001foreign welcome today is Tuesday April 25th 2023 and I'm going to call to order the school board meeting 4 33 P.M in just a moment I would like to ask each of you to join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance in the national anthem this tonight the Pledge of Allegiance will be presented by Blue Lake Elementary the national anthem will be by Galaxy Middle School following the pledge and national anthem would you please remain standing for a moment of silence and reflection tonight we're going to dedicate the moment of silence and reflection to Mrs Burnett's mother-in-law who passed away this morning Mrs Burnett is still here with us even though we gave her the opportunity to not be but as she shared with me earlier today she's happy that her mother-in-law is at
002peace now so welcome and let's please stand for the pledge Blue Lake Elementary and we are excited to be here with Miss Kelly's first grade class to say the Pledge of Allegiance let's go guys to the flag of one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all hello we are Galaxy Middle School chorus and I am Noel Miller we are singing for you national anthem [Music] by the daughters [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign we are happy that all of you are here those of you here in the boardroom with us those in the Overflow area as well as anyone that is tuned in and listening at home or will be watching this later today or tomorrow we're going to start
003with introductions and so I'm actually going to start today over on my far right hand side on our far right hand side on the corner we have Mrs Celeste Gilmore who is our agency clerk she's the one that keeps us straight here in the boardroom and we appreciate her next to Mrs skillmore we have Mr Rubin cologne representing District Five then we have our vice chair Mrs Anita Burnett representing District 2 to my immediate right is Dr Carmen balgubin our superintendent I'm now going to move over onto the left hand side Mr persis is not yet with us but he is on his way he represents District Four so then we have Miss Jesse Thompson representing District 3 and then we have Mr Aaron Wolfe who is our school board of attorney and I am
004Jamie Haynes your chair this year and I represent district one and as I said we're very happy to have you here we start off a lot of our meetings with just like the minutes and things but then we move into the recognitions and that is the piece that I have to tell you probably every one of us loves is being able to recognize our students teachers and staff whether they're a bus driver a pair or a schoolway cafe an office specialist from the district with all the things that they do so items for approval on this agenda today are items 1.03 2.02 4.01 and 7.02 public participation times for items on the cons will happen for items on the consent agenda so if you wish to fill out a yellow card for anything that's on
005the consent agenda you can do so and turn that in and you will we will have you come up to speak for up to three minutes on a consent agenda item also we have 6 PM for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Volusia County for 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 vote is called of the board on that item and then at the end of the meeting time will be provided for public comment for items of general interest pertaining to public education of Volusia County before items from the board superintendent or attorney are open for discussion announcement or approval we ask that you silence your cell phones so
006that they are not an interruption during today's meeting in any way so please do so if you haven't already so we are now at item 1.02 District vision statement and board member comments our district vision statement is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an ever-changing Global Society at this time I would invite any board member to share anything that they would like to share is there someone that has something to share Mrs Thompson you're up first yes so I wanted to share in New Smyrna Beach last week they had the high school AG program opened up their AG Farm to there were middle school students there from New Smyrna Beach Middle School and students there from the fifth grade classes at Chisholm Elementary School and the high school students LED basically a teaching on all
007the different parts of the farm they had interactive activities they had the animals available the students ended up chasing a hog it was so much fun and even though it rained I had a great time I know the students had a great time and I just our AG teachers give so much I feel like they work 110 24 7. we have so many great animals out there and I've been told they're going to keep expanding and I think that's just great for the community it's great for the students to really learn Hands-On life skills and so just a shout out to the high school and that AG program because they did an amazing job and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that they had a sheep on Sunday have triplets and I'm told
008there will be a baby calf there in June so I think everyone should go visit it's going to be a lot of fun thank you Mrs Burnett thank you so we had some exciting events in the last couple weeks and I know many of us were were in attendance at Terry T when we got to do the groundbreaking for the school and that's something that the community there has been waiting for for a long time and the students there our students deserve to be have a school where they're proud of and that can can help them in the best capacity and then we got to celebrate um with Mainland for our parade and I want to say that was fun because I've done parades with my husband at the city of Port Orange and I
009liked standing up in the Jeep I'm going to have to tell them to up their game so um so anyway that was great for both of those schools so thank you for anybody who got to celebrate with us Mr cologne so A lot's happened and I can't see you but that's okay Madam chair I'm sorry no it's okay I'm sure she would rather not see me A lot's happened in the last two weeks you know everything from Spring breakdown is always really busy a huge shout out to Larry Beale and our athletic trainers that got hundreds and hundreds of students over to the speedway for the sports physicals and EKG screening so a shout out I thought I saw Larry earlier but I don't there he is back there thank you it was an amazing
