank you Miss Thompson so we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion and I'll call for the vote all those in favor please State aye aye anyone opposed it passes unanimously we are now moving on to item 16.13 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 414 liability of board members and managerial employees Madam chair board members item 1613 request the board's

196consideration to approve amendments to existing policy 414 liability of board members and managerial employees there have been no substantive changes to the law since this was last reviewed and adopted in 1985 the current uh amendments would simply increase the or bring current the legal Authority and laws implemented of this policy thank you thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments of school board policy 414 liability of school board members and managerial employees Ford you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion move approval Madam chair thank you Mr purses do we have a second second thank you Mr cologne any further discussion okay then I will call for the vote all those in favor of advertising policy 414 please say aye aye anyone opposed

197it passes unanimously we are now moving on to item 16.14 authorization advertised proposed amendments to policy for 16 screening selection and appointment of school-based instructional administrative personnel Adam chair board members item 1614 request the board's consideration of authorization to advertise amendments to policy 614 and as we have done with the prior policies simply bringing current the legal Authority and laws implemented no other changes thank you Dr malcolby Madam chair I recommended the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 416 screen and selection and appointment of school-based instructional administrative personnel okay you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve I motion to approve thank you Miss Thompson and do I have a second a second a second thank you all right I'm going to pause

198for just a moment Miss Thompson welcome to the club you've made your first motion and we appreciate it I think it didn't make one like two ago Okay I accept thank you all right now so we have a motion and a second it's kind of hard when you first start it gets easier um we have a motion and a second any further discussion all right then I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed all right it passes unanimously I just did realize Mr penley when we started this section we should have probably made the statement that we made earlier today in the workshop for those of you that are listening at home that may have not listened to the workshop part of our process of what we determined

199that we had to do is update old policies we are bringing in line most of these policies that are 30 years or older so if we get through this we'll bite off the next chunk and the next goal will be to bring them down to not having any policies older than 20 years then hopefully 10 years and maybe we'll finally be caught back up even though no one's sitting here on this board was here 30 years ago none of us were here 20 years ago none of us were even here 10 years ago but the policies were not updated and tackling it all right we are moving along to item 16.15 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 424 legal responsibility for civil or criminal actions Madam chairs item 16.15 request the board's consideration to

200advertise proposed amendments to current policy 424 legal responsibility for similar civil or criminal actions there are slight semantic changes in subparagraph four but other than that this simply brings current the legal Authority and laws implemented as we have done in the previous policies Dr Bachmann thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 424 legal responsibility for criminal for civil or criminal actions thank you you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve motion tuber do I have a second thank you all right so any further discussion and I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the advertisement of policy 424 legal responsibility for civil or criminal actions please State aye aye anyone opposed anyone opposed

201all right um I have been asked for a break I got a hand signal I got notes coming at me I've got everything okay we have we have been sitting here all right thank you it's nine minutes long enough I'll see everybody back in here at 8 30. yeah don't clear at me thank you okay we are ready to begin I need board members in order to have a quorum I have three now I have four I still only have four okay here it's like hurting cats Jamie hurting cats reminds me of like trying to get I'm in my seat gets ready all right we are moving right along to item 16.16 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 503 optional face coverings Mr penley thank you madam chair board members item 16.16 request authorization

202to advertise amendments to the optional face covering policy 503 the legal history on this has become longer than the actual policy this is the fourth time that I've had the pleasure of bringing this policy before the board as we Workshop today we have made substantial changes to the optional provisions of the face covering policy to permit face coverings shall not be made mandatory and to only permit the use of Facebook hello Ward I just want to say repeal the policy it needs to go it's dead we've moved on let's go forward thank you thank you Jennifer Dickinson is next followed by Jennifer Kelly good evening board I'm Jennifer Dickinson from DeLand I would also recommend repealing the 503 we have been doing this for three years I think we it's time to move on we

203can make an amendment to our dress code policy if children would like to wear a mask for health purposes that would be more appropriate than having an entire policy for something that we will not be mandating in the future anyway so that's my recommendation thank you thank you next up is Miss Jennifer Kelly followed by Anna Hannan good evening everybody um I did listen to the discussion on this during the workshop um and I heard a couple things and I had a couple thoughts so I heard that the student dress code states that you can't currently States you can't wear a mask and I also heard that there is no policy stating that teacher staff vendors and visitors can't wear a mask so I was thinking if you amended the dress code for the students

204to allow for optional masking for medical purposes you can repeal 503 because we don't have a policy saying that the other people can't wear one I also heard a couple people or a couple of the members say that they wish to be done with us you guys can be done with us you're the school board you can get rid of the policy thank you thank you Anna Hannan evening I'm sure at any given Volusia school right now there's only about two percent of the students who wear a mask but maybe less so why we're at a policy on something that rarely happens or why keep it and haven't we recently seen on the news how criminals are using medical masks it was a law not to wear a mask in school before covid for safety

205you should choose safety over keeping a mask policy for appeasing a political group if covet is over I mean don't you want it to be over if you get a school shooting on your watch with a shooter and a code bid mask any policy on masks in these non-coveted times will look irresponsible please weigh this serious risk versus benefit a mask addition to the uniform policy would still allow it but it doesn't give a tone of endorsing it thank you thank you Dr balkaman thank you madam chair I recommend the authority to be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 503 optional face coverings all right you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve move approval thank you Mr persis do I have a second I'll

206second thank you Mrs Burnett so we have Mr persis making the motion to approve Mr Burnett making the motion to second is there any further discussion all right Mrs Burnett thank you I'm I'm sitting here looking at the current uh dress code policy and I mean it's I'm going through it pretty quick but I don't see where Mass are not or that are they they are um not allowed on the current dress policy the current dress code where you cannot wear one who oversees the current dress code policy which department student services Miss Roland at one time in the student dress code policy it stated no mask and the re the reasoning behind that was not because of medical mask it was because of like costume masks like Halloween mask and I mean we recently

207had Spiderman at one of our high schools okay right so is it still in that policy do you know I am not sure but that was the original original reason for having no mask on policy because there were costume masks that covered the spaces um Spider-Man mask Batman mask and things of that nature was not related to the medical surgical mask at all all right um Mrs Burnett keep looking and we're going to let Miss Thompson speak Miss Thompson um yeah I was also looking through the um student dress code I didn't see that and um you know I I understand what you said earlier about we have some students that maybe have some medical reasons that they have to wear masks but I think if that's the case then we do need to make

208a clear distinction between wearing a medical mask versus wearing a Spider-Man mask um and then you know do we need the policy 503 still or can we put that into our School dress code yeah I don't see it at all in there I I don't see where it prohibits mask wearing in there I don't see it there but it was there I remember it was there I I that was like a year ago I think when we looked at that I think we pulled that out because we were addressing it over here I think we did too because I have a recollection of that and we pulled it out because we were only we were allowing the medical Mass which we have allowed even before you know that we I think that's when we dropped

209the no Mass so that there was not conflict and somebody said well in this policy you're saying this even though the no mask we're referring to costume type you know Mass I think one of these adoption dates I recall that that was and the policy and was taken out because of 503 and the student dress code keep in mind 503 does not relate only to students it also applies to employees visitors vendors and other persons coming there are some people that feel comfortable wearing masks and want to wear them for their own personal well-being this policy simply says it is an option and it specifically requires that any mask used be only for health and safety purposes any further discussion Mr purses yeah Madam chair I'm just wondering now as I look at what's really

210left in the policy the first the first there's only face covering shall not be made mandatory and then permissive use of face covering shall be used only for health safety purposes as a parent May authorize for his or her student I'm not I mean I'm not sure do we need to go into all the face covering types and available personal protective equipment no I'm saying I mean I don't know whether it's relative to it's in there to limit the types of so that you can't wear the Spider-Man mask and claim that it's for a health or safety purpose that that you can't wear a ski mask right it just reminded me of the old days and I'm trying to move away from the old days but uh and I and I do clearly understand that

211some adults and some parents do want their children to wear to wear a mask I'm fine with that Mr cologne yeah again I said it this morning I think I'd be more I mean I think Carl made a good point what's left of this policy there's not a whole lot left um there's a portion here about face covering uh that covers mouth and nose fitting snugly on the sides of the person's face with no gaps again what I what's left here I think could easily be rolled back into where we were pre-covered where it was part of the dress code policy um just I don't I don't see that there's enough left here to even have its own policy as such I mean basically we're saying anybody wants to wear a mask can well we

212could do that on our dress code policy and don't get me wrong I'm not excited about opening up the uh dress code policy for development although I do think we need to look at the part about tears in the genes because we're obviously not enforcing that so again I said it this morning I think we can roll some of this into back into the dress code policy with a lot of the same language without needing to have its own policy that's my thought thank you I don't know Madam chair Mr personal well let me ask you Mr penley if we did not have this policy this wasn't here and a vendor came with a mask would that be against any rule that we have as a school district here's a state statute that prohibits wearing

213masks in public State Statute that prohibits wearing masks of really it really is you can't walk in the mat you can't walk into a bank with Sutton glasses a jacket and a mask you have to take all that off well I I could see that walking into a bank but everybody's wearing them backing into a school it's it's okay I mean all right I don't want to be a foul of the law but uh I just right yeah I I don't want to go against the law state statute either um I I agree with Mr cologne and and all the conversation here I think we need to go back and put this into student policy and um dress code policy and if we want to put something together for optional coverings and I'm sorry we

214didn't cover this better this morning because you've worked very hard so I'm sorry um but maybe on the optional face coverings maybe name it something and take it out of student services and um put it in another category where it's visitors slash vendors so that they are able to wear the mask if they feel that it's appropriate how how does that sound I know we may need to go ahead and pass this tonight in order to give those to give the permission to those to wear it but I would like us to come back rather quickly to to change that could we not take no action and bring it back I know there's a motion in a second but arguably no action keeps this policy as it is written you have to have a motion

215in a second in order to have discussion right so that's where we're at we're at discussion yeah okay Ms Thompson um is there any way that we can not take action tonight but look into putting it into the student dress code policy and maybe Workshop the student dress code policy because I agree there's there's a lot of questionable outfits out there on our campuses okay so it's my turn Mr penley as always you and your team have done an excellent job of dealing with five individuals and a superintendent and anybody and everyone else that you know calls your office writes about it whatever you know where I've stood from day one on all of this okay have the fact that I'm the most recent person that has worked on school campuses out of um Mr

216persis and I as I told you in the past even though our dress code policy said no mask meaning no ski mask no Halloween mask you know that type of thing that's why it said no mask we have always wherever I have worked allowed students staff instructional whoever needed because we've I've never known a year I don't think that I taught that we didn't have someone going through cancer treatment or you know something that caused them to wear a mask and it never was an issue I mean I had children with special medical needs throughout my entire career that you know we did things just even making sure that you know they drank their special shake drink during a certain part of the day and they didn't throw away what was left in their lunchbox

217because it had to be weighed because of what they were facing so I mean it was never a problem I mean if you had a child in your classroom that they needed to medically wear that mask or you know you know because the whole point was is to have them here in school and whatever they we needed to do so I just I think this has just gotten crazy I'd like to go back to pre-covered where it just seriously it wasn't a topic if I had a child walk in my classroom or I had a colleague that came in to teach and they were wearing a mask it just wasn't a problem now yeah no Halloween masks no ski mask none of that you know I I've I've said from day one why couldn't it

218just go into the you know dress code piece why did we have to make all of this and and Mr penley this is no reflection on you okay I don't want you to take this in any way personally and I do apologize for the time this policy has taken up more time than anything for all of us but I just don't know why why we can't use common sense and be reasonable and just have an understanding that why do we need a policy for it you know if someone if a parent if I'm doing a parent conference and they come in with a mask it's fine I mean that's their choice and I don't that's just where I stand on it and I appreciate all the work that you've done on it but at this

