001e e e yeah I don't even meet my own neighbors who live there still says good afternoon but that's interesting today is Tuesday March 25th 2025 and the time right now is 4:32 p.m. we're going to start today's Schoolboard meeting we welcome each and every one of you that are here in the audience or listening from home and just a moment I'm going to ask you to stand and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem the Pledge of Allegiance will be by Forest Lake um Elementary safety patrols and to land High's marching band will be the national anthem following both of those please remain standing for a moment of silence thank you this time please stand to join me hi there my name is coach D I'm in charge of the
002uh safety patrol team here at Forest Lake Elementary and they will be reciting the Pledge of Allegiance for you all I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liity and justice for all [Music] la e [Music] thank you may be seated so at this time I'd like to introduce those that are here with me on my far left we have Mrs Donna brosmer representing District 4 the Mrs Christa Goodrich representing District 2 Dr Gilbert Evans our Schoolboard attorney moving on over to my far right we have Miss Celeste Gilmore our agency clerk Mrs Jesse Thompson representing District 3 Mr Ruben colone our vice chair representing District 5 then Dr Carmen Balman our wonderful superintendent and I'm Jamie Haynes your
003chair at this time representing district one items for approval on the agenda are items 1.02 2.02 6.02 18.01 and 18.0 two public participation times for items on the consent agenda there is a time to speak prior to us voting on The consent agenda there's also a 6 PM period for items of general interest pertaining to public education and vucha County a total of up to 15 minutes will be provided for public comment at this time then time will be provided for public comment on any action item before a board vote is called on that item and then time will be provided at the end of the meeting for public comment for items of general interest pertaining to public education in valua County before items from the board superintendent or School Board attorney are up for
004discussion or announcement our district vision statement is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an Ever Changing Global Society at this time I invite any of the school board members to share brosmer I have very little to say at this moment I spent the last couple of weeks dealing with uh legislation and in Tallahassee and so I'll save most of my comments for later but um I thought it was a great trip and I really appreciated being able to go thank you Mrs Thompson yeah welcome back everyone from spring break hope everyone started off the week very fun for a Monday um I will say as a reminder that the superintendent spring reading challenge is still going on and I'm very very well aware of that because my children constantly have me log in their minutes
005for all these books that Take 5 to seven minutes to read so thank you Dr Babin for initiating that challenge you're very welcome it's been fun all Spring Break um also I know there were quite a few of us that went to Tallahassee and I will say it was I think the best trip yet as far as talking to our legislators and really helping them understand what we're going through whether it's in testing or safety um a lot of the concerns I know we've all gotten emails about um they were we had a lot of really really good conversations so hoping to see a lot of improvements and just moving forward with education so thank you thank you Mr cologne and so as everyone stated welcome back from spring break uh there so many great
006things have been going on the Arts in valua County are alive and well I will tell you we've had so many wonderful concerts both at uh middle school high school level that um folks have no idea I I sometimes wonder if we just need to invite all our Chambers to a free concert so they because they have no idea that the quality of uh musicians that we have here in vucha County um we had the uh CTE Awards now don't forget I'm making up for last time so bear with me um CTE Awards again congratulations uh to those folks uh we had the opportunity to serve uh breakfast I may be going back a little bit further but that's okay you all will forgive me um the attendance challenge I'm really proud to say that
007our schools have stepped it up uh I know that we had a recognition for the second time at pineridge uh we had a recognition at Heritage recognition at Delona middle and recognition at Galaxy and spirit Elementary not so it looks like uh they are doing I can tell you across the district and I've heard it people are doing very creative things to uh motivate students to come to school to bring awareness to parents of the importance of students being in school and kind of taking away the uh lazad isical um you know let's just miss a day because it does add up special shout out to um Mike and his team who I know and social workers and you know when you go to the schools and you see all the different folks that come
008together and you know while the principal gets the recognition oftentimes there's an army and they're like yeah no these are the ladies that are doing it whether it's ice cream popsicles I mean I remember as a kid doing anything for a Cheeto so you know it it definitely motivates them and so again shout out to all our schools uh for all that work that they've been doing many of our bands have been to uh F to MPA and come back with superiors I know both pineridge and Deltona High did amazingly well and there were also some middle school students that participated so again the Arts are alive in well in Belushi County I want to take a moment just to remind everyone that the sports physicals are coming up I know a lot of times
009um you know it's it's this year back and people oftentimes will say well I don't know if my kid's GNA play next year well go get a physical because if you have any inclination that they might and that includes Middle School basketball a band Roc any student that is out in the field in the heat uh we do have the opportunity to also have the EKG screenings there uh and so again those will be taking place Dr balaman you have those dates I would imagine but uh April 2nd 3rd 4th and fifth at the speedway if your child needs Transportation please make sure they speak to the principal of the school transportation is available uh for our students um I'm G to keep going here I'm almost done it's almost 8 o'clock and I think
010that is it for now thank you Mrs goodr I want to give a shout out to T Teague and Sugar Mill and thank them um for welcoming welcoming me onto campus showing me all the things that are going on and for being in just incredible the staff is working so hard and I I don't think they get enough recognition about how hard they're working to both um increase attendance and also to take the data of all the information that they're getting and make improvements with the students so I really thank them for showing me all that they're doing and can't wait to see more schools so I um I do want to give a shout out for Taylor Middle High for winning the attendance award for the second quarter um they earned first place and
011it was nice to go out there and to be able to give those students that award then also um our Dand and greater West fuia Chamber at this time of year out recognizing um the Danny Gan and Schools of Excellence here on the West side of the county and so prior to spring break we were at Southwestern Middle School Dr balam and I to wreck um to Wrecking ni Southwestern for the Improvement and growth that they made from last year um with their academics and we have another one tomorrow where we'll um be visiting but there are throughout the rest of um throughout April because April is just around the corner so we'll be recognizing the schools here on the West side of the county with that award but I did something different this year
012um Freedom Elementary reached out and this is not normally an area that I'll be honest with you I'm comfortable with put me in front of a room full of kids and I'm great put me in front of a room full of adults and I'm not so sure about that but Freedom Elementary once again right before spring break did their staff talent show and it was so much fun but they asked me to come over and MC it with a student from dantai and trust me he made it all fun and worthwhile but each of the different grade levels the teachers and staff and even from some of the special programs and all that they got up on stage and it was almost standing room and we even moved children to sit on the floor in
013front of the stage to watch it so there was more more seating for the adults but they all performed but the final every performance was wonderful and they picked songs that kind of um related to the kids like um the whole Gummy Bear song If you guys don't know the gummy bear song the teachers were dressed in the whole Gummy Bear piece and by the way they handed out gummy bears at that same time so of course they all went wild I've never heard that song How does it go I'm not singing the gummy bear song But at the end of the evening me either we should let her at the end of the evening the administrative team and front office staff did the final thing and Dr Eric's up there with a guitar okay
014and they are playing and the place went wild and um Miss Murray the assistant principal she was the lunch lady so if you know whatever that that song is it was just it was so much fun and it was a nice way that Thursday evening I I was like it's Thursday evening and spring break starts tomorrow for kids we're not going to have a room full of people no it was packed and it was fun for the kids it was fun for the parents and I think the staff enjoyed it themselves so if anybody else wants to do something like that reach out to Freedom Elementary because it was a blast and I enjoyed myself and if they asked me to go back next year I would be happy to go back and um help
015them out with that program because it was great but at this time we're moving on to item 1.03 approval of the minutes board members you've had an opportunity to read the minutes from the March 11th workshop and from the Schoolboard meeting do I have someone that' like to make a motion to approve the minutes I'll make the motion thank you Mrs goodr do I have a second second thank you Mr cologne any discussion hearing none I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the workshop and the Schoolboard meeting minutes from March 11th 2025 please say I I any opposed it passes unanimously we are now moving on to item 2.01 agenda changes Dr balaman are there any agenda changes before the agenda is presented to the board for approval Madam chair I
016have no changes at this time okay board members you've heard that there are no changes at this time do I have someone to make a motion to approve the presented agenda motion to approve thank you Mrs Thompson do I have a second second thank you Mrs brosmer any discussion hearing none I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the agenda as it's been presented this evening please say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously we are now on to item 3.01 Dr Babin your announcements thank you madam chair board members members of the audience I see some of our principles and staff members and students in here Welcome to our school board meeting for those of you tuning in from home thank you for joining us um I hope everyone had
017a wonderful spring break I will tell you that usually we do Monday and Fridays and Monday you look at everyone coming in and they seem very very Rel relax and you know you could tell that they were able to disconnect a little bit and then on Fridays I'd like to do that view again and you can tell that they had a week but um it's not Friday yet guys um couple things I want to share with you you're absolutely right uh Miss Thompson because our students and I Charlie needs to log in her minutes for the spring reading challenge um we our students will have to access bean stack or our parents and log those minutes in 400 to 500 99 minutes gives you a Daytona Lagoon arcade pass and over 600 minutes gets you
018a Daytona Lagoon water park tickets what is Charlie going for we've already surpassed the 600 for both kids so we're going to the water park I assume so so we're gonna have to step it up a little bit don't you think absolutely now fluency our fluency challenge is for our second through fifth graders and that's the spring fluency Challenge and that will run until till May the 2nd guys so again um the grade level across the district with the highest percentage of students completing their target I ready fluency flight days they will win a Kona Ice party make sure we share that I absolutely will um in addition to that upcoming dates April 2nd is regarded as World Autism Awareness Day um April 2nd also is par professionals Appreciation Day we will have something going
019out for our par Professionals for that day and also something a message going out for um world autism day in addition to that April the 4th it's National School libr library librarian day April the 6 through the 12th national library week and April 7th through the 11th it's National assistant principal weeks and I see we have some assistant principal here so we will be celebrating our APS during that week in addition to that um I will share with you that just before Spring Break um Miss Thompson myself and Mr Cash we had the opportunity of attending the southeast valua Chamber of Commerce their breakfast we had an opportunity of sharing a little bit of some of the successes that our students have earned and our our uh staff has earned here in vucha County but
020more importantly I want to say thank you to all of our chamber ERS including our Southeast valua Chamber of Commerce because I will tell you my our experience in working with our Chambers is truly it's an engaging one it's one that's truly supportive as a matter of fact I think before spring break as well our team participated in a literacy Workshop um facilitated by the Daytona Chamber of Commerce so our Chambers of Commerce are truly entrenched and working along our sides and our successes are their success and we know that schools are part of communities so we want to thank them for their ongoing support um miss you talked a little bit about the Danny gainan School of Excellence award so tomorrow there is a surprise there's another school that will be receiving a $500
021check and this is being done by the the land of the land and greater West greater West fua they are the one who sponsored this so I want to also thank our friend and partner in education who was there um Jo Joe Hearn and we look forward to seeing him tomorrow and and some of the board members were there as well um we would like to again once again congratulate South Western middle school for um improving their academic grade to a b this past year and I know that they're working feverishly to get to that a status so congratulations um Dr Tai and and the entire team but also you know what Miss Jacque Copeland who was there and and put those foundations in place we want to thank the entire team and with that
022said I hate to disappoint you this evening but I have no v short videos for you I'm sure we'll make up next time next time yes all right then we're moving right along to item 4.01 our Sunshine State Scholars Dr balabin yes Madam chair board members we have one recognition tonight honoring our Sunshine State Scholars and this is a big deal as you know belua county is one of those the one of the best when it comes to science and stem we all know that I think we're top three in in in in the State of Florida so I would like to ask our wonderful coordinator she's here Miss J Taylor she will come and announce and speak a little bit and then announce our state winners thank you for having me um each year
023the State of Florida asks each School District to select their top two 11th grade students in the areas of science technology engineering or mathematics and one alternate students from all 10 high schools submitted applications which included an essay on what they felt was the top stem issue of their day and how they would solve it in addition to the essay they are asked to submit their GPA SAT scores ACT scores their volunteer hours and any awards they've received in math and science this is the cream of the crop behind behind me in Belia County we actually recognized three Sunshine State Scholars and they were invited to a special event at emry Riddle with imsa where we were able to spend the day with them two of our Sunshine State Scholars along with their parents will
024be honored in Tallahassee by the commissioner of education and in addition they will meet with representatives from Florida colleges universities and businesses to discuss higher education opportunities that are available to them in the State of Florida we want to keep them here at this time I would like to introduce all three Sunshine State Scholars if they would come up um Ava Henderson from Atlanta K School Caleb Lewis Caleb Lewis from new samna Beach High School and Garrick Spencer from Deltona High School just want to personally thank each and every one of you for making us proud in the area of stem at this time we will start with the first um picture with Dr balabin uh Garrick Spencer and we have certificates for them that they will receive at some point correct they have them
025right here okay oh good so we're gonna we're gonna start with Ava start with AA yes and so principal family anyone that's here with AA I understand been a couple hours wait all right everyone right here [Applause] congratulations congrats congratulations what is that yeah for real oh oh my goodness conat congratulations congratul everyone take one step to your left [Applause] you have to be sooud congratulations swe I know I love we dad am tell [Applause] thank you pictures us right we're done with pictures right we are now moving on to item 5.01 at this time we are at the consent agenda are there any cards completed where anyone wants to speak about anything on the consent agenda we're good okay then at this time do bman are there any items requiring removal on the consent
026agenda Madam chair I have no um items board members are there any items on the consent agenda that you would like to remove for further discussion or remove for Standalone I have one okay what item uh 1201 one and it's not for a separate vote it's not for not no so 1201 for Mrs brosmer are there any other items um Madam chair I have item see it it's the one for the asking for an increase in the totals hold on I'm going to make it bigger so I can see it here that is 9 10 is it there is no 9.10 no it's 10.04 the increase in request and I don't need that for a second vote I just wanted to make a comment 10.04 10.04 which is expenditure increase request yes I I found
027any other items we're going to start in numerical order so um Mr clone will start with you for item 10.04 so I wanted to share I asked uh Mr CE for for the totals of you know this is asking for an increase but I had asked for the totals of what we've expended for the year uh and so I just wanted to say um some of these might equate to the ability to hire some folks for example what we're spending on speech pathologists and uh interpreting services and Etc so I just I'm sure they're doing this I just want to verbalize that maybe we could find ways or incentives that we can use to help uh potentially hire some of these folks uh full-time uh see what we need to do in order to do