010event in our partnership with Advent Health who we play for where they did the EKG screenings free of charge Etc after that we went over to Galaxy that had an amazing Car Wash and so they are on their Journey I'll share with you uh last check they were they had to raise twenty five thousand dollars and they are seven thousand dollars shy and so it's one of those things that you uh your kids win and you have like a month and a half to get that much money to make it to Kansas and so again uh anybody who wants to learn more about that effort and how you can contribute to getting those uh students up there please contact Angel he knows all of the answers to that big shout out to Pine Ridge I
011was there for their academic days or anybody here from Pine Ridge Rising I didn't know he was back there uh and so that was a lot of fun Dr B will probably speak about the amazing 5K so I won't steal her Thunder there um oh the 5K that was a lot of fun HOSA a lot of our students had the opportunity to participate in the HOSA state competition many of which are now gearing up to go to Nationals so shout out to our HOSA students Spirit Elementary they had their night of the Arts and so it was really cool to see these amazing children not only sing one little boy got up there and played the piano he couldn't have been all but seven years old and he was amazing so shout out to Spirit
012Science night at Deltona Middle um yay Alice in Wonderland at Sunrise that was a lot of fun as well I'm almost done huge shout out to our health Academy students at Pine Ridge so our County did a county-wide drill it was 10 hospitals involved it might have been even Regional uh disaster drill and so they participated at the hospital that I happened to work at as our victims and boy were they dramatic um you know and we had the opportunity to set up the tent as if it was a mass casualty and they were all uh what's the word moulaged or moulashed I think that's the word they were all painted like they were dying some of them actually uh laid there like they were so that was a lot of fun Osteen Elementary they
013had their uh arts program this week that passed and that was great shout out to miss lafise for always having an amazing program at Osteen Elementary and that is all I have Madam chair thank you you're welcome we appreciate that I'm going to piggyback first off of the groundbreaking for turiti small so I think we have here in the audience with this a special lady that I think we should all recognize Mrs Betty Powers could you please stand come on stand [Applause] Mrs Powers dedicated 16 years of her life being the principal at Terry T small Elementary and she was promised during her time as principal that she would get a new school she has since retired and been retired for several years but we're fulfilling a promise and the groundbreaking she was there with
014us and we loved every moment of having her there and the whole idea is we're going to get this school built so that she can be there and visit and see the students move into something that's taken a long time to get to but also other some other things that happened and Dr balgeman May mention this but we um being the superintendent there are superintendents in all of the districts across the State of Florida and they break into Regional groups in order to have meetings and Mainland High did a fabulous job and they hosted the regional superintendent meeting since our last board meeting with Dr balkaman and the superintendents that were in this region they came to Mainland High and did a meeting there and we had an elementary a middle and a high school
015student each go and speak and give their experience about being students in Volusia County and it was an honor to hear those students speak and tell about their teachers or their principals or their counselors like what makes a difference on their campus and they all did a good job also we did the Futures tomorrow's leaders graduation at and Deltona High hosted that for us and their culinary Department did a great job preparing all of the appetizers and the little desserts so some of you may not realize this but we've got students that are in our culinary departments that are doing a great job to the point that I had a someone approached me at the end of that evening from Taylor Middle High who said can you help us get a culinary Department back up
016at Taylor Middle High because they were so impressed with what the students at Deltona High had done and then we have legislative updates and I don't know how many people have been paying attention to what's happening out there but I will tell you that across the state this past week school board members and superintendents rallied along with parents to get word up to our legislators because they were going to change how our students could or couldn't graduate and they were going to take away some of the Avenues in which our kids could earn their high school diploma and I'm not surprised any longer about this but at times what's interesting is everybody thinks that when everybody walks across the stage at graduation everybody gets a high school diploma and that doesn't always happen sometimes we
017have students that just get a certificate of attendance because maybe they couldn't pass the algebra 1 Test and yet they did all that work for 13 years or maybe 14 years to get to that point and there's nothing more heartbreaking to that student and to their family for them not to get that high school diploma so if you have a few minutes in the next couple days send an email up there to one of our legislators and just let them know because what they were going to do is they were going to take away the pert test which was another Avenue that was going to allow our students to earn their high school diploma and raise the concordance scores on the SAT and ACT and what I find when I talk to people in Tallahassee
018is when you can connect it to a real life story because without a high school diploma some of our students they can't go into the military they can't go into the trades jobs that they're interested in and so I will tell you I think every school board member and superintendent that this past week reached out talked to legislators told them real life stories and sent them emails and letters because one of them listened and he's attached it as an amendment to a bill so that we could keep the current concordance scores and keep the pert test now they put a sunset clause on it so that's what you have to pay attention to sometimes but I'll take a sunset Clause right now if that means 400 students in Volusia County will get a high school