219time but there's no further discussion Dr bagman do you have a recommendation and we already have a motion a second okay we've had discussion so I'm going to call for the vote all those in favor of advertising policy please say aye all those not in favor of advertising policy 503 please say nay nay MJ I'd like to make a motion that we did everybody vote okay so we're unanimous that it's not passing I'm sure I'd like to make a motion that we continue this for discussion at the next School Board Workshop with the potential of rolling the optional face covering components that are still valid into our dress code policy so continuing it to a workshop where we could discuss and so there's no change to the policy the policy stands as it is right

220now and um we will then talk about it as far as having it rolled into a new policy I think that not having something in place leaves a gap and I don't want to do that either so I think we could probably have a good conversation about rolling it back into the dress code policy as much as I don't want to reopen the dress code policy that's my motion I'll second that okay we have a motion and we have a second to allow 503 to stand at the moment for where it's at and we will bring it back to a workshop to discuss putting it back if I understand correctly into the student dress code which only covers students it's fine okay okay it was like that for a hundred years all right um at

221this point I need to wait for a while I need some legal advice from Mr penley and or Mr Wolf since we have school board attorney and district attorney I need legal advice on I understand we can hold it but I need to know if we Workshop it are we going to be able to do what Mr cologne is saying and be covered like only putting it back into student policy we'd have to repeal it and then we would have to create the new policy and go through the whole process you can certainly do that at a as an action item you can Workshop how you want the language to read you can Workshop a repeal of 503 and but that means bringing dress code up you can do all of that what I'm hearing

222the motion just as a point of parliamentary procedure and this is Mr Wolf's here but if the motion tonight is to table consideration of policy 503 pursuant to a workshop at some later date then that's the motion that's on the floor not tables to continue cabling is continuing okay so we have would you like to restate your motion no by tabling it the policy that's there now stands until such time we bring it back what I said I don't care if I may keep in mind the reason that this was brought back was because the line that is stricken in paragraph one is encouraging substantial uh encouraged to substantially comply with authoritative or controlling governmental issued Health standards we didn't want that language anymore if we table this this policy is still in effect tonight

223until it's workshop and brought back if we want to get rid of that language this is the opportunity I personally would like to just repeal the thing tonight and then bring it back the other part to workshop and everyone use common sense in the meantime but that's my thoughts on it but we have a motion and we have a second Mr versus Madam chair but I'm not sure this we're addressing the issue Mr penalty brought up earlier about the Florida law that prohibits people from wearing a mask he said that's the Florida law it is still current statute it is widely disregarded however we know the practicalities of that I'm not trying to debate I have no personal stake in whether people wear mask or not I don't care frankly all right what I'm telling

224you tonight is if you want to get rid of this this as it stated that's what we were trying to do that the board's Direction I mean yeah I I just would say that I'm I would support this I don't have any trouble problem with line uh because it's all deleted except you know face covering shall not be made mandatory I like that I have no problem with the the sentence he added in the second paragraph that's great um I don't think anything I don't think we need anything in face covering types except only face coverings intended for use for health safety purpose may be worn that addresses the whole thing about you can't wear it you know Spider-Man and all that and then I don't think you need c at all I mean it

225could just be down to three sentences almost and it achieved things that should it stand by itself that way yeah I mean it just but it's at least it would be some sort of a policy that says to parents and to vendors that if they wish if they want to wear a mask for health purposes that that's all we're really saying if you if you as a parent want your child to wear a mask for health purposes it's so it's okay but we're not going to be supplying masks I mean that's what C says and and you know we don't need all that stuff about face Shields and all that that's why I'm suggesting we Workshop this I mean arguably right now I don't disagree with you I just don't know that I need to

226if what you're proposing is that we strike through everything and just leave that one sentence I'm okay with that truly I mean again I I just think that this is speaking to a time where um you know it's a lot of this is no longer relevant and I think at this point just like it was before it could go back into dress code um I'm sure we have a policy somewhere for the adults who visit our campuses that we can put that piece in as well and and that's it but actually Madam chair you don't even have to keep you don't even have to keep B at all because it says it in the last sentence of a should only be used for health and safety purposes just delete B and C it means nothing

227left there'd be two sentences I mean that's we're back to the homework policy sauce all right Miss Burnett that's what I would do I too would like to see this gone I am in favor of holding off tabling it and putting it back into the student dress code I hear Mr penley saying that we have to have something in to remain in state statute for those who want to wear a mask currently right is that yeah I could go along with that sure I I mean I thought that's what I heard you say that that's fine I mean that's why you have that you have the policy now so if we just table this nothing's changing right now nobody's mandated to wear one right now anyway they have the option we're covered by this we

228have a workshop on April 11th we can add it to the workshop on April 11th is there room to add in on April 11th for April the 11th correct can we move it up to 11 30. can we start any are people willing to come into the meeting and start the meeting for the workshop on April 11th earlier I can she can't you can't no I can't oh you can yeah let's do 11. okay well all right let's finish this item and then we will move to that item in order to do what we're superintendent to do I might suggest so that we don't belabor this in longer you have emotion on the floor to however you have pretty much workshopped it to this point right all right um if you strike b c and

229d we can advertise that Amendment and in 28 days after publication you can adopt that Amendment Madam chair I'd like to retract my motion retract my motion I have a motion go go I would uh like to amend this policy Madam chair and that we just adopt after advertising purposes part a so if I understand you correctly you're asking that we strike all of section B all of section c and all of section d and we stay with the changes that are in red in section A so that do you know huh we have to keep D well you have to keep the the effective date so B and C are the ones that go you know D would become B in this case do we but Mr penley we don't have an effective date

230in other policies right we just have the date that it was adopted typically it's upon adoption just keep in mind this policy was born out of what we were being told were dire emergency circumstances okay and we had to do this right away we called an emergency meeting to have this policy in the first place um so some of the language is residuary from previous history so it's not an accident political on this is longer than the policy is going to be if the board adopts the proposed language from Mr persis but I'm happy to do it any way you want but if we can get it done tonight and be done with it I would highly recommend that yeah and and to Mr cologne's point though we we would still um keep the first

231sentence of a in that's in Black right and then the second sentence of a would be we would say that they shall not be made base covering shall not be made mandatory and then we would keep the third sentence permissive use of face covering shall be used only for health and safety purposes as a parent or parents May authorize for his or her student yep that's it that's it second all right let's make sure we clarify Mr penley what I have heard in the motion and the second is to strike all of section B section c and section D because we don't have that piece in other policies we would just keep in section A the first sentence that is in Black the very short sentence that is new in red face covering shall not

232be made mandatory and the third sentence which is new and read about the permissive use of face coverings everyone in agreement second okay we gotta we got a motion in a second any further discussion all right I'm gonna call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed say nay done all right then now the next step is are you wishing to are you wishing to move this back into student dress code I need to no you don't want okay we're not all right no not at this time but noticed okay that's a whole nother Beast all right I know that's the scary piece all right we are moving on to item 16.17 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 516 archives and Records management Madam chair item 16.17 request

233the board to authorization to advertise amendments to current policy 516 archives and record management there have been no substantive changes to the body of the statute of body of the rule that simply dates the legal Authority and laws implemented as we previously discussed Dr malcolmen Madam chair I have recommended the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 516 archives and Records Management program Ford you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve motion to approve thank you Mr clone do we have a second a second thank you Mrs Burnett any further discussion on policy 516. if not I will call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously we're moving right along to item 16.18 authorization

234to repeal the school board policy 709 parent teacher and other non-profit School Fund Raising organization purchases there was a lot of discussion earlier about this item so Mr Finley Madam chair board members item 16.18 request the board's authorization to repeal this School Board policy 709 in its entirety and Mr cease in finance is here to address any questions you might have concerning that thank you Dr bagman Madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to repeal School Board policy 709 Baron teacher and other non-profit School fundraising organization purchases board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve approval Madam chair thank you Mr purses do I have a second a second that motion thank you Mrs Thompson any further discussion all right then I'll call for the

235vote all those in favor of re School Board policy 709 please signify by saying aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously now we're up to item 16.19 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 807 public notification for review of Student Records Mr penley yes Madam chair thank you board members the proposed authorization to amend existing policy 807 as it relates to public notification for Student Records simply incorporates the current requirements of FERPA family educational rights and privacy act this is an annual notice that we provide in the student handbook each year this amendment would bring the legal Authority and laws implemented thank you Mr penley Dr balcon thank you madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 807 public notification for review of Student Records

236all right board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve move to approve thank you Mr Burnett do I have a second that motion thank you Miss Thompson any further discussion okay then I'll call for the vote all those in favor of advertising the proposed amendment to policy 807 signify by saying aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously we are now down to item 16.20 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 808 foreign exchange programs Madam chair board members item 16.02 request the board's authorization to advertise proposed amendments to the foreign exchange program policy 808 it strikes a reference to monetary reimbursement and otherwise brings the legal Authority for this section policy thank you Mr penley Dr balgeman Madam chair I recommend that the authority be granted to

237advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 808 foreign school board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve move approval thank you Mr person thank you Mr cologne any further discussion if not I'll call for the vote all those in favor of advertising the approach the proposed amendments to school board policy 808 foreign exchange programs signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously all right we are now moving on to item 16.21 authorization to advertise proposed amendments to policy 320 media selection of print and non-print materials Mr penley Madam chair board members the item 16.121 request the board's authorization to advertise amendments to current policy 320 as it relates to Media selection of print and non-print materials the proposed amendments incorporate new language and

238the objectives for selection of materials to include the requirement that materials selected must be in compliance with Section 1006 28282 Florida Statutes and references and footnotes Incorporated statutory language from Florida's statutes 847.012 847 points zero one one and definitions found for harmful to minors child pornography obscenity sexually oriented materials the Section 3 of 320 incorporates language that a principal may direct the removal of material he or she deems in violation of Florida law and that all school media staff will undergo responsible training and signing acknowledgment the board at Workshop requested consideration of additional revisions and clarifications in section 4 paragraph d a big pardon section five paragraph D that the composition of the committee shall mirror this is the school level committee shall mirror the composition of the district committee outlined in subsection E1 below

239it Incorporated language changes to paragraph e of subsection 5 that clarified that the superintendent must designate a district media supervisor to be responsible for the organization of the district Review Committee the language to include District Review Committee has contained in paragraph E1 paragraph a changed to a principle a media specialist a curriculum supervisor or an instructional staff member striking the two instructional staff members at paragraph D in Striking the former paragraph e which became D that four parent citizens who were not employed full-time by Volusia County Schools would be the District composition of the Review Committee other than that there were no changes made at the workshop and this policy is right for the board's consideration at this time Mr penley I know that you had to quickly do this like you had maybe eight

240minutes to to go and make the changes the only thing I see here and you did a great job is when you look at section d and it originally said the school's instructional Review Committee I think the only thing we wanted removed there was the word instructional so it would be the school's Review Committee just like it's the district's Review Committee um so I think we crossed out one word too many in that section yeah good catch so we want to leave review in yeah right because then that way it matches exactly what I'd like for them to be consistent so we have the district Review Committee in section e so I think it needs to be the school Review Committee and and trust me we were it was quick I think we had defined

241instructional Review Committee was a term of art as well so instructional would be appropriate I think both words need to be left in that's fine Hazel can address I think in school instructions instructional okay so then just remove the red striking there okay well hold on everybody thank you madam chair I recommended the authority be granted to advertise a proposal medicine School Board policy 320 media selection and print and non-print material okay this is my stack of cards I want to remind everyone though before we start this section um we haven't had to do this in a while but I'm just going to say it because there was a little bit of um chatter during the last speaking piece under policy 801 which is public participation in school board meetings we have a section called