028that to reduce the cost of uh the agencies um I have a feeling that the costs are not going to continue to go down and so uh finding the ability and what it would take uh to entice folks to come work for the school district District rather than for the agencies um would be a plus so that was my only uh statement on that one thank you okay thank you and I actually when um I met with them in agenda conference brought up the same concerns that you had that if we could find some speech and language pathologist or especially um our for our deaf and heart of hearing if we could find interpreters and we could bring them inous I think it would be more beneficial for our students and for us great we're
029now moving on to item 12.01 Mrs brosmer uh thank you um Madam chair I I'm looking for some understanding about how schoolway Cafe uh works because it was my understanding that they kind they had their own budget and so I was looking at uh this list of of um positions and if I'm reading it correctly of the six two are existing and four are new so I was curious to know if they have their own budget why are they on our agenda how how does that work okay I think I oh oh There here they are Miss Workman our executive director for HR and Miss B core our chief operation officer um the first thing I'd like to address are the job descriptions all of these are existing positions um they have been under one
030job description so it would be like an assistant but then there would be assistant one responsibili Assistant two three four so through our cleanup process we want every position to have its own Standalone job description so that's why it looks like they're new they're only new in regards that they're being removed from that umbrella okay so that's just language change is all it is making it nice and clean thank you and Patty yes good evening and the reason that it comes to the board is because any job uh descriptions or any job changes come through the board regardless of the funding so job descriptions come changes come to the board so they are still technically employees of the district yes ma'am yes they are okay but separately funded that is correct they they come out
031of their um own funding through schoolway Cafe okay um thank you that was that was all I needed I just wanted to understand how it worked thank you thank you all right any further discussion on any of the items for consent okay hearing none I need someone to make an approval to approve the consent agenda as it's written so moved thank you Mrs brosmer do we have a second second thank you Mrs Goodrich hearing no further discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda for this evening please say I I any opposed it passes unanimously we are now moving on to we're skipping item 16 at this time because we are not at 6 PM so we're moving on to item 17 which is a presentation item 17.01
032leadership development of principles at Harvard Graduate School of Education Dr Balaban thank you madam chair to provide a little bit of context we all know that Futures Foundation is our Educational Foundation and they have been extremely gracious in understanding that we need to have a strong pipeline we need to build um practices when it that are research-based practices we need to ensure that our team when it comes to the knowledge base when it comes to skill SK skill set that it's Cutting Edge and with that said they have sponsored for us the very first cohort of um instructional leaders to attend one a Premiere truly outstanding I would say international program for leadership practices to um a group of principles that that attended this cohort the very first so one of the expectation and one
033of the targets of that proposal is that our principles would attend this seminar which it was a very rigorous seminar I think they were there they start at 8:00 they would conclude close to six o'clock every day they will be given homework every day um very rigorous platform come back and put together a trainer of trainer models for our principles here in fuchia county and this team did just that so we are at midpoint now and they would like to provide the board but also tomorrow morning they will be providing Futures foundation with an overview of how that trainer of trainer model is coming along and as we look at our second cohort um again thanks to Futures foundation so I would like to ask at this point that Dr Joe castelli our director now
034but back then he was one of the attendees when he was principal at um Mainland um D our director for secondary schools Alicia Douglas our wonderful principal from manate Cove Elementary um Mr Josh Jackson uh principal for Creekside Middle and Miss Waffa pisolo waa look at that pisolo um or coordinator yes that's how it's pronounced coordinator for professional learning they will come forward and share give you a a brief overview of how that train of traal model is coming along I I mentioned Jackson didn't I did I not [Applause] Josh we still have a few sitting well good evening School Board chair oh I am so sorry please sorry pause am I missing anyone else that's here for the trainer of trainer Dr if I may yeah the other participants Joy boy Walker um is
035here as well miss boy Walker um because they're presenting all of them attended Harvard including Holly Bailey back there anyone else I don't want to miss anyone qu Miss Copeland Miss Copeland is here also and she was a principal last year and she was a principal last year all right so we can all stand together if you'd like to have them stand we definitely all together and absolutely we will do that thank you I've been waiting why don't you guys just join the team guys you came came all the way here Jo join join the team thank you Dr B I love the coordinated CH I love it I love it look at that very [Applause] nice okay we can't Josh needs to move over yeah no no no no fine that trip was like
036this there we go there hold on Danielle's coming the official camera while we're here [Music] beautiful nice it's all yours well good evening Schoolboard chair Haynes Mr cologne Mrs Goodrich Mrs Thompson Mrs brosmer and superintendent balaman my name is Dr Joseph castelli and I serve as the Director of secondary schools from July 14th through the 19th last summer 11 of us had the privilege of attending the leadership development for principal training at the Harvard University today we are excited to share our transformative experience and discuss how it has significantly enhanced our leadership capabilities ultimately driving increased student achievement within our schools this presentation aligns with our guard rail one which focuses on building leadership capacity to recruit support develop and retain high quality staff as well as guard rail guard rail 2 of our district
037strategic plan which aims to provide an environment conducive to enhancing student learning participating in last Summer's first cohort at the Harvard experience are our chief academic officer Dr Julio nazari o executive director of elementary schools Miss chrisy Castellanos executive director of secondary schools Dr Tamara Baker Drayton director of secondary schools Mr William reer executive director of ESC Miss jaquis copelan coordinator of professional learning Miss Waffa petrolo principal at Blue Lake Elementary School Miss Holly Bailey principal at Main or manate Cove Miss Alicia Douglas principal at T T small Miss Joy Boyd Walker and principal at Creekside Middle School Mr Joshua Jackson so the question is why why does a team from vucha County travel to Cambridge Mass and attend Harvard for a trip such as this let it be known that the Harvard graduate school
038of education is the Premier Graduate School of Education in the United States and around the world higy as it's commonly referred to is the home of the leading thinkers on educational leadership working collaboratively with the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of leadership and public policy when you walk around Harvard forever you see the word Veritas truth ultimately that's our why to seek truth to study and to understand is to know to not study and understand is only to think relying upon only our lived experiences not the facts and understanding proven throughout the world BCS leaders on this team were hungry for knowledge and willing to lead their peers learning with key educational leaders from around the world from five continents and throughout the United States this team learned with great thinkers from
039around the nation and around the world exchanging best practices sharing vulnerabilities and learning the truth that Harvard had to offer Harvard offers a number of other summer training experiences but this summer summer training experience was specifically selected because it supported teacher growth and professional learning it re-engages students it improves and changes School culture it manages the mental health needs of our students and staff and finally it addressed the community and family engagement throughout our broader School family thank you Harvard professional learning program was an exclusive learning opportunity we engaged and learned alongside of world renown experts in education they conducted action research written scholarly Publications and have participated in years of educational collaboration initiatives this interactive and engaging experience was it exhausting they had us read um pre-readings prior to us even departing to be
040in Boston we had readings to read once we were there we had readings every single night um when we got to the sessions in the morning we were interacting um one-on-one with these world-renowned researchers um I was a little bit of a groupy I was the historian taking pictures of everything and we all engaged um with with those re researchers um and were able to have discussions around the room with um everyone else from around the nation um and it was very thought-provoking we were able to learn practical classroom strategies and apply it to um the real world the sessions they provided us with um they built upon one another and that ensured our our learning and our ability to come back and apply it so just for example to give you some names of
041some of these world renown experts Irma Tyler wood she um worked to improve educational practices for all Learners Sarah Edith Fairman um has researched and written several books and journals regarding School leadership and instructional Improvement van Pik helped with practical leadership development skills that Foster collaborative School cultures Deborah helling um she helped us identify and how to establish a growth mind mindset for our Educators and Mark Bedell um focused his work on datadriven leadership to improve student outcomes and it was really very apparent to us that they had collaborated they had collaborated prior to um our experience with them because like I said a lot of the sessions built upon one another and so this allowed us allowed us um to have personal growth but also to refine our leadership skills you know that our
042Educators our teachers they depend on us for their growth and so how do we then refine our growth as well and so this was an amazing opportunity to kind of hone in on some of those leadership skills so in building leadership capacity um and bringing it back like they were speaking of um we learned um different ways to refine our professional learning opportunities that we have for not only our our Educators in the classroom but we have teacher leaders on our campus too and how do we grow them as well so that teacher empowerment piece um being able to provide real-time feedback but making things more succinct and more efficient because there's a lot we can do right but what's most efficient and what's going to be the most impactful for our students um learning
043how to engage in those conversations um and have those discussions that lead to results um and then just being reflective practitioners because that's what we do as Educators um so we are going to share a couple examples of those practical applications for you so that you can see some of the things that we were able to bring back it was a days of information so we can't share everything but we just want to highlight some things that we came back and shared at the elementary middle and high school level so the first example is this consultancy protocol exercise and basically it's very similar to this atmosphere here because there's a presenter that's me and then there is the discussion room or the thoughts the minds right right um that you would then present to so
044I would come to you with either a problem that I need to think through um and I would share with you the complexities of a new initiative or or something a challenge in my practice um and then I would just explain everything that I know to be true about that situation to you and then you as my colleagues or peers would then ask me some clarifying questions about my problem um that I may not have addressed when I initially told you about it um and after you go through that process then I'm quiet and actually how they had a do it was I would turn my back to you and now you all would then problem solve together as a collective unit and you would come up with solutions to my problem without me speaking
045or talking to you and then I would turn around and then I would then um share anything that I'd learned from that experience um and it's great because like we said there's there's people from all over the nation who have similar problems of practice that we have here in Bela County and so we were able to gleam a lot from that but even bringing that work back here to Valia and doing it with our Collective peers um has been extremely helpful and I know we have this consultancy protocol that exercise we're going to be doing Friday at um Mrs Boyd school so a lot of practical um applications that we were able to bring back with us welcome going back to empowering leadership uh School culture is something that you hear a lot about but
046it's something that I learn needs to be focused on very intentionally we have school Improvement plans uh we have goals academic goals but part of that is too is that a plan an intentional plan as a leader of what our school culture looks like School culture is basically how we do the work and So within how we do the work part of that is is that the work is our Missi driven work so one of the things as you find out is that teachers are leaving the profession because they not just burn out but the focus of Missi driven work and also as a leader having such an audacious unrealistic goal sometimes to get them and push them forward is extremely important but as a lead it's about trusting down and leading up meaning that
047as a leader you're trusting your teacher leaders you're trusting your administrative team you're trusting everybody intentionally within your school campus focusing on their strengths coaching them building them up and allowing them to lead up during that process it's moving people without being moved so one of the things that is that you can have the best strategy in the world your sit plan can look golden be approved gone through all of the different checks and balances we need to go through however if you do not invest in the school culture then that strategy will not be as successful and so it's extremely important in my first year at Creekside Mr Cash has done a fantastic job building the school and I am so blessed and proud to be able to take that work and bring it
048and Carry It Forward one of the big focuses for me has been School culture making sure I understand the school making sure I understand the teachers but at the same time slowly and strategically leaving an imprint that will impact positive teaching and learning thank you Mr Jackson and good evening again so although my recent transition has taken me away from the principal role I am thrilled to have participated in the Harvard Institute and share my experience as principal with you this evening the opportunity to collaborate with educational professionals from around the globe they were from everywhere Australia Lebanon all over our nation um we we were able to talk about strengthen in our parent and Community Partnerships it was invaluable for me the intense work around school issue problem solving aligned perfectly with my servant
049leadership approach and my goals to increase student achievement through family engagement during our daily sessions our ideas were shared challenged and critiqued as Miss Douglas mentioned by colleagues to ensure we returned ready to implement the strategies we developed the data discussed reinforced our belief that strong family Partnerships help our students Thrive one initiative we developed and launched at my school and which Miss Boyd Walker also implemented were family instructional planning nights these events allowed families to participate in real classroom work and actual lessons with their uh children's teachers and the parents had the opportunity to dive deep into the learning and bring the rigor and understanding of the work back home it was a very powerful experience and it continues to grow both schools each time we do it this example of applying our learning
050to Everyday practice demonstrates the return on impact detailed in the graphic on the screen engaging our families and communities in the heavy lifting rather than the traditional conference night setting has been a winwin for our students and shows that it truly takes a village to grow our student achievement my time at the Institute strengthened my capacity to lead as a high school principal and Beyond the lessons learned and the new Partnerships have Prov provided me with invaluable tools to share with my fellow School leaders oh you want the microphone sure so in these next two slides we'll discuss how attending the Harvard Institute offered numerous benefits that help to build our leadership capacity that we brought back districtwide in vucha County at Harvard we gained insights into different leadership Frameworks one of them was the
051instructional core it described how there are three components that are interdependent of each other the student the teacher and the rigorous content and how these work hand inand and not in isolation there are seven principles to the instructional core and the majority of these principles focus on the student task this was a great session and in the next slide we will discuss how we brought it back to our principles and assistant principles throughout our district so we discussed the instructional core framework and how important it was to analyze student tests this is where we look at the alignments between the Benchmark and what the act the students are actually asked to do Harvard kept telling us when you're in a classroom and observing look down they emphasize the importance of looking down and looking at
052what tasks the students are being asked to do and then determining is it at the Lego level of the what the Benchmark is asking for we brought this back to our principles and assistant principles and we implemented it into our Synergy walks we had over 200 of our administrators involved in this process just this this past school year we looked at and walk classrooms in over 20 of our schools and we were in over 80 classrooms this year and what we were looking at in the classrooms was exactly that the student task the students were being asked to work on C collaboratively principles and assistant principles discussed what the expectations of the benchmarks were and then we took pictures of the task and we talked about was this actually in alignment with the benchmark we