019diploma that maybe would not have gotten one I'll take that Sunset clause and if that Pat we needed to pass and then we've got to work really hard this next year on telling real life stories of what happens if our kids don't get that high school diploma moving also on I did have a chance to speak with the West Volusia chamber this week at an educational panel piece and I shared that information with them along with some things about the house bill one piece that are happening so if you're not paying attention to those and then tonight while we are all sitting here and welcome Mr persis we're happy to have you here with us um the job fair is taking place there's a job fair reception tonight for people that are coming straight out
020of college want to come into a second career and it's over at the Museum of Arts and Sciences tonight and I have made it very clear that should never happen again on a school board night because we are used to attending that and getting to meet these people like I love finding out what they're interested in doing and pairing them up with a principal because tomorrow morning bright and early at the Ocean Center we will hold a job fair both in person and virtually for people that we are hoping want to come to Volusia County and join our teaching Force but Mr persis since you just arrived is there anything you'd like to add everyone else has had a chance thank you madam chair there are as many people outside this room as there are
021inside this room so I'm going to just say you have all have said it all and I agree and move on item 1.03 approval of the um the minutes so this is for the minutes for the workshop and the minutes for our regular session both of those were earlier this month on April 11th do I have anyone that would like to go ahead and make a motion to approve the immense move to approve thank you all right do I have a second second thank you Mr persis so Mrs Burnett has moved to approve and Mr purses his second is there any discussion on the minutes okay then I'm going to call for a vote all those in favor of approving the minutes for the workshop and the meeting on April 11th please say aye aye
022any opposed it passes unanimously okay so Mr clone I see that you pushed the button do you have some or did I not clear you you didn't clear me you couldn't see me then so it's okay all right I've cleared you we're moving on into agenda changes and approval of the agenda this is item 2.01 in board Docs Dr balkaman are there any agenda changes before the agenda is presented to the board for approval Madam chair I do not have any changes all right so board members you've had an opportunity to see the agenda for this evening so I'd like to have a motion to approve the agenda I motion to approve the agenda thank you Mrs Thompson do I have a second second thank you Mr cologne so you've heard we have a motion
023in a second to approve the agenda is there any discussion all right all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously we are now up to item 3.01 announcements by Dr balgaman hello Madam chair how are you board members uh members of our audience family students parents community members thank you for being here today I do have some future calendar items and that I would like to share with you along with some important dates and some past items to begin with summer programs I know it's right around the corner and we're going to be Volusia County Public Schools will be offering once again a very rigorous platform of summer programs for our students so parents if you're listening you will be notified this week of your child's eligibility to participate
024in uh additional instruction this summer which will begin July 5th and run through the beginning of August the 5th again you will be receiving notification from your child's school regarding our summer program for this this summer VPK our registrations have also been is open for summer the voluntary pre-k program again if you would like to visit our website at vcsedu.org you will see the site locations and how to register your child for voluntary pre-kindergarten our teens job fair parents if you have a 16 through 18 year old you want to make sure that they are working this summer then on Thursday April the 27th at Mainland High School from 5 to 7 30 PM we will have a job fair there again Thursday April 27th Mainland High School 5 to 7 30 and then on
025Monday May the 1st on the West Side here will be at University High School from 5 to 7 30. and this will be open to anyone ages 16 to 18 year old this is also considered as we get into the month of May it's considered the month of the military child so as we approach this month we want to celebrate all of those that are close to the month of April but also as we're embarking the month of of May which is pretty much that's the month that has been a sign of the month of the military child uh we have approximately 1.6 million military children who face as we all know many challenges and unique experiences as a result of not of having their parents provide service to us when it comes to our
026Safety and Security so we want to say thank you to all of those families and let's recognize our military families in Volusia County in particular but also the children of military families that make sacrifices each and every day because of the act that their parents have embarked upon which is to provide a service to this nation so thank you teacher appreciation week we all know that we get very excited about teacher appreciation week and it's one of our favorite of the year so this will begin next week and the entire week is is dedicated to our teachers but really every single day should be dedicated to our teachers and our students we have approximately 4 700 instructional staff members and we will have something prepared and we will be celebrating every single day starting next
027week so if you're a parent you're listening to this you can send a nice little note to your child's teacher let them know how much you appreciate them and everything that they have been doing for your child in our schools uh also some other important dates that I want you to make note of I didn't know of this the chair you shared this with me this morning I felt so bad that I didn't know but thank you April 26th that is tomorrow right tomorrow it's administrative Professional Day how many of you didn't know am I the only one that didn't that you know you're not raising your hand on purpose but uh for all of our admit our administrative secretaries and and our OS ones OS twos os3s we couldn't do this work without you