242decorum and so in that section it says that members of the audience should be courteous to all speakers and shall refrain from making audible comments or applauding during the meeting so I know some of you this is your first time to be here and participate in a public input piece we lived through the pandemic where we had to be very careful and state so I know there's a few of you out there though that have been to a lot of meetings so would someone please demonstrate for me that if you're in agreement with what's being said it's your Quorum section what is it you're allowed to do thank you all right but we are not going your I will stop if you cross that line and you start making rude comments or statements because we've

243had to stop previously I just want to be clear on that we want to hear everyone we want to give everyone their time and they deserve the time to stand up here so that we can hear what each person is saying all right at this time we are going to start with the first card I'm going to go through the stack I don't know I think there's 24 or 25 right now I will call the first person's name followed along with the second person's name so that the second person is ready to go because we're looking at an hour and a half right now of public input if everyone takes the full time so I need you to know that know that first is Sally Hansen followed by Beth Fogel Miller welcome Miss Hansen good

244evening superintendent board chair and school board members I come to you as an involved Citizen and the grandparent of a Volusia County student I'm very concerned with the direction the district appears to be heading in regard to parental rights and intellectual freedom I want to begin by establishing a very important fact about reading study after study has shown that independent student Choice reading is the single biggest predictor of student reading achievement it is the literacy Silver Bullet independent reading increases vocabulary reading comprehension background knowledge of purple fluency writing skills and the list goes on we should be doing everything we can to support our media specialists in providing relevant and engaging independent reading materials for our students not denigrating these same media Specialists and making their vital jobs more difficult the district recently underwent a

245comprehensive book review process I want to emphasize that Community input is the right way to go no one individual should be no one individual be they a principal superintendent or governor should be able to restrict access to a book without Community input the participants in these review groups appropriately represent our entire community and overwhelmingly voted for these titles to remain on Library shelves however the sum of the school board members and District leadership still seem eager to remove books from library shelves or restrict students access based on the insistence of a small vocal group the state statutes regarding book content are very clear and the legal bar for removing materials is very high books must be evaluated in their entirety for instance the inclusion of some sexual content alone particularly viewed in isolation is not

246sufficient grounds for restricting student access and nowhere in State Statute does it say that the book must be able to be read aloud in a public forum to be considered appropriate for school media collections as has been suggested educational experience including choosing a library book should begin with from a place of access not restriction I urge you to leave the present opt-out policy in place the school board policy already allows parents to restrict their children's access to certain Library materials or to deny them access entirely no further policy is needed because this already preserves both parental rights and academic freedoms and isn't that what we all want thank you thank you Miss Hanson next is Beth Vogel Miller followed by Riley Kellogg left all right Beth left then we are up to Riley Kellogg followed

247by Laurel Robinson welcome we have Riley Kellogg oh okay welcome Riley good evening my name is Riley Kellogg I am an IB sophomore a member of Battle of the books at land High School I would like to talk about school libraries including in those in classrooms libraries offer a wide selection of books in a variety of subject areas this is important because it allows students to obtain understanding where they otherwise wouldn't by reading books with topic that may not be otherwise discussed students can become more aware of the world this increases open-mindedness and empathy towards others libraries also allow for a quiet place to read or study this space may not be otherwise available although there are public libraries not everyone has a way of getting to the library School libraries ra space where everyone

248can belong I love reading and can't imagine a world without access to whatever books I would like to read although my friends joke that I read too much when I don't recognize pop culture references I believe that there is no such thing as liking reading too much it is very important to me that school and classroom libraries stay available with books in a wide range of topics thank you next up is Laurel Robinson followed by Ashley Jackson good evening Madam chair members of the board and Madam superintendent I speak regarding the proposed change to instructional policies number 320 Section 3 responsibility for selection of materials specifically we're concerned regarding proposed language stating upon review a principle may direct the removal of material he or she deems in violation of Florida law the Florida law in

249question and reference there bars material from schools which is quote obscene or harmful to minors end quote however under that law a work cannot be harmful to minors unless taken as a whole meaning reading the whole book it is without serious literary artistic political or scientific value for minors also a work cannot be quote obscene unless taken as a whole it is without serious literary artistic political or scientific value for anyone are concerned with the proposed language is twofold first it's very unlikely that the district professional educators will select books which meet that legal criteria of being obscene second the question of whether books have educational value cannot be determined by a single individual instead that determination can only justly be made by a group of the district's professional Educators who are experts on what

250materials are valuable to students therefore where you're Jew to amend the proposed policy to require principals to consult with experts including Librarians teachers and media Specialists who specialize in book selection before deeming material and violation of federal law however if the statement that a principal may direct removal of material in both the selection and the challenge process without expert consultation is not correct a clarification is in order if that statement is correct please revise it to require professional consultation before these decisions are made thank you for your attention and consideration thank you Ashley Jackson followed by Stacy Collins as a social worker I tend to look at both the macro and micro level systems issues that impact the clients that I work with on a daily basis the book I reviewed was I'll give you

251this on and it was a wonderful book I'm trying to convince my high school daughter to read it but I'm not yet cool enough for her to listen to me I was really happy to hear that it was going to stay on the bookshelves because it was a wonderful book and I think in it's incredibly valuable my concern is that there's a language that said it is now being turned into an opt-in book instead of the the typical opt out option um regardless of whether it's called a book ban or simply moving a book where it's in a location that is not easily accessible it creates barriers for students to access the books the first massive book burning took place in the year 2000 or excuse me 213 BC in China where a bunch of

252history books that were not ideal to the current leadership were burned it led to a series of events that resulted in 460 Scholars being put to death teachers since then this practice has been used by violent regimes across the world such as the South Africa apartheid regime and the Nazi regime we see its presence in our own country as early as 1873 with the morality police in New York City which eerily mirrors the current Iran situation history allows us to see the macro level steps that lead to micro level concerns you might not think that removing books or putting those barriers up is the same as what the Nazi regime did but it mirrors early Nazi days the decisions that were made the access and control and barriers to information where it starts um creating

253barriers for teens to access books or to prevent them from accessing books that either mirror their experiences which help them to feel more connected to their Community or creates a doorway to other experiences which develops empathy is the first steps to dangerous events that do more harm to our kids than the books themselves do the system in place that is opt out it works it allows parents that don't want their children to read it to not read it to not have access please don't take this additional step to prevent our kids from reading the books when we have all in these committees decided and viewed the books to be perfectly acceptable to be in all high schools my concern about the principles being the ones that make the decision my six-year-old was in an on-site

254after school program the school or the program director removed his shirt turned it inside out and told him it was inappropriate because it had a dinosaur that said roaring with pride and the principal told me that they were allowed to because it's a private company my concern is that it violates the policy for leases that include violating anti-discrimination policies and so if that's something that the school principal does because they pay money are the principles the ones that should be making the decisions about things like books or doesn't make our kids feel less welcome thank you thank you Stacy Collins followed by Heather Prescott hello my name is Stacy Collins and my two children go to Volusia County Public Schools I appreciate this opportunity to speak in support of our current book review process our

255library Specialists and against censorship as a whole I believe these actions to censor restrict dictate what is or is not okay is actually anti-American those that came before us fought hard for our rights to free speech to freedom of expression and freedom to live without being told how exactly to do that by allowing the voice of the few or of any to dictate what is okay for my child to access in their school library is truly anti-American I do not deny another pirate parents right to determine what is okay for their child but I do deny that parents assumed right from inserting themselves into my parenting another parent doesn't get to make decisions for my children limiting access to books does not protect children from life's complex and challenging issues as we saw yesterday in

256Nashville our children are surrounded by hurt fear difference and complexity books are a way to gain understanding of difference to ignite conversations I love when my children challenge me with hard questions that lead to Big conversations that will shape their worldview books in fact are one of the safest ways to do this I'd much rather my child read a book that makes them question then aimlessly watch YouTube I truly believe in opt-in policy will only make books more enticing to read it seems an odd way to restrict something often restricting or censoring leads to more curiosity and to desire to do the forbidden by allowing openness and conversation we increase understanding and dialogue by increasing what is deemed inappropriate we only increase the corners where things and activities are kept hidden I want to leave

257with this if fights like these win and the power of the few and the loud prevails the job of teaching becomes less desirable and tenable we already have a teacher shortage how much harder do we want to make their job who will teach our children in the future I for one want to applaud teachers who show up and help my children read the more books the better thank you Miss Collins next up is Heather Prescott followed by Amy Armistead is Miss press could you please check to see if is she outside she left okay all right so then we're going to go on to Amy Armistead followed by Michelle Lindsay thank you my name is Amy Armistead I am a pastor in Daytona Beach and I speak as a woman of Faith a pastor a

258bookworm a child who was raised by public education and as a hopeful future parent in the Volusia County School System I read quite a few books listed on the Review Committee while in high school and I cannot overstate the the positive and Powerful impact it had on me to read stories in which I was represented stories about being a second generation Latin American immigrant stories about surviving sexual violence and overcoming mental health struggles like we could read about in Perks of Being a Wallflower and Looking for Alaska the books I read about human trafficking including the books sold inspired me to do my college senior thesis on the topic and start an organization on my college campus to address human trafficking it was said at previous school board meetings that these books are non-Christian and

259as a pastor I disagree these books cultivated my sense of compassion to make the world a better place a foundation a foundational pillar of my faith these stories make our curriculum stronger these stories made my faith strong there are already adequate opt out systems in place to ensure that parents and caregivers can limit what their own child reads we do not have the right to decide what other parents or caregivers are comfortable letting their students read we need to trust certified media Specialists who are trained far beyond myself to discern what is appropriate for each age group according to the National literacy Institute 50 of adults have a literacy below the sixth grade level and 20 percent of Americans read below the level needed to earn a living wage and are considered illiterate we have

260wasted resources and energy over what books our kids are reading and the battle is over getting them to pick up a book in the first place my friends we are fighting the wrong battle the content that kids see on Tick Tock violent video games and social media is much more corrosive than the diverse stories in our libraries in 2021 my church started a read aloud with partners program with our partner Elementary School improving the scores and giving students one-on-one support and I think it's a much more effective use of our time to support Librarians and teachers by investing in programs like this and we need plenty of volunteers so talk to me afterwards if you would like to help a student read especially after the horrifying events of yesterday we need to put our efforts

261in better uses of our times thank you next up is Michelle Lindsay followed by Kate Ballinger sound check good evening chair board superintendent my name is Michelle Lindsey and I reside in New Smyrna Beach I'm an employee of Volusia County Schools but I'm a parent first parenting is not for the week especially in today's society even so I consider myself blessed to have been trusted to parent a child I do not take my role lightly and I strive to impart wisdom and plant seeds that will bloom in my daughter and hopefully prepare her to be the best version of herself and to be kind I encourage her to be strong and independent but not judgmental because that belongs to God alone I'm a parent that shares real world events I'm a parent that encourages open

262conversations about things she sees and hears I started to question my evaluation of some of the books that have been challenged because the ones I have read don't deserve to be challenged yes they have sexual content but not anything that she hasn't heard in her middle school or seen on the evening TV a show the other night called FBI was about capturing Predators who were exploiting children and making child pornography even so I started thinking am I the minority in the community am I too open about discussing sex too open about discussing drugs everything I was hearing at the school board meetings and on the news made me almost feel ashamed that I would even consider these books as options in fact if I did that meant I hated God I decided to pull a

263very diverse Facebook group who has members that are clearly on different political sides I put a simple two-question survey up should or should not books with sexual situations be on a high school shelf someone added a choice of media Specialists should decide people voted and the results were a landslide astonishing amount in favor of allowing these books 69 percent said yes 11 percent were in favor of media specialist selecting and only 20 percent were no I only had 65 votes and I imagine that most were afraid to vote in this Poll for fear of being ridiculed or condemned by their choice but still the community standard for this poll showed that the majority are in agreement that these books should be at the high school level I'm a parent I'm a parent with rights too