053had a lot of aha moments and this was a great learning for all our administrators and we also had our district support teams who helped with the content as well targeted feedback was then provided to the leadership teams they shared effective Street teaching strategies among our schools principals and assistant principles will then able to bring it back to their own School sites and provide their teachers with targeted feedback specifically on um the alignment between student task in addition and as we heard before we met people from all over the world we met people from Brazil Canada Chile Greece India Jordan my favorite Palestine where I'm from and I actually got to meet two other waffas there so that was really cool I have a picture with them they were like there's other waffles I'm like
054yes it's not just me um but it was really really uh an invaluable lesson because to this day we have connections with people from all over the world we're connecting on WhatsApp and we share resources our es about our school districts from across the globe that we're sharing back and forth with each other so it didn't just stay at Cambridge and like Waffa said it didn't just stay at Cambridge even though they cautioned us that when we came home that we would have Harvard flashing across our foreheads because we would feel so proud and inside feel so different it changed our lives I'm comfortable saying that for each of us it changed our lives and those changes continue to abound throughout the district now as we have sought opportunities to build capacity from what we
055learned at Harvard within our teammates back here in vucha County Schools the next slide demonstrates some of the evidence that you may see around these days you might see some of the leadership styles evolving within our building leaders we took the emotional intelligence self-awareness activities of adaptive leadership beginning on day one learning that whatever our preferred leadership style is is not necessarily the leadership style needed to solve every problem a fatal failure for folks who depend upon the same leadership style to say to solve every leadership challenge you'll see decision-making done differently with the four quadrant method where teams of leaders work together within their building leadership teams to better analyze the root cause of the problems that we face and present the best solutions for them our meetings are more efficient Elizabeth City taught
056us about meeting Wise It's very popular book uh is applicable uh throughout the business world the legal world and the educational world and we follow meeting wise for more targeted efficient meetings you'll be hearing very soon about retreat planning where we do developed the leadership of all of the members of our leadership team throughout the teaching leading and learning Department as we roll out in this spring of 2025 the first ever tll Leadership Retreat and everyone will be seeing not only Dr balaban's exciting videos but culture videos from each and every one of our schools as our schools build their culture and promote that culture through our Communications Department throughout our district you'll see the evidence of the truth that we found at Harvard so we would like to expand our knowledge and send a
057team of valou County leaders to Harvard again this summer this time we aim to attend the session titled leading culture change strategies for school improvement taking place from June 16th through the 18th this three-day interactive program will be led by Harvard's Graduate School of Education Professor ebony n Bridwell Mitchell the specific program activities will include school and team culture Diagnostics Harvard faculty-led sessions interactive small group working sessions individual self assessment and reflection and action planning work groups by attending this program our teams will gain a deeper understanding of core aspects of organizational culture identify fundamental strategies for leading culture change assess culture to Target and priori prioritize areas for Change and develop a customized action plan including specific strategies and Implement implementation steps for transforming school and District culture continued participation in Harvard's professional learning
058programs create a critical mass of Leaders with shared knowledge and vision this allows us to bring back valuable insights to impact all of our school leaders in our district staying at The Cutting Edge translates to classroom improvements across our district and I believe we're finishing with our exciting video filmed by Dr V himself vucha County Schools it has been a true honor to have been able to participate in a weeklong Harvard Institute with my colleagues from vucha County and I will tell you that the weeklong Institute has brought us together to be able to really reflect and look at the things that we're currently doing and what things we should be able to to do to enhance so that our students in belusa County can get and continue to get a worldclass education um just
059being able to speak with leaders around the world District school leaders around the world gave me the opportunity to open my mind to different educational perspectives and be able to bring those strategies and those experiences back to Lua County I am excited and I am ready to go really the big takeaway for me was culture and that culture eats strategy for breakfast basically any day so that tells me as a leader that systemic changes uh need to be made but at times in a school but it's got to be done with the culture of the school in mind and knowing where your building is the pulse of your building and then being very strategic and reflective on where you move your school from there to affect student learning outcomes I have two things that I
060definitely plan on taking away and that is the consultancy protocol and also family engagement this process has definitely developed um me a closer connect um connection to my calling and I'm super excited one big takeaway from this week has been uh am I involved am I an involved leader or am I an Engaged leader and that was very powerful for me because I want to be that engaged leader it's part of being that servant leader and to be that servant leader you need to be engaged but you also got to be able to be willing to put in the work that now we have this ongoing network of individuals who can help us sharpen our St our our skill set um and bring things back to our teachers and our teams that we work with
061daily um this impact is just going to be so phenomenal and ongoing ensuring that all of our students are achieving at high levels sometimes as a principal you're working as a solo an individual and it is so important to collaborate with others that is one thing that learned here at the Institute because collaborating with others has made me grow so much we have been amongst these great leaders not just from Harvard not just um from the US but also from around the world to to facilitate reflect and help each other's practices um so that we can go back to our home and do great things for our students [Music] thank you thank [Music] [Applause] you Mr colog yeah so I have a question I know you guys are going to Futures tomorrow make sure you
062wear your Harvard shirts look fancy all that good stuff uh I want to say thank you to Futures I know they played a huge role in securing the funding so that uh we could send these folks to Harvard to ensure that uh there is that growth mindset and and what I love about it is they're encouraging a new group to go and so I think that's that's amazing that's wonderful and uh again thank you to futures for stepping up I know it took a few rounds of hey this is what we're doing why we're doing Etc and so uh thank you thank you thank you Dr B I will go last oh okay this is good Rich I just want to thank you all for sharing the positive energy that you can feel from you
063guys and that your feedback of what you brought back is awesome special thank you to futures for facilitating this the best and most Innovative companies in the world do this for their leadership and so it's very amazing to see that we're doing it here in vush County so thanks for sharing proser my comment is a little more directed I guess um I can see why you're so excited because this sounds like it was just outstanding and I and I like that there's a followup too sort of a next step to it um but I'm curious to know if if it's if there's some point where the effect of what you learned becomes quantifiable is is there is there some way to have a sense of of the um outcomes that that came from your training
064while we were um preparing this we had we asked the same question and it became very well it became apparent while we were looking at our district data from all of our schools that participated and uh Miss petrolo mentioned our Synergy walks and during those Synergy walks the acts of looking down at the student work and if what we're doing when we are bettering ourselves as Leaders is train transferring to the classroom and pushing all of ourselves as District Leadership School leadership with one goal in mind um to increase student achievement and just put better product right like we are the product putting that to the kids and it did show you can see it in our VBA data at least at the secondary level and even at elementary you see that um classroom achievement
065increasing so we definitely have tackled that quantifiable question uh and at this time in the year you heard Waffa talking a lot about how many principles how many assistant principles how many classroom walks how many task alignment uh directed feedback were taken back to professional learning communities uh and what those conversations were like and how they evolv from this experience that's what's quantifiable now what's quantifiable to continue to look for is is the upward Trend in the outcome data uh that we are very excited about mobilizing throughout the district and are looking forward to posting uh here in this first uh sun setting of our first year back uh in bringing these Lessons Learned and implementing them not just at each of the schools that we LED but throughout the divisions and throughout all of
066uchia County Schools thank you that is the most important goal and and I appreciate that that that's what we can watch um as the outcome of all of this training uh it sounds excellent so thank you Mrs Thompson thank you madam chair and thank you to all of you for going and doing that um because I know you all did a lot of work and it's fun to hear you guys do homework too because you know we hear that from the kids but and I love to hear everything you all got out of it I also really love the culture piece and I can speak firsthand because I visited Creek Side as one my middle schools often and I can tell all of you that Mr Jackson that's one of his big things is culture
067and I think we have seen more of that or at least I've heard more of our administrators speaking of how important the culture of the school is and this is one of those cases I don't know which came first to chicken or the egg because there are so many great leaders so I don't know if you all were just all that great and then you went to Harvard or if you were you're mediocre and then went to Harvard and came back great but um I can also say uh speaking on the leadership and getting things done and just really that intentionality um Miss Copeland has done amazing things for parents and students and so all of you guys have done great things I'm hoping that the next cohort is just do we have the new
068cohort picked out yet well the proposal that was submitted to Futures Foundation that they looked at they asked we pretty much asked for three years and and these are all CEOs and business folks they understand the import of return on your investment so yes for next year that that's something that they have uh verbally agreed to the team what so a same size cohort going up there I believe it's about the same size is it or smaller or slightly smaller 15 total toal yeah yeah all right well I I love to hear that and I love that it's a three-year them because then we'll have a really big selection of people that really know what they're doing so please all stay and don't take this knowledge somewhere else but um thank you all for doing
069that thanks once again to Futures because without them so many things wouldn't be possible but this is this absolutely they're they're absolutely amazing yeah Dr so I I want to thank the team for coming out here because you know what this is not they're just not returning from a trip they came back from this trip at the beginning of the year and this is still a level of excitement that that still permeates among these leaders here but a couple things I like to share you probably don't know soon to be Dr reer when he return from the trip I received an email from him and in the email he told me how inspired he was with the learning that he's received and that to the point that he is go he's signing up for his
070Doctorate and I'm glad that personally also you were motivated and it serve you personally as well so he is now undergoing his doctoral um program of study I will share with you that there was two programs personally for me and professional that has impacted me the most when I did my doctorate that was a very rigorous program and I you know you're pushed to really learn and apply yourself that was a rigorous program but the second is when I was tapped in Orange County to attend the superintendency um program with Harvard and I will tell you these guys they work hard because we didn't have any time off from the time we got like they shared with you they're they're giving all these assignments before that has to be read completed beforehand you get there
071it's every day full days until you and you receive a certificate at the end but I'm glad that they were able to come back but also look at our principal meetings and redesign our principal meetings where it's not just to our principls now just don't show up to a principal meeting just to receive information they are learning as well we're in the business of teaching and learning and we should all be adapted into learning so we have to model what we expect but with that said I want to congratulate the team I want to thank them because really it takes an entire unit to move a village right and we've got the right unit here with the right mindset so I want to thank you I want to thank all of our teachers everybody to
072Embark to be be able to embark on this journey but especially I want to thank again once again Futures foundation for understanding for having a vision and for um embracing that vision with us here in VCS so that's it chair so I have one final thing um to add I too want to thank Futures Foundation I was sitting there last year when they were contemplating um helping to fund this and there was a lot of discussion but as Dr bwin said those are community and business-based people and they see the value and the opportunity that you had by going to Harvard but I also want to clue in on one of the things that Holly Bailey said this evening um and even you said it in the video at times you feel like you're alone
073and so I think those of us here we also feel that at times because you think you're out there and you're alone and it's like who do I partner with so I'm happy that when all of you went there you were able to make connections because the connection doesn't have to be someone within your own school um or even within your own County that's the one nice thing I can say about the Florida School Board Association and what they do for us as board members is they allow us to make com um those connections with other board members across the state and even at times when if we go to the national conferences we make those with other board members that are across the United States and sometimes you need that because there's no need
074to reinvent something you can reach out and you can just ask how do you do this and there's nothing better than to learn from others that are around you and so I am so appreciative that each and every one of you gave up a part of your summer this past year and you went there and I'm sure you know if your students understood that you had homework too during the summertime that they and and your teachers and staff would even appreciate that more and I'm looking forward to seeing the next cohort that goes from future so thank you so at this time it is 5:44 we're going to take a break we will be back in here at 6:00 p.m. for public input if you have not yet filled out a card this is your
075chance to fill out a card once public input starts we will no longer accept any cards thank you e e e I was so hungry I was so hungry welcome back at this time it is 6:04 p.m. and we are going to move into public input I have three cards are there any more cards for public input for the 6 pm time okay please note that once I call the first Speaker up we will not accept any more cards for this time so if you if you haven't filled out one you will not be speaking during this time so for the audience I need you to be respectful of those that are speaking so there is no talking no cell phones no making clapping sounds or anything if you are in agreement with what someone
076is saying you're more than welcome to put a thumbs up or do jazz hands if you disagree with what they're saying you can put a thumbs down but we will respect the speakers in the order they were received this is the way you will speak the first Speaker tonight will be Elizabeth Albert followed by Christopher Gibbs and then Lisha bird so miss Albert please come forward welcome all right good evening Madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr balabin members of the audience I'd like to speak with you tonight about the apparent restructuring of the ese department so there's two big changes that are apparently taking place number one the elimination of 30 school-based IEP uh facilitator positions and then changes to the expectations for district program Specialists so the problem here is that both
077of these ESC professional groups the Professionals in these groups have been told that these changes will be made for the 2526 school year and it's already a done deal so let's start with the IEP uh support let's start with the IP facilitators 30 positions have been eliminated and five new student staffing Specialists will be created so help me understand this math here we've got 30 folks that are currently doing this work and we're going to shift the work of 30 people people into five new positions you got to make that make sense it doesn't make sense to me um I reached out for a clarification on the expectations of work for these new uh student staffing Specialists and I was told that they would have at least 450 meetings over a 150-day period Well on
078paper that might look like it works out and might might seem reasonable however when you speak to the individuals who are impacted they've brought up some questions that I'd like to share uh have considerations included time for testing time for trainings time for the required audits that they have to do suspension reviews what happens after 10 days of suspension manifestation meetings meetings with attorneys and Advocates um and human needs like being sick um and taking leave when you need to so the decision to eliminate these positions was made without the input of Those whom it will affect so now let's shift to the program Specialists and talk about them again it seems that this de ision um a decision has been made to move the ese Department to the former TR small building the old
079building um this is going to create a negative impact on the employees who work and live on the west side of our district those folks are currently housed in Portables at Deltona High School so again in speaking with them um there has been no discussion about how this will impact their mileage um and they've been told that they need to move on the second week of April so they're concerned about testing they're concerned about IEPs that they have schedule and how they're going to support their teachers and students so you know tonight there was a discussion about culture and I couldn't help but notice that part of that discussion referenced having expert discussions and so I would argue that the experts in around these decisions are the uh District placement specialist program Specialists and the
080IP IP facilitators so a suggestion to truly begin the work of improving the culture within VCS would be to convene a meeting with the these groups of people and talk to them about their concerns listen to their questions and seek their input on how to navigate these changes so I'm hoping that after tonight that meeting will be convened thank you thank you Christopher Gibbs and next will be Lisha BT welcome Mr Gibbs okay good evening members of the Lucha County School Board my name is Christopher Gibbs and I am a fifth grade teacher at T T small element school I stand here before you tonight respectfully to request a postponement of the termination decision regarding Miss Lisha bird and to ask that the board conduct a thorough and impartial review of the circumstances surrounding this
081matter I understand that personal Personnel decisions are complex and often confidential however believe that in the interest of fairness and due process a delay in this final decision is warranted it is often said that a school culture is evident if the school continues to function despite the departure of one or more of its members in fact leaders here tonight presented information about culture eating strategy with that being said I ask everyone to pray for us and pray for ter T small Elementary School the culture at our school is shattered and this just furthered the damage I have observed Miss Bird's consistent positive contributions in the educational community both in the school and in the vucha county school district yesterday in my class we received a new special area schedule usually when my students find out
082they're going to Media they're excited well yesterday first day back from spring break when they were informed they were going to Media they were devastated why another day full of cartoons worthless readwork passages oh wait also running around playing tag like its recess our beautiful lovely magnificent media center that is in all the wonderful social media platforms is nothing nothing our culture we have no culture at T T small Elementary School we need Miss bird our school needs Miss bird our district needs Miss bird there has been a little bandid on our problem yesterday or the problem at our school I go pick up my kids from media and they have books in their hand some of them do well the district is now sending media Specialists traveling media Specialists to let kids check out
083books this just furthers the problem that is not culture I am not here to pass judgment or challenge the board's Authority my sole purpose is to advocate for the fairness and for a complete review I believe that a brief postponement would allow the vucha County School Board to gather all relevant information ensure that all all parties have been heard and make a well-informed and just decision and please do not come at me saying a review has been performed no one came to our school no one conducted interviews there has not been a formal interview maybe a one-sided Professional Standards review but not one from the board I urge the board to consider the potential consequences of this hasty decision thank you thank you next up is Mrs leesa bird welcome I I should have went
084before Mr Gibbs I can't even say what I want to say but I do wanna when I came here what I want to say I can't even speak on that because I do want to speak on my parents and my students their voice and I do believe that their voice need to be heard and if anybody get on social media today you will see from parents from former parents they all have tagged every single one of you they've all had they they have spoken and as the board I'm just asking you if you don't want to hear my side if you don't want to hear me at least hear the community hear the students hear the parents and I want to say I heard um one of the principes say involve or engage and that
085stuck with me because engag is something I worked hard to be also one of the principles mentioned about parent nights and I'm trying to figure out what parent nights were they talking about where there's two parents one of the most crowded parent nights was a parent night that Miss bird held parent to kid night so I don't know what community what culture they're talking about but I know for a fact it is shattered um when you all came out to my beautiful book tasting for the book bending machine reveal that book bending machine wasn't even paid for at that time when when the commissioner asked for the invoice the invoice show it was not paid this is what I'm talking about this is the thing that this is all personal and I hope you listen
086to Mr Gibbs or whoever else has spoken to you to please look further into what has happened thank you thank you that concludes the 6 PM public input time we are now moving on to item 18.01 request to advertise proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 707 fundraising are there any comment cards on this item all right there is still um a public input time at the end of the board meeting and you're more than welcome to go get a yellow card and fill out for that time so we have two Standalone items and then we will reach the end of the meeting all right so board members Dr balamin you have a recommendation i' like to ask uh Mr C our CFO Chief Financial Officer he will come forward and share with you about the proposed
087amendments to Schoolboard policy 707 regarding fundraising good afternoon board superintendent um well first of all thank you because this came forward to this came to you back in December when I was in here and I didn't get a chance at that time to actually do the rewrite and it is finance related so anytime I get a chance to rewrite one of our board um um policies to make it more fluid and make more sense I'm going to I'm going to do that so that's my attempt here so originally what was submitted to you um just we're adding sponsorships to this board policy so we're cons um bringing in um we have fundraisers and spons sponsorships but with that said I'm in this policy now I'm defining what is fundraising what is sponsorship how do you
088um plan you know what's to propose planning and accounting for that also um what's the financial procedures we need to follow for that and just to let you know when we do um a fundraising activity or sponsorship there's a requirement that we need board approval especially on these sponsorships because I don't want the board blindsighted you know if there's something that they don't want to accept or enter into so that's built in here as well and um every every fundraising and sponsorship activity is has a project number attached to it so we can follow the the receipt of those funds and how we're using those funds so we can always report back to the board any needed time so that's really what I kind of clarified and added to this agenda thank you Mr colog
089so I appreciate the changes that have been made to this agenda and I I think there's a step two and it kind of will reiterate what I said the last time I think it's great that we are delineating that um only formal ways should be used um excluding venmo zel cash app but I also still believe that we need to provide an alternative that's easy as those are um whether it's creating a dis School District cash app business account um there there are those options zel also has the option so while I think it's great for the employees to cover themselves by not using these uh apps for fundraising I also think it's equally as important that we have a viable alternative that I mean almost quick that will allow them to continue to solicit
090support from the community who's very willing to do it um especially when it's easy uh one of our our our service standards in my organization is make it easy if you can make it easy they'll spend it all day long and so um I would continue to encourage us to do that but I also believe that this is going to protect our employees from any uh uh you know any someone saying that they may possibly have used their personal accounts and all that I always made that always made me very nervous so thank you and I will be supporting this tonight Miss Thompson thank you madam chair and I just had a question probably for Dr Evans more than U Mr CE under uh restrictions and prohibitions um uh B um the Raffles so there
091will be no more Raffles at all because that I mean that's a huge fundraiser it's an easy fundraiser so I just was curious if there was like a legal reason why no we we we typically don't do Raffles so I'm not sure where that's coming from especially this is on the internal accounts um on on the school internal funds policy we we don't typically um allow Raffles um for fundraising activities okay so this is for I I just wanted to clarify because it's fundraising sponsorship activities conducted by school-based organizations or outside organizations and then it says no so we've never done Raffles that's we don't per old board policy we never um allowed Raffles okay okay I just want to double check on that thank you so much any other questions and I think that's
092Mr colog to Miss Thompson point to miss Thompson's point I think that boosters alumni associations and and ptas have a different laterality than officially funded school fundraisers these are the ones that are coming from the school not from these ancillary groups that are audited individually because those funds go into separate accounts that they have set up they are not they do not go through Val County Schools right right yes they they're five50 separate 501c3 right any other questions Dr bwin you have a recommendation so I want to make sure do the recommendation we'll see I recommend granting the authority to advertise a proposed proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 707 fundraising and and sponsorships and and sponsorships and sponsorships okay you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent I have someone that would like to make a
093motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve I have someone that would like to second that I'll second that all right any further discussion I want to know what you're thinking I'm going to ask a question because because I I think I I think I do hear you and what you're saying and that's something that we need to really look and work on so that we can add to the policy I agree with you but I think the policy needs to move forward for now because there would be lots of events taking place as we're nearing schooland and I don't want to miss a beat on that so do we have the ability to make this effective date I would hate to ruin somebody's plans if they're already in the grind and I get
094it that the initial the policy we have now from 1972 right probably States the same but I would hate to so could we make the effective date of this policy we're advertising now but I would I wasn't the motion maker but to make the effective date of this May 31 or June 1st so that as to allow time for transition Andor preparation not ruining any current anything can we add that for an effect as an effective date which will come with the next vote if it's CE yeah was this I was just going to State it shouldn't affect anything really what this policy do is doing is just adding sponsorships it nothing has really changed on the fundraising and I just further clarified and broke out and made it a little bit more easier to
095follow on how we're so I'll give you an example let's say there's a teacher who wants to take her kids for an end of the year field trip in a limousine to Red Lobster okay and anybody who knows who I'm talking about knows who I'm talking about and she does a great job and she throws it out there and everybody gets on zel and boom boom boom and somehow the whole community supports that cause not having the alternative right now would not make that easy and the school doesn't have a solution for how they could do that right now so I think that would give us time if we make for an effective date June 1st that would have no impact on anything current and then can move forward um as it also puts a
096little bit of pressure on Mr CE to find a solution so that next year because again we want to continue to allow to make it easy for the community to participate in our schools I mean like I said I'm guilty I send it on zel send it on cash app hey you're doing this for your classroom I want to help you here you go so I think again I I saw the deep breath and so we want to I think if we make it effective date June 1 then we know we're not going to ruin any existing plans of fundraising Etc and we'll give enough time for folks to make alternative plans to collect funds and do whatever they need to do what you want to say something or may I say something no I'm
097I'm done thank you what do you think about what Mr colog said I I the hearing what I'm sorry I'm hearing what Mr clone saying I I I strongly support his position on this all right I have something to add to that having been a former classroom teacher and the laws that govern field trips you can't you have to have permission from parents on a field trip on a valua County School field trip form to take their children on anything whether it be a limo a school bus a van a car anything so I've got principal sitting out here all right and what you're describing unless the correct process has been no it's they follow it it's during the school day it's a field trip okay okay so currently the way the field trips are
098though there is a process in which to pay so if we're paying in a different way we may be breaking our own policies that we have on field trips and notice how many times field trips even come up on the consent agenda that we have to approve because any field trip that leaves the State of Florida we have to approve for that so I you know I'm not opposed to looking into a business way to accept funds but there are ways to accept funds I just want to make sure we're not breaking rules because the moment somebody's in an accident with kids and we have not followed the process we have we're in trouble yeah know these are these are school events happening as field trips that are end of school year party you know
099these are formal events so again you're you're concern will be will be quenched on June 1st when this policy goes live then we know this is what we're doing this is what we're sticking to can I make a comment please yes please yeah just for clarification on school fi trips in your specific example we actually use the focus system so that that activity is put in there and then the parents just pay online through um the focus system or they can pay by cash if they want to go to the bookkeeper and bookkeeper can collect it or or or or that brings up another or check you know so our schools have and and we've gone through this they no longer take cash when I want to donate $100 I have to pay $13 to
100pay the vendor fee because through Focus the person who's paying pays the vendor fee which is unheard of I mean you don't go to Sam's Club and they tack on two and a half percent no it's added to the price and so that's a whole different story I I just again these are formal I just think again I I would hate between now and then to pull the rug out from under folks and so that's just my thought so I didn't make the motion but Mrs brosmer I think for my own clarification are you suggesting a different way to pay or an additional way to pay a a different way P to so right now we use focus is their formal way give you an example this is cringeworthy when I go to a school
101and there's FFA the fam the alumni right they're not belusa County Schools they're their own organization they use Square so I can walk up double tap hold my phone there pay for it that's great when our special needs students to have the tent where they make shirts and hats and all of that when I go to buy a shirt I have to log into Focus I have to put in my address my phone number my name um who is the student I'm supporting and there's a generic one then I have to find an amount of something they're selling that's the same price because they may not have that exact item click on that go to the credit card page put in my credit card information as if I was doing it at home they don't
102have a point of sale system available as of yet and so it's not easy it's not I mean it takes longer to buy the T-shirt than it does to buy lunch for 20 people and so that's what I'm talking about yes we do have a system for payment we do not have an easy one we don't have a point of sale system and some of our schools have even said to parents and I get it we don't take cash do everything on Focus well when they do it on Focus they have to pay 3% Merchant fee when they pay 3% Merchant fee on the1 $1300 trip to Washington DC that's a lot of money I get it the school would rather not have to deal with the cash and all the fundraising things that come
103along with that but so that's why I think we just need to find and I appreciate you Dr B saying the need to find something easy so that after June if the teacher wanted to and there are commercial accounts if the school wanted to have a cash app account that families could and that money could be accounted for and can go into the correct account and can something as simple as that so that's my thought Dr is here because when you had mentioned that to me actually I shared with Dr is oh I just wanted to mention this is an ongoing development project right now between It software and systems and focus developers um it is not a simple like you know just flip a switch or you know fix this little thing it's a
104total rewrite of how their charging system goes into all the budgetary modules and obviously it's it's something you have to get perfectly right or you'll mess up all the accounting so it's not something that they take lightly um but they are working on it I just had a meeting this morning about the progress being made in that area but it'll be this summertime before it's been fully tested and that we really have the system up and running we actually already have credit card scanners but there's we we did a pilot test of them and that fee that Mr clone mentioned is it's it's the hang-up okay we need to be able to charge that fee to whatever account we want to charge it to but right now that fee is only charging to the exact
105place that it goes and we want to be able to charge that to a district account or any other account so that we don't have to say oh tack on this little money you know and do these workarounds so that it can just be put into the cost like most businesses do so that's what we're working on but like I said we we ask for your patience it's going to be a little while before we have that ready to go this is from a while back when we had discussed this this is good Rich he answered my question my question was going to be how hard is it to come up with a system that's easier to use and that's not that sounds terrible I would never I would never buy anything it's hard do