264we may not all agree on topics relating to raising our children but just because I don't agree doesn't mean I don't have rights I shouldn't have to go to a public library a bookstore School library should have something for everyone let's be clear the book's challenge were primarily on high school shelves they weren't kindergarten books I urge you to keep a fair process and I'd like to end with a request for everyone listening our country was created to protect different views there are places that you could be shot in the streets for disagreeing America should not be that place consider just saying a person is not a pervert pedophile or porn Pusher maybe just say they're a person with a different view thank you thank you Kat Ballinger followed by Jody Atkins good evening my

265name is Eileen simoneau I'm representing Kate she's home with the sick baby Kate is a multi-published fiction author with over a decade of experience in publishing industry she is a educator and the parent of a second grader at Citrus Grove Elementary and has frequently volunteered for library and book related activities in the Volusia County School System for the past several years including Citrus Grove's Scholastic Book Fair and the district's recent book review committees books and the right to read what we choose are extremely important as both a parent and author I am deeply disturbed by the targeted efforts to ban books in Volusia County Schools and I think it's important we acknowledge the elephant in the room this book Banning initiative is in our county is not the effort of a few concerned parents in

266fact the record spike in book Banning Nationwide including the current effort in our own school system did not originate from Individual conversations with concerned parents instead these challenges are from well-organized censorship groups that represent the views of an extremist minority not the views of Volusia County parents and Educators and as such they must be stopped a majority of American voters across all party lines do not support book bans a survey conducted by the heart research Associates and the North Star opinion research on behalf of the American Library Association found that 71 percent of Voters 71 percent across party lines oppose efforts to have books removed from their local public libraries and from public schools they found that after hearing reasons to both support and oppose efforts to remove books from school libraries because a select

267few find them offensive or inappropriate 67 percent of Voters still oppose efforts to remove books from school libraries that's an overwhelming majority additionally this view holds true for parents of children across all grade levels furthermore I know firsthand that parents have a great deal of confidence in the decisions of their school librarians that same ala study shows that 59 percent of parents say that school libraries Librarians in their districts generally listen to the concerns of parents and try to work with them when they have concerns we need to let our school librarians do the jobs they were trained for and stop questioning their knowledge and expertise about the school collections they've so carefully curated parents should be able to decide what their children read other parents should not be able to decide what my child

268reads by restricting my child's access to books within his school library Volusia County already has policies and procedures in place to protect children and I trust in the expertise of our school systems Librarians to choose books for their collections that represent a diverse range of viewpoints next up is Jody Atkins followed by Lynn Sapp hello board um and um superintendent I'm Jody Adkins I'm a retired Volusia County media specialist and for my children went to school here and my grandchildren go to school here so I just have a few things I would like to share when I was reading over the state statute that applies to school libraries I noticed two interesting things first all School District employees that work with media centers or libraries must have media specialist certification these employees must have additional

269training to be in their position if that is enshrined in our state codes and statutes it must be pretty important second the code states that books and materials should be included in the school library that provide for reader interest so if our state statutes maintain that we should provide books that are of interest to our students and that we should have a trained media specialist in the library shouldn't we trust the media Specialists to make sound decisions in the books that students are reading on their own all day long students are told which books articles papers Etc that they are to read and to be honest many of these materials are kind of boring and have little interest to the students however they are necessary for their learning process how can we continue to stuff

270boring low interest books on our students we should allow the students to choose their own pleasure reading choose what interests them what challenges them what builds curiosity in them or we may end up with a generation of adults that do not become lifelong readers and to me that would be the biggest tragedy of all all we've heard from the state is the free state of Florida how we can be free if we can't choose what we want to read I fully support parents rights but other parents can't tell my children or grandchildren what they can read we need to remember the foundation that this country was built upon freedom of speech freedom of the press freedom of religion and the people's right to protest the government peacefully please don't let the government ban the students

271what they are able to read thank you Miss Atkins Lin Sapp followed by David Finkel evening I'm a public school teacher and I've had three children go through the Volusia County Public School System I can understand that inclination to want to limit or restrict Book Students have access to some years ago my then pre-teen daughter wanted to read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants it was a series of books that was popular at the time however I did not let her read it because one of the 15 year old characters in the book has sex with a boy at Camp whom she liked but barely knew it wasn't described in graphic detail but I mistakenly thought that by allowing her to read the book she might think it was okay for her in a similar

272situation in hindsight I should have allowed her to read the book and then talked with her about the implications and ramifications of that character's decision thus helping her to be more prepared to make that in similar decisions for herself in the future there are three points to this story the first is that I made the decision not to let my child read the book I didn't say that since I didn't want my daughter to read it that therefore none of the other girls in our neighborhood or her school or in all of the land or Volusia County should have access to that book either no parent should have the right to decide what books a child has access to other than their own and no school system should bend to the dictation of a few

273over the preferences of the community the second point is that I rejected the book over one event in the book without considering all that my daughter could have learned from what happens in the rest of the book lessons about enduring friendships and empathy and loyalty about being true to yourself while accepting differences in others and that forming new friendships doesn't have to threaten the old ones when a book is challenged because someone finds parts of it objectionable please consider the entirety of the book and what else students might gain from reading it my third point is that allowing my child to read a book that included a risky Behavior wasn't going to make her any more or less likely to engage in that behavior but it could have helped her to better understand the issue

274and made her more prepared to deal with it herself in the future reading about characters whose lives and situations they can identify with provides validation for students and helps them to navigate things that they struggle with and reading about characters whose lives are very different from theirs helps to build understanding and empathy books that deal with life's complex and challenging issues allow children to explore and contemplate those issues in a safe space and perhaps build strength for or find solutions for when confronted with them in the future please do not limit the books the ideas and the worlds that our students have access to based on the objections of a few thank you following David Finkel will be Suzanne Southland good evening Dr balgavin board members my name is David Finkel I'm in my 31st

275year teaching in Volusia County Schools high school and middle school English in 2005 I was the district teacher of the year for 30 years I've had a classroom library in my classroom I have never had an objection to any of the books my goal and I tell my parents this at open house every year is to get my students to love reading and writing because you get better at what you love right now it's become a challenge to get a lot of students to read many of them would rather be on their phones watching Tick Tock and I feel that my classroom library is of vital importance that they don't have to go anywhere else the books are just there and it's just a collection of books I Cobble together From Here There and Everywhere

276I also have books I mean do I have to get every book approved we're my students are creators and public of published books I have almost 50 children's books they wrote I have novels that my students have written and published do they have to be vetted now um I encourage my students to love reading and to view books as mirrors and windows but the some of the other teachers in my building and on my hall have preemptively already removed or covered up their classroom libraries just because the climate has become oppressive and threatening I'm not removing mine until I'm forced to and if I am forced to that will probably be the day I'll have to remove myself from my classroom as well my biggest concern is that we should be creating lifelong readers that's

277in our mission statement lifelong Learners lifelong Learners means lifelong readers and we're making all books suspect can't be pro-literacy and anti-book so for now I'll go back to my classroom my students one of whom spoke tonight will continue to check books out actually they don't even check them out anymore I just say take them if you like it keep it and in a couple of weeks I'll be teaching Fahrenheit 451 and we'll be having some very interesting discussions thank you following Suzanne Southland will be Elizabeth Hensley good evening I am Suzanne Southard I am the director of religious education at the first uu Church of West Volusia here in DeLand I have been teaching children for 25 years I had quite a long speech to say to you but so many folks have already said

278the most important thing so I'm going to keep it brief your uh engaging students in a high level learning every day recruit retain and develop high quality staff provide a safe healthy supportive environment those things are really important to you they're your goals and banning books does not go with those goals because you will as the teacher said he will leave you will have to have more new teachers because your teachers will leave your media Specialists will leave because you are not you are second guessing professionals they have gone to school to pick these books and are available for our students I am very lucky I have a son who is a lifelong lover of books he has read since the moment he got his hands on one five years old and he was already

279reading I'm lucky not everybody's as lucky they have to work harder to get their kids to read and they should have books available to them that question them that make them think about is this me is this my friend how can I help my friend and some of those books are tough reads hey you want to ban a book Lord of the Flies they hated it but I'm not don't ban it don't ban it it questioned me it made me think about things and I got a really good term paper out of it what I'm saying is don't second guess your media specialist no one principal man or woman should be the one person to decide if a book should be on a shelf no out right wing whatever group should decide for my nieces

280nephews who are still in the public school system what they can and cannot read it's just like when I was a teenager I picked up a book and I said to my mom oh my God the first chapter it's filthy language they're using the f word a lot and my mother didn't say where did you get that book what oh my God she said well maybe you're just not old enough to read that book yet put it down and try it in a couple years and I did and it was a great book when I was old enough to read it she didn't get upset she just talked to me and that's what I expect our parents should decide for our own children what should be discussed and read thank you thank you Elizabeth Hensley

281followed by Gary Henson hello my name is Elizabeth Hensley I have three children in the public school in Volusia County I live here in DeLand and um I'm a lawyer and a librarian which is why I'm speaking to you today I really really would rather be at home and asleep but I'm not because I'm a lawyer and a librarian and this is really really important to me this particular topic and I really do believe the original policy 320 is really a great policy and I want to just address that very quickly from a legal and librarian perspective because I did go to school for both of those things and I spent a lot of money and tuition to do that just so you know all right so first and foremost I do realize that you

282answer to everyone in the community and I know what a difficult job that is and I really do appreciate that you have to listen to all of our perspectives in all of our opinions and then come together and decide something and I appreciate it's a difficult job so thank you very much for doing this and for spending all this time trying to figure this out for us I do appreciate it but because I only have two minutes left um I want to talk about the legal definition of obscenity which we can't we I've heard hardcore porn and pornography thrown around a lot and legally we refer to that as obscenity and obscenity is a very very small narrow category of a pornography that violates the Contemporary Community standards and we know what that definition is

283because the United States Supreme Court told us that in 1973 and they said that when the Contemporary Community standards are being evaluated you have to apply this three-prong test and it's the Miller test part of that test the step first step is whether the average person which hypothetically everybody in this room is an average person applying contemporary Community standards would find the work taken as a whole that's really important appeals to puriant interests so this taken as a whole means we have to read the whole book we can't just like put it through an algorithm and pull out a couple words and or a paragraph and say okay it's pornography that's not how it works we have to read the whole thing and then whether the work depicts or describes an apparently offensive way a

284sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law and whether the work again taken as a whole lacks serious literary artistic political or scientific value so that's the legal test and policy 320 lays out in the challenge part exactly that test that's why we have this community standard and we have Librarians and principals and all these people coming together to to evaluate those books my issue is is that we now want to incorporate this new language and I know the language isn't look new because I looked it up and it is in fact from your criminal statutes and you just cut and pasted it and put it into the school board policy well it's criminal code in a school board statute which in and of itself is very intimidating and it has a chilling effect

285for the First Amendment and that's what I'm really concerned about because we've already heard about teachers taking out their in-class libraries see my time is expired I just want to briefly say please read the Pico case it talks about this and it'll tell you that you really really really really really really should keep 320 the way that it is thank you Gary Henson followed by Trish Townsend he's gone foreign Townsend followed by Kelly fost hi everybody um I'm a Volusia County mom and I just wanted to address the so-called books that are under review and that are being challenged right now I want to make it absolutely clear that these are not books and they are not literature it is pornography and providing pornography to Children is pedophilia and child abuse okay so we need

286to be absolutely clear about what's happening right now I recall at the last school board meeting not one of the school board members here were able or willing to say out loud any of the explicit content that was in these books we all kind of giggled and laughed because we were embarrassed and disgusted by it no one wanted to do it you guys aren't going to do it and I'm not going to do it our kids can't do it okay bottom line we are their leaders the parents not the teachers okay and so um let's see so then I just wanted to go back and um you know so after that meeting and then repeating um anything that's implicit in these books we're going back to censoring and I'm hearing all these people talk about

287censoring and what a horrible thing it is and that everyone should have to be able to read any book and have access to that in their school libraries and not have to go outside well let me tell you the Bible is not in the school libraries and so there are a lot of Bibles that are there are a lot of books that are banned because certain groups don't want or accept them and we have to go outside to go find those books and we have to find other people to allow them to read and get different perspectives okay so if a Muslim child wants to read and understand something about a Christian value we're not shoving it down their throat but they need to have it available so if we're going to do that we're

288going to do that all the way around so let's just be absolutely clear about all that and then the last Parts we're talking about these opt-in and opt out things for these policies this implies right now in our society that I trust what's happening in the school systems and I trust the administrators and teachers I do not they have been caught on numerous occasions doing things behind our backs writing all of these internal memos allowing kids to change their genders pronouns and not very specifically not telling parents okay so the opt-in and opt out it's bogus it doesn't work because I don't trust what's happening in the school systems right now those policies have to be written crystal clear and concrete in so that the parents and the students are in charge okay this is

289our school system it's the student school and we're all here because of the student and that's who we that's who we're taking care of Okay so as I can tell that I'm like Furious about this and I'm furious about the previous comments but the students come first thank you up next is Kelly fost all right then next up is Jennifer Kelly followed by Jennifer Dickinson good evening board chair Haynes and superintendent algabin I'm here tonight to speak in favor of making changes to policy 320. as I mentioned during my February 28th comment Volusia County Schools has a substantial amount of content in the school libraries that is inappropriate for minors children have unrestricted access to this material without their parent or guardian's knowledge consent or guidance I have communicated my concerns and suggestions to all

290of you and during my last public comment I support a better vetting process prior to purchase changes to the challenge process mirroring the state mandated makeup of a school advisory committee adding language to include new laws passed last year and the challenged book should come off the shelves if they're potentially harmful to minors remember we're supposed to err on the side of caution but I'd also like to address a few concerns and misinformation I've been hearing recently like number one moms for Liberty is Banning books the definition of banning is to legally prohibit all 19 of the Volusia County challenge books are available in the public library to borrow and online for purchase a school library is different than a public library There Is No Parental Guidance or consent in a school library and restricting

291any child from the entire library to protect them from harmful content is just not an acceptable option two moms for Liberty is a racist and against LBGTQ Community due to most of the challenge titles having either black or LBGTQ authors and or characters this is just false and I reject that accusation these books have been objected to for sexual and inappropriate content for minors three young people deserve to see themselves reflected in libraries books I agree but children should not only see themselves as sexual sexualized characters that they are in these books think about the movies do children need to see themselves in movies with sexual violence and pornography minors wouldn't even be allowed in without an adult four reading is a foundational skill yes reading is a vital foundation for student development that is

292exactly why Public Schools focus should be on how to increase the literacy rates and not only on ways to keep explicit books in the libraries five parents should not be making decisions for other parents children all parents have rights yes parents have every right to control the content available to their own children at a public school setting no one's parental rights should be placed above another's however this is exactly what is happening Jennifer Dickinson followed by Karen Clark I'm going to continue Jennifer's speech not allowing sexual content in our Public Schools would not hinder our parents right to allow their child to see those things but it does violate the rights of parents who do not want their children exposed parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their minor children stated in

293the Florida parental Bill of Rights and the U.S Constitution this includes deciding what content is appropriate for their child the decision to introduce or not introduce children to materials containing sexually explicit content will be in the hands of the parents not the schools it is the school board and School District's responsibility to ensure students are safe from being exposed to harmful materials at school policy 320 currently states that Library materials should be grade level and age appropriate think of the 14 year old freshman having unrestricted access Volusia County Schools currently has hundreds of books containing inappropriate material and I'm finding more daily the current policy is not equipped to handle this volume of challenges please make the necessary changes to policies 320 to guarantee a fair and user-friendly process to improve the vetting and challenge

294process thank you and I just had a little bit for myself that and as part of the the you know we're all in agreement we want our children to read books we want them to love reading books but as a school board and as parents it is still our responsibility to make sure that there are some guidelines and not having free reign to all content that might some children read without a parent that's going to be there to answer those questions for them so I just think that there needs to be um when you have your committees formed I didn't hear anything about guidelines you know when the committee meets what kind of things are inappropriate is there a checklist to say as in a movie rating if there's sex there's sexual activity of the

295movies there's too many of the foul language in the movies there's too much violence in the movies those children aren't allowed to have access to those movies without a parent and it shouldn't be any different from books because we don't know what kind of Parental situation they have at home that they don't have someone to talk to to understand the content in these books and I also feel like that um for the the making the Committees instead of having someone just choosing who's on the Committees maybe there's a lottery process so it's really fair and balanced so we don't have you know a committee that is influenced by someone who's in charge of making that Committee just make it fair that no one can say well somebody stacked that committee because that's all their friends

296have something like a lottery so that everybody is fairly for just you know picked so that's all I have to say I think most of what I hear from all of you we all want our children to read books I love reading books my children love reading books we just need guidelines because some of the material can be harmful if they don't have a parent to help them through these situations all right next up is Karen Clark followed by Christine Serie A hi I'm sorry I'm wearing my hat but that lights um bother me good evening everybody and the staff you're all tethered here for all of us to finish I need to have a disclaimer before I start okay at this time are there any students here in the audience that are under the

297age of 18. all right is there someone at the back okay I need to have you leave during this section what I'm a student under 18. I don't think so okay is this is your parent here with you now his parents not here he comes he this is a wonderful young man that comes to a lot of our board meetings and we appreciate it he's a student at one of our high schools school all right for those of you listening at home because of the delay at this time if you still have any of your children that are up that are under the age of 18 I'm asking that you remove them if you're going to continue watching or that you go ahead and stop at this point for the next three minutes and there

298will be a delay so I'm giving you enough time to do that what are we going to do about the end huh let's get going all right we're going um Miss Clark you may begin picture this this is a book that's found in the libraries in the library for the schools and picture a bunch of boys sitting around a campfire and a bunch the three of them walk off now little Elias um hey Elias where did you go I'm in here with Mark and Bobby inside the tent that's what you see he's peeking in what you guys doing he says why is it dark in here can I come in now no you're too young no I'm not fine but you'll have to prove it and then the fella opens the tent and comes in

299I will now you see him in the bed with his legs crossed like just with his leg uh oh I think I figured out what taken care of business is well we're each busting a load into this bottle if you don't come you have to drink it this is what's in here and the little boy is sitting down and another one is pulling his pants down in front of him says last bit I got time I learned about masturbation two years ago kind of by accident no one ever told me what it was and one day everyone was out of the house and I came across a videotape and sat down before it anyway it goes on a little bit why is there so much hair those dicks are so big I started watching my

300dad's porn a lot and it goes on now you had to clear out people in the 18 in this room so they couldn't hear this which was readily available in the school library looks like this it's going to regular Library why keep it in the school I'm just saying and it goes on the child attempts suicide and things like that in this book that's here and that's about it everybody else had their piece so again you had to clear out the room of an 18 year old underneath that's it thank you very much next up is Christine Serie A followed by Dr Betty Hines good evening chairwoman board members Dr balgavin first I want to point out that the book that she was reading from flamer has been recommended by or decided that the superintendent

301said to pull it off the shelf so it's not available in our school libraries anymore um you know I'm passionate about our libraries policy 320 is near to my heart Mr cologne asked earlier in the workshop if you're ready to vote on policy 320. I understand that you feel like you're under a deadline but the current policy that we have meets all requirements of the law and there's no required deadline to modify it so I want you to think about the following things one it was talked about textbook challenges versus instructional material challenges during the workshop your instructional materials are major tools of instruction like a book in an IB class or Ace curriculum or a textbook the instructional Review Committee spoken about earlier today where you want to limit to 51 of parents is

302the same instructional Review Committee that would handle a textbook Challenge and a media book challenge it's a little confusing because both the instruction materials and the library and media policies were condensed into one several years ago one of the reasons they were condensed was because of the challenge process when they were condensed there were new laws put into place that added a requirement of public input and a challenge process for instructional materials also known as major tools of instruction textbooks we already had one in place so the leadership at the time and the legal department at the time I was not in either of those positions felt that combining the two policies was best please consider getting more information from all of your stakeholders on this policy when I spoke to Dr belgaum and Mrs

303Hayes always reminded that the board makes policy but it isn't the board that writes these policy and gets input from stakeholders you hear us in public comment the board meetings are the only place the public comment is permitted unless you have time to try and call each one of you individually there's no conversation there's no back and forth have you thought about making a special meeting with a panel discussion on this topic I know it would be additional time out of your already busy schedules but it would be time well spent to hear from your entire Community parents community members employees and your certified media specialists you have proposed adding the statement upon review a principally a principal may direct the removal of materials he or she deems in violation of law this does not

304belong in Section 3 responsibility for selection of material that section is for selection not removal if your intentions were to put that under the challenge process because it's the first step in the challenge process then you're putting your principles at risk for being accused of bad intentions the challenge process was put in place for good reason and it supports current Florida statute 847.012 thank you So reading for Betty Hines okay give us just one sec all right you may be yep you tell me Maybe you may be oh sorry I texted one minute um this is on reading on behalf of Dr Heinz as the Director of Hollis Institute at Stetson and an educator of 40 plus years I am very concerned about what is happening in classrooms teachers are taking books off shelves and

305are afraid to teach music educators are now worried about selections I would like to make three points first I respect A Parent's Choice on books for their child however their choice should not impact my choice where did my rights begin why should one Parent's Choice supersede mine second books should make you laugh feel Joy rage anger and awe reality is not always pretty third and most importantly I trust Librarians media Specialists teachers and our school administrators this is their area of expertise please let our experts prevail thank you um next up is Anna Hannon to read the disclaimer again you will need to read the disclaimer again let me put it that way or is it still standing I think it's been read so I think it's it's still standing time if anyone's listening at

306home the disclaimer is still in place thank you I'm going to discuss examples of obscene books in our schools that are not in compliance with Florida Statutes one is the Sun and her flowers at Spruce Creek High School it has loads of descriptive sexual activities sexual assault sexual nudity and abortion and the real kicker is that it has graphic sexual illustrations and I'm going to just show you all we've got maybe pubic hair vagina we've got a naked woman with hands I don't know how many people are touching her we've got a woman here performing masturbation and then we've got I don't know if it's a guy or a girl someone with long hair performing cunnilingus or as the book Earl and the dying girl that was at Sea Breeze repeatedly called it eating so

307another um that we had was uh all boys aren't blue and it's at Pine Ridge High School and this passage describes a young gay male sex scene he asked me to turn over while he slipped a condom on himself but this was my ass and I was struggling to imagine someone inside of me and he was large I had previously topped someone who clearly enjoyed it but he had been enjoying anal sex before I ever came along he got on top and slowly inserted himself into me he then added more lube and tried again which felt better but not by much he began his stroking motion eventually I felt a mix of pleasure with the pain he didn't last long inside of me thankfully he gave me a kiss before he pulled out I didn't

308stay long nor did I masturbate after you told me to take off my pajama pants which I did you then took off your shorts followed by your boxers there you stood in front of me fully erect and said taste it at first I laughed and refused but then you said come on Matt taste it this is what other boys like to do when we like each other I finally listened to you the whole time I knew it was wrong not because I was having sexual intercourse with a guy but that you were my family I only did that for about 45 seconds before you had me stop then you got down on your knees and told me to close my eyes that's when you began oral sex on me as well after a minute or