106it for the children I mean obviously but you do it for no when you're standing there you're literally doing it trust me I was texting them like you see what I have to do you do it for the children you do it to support the cause you do it because the hat looks really cool and it's and but it it's it's painful and it's hard how how do I look at this teacher who's saying I'm trying to teach my kids skills and you know the point of sales system system doesn't really it's tough so and is focus um an external vendor yeah focus is our it's our everything vendor from student maybe that needs a new look if they can't they can't be modernized it can be yeah yeah they're gonna be he said it
107okay so I'm gonna play devil's advocate here for a moment at no time there are reasons why there are rules for field trips okay there are reasons why when you accept money and we used to accept cash and we've always accepted checks cash makes it a little bit more dangerous all right I'm being honest with you and every day you were to turn it into the bookkeeper you weren't supposed to collect it over a week and hold on to it I have seen where people have said the money has been stolen out of their classroom and they've ended up in trouble I I have seen where money has been mismanaged I mean teachers have lost their teaching certificates over money all right being mismanaged I will tell you right now personally I would never give
108out a private or my personal cash app VMO or anything and tell parents to send that to me because we have cut out the rules and what should be happening and then I could say the parent could say I paid you for my child to go on that field trip and I could say no you didn't and they have no proof of that yeah but they're not using it for that well and also I think Mr clone was suggesting that we create like a cash app for the school district no no no I'm fine with that no no I'm not I'm not saying there's so let's say let's say she she wants let's say a teacher wants $800 to cover the limousine she puts it out there and Community leader Community folks cover that $800
109now she's got a limousine which still goes through the field trip process and all of that and it covers the cost of the limousine for the kids to be able to go to wherever it is they're going on their field trip so it's not the individual parent paying the teacher for this it's the ability to collect from anybody across the world and we do it on the platforms what's it called there's that platform uh well no there's GoFundMe but then there's one for Education that does the same thing it charges a fee it came out of Orange County um where people across the world are able to donate and at the end of the year we have one teacher she had thousands of dollars worth of stuff she put a pitch on there I forgot
110what it's called no it's donate to donor's choose donor choose donor choose and so at the end of the year someone who wanted to spend money it's a non for-profit so they're able to go in there and say okay I found the school in Delona they want to collect ,000 and so what they did was they would pay pay because it's tax deductible at the end of the year they would fund all of these projects and if you go on there you could find it and basically it that money I don't even know where that money goes does it go to the individual teacher does definitely doesn't go to the school because it brought up the question well do the things that they purchase from donors choose at the school where they've pitched it for
111do those things belong to the school now or do they belong to the teacher well that brought up the eyelash and we had to say okay come on you collected this for here we're glad that you've moved on but this stuff needs to stay because you used this school for that purpose so again there are things out there for this there's Alternatives there's point of sale there's different things we can do I just don't know that that would you know I would hate to re on the parade between now and the end of the year not giving people a chance to make other plans but that's I didn't make the motion donor choose does collect information from you oh yeah I do so someone's individual vimo zel cash app whatever there is no collection of
112information yes there is I mean it's a name no pH number to it's a phone number if you asked me for my bill I'd have to bring it to you I mean I'm just saying times have changed this is not something that has to do with how when we did it in 1985 this is today this is now this is you walk up to the store you don't have your wallet you go click click and you pay you go to someone's house you buy something you go to zel you send it to them it's there so for the teacher that's getting the limo I hear your concern is that it's the teacher getting the cash or the venmo or whatever how are they doing that now without violating the that's my first question and then
113my second question would be rather than I don't want to rate on anyone's parade either um if a parent was collecting it that would be okay that would be okay what I'm saying as much as we'd like to think that that's why I think we just need to find a way to make it easy yeah but I hear what you're saying because I'm I'm not opposed to finding a way that the money would come in to the school or to The District in the appropriate channels okay okay years ago and and yes I'm I'm going way back we used to like when we wanted to sell those little Scholastic books that would come home and you send the form parents could send in checks or cash or whatever for that well they went to the
114point that the school the parent had to submit the money to the school so the school could ensure that it was being paid because there were times where teachers got the money and then they didn't pay the bill for the book I mean I have seen it guys okay I have seen situations where people take money money okay and they don't there there's no they don't start out with an ill intention but like let's just say you said the limo is $800 well what if the person gets $1,500 put into their personal cash app whatever what are what are they doing with the 700 and how's it being accounted for so that we don't legally have problems because what did I do today when I got here hand over another lawsuit to Dr evans's office
115every time we turn around we have lawsuits that are taking money away from our children's education that's my point I think this policy will address that right there is the fact that now this will prohibit the use of any of that because that's what this policy says prohibited done boom then I don't want to I I'm not gonna amend my motion because I'm not gonna open that up Miss Thompson thank you so with all that being said how if we were to extend this until the end of the school year because I do think that's reasonable because there's only a couple months is going to go out for 30 days to be advertised anyway that leaves us with like a month of school which is a huge fundraising time like I I get that um
116do you anticipate us being able to have a point of sale available for the next school year well this this policy does not preclude what's going on in software and systems you know you could implement this policy and all that would happen is we would develop a method for credit cards to be able to be taken and the charge to go to a district account it doesn't it doesn't open the door door for like square or you know other kinds of of things we'd be using District owned card readers attached to a district account so this isn't quite as open as you know some of the things you've discussed but if but if this is approved will it stop parents from being able to use cash app and collect funds that's I think that well
117they they they they shouldn't be yeah so the answer to my question then is yes yeah because again this this is fundraising activities for school internal accounts that's what this board policy was originally written for and that's that's the only thing that we're really modifying here so all of that's done through your um focus Financial system to um so the they the parents when they pay in the funds they should be um either putting it through the focus system Sy or um depositing it with the school bookkeeper is it true that this is for school sponsored accounts is that correct yeah this is for school internal but this does not prude School Employees uh groups and organizations PTA they can still do just long as they're approved by the principal to operate on their campus
118yeah and they're a 501c3 and they have outside checking accounts set up and it's the principal's responsibility to make sure that they're operating um within those guidelines so because we've also had issues with those accounts in the past and people have stolen funds so there are checks and balances typically things such as that require two signatures on a check if they're going to pay for something so there are processes that need to be followed I do not want to see a teacher lose their teaching certificate over something like this I don't want to see another lawsuit because someone mismanaged funds so miss good [Music] Rich so if we delayed this to June 1st or whatever day and we're all on record having this conversation knowing that we were now opening us up would that not
119open us up to potential lawsuits if there was money mismanagement between now and then done in a way that we've discussed all right that's why I'm not gonna amend sorry sorry I was kind of would you restate there's a motion in a second we can vote sorry that's right we've got all right any further discussion all right so the motion that we are voting on at this time is a request to advertise proposed amendment to Schoolboard policy 707 fundraising and sponsorships Mrs Goodrich made the motion and Mr clone second it all those in favor please say I I I all those opposed say nay did everyone vote yep okay it passes unanimously to be advertised thank you madam chair the only thing I would ask now that we've passed this and potentially we'll be passing
120this before the end of the year is that we provide guidance because the reality is I think what we're really talking about is policy and modern day and practical practice and so if it is the intent of the board that these zel's cash app not be used we have to make that very clear to our employees so that they know that because of course once the policy goes live then it's enforceable and I would agree and also say we we need to make sure that we're using a vendor that is going to be modernized um and I not I don't know enough about this vendor to say if they can or cannot just it that is where the world is going and have to be Forward Thinking if parents can't walk up to our schools
121Double Tap and Pay yeah we are missing the opportunity we are Miss I mean I I'll give you an example and I know you guys are tired of hearing about me we I went to a concert the other night it was kind of embarrassing for the person on the other side they were selling Brownies so I said my wife wasn't there I'd say i' I'd love to have one of these brownies so she packs it it up and I said where do I send it to and she says no we only take cash so you know what she did she packed it up and put it back where it was and said sorry sir we're not gonna say I kind of stood there like I'm good for it I promise but she really didn't sell
122me the Brownie and so if you think about and what was interesting is it was an auditorium full of people and nobody was buying the baked goods well you ask yourself well why because who's got cash anymore so they that group missed out on that fundraising because I didn't have cash so anyways just the thought thank you all right then um we are moving on to item 18.02 may I share something with this good please go ahead Miss Goodridge focus is an educational program it's designed for educational institution it's part of our new Erp implementation it's to enhance focus and I will share with you that they do customization so for example when I was in aola County um we wanted we had Focus there and we we wanted it redesigned for our choice and
123Charter where when um applications are submitted for our the different programs right where it goes into a priority listing and a secondary and so forth so we worked with them it took like two three months we worked with them and they were able to do that customization for us so to Mr Kong's point I know I heard about the brownies and all that Mr colong did call me guys be nuts um and we did talk to Matt so Matt has been working with them it's very very promising it's going to happen it's going to take some time and it will be a program that we already have so it'll be seamless to use yeah all right then we're moving on to item 18.02 at this moment I have four public in put cards any additional
124cards for item 18.02 then we are no longer accepting any cards so this is the request to advertise proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 320 which is Media selection of print and non-print materials the order that I have um the cards were turned in because they're numbered I'm going to go ahead and read all four names the first person make their way forward and the second person can be ready Miss Jennifer Kelly Miss Christine serier um Christine serier reading for Sheila and Larry zinerman and then Jennifer Maldonado no is it marinos okay I'm sorry all right so Miss Jennifer Kelly is up first not here next okay next is Christine serier good evening um I want to acknowledge the positive changes in your advertised revised draft of policy 320 it's encouraging to see the requirement for
125the objection form to be completed during the initial principal meeting if material removal is considered the clear statement regarding books remaining in circulation during review unless the removal is legally required is also appreciated and the decision to allow public comment during District review committee meetings is a significant step towards transparency thank you I really do appreciate the progress made but to ensure policy 320 is fully Equitable and transparent I believe there are still points to address first regarding the criteria for selection and management of material section it is unnecessary to add the verbage that principles May remove materials not meeting their school's Community need or violating Florida law because the proceeding selection of material section already designates the principal's responsibility for compliance oversight it's stated twice this addition really does seem redundant um and I
126fear that it potentially creates an Avenue for bypassing an established review process so what is the intended purpose of adding it to this um section if some of you may remember back in 2023 the board added the statement to that previous section about principal's responsibility for overseeing the library um we wanted to acknowledge its implicit nature under state law was very important so my question it really raises a lot of questions for me about the trust that you place in your certified media Specialists these professionals have special training for collection development and their role is clearly defined with existing framework so by adding this extra spot it feels like it's not really fostering a collaborative efficient process because it's redundant furthermore the advertised procedure only allows appeals for book removal which overlooks the rights of
127parents who support a book's presence a fair and AC accessible procedure must allow appeals for both removal and retention to ensure due process for everyone finally to enhance transparency I urge you to request the district office Implement a system for maintaining and Publishing records of objections feel like this is really essential to building trust with all of your stakeholders really do feel that we all have the same interest in mind we really want to strengthen policy 320 to best serve our students thank you thank you now you're going to read on behalf of Sheila and Larry zinerman our names are Sheila and Larry zinerman and as concerned citizens of Luchia County we urge the school board to amend instructional policy number 320 to ensure fairness in the book challenge process currently book Challengers can appeal
128vucha County School's decision to keep certain titles but Public School families cannot appeal the removal of certain titles from shelves here are three reasons we need a fair Clause a fairness Clause one balance ensures both sides have an equal voice in book challenges two transparency promotes open and fair decision making three Integrity builds trust in the school district's policies a simple policy adjustment like adding language that allows appeals for both removal and retention would correct the current imbalance ensuring fairness strengthens our District's commitment to open discourse and Equitable decision-making we ask the board to adopt a fairness Clause amendment to uphold the values of fairness inclusion and academic freedom in our schools thank you for your time and service to our community thank you Jennifer marosia welcome Madam chair school board members Dr balabin I
129didn't intend to speak tonight but you know as I'm reading over this and and if you're familiar with me um you know I love my statutes and my policies and reading over those um I'm just here as a community member longtime volunteer not representing anyone but myself in Reading over this policy I'm glad to see this possibly coming to a close years we've all heard about this as as sometimes even larger things have loomed and we've spent talking about this at least it isn't uniforms um but in on the second to last page section five um section c District level review it does seem to contradict itself and would be caused for even more discussions as anything should come up and I know we all just want to be able to provide our children with
130um age appropriate um educational enriching material so maybe we can go ahead and and look at this in uh section three of the district Review Committee it does say that recommend ations shall be to discontinu use for any grade level or age group districtwide for which the committee determines such use is inappropriate or unsuitable which would indicate let's say if it's something that someone objected to it in middle school but it is appropriate for high school that would be absolutely fine same Elementary but maybe you know it should be available to our seventh and eighth graders and not our first graders that makes absolute sense and yet then we go so far in the policy which may be an oversight or I could be misreading in section five it does say after the first sentence
131the complainant shall be informed it then proceeds to say if a title is determined to be in violation of Florida statute by the district level Review Committee then the title shall be removed from All valua County schools and I think that that contradiction sets up anyone who may object with um an um unreasonable expectation since previously it does state that if the district Review Committee State makes the recommendation it'll be reviewed um and then recommended that it is removed from any not age appropriate schools but maintained in the age appropriate schools so I just wanted to point that out I know we all are are looking at the down the home stretch of this so if that is something that is going to present an issue later on perhaps that maybe this is not necessarily
132ready in its wording to be advertised as is thank you okay that's the um final input Dr bman do you have a recommendation um any discussion well we'll discuss once we hear your recommendation discussion opens after we have a motion in a second the recommendation is to um Grant the authority to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 320 which is uh media selection of print and non-print materials okay no Desiree is here to do a presentation along with Dr Evans along with Dr Evans on this um thank you for your recommendation and we'll hold for the vote till we've seen the presentation welcome M Dr rinsky good evening um good evening chairwoman Haynes um superintendent Dr Balin and School Board board members um it's not necessarily presentation I'm just going to summarize some
133of the changes um that are proposed in the policy um that Dr Evans and I have been working on um that has gathered feedback from stakeholders um numerous stakeholders in um the attempts to revise this policy um to strengthen it and further further clarify some uh aspects of it we will really wanted to make sure we clarified and clear for anyone who's reading it so I'm just going to go through several of those clarifications and then if you have questions at the end Dr Evans and I are happy to um entertain those um the first thing is we want to assure everyone there are a lot of Florida Statutes that are that revolve around books and book selection this policy um as as it is written and as it is proposed is in compliance with
134Florida statute um there's nothing in it that violates the law um or potentially violates the law at this time um a couple of things that we tried to add to the policy at the very beginning are uh definitions for clarification these are definitions that come from the Florida statute and are here for reference throughout the policy we updated language for consistency specifically in the challenge SL objection procedures the were several synonyms used for concern challenge objection um when in the end they all were referencing the same thing so we um use the the language of the statute with which is objection or objected to um and try to make that clear throughout the policy so we weren't using different words to mean the same thing um the next thing is the elimination of the school
135level Review Committee um this um adment was made to um really support schools this is a burdensome process for schools um when we are processing several objections um across multiple schools so this supports the schools um and takes some of that time and effort burden from them um and allows for consistency across um the district so in that process of removing the school level committee we needed to make some adjustments to the District level process to make sure that it encompasses all of those pieces so in order for a title to make it to a district level um Review Committee there are three different ways that that could happen so to start in the process it always starts at the school where there is a title that it is objected to a principal needs to
136know there is a concern about a title at his or her school so from there um the goal is that the principal and the complaint and are able to discuss their concern and resolve the issue um sometimes that happens and sometimes that doesn't happen so in the case um that the principal agrees with the complainant and the complainant um and the decision is to remove the title then that is automatically going to trigger um a district level Review Committee so that we can be consistent about a decision across the district a principal has the the autonomy and the authority to to um discontinue the use of a book at their school however if he or she chooses to do that we need to look at it to see if this is in violation of the
137statute and if so then we need to make sure that that is consistent across um the district so the second way for um a title to make it to the district level Review Committee would be if um the principal at the school says this title does not violate the statute we are going to keep keep it in our um library and at that point the complaintant May file um their specific material objection form and send it to the district um to the district media supervisor who would process the district um level Review Committee for that and finally um if a a complainant is making a a um an objection that is concerning other students than their own so when a parent a parent comes and they have a concern about something their own child is
138read reading or has access to that is different than if a parent has a concern for all children at all schools so that if we're talking about all schools then that would come to the district level Review Committee as well for so that that decision is a districtwide decision um and not at individual schools so during that District level review process um The Proposal is for a standing Review Committee at each level an elementary a middle and a high school um standing Review Committee the the makeup of that committee um it has remained the same in the policy which is this board um or several members of this board um worked hard to come up with those specific members the only um adjustment made to that was instead of principal an administrator is um so
139it could be a principal or an assistant principal or even a district administrator um so th that standing committee would meet and review um any books that were brought forth to that committee and it is already in the statute but we clearly um outlined it in the policy is that that is an open meeting um for that is open to the public and making sure that in that to make this a fair and Equitable process that anyone can come to that meeting and there is 15 minutes dedicated to public input um for or against removal of that material so anyone who um wants to share their opinion or their thoughts are have that opportunity to do that and then finally um at the very end of the policy is the option after three years for
140a title to be um looked at Again by a school media advisory committee um if a school is looking to add that book back to their collection they would F follow the procedures that are already in the policy for doing that and and just for clarification could you here uh what's the makeup of the committee sure absolutely so the makeup of the committee there are currently seven members um on that committee um a principal which the revision is to administrator a media specialist a curriculum supervisor or an instructional staff member and for parents or citizens who are not emplo employed by belusa County schools and how will the committee be selected so the committee The Proposal is that the committee is volunteers that will be randomly selected um so for Citizens and parents um we
141would communicate through District communication tools we have Focus that goes out to all parents we have um social media that um those would be advertised and then once we have a pool of volunteers we would do a random selection on um we can record it on teams you drop everybody into a randomizer and you pull out um you know the first how many ever committee members that we need we do it that is how we select our instructional materi IAL um committee members um currently anything else I just want to say um as Dr rabinsky stated this has been a a very intense uh review and trying to come up with something uh to present to the board as you know we have presented this policy or I have attempted to present this policy at
142least three times and every time we've tried to present this policy there was always some additional information that we thought may have been pertinent to adding to the policy for clarity for equity for transparency and also to further strengthen the policy um we've been given a lot of feedback and what we have tried to do is we've listened to all the feedback and we've tried to come up with a policy that includes information from everybody that could further strengthen this policy so that we can always do what's in the best interest of our students now we know that there perhaps is maybe some litigation or legislation out there that might affect this policy this year um and we don't know what's going to happen with that and as you know every year legislation could come
143and affect this policy so if it doesn't this year it might come next year but our main purpose was to come up with a policy um that will be Equitable and transparent and something that follows the law and as far as I know and understand there is nothing in this policy currently that violates Florida law thank you so you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent you've heard Dr rabinsky review the change es from the previous from the policy were currently under and you've heard Dr Evans do I have someone that would like to make a motion to approv to advertise the proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 320 meting selection of print and non-print materials I'll pass my gavel if I have to I make a motion I'll second thank you motions been properly made made
144by Miss Hayes seconded by Miss Goodrich uh any discussion so because I'm chairing I will go ahead and move to miss brosar go ahead thank you for that for that overview um you actually clarified a couple of things for me and in particular I um appreciate knowing the distinction between um one a single parent saying I don't want my child to read this book and a parent who may want to take it further and have it removed from the from um School shelves I didn't catch that I I will say all of the redlining was just brain cramp for me so um so I very much appreciate your um clarifications um with regard I may be oversimplifying but for me the bottom line is uh chapter 826 of the obscenity statute that applies to any
145minor uh which is anybody in K12 um I I thought one of the public comments was very interesting about uh maybe making making a distinction that a that a book would be removed um for middle school but might be appropriate for for high school and I can see that happening except in my head um and and again maybe maybe I'm oversimplifying but we wouldn't be likely to remove a book from school shelves bro more broadly if they don't violate chapter 826 um and and so I take everything back to that uh so in in my mind um I can't uh I can't justify the idea that a book would only be removed from certain levels or certain um schools or one one school at a time that doesn't make sense to me if it if
146it violates chapter 826 then then that applies across the board um so am I misunderstanding that provision M brosmer um in the in the current policy as stated when a book is objected to I know that's grammatically incorrect you never L with the preposition I'll forgive you for tonight thank you um and the current policy is always if it's objected to at one school and removed it's removed from that school alone but what we're trying to do now is to have it where if it's objected to and the committee approves it's removed from all Valia County Schools okay that's what thank you that's our proposal that is that correct Dr that that is correct to look at it to see if it is a violation of law because there are other reasons in the statute
147for violation of the law that are not just obscenity um there is grade and age appropriateness and that is the reference that you're making in regards to that so those are also components of the law so the focus is on the obscenity or on you know pornography and sexual conduct because that is that's that is what gets the focus but there are other components of that law as well so that is where when when a decision is made about a book we have to apply that if we're looking at it at a district level committee we would need to to look at what the law says and then apply that and it's not always just because of of obscenity the sexual conduct or or um pornography okay um thank you yeah I have one more
148question um on the on the reconsideration what was the thinking behind giving it three years um is is there a thought that statute might change or what would change in a three-year period that would um make the district take it up for reconsideration so there there's all one of the the concerns is the opportunity to relook at a a book over time and so this is um the attempt to provide that opportunity again for a book that could potentially if it viol if if the law if it's if it violates the Florida statute then and it violates the Florida statute three years later then of course it would not be allowed to be back in but there are lots of other circumstances that occur and there nuances that do change in the law um so
149that at at that time if it is a title that a school or you know wants to add back to their media collection and it is not under not currently in violation of the Florida statute then it could be um added back or considered for addition back to the collection okay and who would who would initiate that reconsideration that would be by the school by the school there and the school when they the the school media advisory council is a group of individuals at the school who um look at the the needs of the school the interests of the students and the stakeholders at that school and they they're adding books to the library annually we're always adding books and so it would come through that group and would the reconsideration be um apply to
150just that school or to all schools it would be individually to schools because that school would be select just like now every every media specialist has the option to look at books um get recommendations from student students from faculty members about books to add to their Library collection and in that that might be a consideration if a parent um a student a a faculty member wanted to add that book back it would be recommended to the media specialist who would then um present it to the committee for consideration okay one more question then um I'm sorry but your explanations make me think of other questions so just projecting out um let's say in three years um a dis a school wanted to um bring back a title that had been removed from all schools um
151if they do could that then be challenged for removal again it could be okay it would follow the same you know it would follow the same process it would okay thank you very I think those are my only questions thank you Miss Thompson thank you um my only concern right now is that there's current legislation being discussed so if we put this out for advertisement and that changes then do we have to put it out for advertisement all over again and would it be more prudent to wait since there is legislation pending that could affect this you can't press your button I can't press a button that's right that's my only I I don't have an issue with the policy but it's just the kind of the timing of that would it not make more
152sense to wait and if there is a reason that we're doing it right now and we're okay if legislation changes I I am open to that as well I'm just that's my only concern thank you m all right so here we are and here's what I'm going to say there's a state law that says pornographic and sexually explicit materials are not supposed to be in our Public School libraries it doesn't de it doesn't designate what age they can be there for it just says they're not supposed to be there as I said a couple years ago when this first was brought to me I said there is no way there is a Valia County school public library that has inappropriate sexually explicit or pornographic materials in the libraries well I was proven wrong and they're
153there and here's where I'm at the people that everybody's saying we need to 100% trust somehow those books with the people that were asked to 100% trust brought those books into our Public School libraries and the process that we've had to go through to remove them so that we're not breaking the law has been going on now for how many years and every time this policy comes back up it sometimes gets kicked down the road and I don't understand why because there is a law and whether we have a policy for that law or not we took an oath that we would follow the law and we need to be following the law no one that works for Valia County Schools is exempt from the law and the law says those materials will not be
154in our p in our libraries in the in the public school media center in the teachers classrooms now there has been some processes put into place to alert parents of that have students in an IB or an Ace Program that there could be a topic or a book that those parents may not want their child to read and they're allowed an alternative selection but those parents sign knowing that that's one of the books that the IB program has put out or the Ace Program has put out I'm here tonight and where I stand is I'm going to vote for this even though I know there are four pieces of legislation right up right now up in Tallahassee I'm not kicking this down the road again we don't know what's going to happen in Tallahassee we
155don't know when it which thing will come out will the governor approve it will they not when will be the final date but the clarifications in here are needed and they're needed because here's some of the steps of what's happened we've had principles receive emails when they have a book that's been brought to them and if you lay it next to the law it's broken the law and they have removed it because it doesn't follow the law because keep in mind yes the policy ahead of this says the principles will sign for the new books that are coming into their school well there is no way any one of our principles out there can read a list of a 100 or 150 new books coming into their scho school but they are responsible for what
156happens on their campus I have been appalled that people have written them emails basically kind of threatening them for removing a book or telling them I don't agree with you that's the last thing they need on their plate is another thing and I agree we don't need to hold school-based committee reviews okay we've already been through that process and for those of you that weren't here I could tell you how that went down and it was not appropriate the way it went down I support a district process but what I all what I'm going to say if it is pornographic or sexually explicit with diagrams drawings photos whatever I don't I am I can't believe we have to go through this many steps to remove a book that it should have never made its way
157onto one of our sh bookshelves and so I am going to vote for this tonight then whatever comes out of Tallahassee does or does not come July 1st yes we'll be back here to adjust it because they will have given us a new law or new details to follow but in the meantime we have to move forward on this I will say that when we do move forward on this and I brought I brought the whole committee thing up in the beginning and at one point we looked at 11 members we looked at nine members we looked at seven members I do think it might be a very good idea because we as board members are asked all the time to select someone if you think about it we're elected from our areas because people
158elected us to serve in this position so when we do bring it back up after whatever happens in Tallahassee after this session I would like to consider that each board member appoints a person to the committee not for now but for then and as I've said from day one if our school advisory councils have to have more than 50% of them have to be parents will be meeting the law by increasing the number and each board member having an opportunity to select someone and so I'm okay if there's a few more people on that committee because I think we get a better representation then of what's on the committee and so I'm okay that we still leave it open for some parents to apply for an open seat but I do think I believe we