309so you stopped you then laid me on the ground and got on top of me you began humping me back and forth back and forth never penetrating me though it was just our bodies on top of each other going back and forth for several minutes while the music on TV played in the background Aretha Franklin was singing a rose is still Rose the irony of the song you get the I I thank you um Mr Jacob Elon Helens was from public input okay okay all right um does anyone need to break it that is all I have one public input comment left that is not attached to an item that is for the end of the evening at this point does anyone need a break are we okay all right then we are on item

31016. Dr balguban I think I already gave a motion you did but we have um Mr penley coming back up and I thought um Miss Hazel was going to join him yes all right board members Mr clone you're going to go first I will so I think we're hearing the public comment there there's two pieces to this this is the policy related to the challenging of the materials has nothing to do with the 19 books that have been challenged currently um a lot of what has been brought up has been more of the how which is operational that's that's in the policy decision-making phase of it um and and I think you know just like a lot of folks I have a lot of questions on the how and I've made that very clear as

311is the how is different than the policy itself so going through the actual policy we've added the language for State Statute that state statute was already in the policy previously correct so cited in the hall in the policy previously there's reference in the policy to section 1006 28 within section 1006 28 is reference to 247. so my instructions were to proceed to put all of those statutory definitions where individuals would not have to shift between books online to go find the language that's referenced so we didn't add this now this was already there we've just spelled it out correct you've spelled out what isn't already in and has been in state statute for a number of years well was this in our policy previously it was not the state statute of reference the state statute

3121.1006 was that in there or are we adding that it was in there before so there's no change there Mr cologne if you actually open up another Tab and click on policies in board doc you will see it you will see because the current policy is still in place and yes and that's what we talked about is yes I I agree I just I want to be very clear so that so that's not net new we've just spelled it out it was statute 1006 28 2a2a and B were referenced in section by D and in Section 5 e okay previously so that was already been in there section one coming down a little bit further we've got the area here under section three again this is relating to the state statute was that in the

313policy previously or did we add that area as well or in other words are we did we reference this previously in our policy which section I'm on section three so we added all this red language here every act thing transaction forbidden part of the footnote that's the footnote that's a footnote okay great then the part about the principal may direct the removal material that he deems in violation of law well I kind of agree that that probably should be down at the bottom another section but you know I I think place there because if you read the sentence above it says the principal Consulting with the media specialist is responsible for the final evaluation and selection of materials Etc so so we wanted to make more explicit the directions that I can't remember now if

314it was uh a board meeting or at a workshop we added that language to make that more clear then we have the section here about the purchasing and I think that um that clearly has been drilled into folks because now the state has some sort of training that it deems whatever for media Specialists let's keep going down coming down to section D where we have that change so we made some changes to the composition of the book challenge committee and we talked about the numbers and how we wanted it to mirror the other committees were there any other changes to this and again this has you notice there's no mention in here about opt-in opt out because that's the how that's not what this policy does this policy doesn't address the how that's operational that's

315a District's um to do as far as the how this policy doesn't speak about the 19 books doesn't speak about the 18 books has nothing to do directly with that and I think that that is the difficult part is that we've got two topics that are hot right now that while they're related they're not right now we're looking at strictly the policy for the book review now I will say um whether we like it or not things are changing quickly in Florida um there are the elephant in the room is that soon and I believe this is going to happen our teachers teaching certificates are going to be called into question folks are going to be called into fldoe and said you had this book in your classroom yes does it fall and blah blah

316blah that's coming but we're not there yet but it's coming um have we asked anybody to take their books off their shelves in their classrooms in Volusia County right now yeah we so we had nobody in the school district has said to Any teacher remove the books from your I know there was a little bit of emotion around what happened in Duval County I happen to have reached out to one of my counterparts in Duvall and said hey Daryl what are y'all doing well you know this is crazy and he said well we're a large district and as we all know in the summer we're going to have to card catalog it's the law whether you like it or you don't you're going to have to do it okay if you don't like it vote

317differently next time hopefully enough people vote and we change them but in the meantime okay yes classroom libraries are going to have to be card catalog okay it's the law so in Duval County what they did was they started that process because they are so big that they didn't think they could get that done before all during the summer time I'm hopeful we can get that done in the summer time and so nobody's been asked to take any books off of their shelves but if you think a time is not coming when we card catalog these and somebody is going to challenge that book it's coming and so it'll go through the challenge process which we have denoted here where there's going to be a committee I don't even want to get into the details

318of who the how how it's stacked not stacked all that that that's the how we don't do the how part we do the If part and so arguably looking at this by itself there is very little change to the actual policy we change the composition of the group of the group um allowing for more parents to be a part of the process that's ultimately what we have done here we have not added and I can tell you this policy will be back in June this policy will be back if you don't think this policy is coming back because let me tell you something they're trying to figure out a way to totally you know and I'm not a fan of extremes extremes are bad either way okay and I've been on both sides of the

319political Spectrum extremes are horrible but what's coming is Extreme and if you don't think it's coming it's coming and I think it's unfortunate like I said both extremes are bad both extremes are bad regardless of how you look at it so you know the other thing in the back of my mind as I look at this policy is how do I protect the Educators in our County how do I keep the Educators from ending up in fldoe because you know it's one of the things with I'll use the term ethics complaints you use whatever the mechanism is is that you may be innocent but the court of public opinion is going to drag you through the mud and so I am afraid that if we do not follow the law okay and mind you whether

320you agree with it or not these are being passed as laws okay they are going through the American Democratic process they're going through the house they're going through the Senate and they're being signed by the governor's mansion whether you agree with it or you don't and so I can tell you this conversation is going to be totally different come July because we're going to have to make decisions for our school districts that are going to protect our teachers from ending up now will some choose to be martyrs yeah there will be you know will some choose to leave the profession well some choose to leave the state yeah I could see that coming but that's going to be outside of our control because laws are being passed and I can tell you I'd be very

321surprised if the laws that come out don't strike this whole District review process and it becomes right out of Florida Department of Education that's what they want that's what's coming this is almost a waste of time because in reality this is changing faster than we can keep up with I have heard leaders from fldoe say that the legislature did not go far enough and they're hopeful that they'll do it this time whether you think that's good or bad it is what it is and that's what those are the lemons that we're being dealt to so sort out so I don't think that anybody on this board one way or the other is Extreme on one side or the other but we've got some really bad rotting lemons right now that we're all having to deal

322with nobody is comfortable with this situation there is no at least for me I'm not comfortable with this I really that this is this is rough I'm not going this is back to covet but at the same time I can tell you this is slipping out of our hands faster than we'll ever be able to do anything with and if you don't think the attack on local control is is not happening it very much so is and so with that being said you know I still have a lot of questions but quite frankly I don't think there is enough in this policy changing right now are there a lot of questions on opt-in opt out how are we going to do that what's that going to look like yeah but that's not what's on the

323table tonight the 19 books are not on the table tonight this is talking about the process itself and we haven't added any new state statute we haven't had it any new procedure it really is the same policy that's been here it's just it's just spelled out that's all I got thank you well and and to your point I think more of the fact that having the words in front of you is follow the policy and I think that that might be where we've gotten into trouble so far as we haven't followed the policy and you're right we are going to be back here again soon so I think with with the additions that you've put in Mr penley it's easier for the staff to have the information in front of them in order to follow

324the policy that has been in place Miss Thompson so I think after listening to everybody is the good news is one we all want our kids to read and I think that is a bigger issue is that the percentage of our kids that can read is very low and I think we just have different ways of getting there and so Mr cologne I think you're right this is going to continue to change I think we should go through and address this current policy with the understanding that we will be back here in June to do some updates and we do have the Committees that are allowed to do their job and I say we move forward with that and what we can right now Mr person yeah thank you and I appreciate everyone that took

325the time to speak um you all made some Brewery excellent points and I know that you're you're passionate about it and uh and I am too you know I was a teacher a long time a principal a long time and uh there have been parents upset about books ever since there have been books I mean I mean since even before books were printed uh people were upset about books and then when they when the printing press finally came out that you just print one so it was easy to get rid of one book they just burned it and that was the end of that it's not it's not so easy any anymore and it shouldn't be easy uh I I think we are we are talking about tethering or not tethering but walking a tight

326a tightrope on on constitutional rights um we all know that Tink reverse The Mooring case where Supreme Court ruled that students do not lose their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse store either do staff members so we got to be very very careful and I think we should be very careful about not just I think this policy the way we have it is fine and I'm in I'm in favor of adopting the policy I'm a little more concerned now with with the procedural side of it and I know that's not our our thing here and that the superintendent will decide to decide that but just to so that you will know I would not be in favor of a of a principal um having the authority to take a book off a show just because a

327couple of parents came in and said I don't like this book uh I don't think any one person should should do that if if a group of parents or one parent or anybody comes through the principal and says I'd object to this to this book the principal should say well you know fill out the form and so forth and then uh he follows a certain procedure but I don't think just because anybody comes in there that principle should feel in intimidated to uh to take the book off the shelf um we have some some principles with uh let's just say a lot stronger spine than some others and the principals need to know you know what the law is and what their what their rights are so I fully support our media specialists in this

328I fully group finds a objectionable so I just want to say that I I support this this policy uh and I want there are School folks and I think so Mr cologne made a made a very good point that I've also heard from Orange County Teachers about being afraid about about having books in their in their life in the library and I'm very happy that the superintendent re reported that we don't have teachers you know clearing out their classroom shelves and or covering them up with paper like you've seen stories so students don't have access to let's do what uh Jesse said like we should all be doing is encouraging a love of reading having access to to two books and certainly I support the the rights of parents who not wish their children to

329read a certain book absolutely those parents have that have that right but as has been said so many times tonight and before tonight um a parent's right stops with their child and it isn't for every for every child so Madam chair I just want to say I am in support of how we have changed amended policy 320. thank you Miss Thompson so moving forward the books that we will introduce to our libraries from now on all the new ones coming in I assume they'll be under the state statutes that we have in place correct meaning that they won't have explicit sexual content in them correct so we will be setting up some sort of barriers to what we allow in our libraries and what is available to students to check out correct the books that

330are purchased will follow the policy which and state statute which states that they're to be reviewed in um sorry take your policy from you the criteria for selections of materials is listed out in the very in section two and um are reviewed by a committee at the school level and the recommendations for purchases are made there so and part of the policy and the statute is that they follow and so then the books that are currently in the library that do not follow under that same state statute and or do not align with our curriculum well then no longer be available or will they be available I'm just trying to see if we're going to have like a before 2023 or after 2023 just to be clear this process has always been in place has

331it always been followed to my knowledge at the schools that I've been at like have I been I haven't been at every school so to say like every single school that it has been say that categorically but I I every school that I've been in touch with or when I have talked with media Specialists yes they say they have followed the policy we have always collected um information about media committees we have that historic data of who's served on media committees and how books are purchased and how they've been recommended so I know that that data is available because I'm literally just trying to see if we have books that are currently in our libraries and are available to be checked out and they followed the policies then why are they now be being brought

332up for review and trying to kind of avoid this process in the future well and one of the things that we've talked about is that we do have we we have a weeding process in place already that's been in place I think that the emphasis of of the weeding process in the past has really been about the circulation dates and the the um age of the books it hasn't as much a microscope hasn't been on the things that we've discussed tonight however we've always had that in place and one of the things that we've talked about is is putting out those assurances to Media Specialists and to our principals and to really anybody who's purchasing materials to have those assurances out so that it is there part of the weeding process which it it should

333be anyway so in theory moving forward we should have less of this circumstance because everything will follow the state statute and it seems like there's I mean I know we say we have these policies in place and they've been practiced but I feel like this particular subject has been under a microscope over the past six to eight months and so I just don't want to see us coming back over and over again and having people clashing over the same idea if it can be waited I know there are books out there that I mean I I can't read certain books for emotional reasons um and so I know my one opinion isn't for the entire County but I just don't want to see us beating a dead horse repeatedly so which is what I'm picking