159are capable of each selecting someone from our area to sit on that committee but it's not a change I'm asking for for tonight but one other area that I have a question on is it says that the person that's making the challenge has to complete the piece like within the 15 days there's nothing about the timeline of what we have to do in valuch County schools and I'm fine if you're writing up a procedure book that these are the procedures that will be followed by school-based staff District staff superintendent Dr Evans your office whatever but if we're going to put time limits on the people that bring forward a book then there needs to be a time limit piece within our own organization it should be well they get 15 days to have to do
160something and we get six months because that's not that is not showing that we're working together in collaboration but I will be supporting this tonight thank Youk you uh yes sir CH I think we did look at that particular issue about the number of days is that correct Miss yes so are you um Mrs Haynes are you referencing the time after the principal conference um and if that the principal sends that um the conference along with the objection specific material objection then that would you want a time frame on that is that what you're I think any time we put a time frame on one side there needs to be a time frame on the other side and I will reference um the transparency piece I am not at all opposed to there being information
161this is my opinion on the website um of any challenges or the process or the steps where they're at but what I don't want to see is yes whoever does it is going to have to fill out a form but I don't believe that person's name their house information their telephone should be posted there I'm fine with there has been a challenge of book ABC sunshine and it was you know ched and on this date and this is the process it's in but I am not going to be part of sharing information where unfortunately the world's a little bit of a scary place right now and I don't want someone receiving any form of threats or people showing up at their homes or calling their phones and threatening them because they started a process on
162a book and so that's the only other piece but I'm all for transparency so that people can see what the books are that we are removing thank you Dr Evans so I have a question for you are we still am miss a federal lawsuit based on our current policy in place right now is that still going we are currently in a law school where we were named yes could this new policy be perceived as more restrictive than the policy we have that we're currently being uh brought for suit I don't believe it would be more restrictive I think it's just it further explains it it gives additional information I don't think it's more restrictive I think it's it's being more transparent and open so people can express their ideas if you notice in the new
163policy which was not in the previous one uh an individual now if you don't like that a book is being ch we're giving you the opportunity before the district level committee makes the decision to come in just like we do for public comment and say hey I don't believe that this should be done we've never done that before and I think that is allowing people who are on the opposite side of the fence to express their concerns prior to a decision being made so we all know and it was mentioned before in Dr Evans I'm sorry sorry but this is Groundhog Day every single year this time of year we go through this policy right now we if we approve this today it gets advertised and the next meeting it may come back to us
164will be May 13th 28 days well it's 28 days but our last meeting is on I I think the way the timing Falls is it the next meeting is going to be like May 13th so we have put this policy in place May 13th and then on July 1st everything that is going through session right now becomes law and we're back here doing this on July 29th it won be ready by then okay July 29th how many book challenges have we had this year since January we have not had any challenges how many book challenges have we had this school year we have not had any challenges this school year okay is does our current policy prohibit everything that miss Haynes said about pornography and all of that stuff does our current policy address that
165yes it does address that we can vote on this this is great this is going to go into effect in the middle of May and then it's coming back in the end of Ju July because there's going to be legislation we know there's two or three bills right now we know the likelihood of these being so certainly I'm okay I'll vote for it I don't care it doesn't matter I'm afraid of the the lawsuit side of it the fact that we have so let's so if this is by perceived by anybody while we're in the middle of this litigation if it is perceived that this is more restrictive then we have a different problem because we're going to have additional you're kind of I hate to say you're poking the bear for what's going to
166be into effect for two weeks of the school year and we're going to have to revisit in July anyways is it really worth it is it really worth the perception that we are going because the reason I feel that this might be perceived as a little bit more restrictive is that what's appropriate at Taylor a book on a book in Deltona about Roberto Clemente may be offensive at Taylor may be offensive at Orman Beach it was it happened in Jacksonville because there two different communities we're taking away that school-based ability for that school-based committee to make that decision that's to me is taking away so that that's why I wonder I'm good with it we vote on it it's fine it's great it passes we're going to have it for the next two weeks of
167the school year and then in July the new laws get written they decide to get rid of the Miller test if it's in our policy which is the obscenity statute blah blah blah and we're going to be back here is it and if we weren't in litigation it wouldn't be a big deal but we're in the middle of federal lawsuit because our policy was considered and again I don't I don't believe that we had any wrongdoing but we're in the middle of getting sued we're I use the and I'm a very picture person we're out on bail you can't speed when home Bale because if you get caught you're going to spend the rest of your time we're we're in that window we're getting sued right now as we speak so that's my two cents
168I know you're cringing I I it's just that's my thought and so that I I you know can I vote for this yeah is it going to make a difference no is it going to change anything there's zero books there's been zero books all year long zero books zero we're talking about zero so really this is a I call it a shell game it's a shell game of policy yeah we going to pass it but it's it going to make a difference no there's nothing really the only books that have been pulled are the ones that people come here and read so even having that in our policy hasn't gotten rid of the porn from the books just saying anyways thank you Miss there was no place for me to do that um I understand
169your point I will um say that I'm willing to support this this policy tonight um the fact that there have been no challenges this year I don't think is an indication of a lack of uh desire to have done them but a lot of confusion about what the policy and the procedure would have been and and so um there's been a lot of waiting around trying to trying to um come to some resolution that would define the policy and and that may lead to the CH some challenges it's not difficult to what um if assuming that we were to adopt this tonight uh it's not difficult to make to adjust that um if a bill were to pass that uh would make some adjustments to it uh because there's nothing that I've read in in
170existing um in anything that's been introduced so far that is a drastic change from what we're doing so um I'm willing to be done with this for the moment I think this is this is moving at the very least in the right direction and and it gives the those who might have some concerns about some of the books that that um Mrs Haynes referenced um a place to go with them them and so in order to move this ahead I I think I think this is a good start anyone else very good we have a motion and a second motion was made by Miss Hayne seconded by miss goodr all those in favor say I I I all those opposed motion passes thank you thank you Dr Dr binsky um Madam chair and I will
171agree with you I think there is some changes that need to be made the randomizer that's not that could be anybody I think we'll have to look at that in July because I'd rather have representation than just we picked one two three four and five and these five people may end up being leaning one way or the other and then they're everybody's going to complain anyways and we're going to be right back here because we heard that when when they did that the last time and it was though they picked they handpicked and we were looking at what time did the email come in then no yeah I don't disagree with you and I think um if if we select people then it's people that are in our area that are sharing their feedback of
172what they want to see and that's what we're here to do is to represent them okay at this time we are up to item do we have any cards all right so this is our final public participation for this evening I have two cards so we're going to go ahead and get started and then after these two individuals speak we'll move into the final part of the evening so my first speaker is Erica Rudolph did I say that correctly followed by Christopher Gibs welcome I'm sorry I didn't come with anything written um my name is Erica Rudolph I just moved here from Palm Beach County to Valia County um since I've been here and know Miss bur Miss bird she has been nothing but love and inspiration to me and my family um the library
173is like a safe haven for my daughter um going through everything that we have been through um I was in nursing school in Palm Beach County I ended up here because I lost everything and I went homeless I actually came from a shelter District are the ones that actually Journey my daughter Journey who um goes to 30t one of the after care teachers in Palm Beach County um was having um different little events in after care and I kind of explained to her that my daughter couldn't participate and she acted so I know there are you know some good people in you know the district and since I've been in baloa County going through so many different motions trying to put my life back together and things like that um Miss bird has been there
174for me and my family um like sometimes I'm at work till like four almost 5 o' my daughter's in the library with Miss bird she'll take that extra step and bring her home or if she have dance she'll say hey don't worry about it I'm like I can't leave you know I'm the closer she she helped me she helped me out a whole lot like and it's coming from someone who I was in nursing school I lost everything I ended up here I had 5 months left here I am in valua County I love it here it's very homely but um I don't know the situation of what's going on but I do know she have a heart of go in her anything she do she do without of act of kindness It's times I
175couldn't afford certain things for my daughter she said don't worry about it I got it I you know make sure and then like you know she'll pick her up take her you know do things where like that's her own child I seen her do it for other parents as well but the love and you know the things she have done for my daughter I mean if you know if she have to go work at another school let her work at another school let her you know be inspiring and help someone else don't just count her out like I knew something was wrong because I say Miss I looked at journey I say Journey bir like she's my account my accountability partner like hey what's going on get back get yourself back you know and you
176know so I'm like what's going on she was like Miss bird don't work at the school anymore I said what so I called Miss B she was like I was wondering why you wasn't you know I was I was just stunned because I'm like this has been like a safe haven like everything that even when I speak to my certain family members I have family members that work in the school district and Sh stuff like that and when I talk to them and I even you know it's they like see my CH see my daughter with the little dance outfit I'm like yeah that's from tury te you know Miss B she works in the library she help you know and they they look at it they be like oh that's nice that's nice you
177know keep it up keep it up we're happy you putting everything back together I'm like yes yes yes ma'am I'm not just any person even though I'm just standing here like this I have a daughter that have a 3 point 3.7 GPA she goes to Spruce I'm sorry your time is up I I'm sorry but I just think don't count her out she's really her intentions is really good thank you Christopher Gibs I'm going to speak on a slightly different issue but very similar I encourage you to visit our school it is beautiful it has Wide Open Spaces great flexible teaching areas and a bathroom in every classroom you may have noticed on social media but all of this is meaningless walk into our school now and you'll feel it the weight in the air
178it is heavy something shifted when we moved something's broken the culture at our school is no more and it has been for some time teachers are sad teachers are depressed teachers are anxious teachers are feeling isolated teachers are feeling every emotion but the most important feeling loved and being heard this year alone I have watched so many teachers come and go more teachers than what we have fingers in fact more teachers than what we have fingers and toes combined over 20 so many good wonderful teachers gone and sadly throughout the past month I have been very open about my possibility of moving schools and possibly moving from the district I have worked for vucha County schools for 16 years and I have spent the past nine years at the Beloved t t small Elementary I
179went to that school my son went to that school I love CH T I love the parents the community and most important I love the kids there but our school has fallen apart chy te needs an entire revamp as we head into the new school year our scores are at an all-time low and for those veteran teachers like myself that know how to push students to the next level the pressure has fallen on us to make sure that we are not a failing school and that is a lot of pressure we need to stop putting a Band-Aid on the problem that alone Heals Nothing let's fix it once and for all thank you for taking the time to listen to me I appreciate it thank you all right that brings us to the um final
180part of the evening and so it's time for any items from board members the superintendent or the school board attorney do I have anyone that would like to speak first Mrs brosmer going to ask you to indulge me a little bit because um I'll make this as as brief as I can but I wanted to go over some um excuse me some conversations I had in Tallahassee and some legislation that um is not that doesn't appear to be on fba's radar and and we um as a board didn't adopt a legislative slate so it's not necessarily on our radar either um but I met with um our delegation members as well as Bill sponsors and um and legislative staff and I attended a couple of um meetings uh committee meetings where a total of about
181a dozen bills were uh debated and all of them passed out of committee uh one or two of them were a little more contentious and others but generally speaking they they passed with approval um a few of the ideas that uh came up in conversation with some of the members I thought you might want to know about um just as as their thoughts um one in particular was to end the one-year contracts for teachers and that is included in one of the bills that's been introduced but because it it was also brought up as a uh as a priority uh for some of the members I I thought it was worth mentioning because I do think that that is something that that is important and matters um one member mentioned the relationship between declining enrollment
182and and impact fees which was were dots I had never connected but this member did and so I I thought I should toss that out and another mentioned um the possibility of uh introducing something um maybe in a in another session that would um change the criteria for assistant principles and I thought that was uh worth mentioning too um I thought I would touch on a couple of the bills that are not on fba's uh r radar in particular um House Bill 439 has to do with um it does have a senate companion I didn't write down what that is s right could you repeat that number 439 and it has to do with uh Public School Personnel salary schedules uh in the house uh they sometimes do a preface page where they say uh
183which is why I filed this bill and I think um this couple of paragraphs explains it better than I could um in in trying to summarize the bill um the sponsor says Florida faces a critical teacher shortage yet State mandated salary schedules prevent school districts from properly compensating Educators wage compression has eroded incentives forcing talented teachers to leave this bill restores local control allowing school districts to design competitive s salary structures that attract and retain top talent Educators school boards and union leaders all support this reform without action Florida risks falling behind in national rankings and losing teachers to better paying states by allowing local decision-making this bill ensures Florida remains competitive in the teacher job market giving students access to the best Educators this bill um does not have an analysis right now it
184does have a senate companion but it doesn't have a bill analysis yet because um they are planning to do a strike all and I don't have that yet it hasn't been published yet um the the strike all will just have some amendments in it but the purpose of a strike all is just to to keep from doing the kind of redlining that we had on on the on the policy we just discussed um so uh when that all is available I I think it would be a good idea for us to take a a look at it because we have talked among ourselves about the effect that compression has had on our ability to properly compensate our teachers and if this gives us more control over our ability to do that I I I think
185it would be good if we were to weigh in on it [Music] um uh House Bill 1255 and Senate Bill 1618 are companions uh and and just um a couple of sentences on what they address um we had some conversation today about our literary um plan and and this may relate to that um but in the bill analysis it says um the bill provides for two additional components for school district reading instruction plan and requires approval of the plan by um Department of Education um and that um addresses reading interventions but it also creates a comprehensive system of mathematics instruction for students in prek through grade 12 and those who establish I'm sorry those who exhibit a substantial deficiency in early mathematic mathematics skills to mirror the sorry paper heavy here the existing Provisions related
186to reading intervention and because this links um or includes math as well as as reading I thought um maybe that's something that that we should also pay attention to uh and finally uh House Bill 123 and Senate Bill uh 140 which is the the gates Andra bill I I think um that one is fast-tracked and it's likely to pass but there the provision in it that has to do with um what we do with what school districts do with property that we own um should be something that we're paying attention to because um this bill also has horsepower um given its its sponsors and um it determines under what conditions uh School s May either acquire or Surplus uh any land that we own and in particular uh it references districts that have had declining