334on so thank you for answering my questions so I can support what Carl said you know I shared with Dr B I had a concern about the principal piece because I didn't want our principles to become the target of um of sole decision making and I think that you know arguably if a principal had an issue with a book that was so egregious they would do the right thing I don't and that is to initiate the review process I I don't know that I want to put that on an individual principle to then get beat down individually because they made a decision one way or the other I do think though that and again this is going into the how which I caution you know the how there's still a lot of questions on the

335how but it's not what we're talking about tonight is how they would initiate that process in order to get the conversation going in their book review um and so I would support removing that upon review a principle may direct removal and it would just simply default to the book review process and that would take that burden off of an individual to have to own because you know you're not going to make everybody happy and we know this whether it's one side or the other it you're not going to make everybody happy and so when it's a corporate decision I think that's a lot more readily accepted than when it's an individual or perceived individual decision so thank you anyone else um Mega motion I've never made a motion here have you made a recommendation or

336not I forgot it's been so long we did I did for the policy we did that before we before the public okay okay so um I'd like to just add a few words I had a very extensive classroom Library as a teacher because to this day I'll take reading a book over watching anything on TV or a movie or I I have TVs that are in my home that pretty much only get turned on when uh grandchildren come or my dad comes to watch the news or football or whatever otherwise I wouldn't have a TV even in my house because I just it's never anything that's interested me I love to read um I think the thing that I need to say about all of this is there's a policy the the few changes which

337are my new like just saying District so you know that we're referring to District versus school and things like that um is really just to clarify to make sure because I find when things are vague like a sentence is vague or it's missing a word that it needs it's just better to put that word in there here's where I'll be honest with you I'm heartbroken about being at this point as an educator because it doesn't matter that I'm sitting up here in my heart I go to fill anything out and that's what I write I'm a teacher I'm an educator that I mean that's what I've spent my life doing and there's nothing more wonderful than turning children on to reading like and I and I've worked through all of those I've done the part

338where you teach them how to read okay then you start to teach them a love for reading um I want to say I appreciate what Lynn Sapp said tonight because I have a very similar story my daughter in Heist well starting High School thought there was a book she wanted to read and because I'm an Avid Reader I read the book first and said not now because she wasn't prepared for some of the content that was in there is where I'm at and I understand that as a society we have become more accepting or maybe even desensitized to things and I said back in February I'm not here to erase any part of history history needs to be told from the great pieces of History to the ugly nasty because that's how hopefully we learn

339not to repeat things that were done that were wrong I'm not here to erase anything about any type of family unit I mean we could spend hours listing all the different types of family units there are out there because our students are being raised in a variety of settings down to as I talked about earlier today we even have unaccompanied youth they don't have anyone we have kids in group homes we have kids being raised by parents we have you know and the parent can be a variety of parent situations single parents we have them being raised by grandparents aunt and uncles we have them in foster care so I'm not here to erase any of that and I even told you I was going to leave the language alone although I am telling you

340what you put into your mind is eventually what comes out of your mouth and I will tell you I I have been a little this is this is a piece I'm heartbroken about is the amount of profanity that is showing up in some of these books but as I said I was going to leave the profanity alone I mean because I understand as a society a lot of society has become perfectly acceptable in day-to-day conversations Justice spew profanity and you you can say that you don't agree with that word but I don't talk that way and people know that I don't talk that way you're not going to find me talking that way now I have been in situations where people use the f word in every sentence and I finally have looked at them

341and said I'd love to continue our conversation but could you please just you're not going to hear me say that or do that do that there's a lot of profanity in these books that have found their way and I will tell you I never had a book in my classroom library that had profanity okay but I think what I had a hard time accepting was when this topic started coming up about sexually explicitness in books whether it involved explicitly describing rape or incest or bestiality or who's having sex with who or what I really didn't believe it I said there's just no way these are children and I thought long and hard about this other day I have three grandchildren right now one just recently turned six because he's got one of those late birthdays

342one is three she'll be four at the end of next month and one is five months old my six-year-old grandson has already exhausted one third of his childhood because it's 18 years guys and so one third of his childhood is already gone they are children for such a short period of time my piece is when did we as a society and it's been coming for many years I think it was okay to shove them through that childhood and listen it's not just in in books that describe you know and let's be honest and and I've said I don't even want to look at this stuff because I don't want to read it that's not but when it's happening and everything it's it's the way we're dressing little ones okay it's now the language that we're

343using in front of them that maybe 15 years ago the parent would have used those words themselves but not said them because guess what kids do they do exactly what you do so you can't turn to them and say don't use that word because who they the person in the home or what you've allowed them see on TV it look at how many of our TV shows now are something that they would have never we would have never watched and I understand I'm older than people in this room okay okay but what I know is 18 years my grandson's already lost I mean he's already expended one-third of that childhood and personally as a grandparent I'd like for him to continue for the next two thirds I'm not hiding him from reality but I don't

344need him to watch a TV show pick up a book or be exposed on a daily basis to this language and I've seen a few of the pieces and I understand about reading a book in its entirety okay I've rarely not ever put a book down that I've picked up to read okay I'll read it it's entirety and I may read it again but here here's what gets me we know that there are children that choose to step into the sexual world before they're probably ready for it it happens okay we know unfortunately I've experienced this as a teacher there are children that incest happens in their home or rape may happen okay but the bottom line is if some of you like sex should not be described with even the language that's being used

345in some of these books is that really how you that child to think about something that should be a loving Exchange so that's why I'm heartbroken and I understand and here's the thing I'm not I'm not extreme I don't I can't stand extreme because extreme people don't look at children and what we're here to do and we're here to academically educate children in a safe learning environment this what this has become is about adults I'm I'm being honest with you my thought is this has become about adults how you're feeling you think you're not being respected or whatever I have never once said I respect teachers to the utmost that's what I am I'm a teacher and I go out to schools almost on a daily basis I am sitting in this seat having cut

346my salary more than 50 percent and froze where my retirement would be I'm not retired I don't get a retirement I walked in the door and went down to 39 200 to do this job why because I wanted to make a difference for children I want our children to read I want every one of them to have a strong academic Foundation because I want them to follow the path that will make them happy and that they will be able to do so that my ultimate goal is they'll come back to this community someday and be a productive citizen and what I tell them all the time when I get a chance to talk to high school students is not only do I want you to come back I want you to find a student to

347Mentor because I believe in mentoring I believe in being there and helping those children that may not have the best home situation so I really need people to go home and think about the fact 18 years by the time they are six and they come into kindergarten if they have a late birthday or they're in first grade one third of that childhood's already gone do we want to just let them be kids this morning my thing about the homework policy is I don't think there should really be a lot of homework because I think if they work hard during the day they should go home and play because our kids are missing out on play time and you know when they develop friendships and develop learning how to share and get along is when they

348play the worst thing we ever did is remove play from kindergarten if you want my honest opinion we should bring it back but nobody wants to talk about that we don't want to fight for bringing play back to kindergarten or whatever we want to talk about having a book because here's the thing every one of you that read the book you're an adult and we've become desensitized I mean the older we get we're like oh that you know that's okay but we don't remember what it would be like to read it as an 11 year old or a 14 year old I was expecting tonight to have a group of parents show up I had been warned that they maybe would show and I'm just going to say what happened because it's already out in

349the community last Monday we had a sixth grade science class where they were shown the real live video of birth not from where a dad typically stands up at the head but from seeing it all and they're up in arms that their 11 year olds were shown a video of a live birth without permission heck we have to have the permission for the changes program that doesn't do any of that I was expecting those parents to come tonight maybe they came and saw the club and realized they didn't want to stay and speak but can we just stop and think about what we're doing and that's where I'm at and I'm gonna I'm gonna end with that piece we have emotion we have a sec huh we don't know okay sorry Dr balgaman make a

350well she made she made the recommendations all right I I do apologize Mr clone there was something you wanted removed part about the principle that whole line so we have to ask how everybody else feels about that um otherwise we could just do what I say and that never happens so not even at home so your wife's listening here she is listening all right um is that in there is that in there it's the state okay so if you go to it's on page three there is a statement at the top in red that says Upon A upon review of principal may direct the removal of material he or she deems in violation of Florida law if I heard correctly as I was slipping back in that's the statement you want removed yes I think

351it should just be the review process mean arguably if they want to check the book out they certainly are welcome to do yeah I just didn't feel like it should be uh okay that sole decision so let me let's hold on Mr penley I know we've been round and round Mr clone wants to remove that statement Mrs Burnett I'm reading the whole the whole paragraph I'm reading the paragraph into the entirety thank you thank you that was going to be my point Madam chair is that I believe that it needs to be read in Perry material with the rest of the paragraph keep in mind Section 3 is the responsibility for selection of materials in the first place well here you say ultimately here is the deal there is a there is a media specialist

352with a media committee that is supposed to be selecting books they meet four times a year that will be purchased and placed on the shelves for the following school year ultimately the media Specialist or the media committee cannot make cannot sign for the purchase of those books they can make the they can say here's what we want but the responsibility does rest on the shoulders of the principle because the principle he or she when they sign to make that purchase and they allocate the funds to it they are responsible at that time I mean I'm kind of okay with it with the entire paragraph Mr pendley pursuant to rule 6A 4.02514 administrative code is required that the school principal is responsible for compliance with the school district procedures for School library it's the way that

353we have instructed our staff and it's part of our training I'm reviewing the PowerPoint on training so my thought here and as I recall the board's comments the last meeting or Workshop or whenever we want let's discuss this the feeling was that a principal there's no point of having a procedure for objection to a book if someone points out principal Jones you failed to see that there was the sexual content in this book and he looks at it and says she looks at it and says I made a mistake do we need to go through a school level review procedure do we need to take that up to a district level review it's different than a challenge where someone has to come in and make an objection if everyone agrees at the table we simply

354this book came through and had content that we weren't aware of we made a mistake it shouldn't require going through the entire objection and review procedure so my thought is that it already says that the principal Consulting with the media specialist is responsible for final evaluation and selection from the school's media center but then are you there okay so this is where it got paid and there was questions asked even from principals that reached out and said though but we didn't know that when the when the specialist in the media committee gave us a list that we could actually like review it or that if there was something in there that they put on the list that did not follow the state statute that they would be held responsible I mean the bottom line is

355Carl you know I mean principles are held responsible for everything there is exactly but at the same time like Dr balguban she's responsible for everything too but she's putting her faith and trust in a lot of other people who have ex expertise in certain areas and I'm telling you that it because the principal signs that they approved the purchase of all the books principal didn't read it in any of those books and it may know very little about those those books so all on my my point is I'm not so concerned about the purchase of the books I'm concerned about when if someone was the challenge this paragraph is about the purchasing of the book yes so this is the challenge is they fill out the form and it goes to the school Review Committee

356right this is about the purchasing and ultimately they're responsible for signing yeah that's fine you know I mean that's that's the way it's the way it's been it's what it says about I mean it does it I mean it says the principal Consulting with the media specialist is responsible for the final evaluation and selection of materials for the media center and then upon that review a principal may direct the removal of material he or she deems in violation of the Florida law off of the list but purchase it that's what it means yes what if we didn't say removal but declined the purchase of material yeah exactly same thing but I think it belongs in that paragraph and I also think it says in violation of Florida law so are they an attorney now do

357they read you know the whole reason why this law got put in the footnotes was because nobody was reading the law like the it already spelled out what the law is like I'm looking at the old I'm looking at the current policy it has it but then nobody read the law I mean they now have to go through media training um you know that says the same stuff because it has what the law is and this law has not changed this has been the law for how many years I just this is what I've heard when I've asked people oh I didn't know I mean it's like we talked about earlier today I didn't know or it had a sticker on it and so I just trusted or it came in this set so we

358didn't review it listen I've had I've even had people tell me and this is where sometimes I'm like just stop telling me I don't want to know I'd like to play I'd like to go out back to being naive but I've had people say to me I'm on the media committee and the media specialist just says hey just stop by and sign the form because you trust me so they're like I signed a form but I didn't look at any of the books again that goes into the house because we haven't purchased them how do people make a determination for books that we are purchasing if we haven't yet even purchased them is this is going to get really complicated I know but I mean what's it say in the policy what's it say in

359the law I don't care are we I mean how's that I'm saying the media specialist as their own entity as a single agent can just choose everything because it says the principal right in Consulting with the media specialist is responsible but part of their procedures is they have a media committee and they meet four times a year at least they decide on the books and they make a recommendation that's what's supposed to happen but we don't know if it happens but Madam cheer I think I think we can vote on this what's in front of us I think we need to advertise it and Mr cologne I mean I got a motion yeah she made the recommendation you Mr persis yeah I do I have a second I'll second all right Mr persus has made

360the motion Mrs Burnett has seconded the motion all right at this time we are going to vote on authorization to advertise the proposed amendments to policy 320 media selection of print and non-print materials any further discussion hearing none I will call for the vote all those in favor of the amendments to policy 320 please state by saying aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously thank you Mr penley so when will this come back for our final vote I would expect the last meeting in April because it'll take a few days to get it won't be in time for the first meeting in April it won't actually won't make it in time I don't think we'll make it in time for the second meeting April I think it's going to have to be the first

361meeting of May because it's going to be because we meet on the 25th this will come back on to May 9th all of the policies that were put out for advertisement or be that we approved to advertise whether we're updating them past the 30-year Mark or whatever they can't come back before May 9th okay all right then we're moving on to our final public participation um of the evening I have two cards right now Mr Gomez do you have any other cards for me all right then the first person to speak will be Christine Serie A followed by Elizabeth Albert we are on item 17.01 good evening again um first I want to acknowledge I have heard repeatedly that the board makes policy the district enforces policy in his procedural a lot of the problems

362that I'm hearing is well they didn't know or they're not following it that sounds to me like it's an operational a procedural problem not necessarily a policy problem but I digress I want to talk about the 19 book challenges as it's been talked about tonight the Committees were notified that the superintendent accepted their recommendations to keep 18 of the books on the shelves with an opt-in option the 19th book was recommended to be removed from all schools which was read earlier today why are we talking about an opt-in policy an opt-in option I should say I'm sorry opt-in option when everything else is an opt-out our computers are given out with an opt out policy you just approved to talk about it the next time there are uh oh sorry the new technology policy puts

363the burden on the parent which is what I think everybody is asking that each parent makes their own decisions and not the district says there's a limitations of liability section that the computer does not imply that the district endorses any content in the computer it goes on to say that VCS denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through the internet why can't our policy for media be similar why can't the policy be an opt out why do we have to have an opt in for our books computers pose a bigger issue than any book on our shelves in Volusia County School those computers that are handed to students which need to be handed to students our curriculum is on there is an issue talk about curriculum keeps being asked about how

364these books being challenged support our curriculum and earlier today was actually asked if a book doesn't support the curriculum will it be pulled all library books support the curriculum the same as Diary of a Wimpy Kid Harry Potter The Very Hungry Caterpillar those support our curriculum those are books in our library but if you were to open up The Very Hungry Caterpillar you'd say where does this what curriculum does this fit into I think we can all agree fits into our curriculum doesn't have to be something exactly on an assignment given the department of education's office of library media Services mission is to support District library media supervisors and other stakeholders ensuring that school librarians create and maintain quality library programs that Foster the love of reading and the effective use of ideas and information

365by both students and faculty the mission is accomplished by building programs that provide intellectual and physical access to materials in a variety of formats and I'll talk about booklets in an email that I'm going to send to you guys I have serious concerns about that thank you um Elizabeth Albert good evening Madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr balgubin hours late it's almost Wednesday believe it or not and some of you I'm sure have been here more than 12 hours so just wanna a couple things real quick after all of the conversation that we've had today regarding policy 302 and all things related to books the teachers that I'm sitting with in the back have no tangible takeaway from tonight I'm pointing out this because our instructional Personnel the nearly 3 000 teachers that

366we represent have no clear understanding of what this all means to them and their practical day-to-day application David Finkel a master teacher that you all know very well has shared that people in this hallway are getting rid of their books is that an overreaction is that what we need to do we don't have clear directive and we need it tonight should have demonstrated for you not only with this policy I spoke about it earlier we need to tell people what what they're expected to do even a do and don't right but there's no guard rails for anybody around this we've had some isolated conversations here and there about what the expectation is but your over 4 000 instructional Personnel that work in this District don't have an idea of with clarity so there there's that

367and remember you have 184 vacancies in March we don't see these numbers in March in a normal year how do we correct this by doing better with telling people what they're expected to do keeping them safe thank you for that point and I'll end with this when a young man who's been visiting these meetings for the last three years past I'd consider whether he's allowed to stay in this room to hear the conversation in a public meeting I think it is past the time when we raise the level of discourse we certainly should be able to talk about things as adults without having to go to the lowest possible denominator to get the point across so I think the time is for us to shift up and to talk about what we need to do

368to get clarity on these situations thank you thank you we're moving on now to item 18.01 items from board members superintendent or board attorney for discussion announcement or approval Mr cologne I have nothing just wanted to tap the button this is Burnett good night good night Mr purses the only thing that was a very thing about library books and it was just so positive and so great you would love it if you didn't read it uh the thing was uh point that Miss Albert just made I'm just speaking to the superintendent now I mean if there is anything that you think you need to say or what should they be doing I wouldn't want our teachers to you know you would think they would go to their principal and they would ask their principal what

369should I be doing but if the if the principal says well I'm not sure then you know that makes that makes us look bad so I'm not saying you need to answer me but I'm just saying it would be seeing it's like it might be helpful if there is some direction that you could give to all of our teachers and just lastly Madam chair uh I'm I'm concerned about um The Vaping issue and you know how much of it is going on and uh I'm a little concerned about whether policy regarding it and the consequences for doing it and the consequences for not just doing it but for those students who bring these substances and are selling it to other students I think that that Jacks it up and so if maybe if students Services

370could take a look or Mr Pender someone at a at a workshop Madam chair I'm not saying but if we had something maybe a little different in place before the start of the next school year that's all I'm bringing up thank you good job tonight thank you Mr persis and you know what I have those same concerns you do about the what's happening with vaping and CBD oil being on snacks snacks so much stuff in what they're vaping that's what's dangerous yes and it's very dangerous isn't the code of conduct set to come before us soon yeah there are those changes I think it is we've now we've now seen vaping at the elementary level selling it but I mean I basically said to parents if your children are at the elementary level they should

371never have any cash or money with them because if you want them to have a snack from the you know cafeteria then you can put money in their account so they don't have to carry any cash and or you can send the snacks I mean when we learned it the LA one of the last act meetings that you now need to check if your kid comes home with Oreos Skittles gummy or Takis and you didn't send them to school with them or have money for them to get like to get it for you know you need to check it because third they got CBD oil on them and Madam chair they're so sophisticated I know it's like this oh yeah it looks like a pen and there's no vaping device there's no odor I mean

372yes we've never uh voted on that next Workshop changing the time to an earlier time the August April 11th did we want to bring that to an earlier time forward with the policy right now we can't vote while it's being advertised okay sounds good that was a question okay um Thompson I think that Carl makes a great point and that is a great discussion to have at length because I agree the selling part is what bothers me I mean The Vaping itself is bad enough but the kids selling it it's not even a CBD it's the THC and you've got drugs and the gummies all that another day please everyone drive safely and thank you for everyone who came out to speak um to the point of Mr purses and Mr cologne several things are

373happening now that I can speak to as you know we're in legislative sessions and um there's a weekly legislative update that goes out pretty much to our principles it's being sent by Mr Gomez in addition to that in our in our principal meetings monthly principal meetings there's a segment where we discuss them and answer questions just to make sure that we're all on the same page in addition to that moving forward a couple things these policies as you know we're working in the third year at this point in time so these policies as we're updating these policies the intended audience will receive communication of the updates that's going to be happening throughout as we update but in addition to that also I mentioned and you're absolutely right someone said there is only a specific but

374it will be there and then the video will be sent to all other instructional Personnel or intended audience that's not there in addition to that you you hear from Tiffany in the month of April she'll be talking about the the restructuring that we're doing for recruitment support and retention the support piece is going to be in the middle Tiffany is going to talk about how the onboarding is going to Encompass quite a bit of these policies and the do's and don'ts for for our teachers and our instructional well instructional Personnel overall and then in our administrative annual administrative Institute it also will be there as a refresher for every administrator new or not new it will be a refresher for every administrator so there are several layers moving forward when it comes to communication that

375will be taking place at every level thank you manager then I will um give the final remarks and we will close with the main Miss Albert I do appreciate what you said about the 183 vacancies and I don't know if Mr cologne will remember this but when he and I got on the board one of the things that we in 2018 moving into 2019 one of the things we tried to get the answer to and struggled with at the at the time was finding out how many vacancies there are and actually it was around this time of the year that we found three times and there were February 10th and there were 224 vacancies that nobody even knew about right so and that was pre-covered okay so I I hear you and like I'd like

376to have no vacancies but I just remember Dana page Pender sitting there and like every time we would ask at every meeting it was like pulling teeth and one time we heard like 140 some but then we said well what about this this and this and there's like okay seem to know more information than what you they didn't want us to know okay so I I will at least say I agree with you 183 is too many but I do at least appreciate that our current HR Group is honest and transparent parent and tells us the way it is because that's all we've ever wanted is to know that but what I will say is I do hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and um Tallahassee was fun um no I said I hope

377everyone had a wonderful spring break I hope you all had a wonderful no some of us would like to have spring break because we haven't had a spring break yet um I will tell you I gave each of you in your stack we're not going to talk about it because tonight took too long but this is what our lobbyists were handing while we were in Tallahassee to each of the members of the House of Representative or the speakers I'd like for each of you to read this and I'm assuming Mr penley will be on your one-on-ones and so if you have any questions he could answer this because we've had further discussion about pros and cons to this document that was handed out and I'd like to encourage people if you're listening help me out

378with something here's a topic I talked about in Tallahassee and I was basically told it's just going to pass right now Jamie but we'd be happy to talk to you with later about what you're sharing and will do an amendment now here's my thing I like to write something so it doesn't have to be amended House Bill one got signed guys here's what it needs it needs some safeguards for our children here's my recommendations of the safeguards and I told anybody that would listen to me up there just as we as a district receive our funding in crements throughout the school year they do not hand us all that money on July 1. we get a startup increment we get an increment after the October FTE we get an increment after the February FTE and

379then we get the final calculation and they give and take based on enrollment we need a safeguard for all those students that are currently in Charter private and or home school that are going to take those eight thousand dollar checks per student it needs to be given in increments I truly believe that because here's what we've experienced they go out to one of the charter schools the charter school gets their full 8 000 on August 1st and then they kick them back out and send them to us and money does not really follow the child so if we're going to say Money Follows the child then we need to have some safeguards so my other talking point on that is this because I believe in parent choice my other talking point on that is along

380with the money being handed out in increments there needs to be if there if we're going to move that homeschool route which is what that bill says they should have to register with the homeschool office and I believe everyone whether they're in private Charter Public or home school there should be a piece built in where there is artifacts collected and or assessments given that forget when we found a ten-year-old several years ago whose parents were homeschooling her and she did not yet recognize her name or know any letters this is opening up yes for choice but it's also opening up a can of worms I had to in this District help close to charter schools that didn't do the right thing by kids if we're here for kids then we need to talk to all

381of our legislators about putting in safeguards to ensure that children are educated and I will leave you with that tonight thank you the meeting is adjourned Miss Haynes are you giving us punishment homework for having a late meeting