187enrollment for for um I think of 4% over five years and um one of the things that concerns me is that these bills will affect us and you know the saying is if you're not at the table you're on the menu uh and I would like for us we the valusa county delegation is influential uh one of the reasons we were able to get rid of DCd is because we had a member who was able to do that for us so for us not to pay attention to things that would have this kind of impact on us I think is a mistake and so I just wanted to mention these as examples of policies that look like they're going to be um in bills that are likely to pass there may be amendments to them
188there may be changes um but um we might want to weigh in with our at least with our members and and tell them how those uh those policies would affect us for better or worse uh before the vot's Taken good Rich s recently learned that our policy um only allows us to create a school calendar for one year and I'd like to ask that we revisit that there are many states that create school calendars for three years at a time um when meeting with some of our principles they shared that many families travel now and um and miss and we have you know issues with absenteeism and perhaps if they had more notice about when the school calendar was they'd be less app to travel on those dates and it I don't understand why we
189wouldn't go out that far we know what a school year looks like so I'd like to look at that I'd also like to request that um our facilities group does go back out to t t there are quite a few issues out there that need to be addressed we can talk about that offline and I'd also like to request um I know we're going to be discussing the budget and a succinct list of which schools are losing money and I think we need need to look at those schools and then last just a reminder that the Special Olympics is April 5th and we still need volunteers so please volunteer for the Special Olympics thank you Miss Thompson thank you um and miss brossmer you brought up quite a few bills and I know that I'd
190spoken to some of our Representatives as well especially the gates bill um because I do find that very interesting I think most of us do as far as the land and the Surplus and so I agree that communication should continue on until they vote um on that and I think that we all have access to our legislators ears um so to continue on that also one that you didn't mention and I you probably just overlooked it was uh from 1473 from last year that was Safety and Security because I know we've heard from admin from teachers how difficult some of that has been I believe last year there was a lot that was overlooked that this year they are trying to figure out so that it's easier still very safe and there are multiple ways
191to do this so I agree just keep on our legislators because session isn't over and you know they haven't voted on certain things but um yeah thank you to everyone who continues to do that hell I have nothing okay I do um so last week during spring break several of us were in um Tallahassee so Mr cologne and I actually spent Wednesday morning um at a meeting where I sit on the State Board of Directors for the Florida School Board Association and we had a director's meeting and every District um every medium to large district has their own representative then small districts group together but they elect each year who's going to be their representative and their alternate and that meeting was rather lengthy this time with a lot of information in it during that
192meeting we also received some updates on what's Happening you know in Florida even with like the different laws and the things that are happening from there um he and I moved on over to um the legislative training session that FSB offered us it started at 1 pm and it went all the way till 5:00 pm and we were fortunate um Manny Diaz came and spoke um his words were interesting um I may share them at a later date um but I'll give you a hint of what he talked about um that education becom a Marketplace for people to pick and choose what they want to buy or what supports they want for their children we also heard from um just our Indian River superintendent who is the superintendent for the State of Florida this year
193um he went he talked about intentional being intentional with your instruction which was really good but then we got into why we were there and that was for yes fsba has their platform and I have copies of their platform their platform they the five issues they chose this year and this was based on Statewide input from all school board members um number one was about the hurricane relief and Community resilience because we had some of our um districts this year extremely impacted financially to the point that they lost schools and had to figure out how they were going to educate children um administrative official is the new term they're using for deregulation and so fsba as us as a group we support them continuing to do the deregulation because then that puts us all on
194an even playing field because we have not we've been held to a lot of different standards that private Charter and of course H School are not held to um and we had an opportunity the next day to even hear more about attendance and accountability that one's been brought forward by Erica Booth who was a former School Board member and it is moving right along and that's going to tie into our chronic absenteeism and so a lot of us um have written to in support of that piece of what she's trying to do to cut down and address The Chronic absenteeism then there was the school safety and law enforcement support um absolutely we all supported it but I will tell you we were able to meet individually with people that we normally wouldn't even be
195able to meet with because they were they're not our legislators but they're the people moving the bill or helping to write the policy and even when we went to um Miss Thompson and Dr Evans and I went and met in Tom leak's office the gentleman that works with him his name is Mike and he's been doing this for 30 some years and he said we wrote it and we there was some unint ended consequences and he took information down as we shared with him the examples of like used to land High the double doors and then the classroom doors and he said we are working through those things so I feel confidently that they are going to make that but that's a big thing fsba is behind and so everybody has been supporting that because
196every district has had some issues with House Bill 1473 and them just saying you'll do everything this way and it hasn't necessarily worked and then the education funding and um fiscal responsibility was the fifth thing but beyond that um we had the opportunity to even see a few people that I didn't know that we were going to get to see um our next to last meeting of the day and I apologize because I'm not sure how you pronounce her last name correctly but she is the head of the prek to2 um education committee but her first name is Dana which that's what my daughter's name is so I will not forget that but we got to have a personal conversation with her along with Hillsboro County and she read to us as Albert you're going
197to appreciate this I know but how do you say it oh troli troli okay she um she read to us a letter from a teacher in her the the district she represents that the teacher had tracked every moment of the assessment piece of what she was giving and so she read that email out loud to the three of us and along with um Kim McDougall was with us and as I said um Patty from Hillsboro and she read it and she said so talk to me about this what did we do right or what did we do wrong or how do I give teachers back more instructional time she asked that question and I was honest with her and Miss Thompson gave it from the Viewpoint of having her own children taking the assessments I
198gave it from the Viewpoint of what we had thought progress monitoring would be and and between Patty and I we summed it up the problem with the progress mon monitoring right now the way they've put it out is it needs to be more diagnostic if the progress monitoring could be Diagnostic and not just tell us you know like the benchmarker or the standard but actually tell us what it tested and we knew how the kids did on it then we could cut down on some of the other assessments because we were honest we've got progress monitoring that doesn't give us enough information back so therefore we go to our Lua test because it gives us the information back so she heard us she gave us her card and said she would like to have further
199conversation with us because she really wants to find a way to give teachers back the instructional time because this teacher had calculated up every minute of what was being spent in her classroom and we said well the current assessments that the state is giving us to administer we're not getting the information we need and when we even shared about the dashboard and the information we get from that she was very interested in it so she said so we need to do a better job at the state level with what we're putting out to you so that you have what you need to know so that you can reduce the number of Assessments and I said that's the only way I see it happening at this point so we did also talk to her we also
200got to see um the new Senate President all Britain and I will we talk talked about this because we've been there there was a different feeling when we met with Senators this year than there's ever been they were calm they were kind they were patient even the ones that came in to meet us like in the Senate conference room so that like three districts could have a chance to talk because we all have the same issues so many of us that we're dealing with but they walked around the room and introduced themselves to each of us even if we weren't in their area and we introduced ourselves and they took the time and I really think it's because of the new Senate President he has set an expectation that you will show kindness and as
201he said love for everyone and you will listen because he said we're not here just to go off on what we think but we're here to be able to hear from all of you and he took the time to hear from us that day we there's also a lady up there that um I enjoyed her last year and we had her back um this year and she was the first person of the morning and her name is um Kathy Miser she just tells you the way it is she tells you here's what's happening this is what's going to happen to this this is it doesn't she Dr Evans I mean she's kind of she's very blunt but she's just a joy because she can give you all the details of what they're currently writing on
202or what they goofed on and what they have to correct and I appreciate that but some of the other things that we talked about and we did and we saw an Gerwig we saw and as I said we saw all of our people and we just got they set up a nice day for um us to be able to do that but some of the other things that came up there is an education or an educator certification and training piece out there and there's both House and Senate have the bill and it's going to be be on mass casualty training and that that's a little tough I will be honest with you and some people shared even what it's like in their districts if they've been on campus when they've had to do the mass
203shooter training and so even Miss Thompson shared some thoughts on that but that is up there I was a little happy about this we'll see how it falls out the Esau graduation requirement piece they are looking at our Esau students especially our non-english speaker students and they're looking and both the House and Senate have bills on that to see how those students still can be able to graduate and not just walk across that stage and get a certificate of attendance which then does not open any doors for them um I was very happy with the two there's two different sets of ese legislation the one is for our autistic children and they're looking at micro Workforce credentialing or micro credentialing for those students with autism and it's something we've needed to look at especially with
204the rising numbers of how many students um are being diagnosed with autism and so both groups are working on that I will tell you most of the time I prefer the Senate bill to the house bill I kind of hope somebody will talk to the house and bring them in line because I feel like the has maybe done a little bit more work on that but there's also the es piece that they're working on for students with all other disabilities and how we could do credentialing for some of those students too because we know right now those of us that have been in education for a long time that our students in ESC a large portion of them walk across that stage and just get a certificate of attendance and yet there are skills that
205they can do out there in that world but but we need to be able to help them get what they need and they need to be recognized for the skills that they can do so that they can be employable and they can be part of productive citizens and then I um under that as I said that administrative efficiency it's going to clear up a lot I personally am very very concerned about the Andrade Bill and how it's being pushed and I spoke about it before we went to Tallahassee all right so I need all of you those of you here those listening home maybe those that'll pull it up and listen to this part if we truly believe in public education and we realize that public education is valuable for the majority of our students
206I I don't oppose choice if a parent there's been choice for years I mean I know a family years ago that homeschooled their children and their son got a full ride to Yale okay but they didn't take any government money for it that was a choice they made but going back to that Marketplace piece if these bills go through we're going to have some of our own Public Schools where parents could make the decision to turn them into a charter school it could it would be called a conversion school so the way we finally got them to explain the numbers to us because I needed to hear the numbers it says a majority of the parents would come together in a meeting well a majority is 50% so I'll just I'll just randomly pick a
207school sitting in my area so if the parents at Citrus Grove come together and 50% of those parents say we wish to turn Citrus Grove into a charter school they can hold a meeting and as long as they have 50% of the parents there they can vote they only need 25 they only need half of the 50 to vote so now you've brought the decision down to 25% of the parents at that school can decide to turn a public school into a conversion charter school and no one else gets a vote if th that bill goes through the way that it is and that is very concerning to me because it's not so for anybody that was around back in the day when we had No Child Left Behind and we had outside tutoring companies
208could tutor our children so one day they were a lawn mowing company and the next day they were a Tutoring company and that is the honest truth that's what happened and they would hold a fair and they would come in and say if you choose us we'll give your kid a bike if you choose us we'll give you a gift card my concern is I see Charter Schools coming in and saying if you choose to convert your school here's what we'll do for you this is what you're going to get and then the other piece is that a city could choose to take over one of our Public Schools same voting majority of parents so 50% of the parents have to show up to the meeting and half of them have to vote which brings
209you down to 25 and the city could take over the operation of one of our schools and when you read that bill it also says we will leave everything intact we will leave all furniture we will leave everything in that we will not remove anything so guys we got you got to think about this cuz I'm not trying to be hard I'm giving you the honest truth every time any of us go on to social media and we make statements in a negative way about our schools about parents about any of that here's what's happening when you attack a parent on social media they have choices and they walk out the door and they take their money Mone with them or enough of them will get together and they will turn themselves into a charter
210school or a city operated school and we have to be aware that that is what's happening because our numbers are increasing every year of the number of parents that are making those choices and they're making choices if or when they feel we have taken their voice away and we're not honoring that they are are the parent of those children that are in our school or when we argue with them or we tell them we know better for their child than what they know so that those two bills they're going to go through and I've watched the committee meetings because you don't have to be there to see them any one of you can pull it up and you can watch it and you can see the questions that are asked you can hear what people
211say you can hear what the person pushing the bill will say he said there'll be no amendments to it there is no plan to put amendments in the Senate bill is better in my opinion on that one than the house bill but it also does look at our land and we have already surplused quite a bit of land that we know we're not going to use because it's pieces left over from where we built something but we have land we already have being held for the growth where the growth you know the what was going to be 10,000 homes up in Orman but now it's 8,800 and something we have a piece of land held there for a school well if this goes through we'll have to let all that land go and then when
212we need it there's not a clear Direction on how we'll get it back or or what it will cost us to get a piece of property then to build the school that we need so that's what I want to leave you with tonight and I want to I want to thank thank Mr cologne for spending the whole day on Wednesday with me as we went through all of this the board of directors meeting and all of the training that FSA brought and the great speakers they brought over to review and answer all of our questions and I want to thank Miss Thompson and Dr Evans for spending we we got in there a little before 900 a.m. and we didn't leave till a little after 5:00 P p.m. um spending the whole time with me
213um as we met with everyone and I appreciated the extra opportunities we had to meet with people that we normally would not have even been able to meet with but they came and met with us and so what I can say to you is look up and write a personal email tell them what some piece of this means to you or what it could mean to your community or what it would mean to your child and I do like the fact of what they're looking at they need to give us the control over the salary piece we we have every time we think we're going to have control we have done what they've asked us and then right at the last minute they have pulled the control back that's what we've been dealing with for
214a few years now it was like well if you get to this point then we'll give you you know control we got to that point they're like no we're not going to give you control and so that's why I still say thank you to whoever figured out the longevity and retention supplements so that our teachers that have have the experience that we're compressed are able to get that money in another way but that's all I have for this evening and thank you to everyone that took the time out to go up there and meet all right then it is 808 and we are adjourned John