028you are essential to what we do and a big shout out to Vicky and Sakura they keep me straight and I'm giving a shout out to Celeste and Karen because they keep us straight they keep you straight I don't know what I would do without these ladies uh also Monday May the 1st is School principles day and Substitute Teacher Day make a note of that so again send that note to your school principal and if you will know of a very good substitute who has been working in the classroom with your child you may also want to send a note of appreciation VCS once again team is filled with outstanding teachers as you know office Specialists principles substitute teachers and lunch Heroes and we cannot wait to celebrate every single one of you so are
029we ready for some past calendar items you got to say yes yes Mr cologne and Miss Thompson joined us and many of you you called in or you make made a quick appearance on April the 15th we had over 400 um in the families that participated in that 5K at one biker I will tell you that the biker was this gentleman here because the the group took off and he was a little bit behind and he cheated he got on the bike and he started writing to to catch up but I I do want to say give a shout out to DIA our wonderful wonderful health and wellness Specialists who have put this together with many many volunteers but a special thank you to all of our parents you guys had so much fun I
030don't know if any of you in the audience here was there that Saturday morning but you're bright and early you were ready to go um Mr cologne started running to but then he stopped after about a half a mile um but we want to say thank you we want to say thank you to our Daytona police department they were out there they were very very supportive they kept us safe and and made sure that that it was a successful event also the city of Daytona and of course all of the volunteers that that made this happen and we're planning to have a few more upcoming Volusia esol Department they've actually visited Orange County I think last week to collaborate on our dual language program and as you know we currently have two we're adding two
031more along with two foreign language academies so they went back they had a really good collaborative session and now they're going to be sitting with those principals for the upcoming the ones that we're going to be opening up next next year which in particular as you know Freedom Elementary Discovery Elementary and they're going to be sharing some insights that we can be well prepared for those two that we're going to be embarking upon for next year along with our foreign language Academies groundbreaking ceremony you talked extensively about the brand great groundbreaking ceremony what is going on Angel it's a lot of talking right you have a video for us all right put it on please all right one two three [Music] this is cool touristy small yes small but there's nothing small about the history
032here right and the richness today we got to do the groundbreaking for cherry tea small and that's been a long time in the making so what that means for our community is and yes I said our community is the kids get to go to a new school where they know it's important and they are valued or they will have high expectations and they will be able to see what 21st century education is like all of the students who have been here and all of our present students uh parents The Faculty the community this is the most beautiful day that I thank God for blessing me to be here to see this day not only just a new building or a new school It Means A New Journey a new start a fresh start for our
033students our Scholars because our students deserve the best I would just like to add how proud I am and how warm my heart was to have so many of our community members show up today to have the superintendent here to have our faculty and staff and also former students be included in this groundbreaking today and I'm looking around and you've heard of the saying it takes a village take a look look behind you next to you take a look at this all the individuals that are here in this media center today this is the village guys very good [Applause] [Music] I can't wait that's going that's it was such an exciting event and I can't wait for us to do that ribbon cutting so what's next it's called Life After High School Life After High
034School it's actual an event for our families and students with special needs and it was held on Saturday April the 22nd at Willie Miller Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University over 200 attendees registered for the event information was shared along with topics such as guardianship financial planning deferment College Disability Services project search and much much much more so I want to thank the exceptional student education department for participating and really leading co-leading that event for our families and our students and voices of Volusia as you as you all know you had joined me in that ribbon cutting that we did a few months ago well guess what yesterday we did our very first three recordings so this is an opportunity where we haven't you know we're able to bring members of our community into our studio
035where we can talk about all five goals and how really we work in a very integrative fashion and format I want to say a shout outs give a shout out to Mr Bob Davis also Captain shivers and Ken Phelps so Dr Mr Davis spoke about Partnerships with Volusia County and all the different types of Partnerships with the hotel association and some of the services that they provide Captain Shivers actually spoke quite a bit about Safety and Security in our schools and Mr Phelps the VP for Daytona Chamber of Commerce spoke about the Youth Science survey and how we're utilizing the Youth Science surveys to intentionally create Pathways that captures the interest and aptitude of our students there were three segments that we did and I'm not sure when Mr Gomez will be sending that out
036but you're going to get copies of those all right very good and our community will as well and I think chair I think that's it chair okay thank you it was well within my five minutes okay all right then we're moving on to item 4.01 administrative appointments or transfers Dr balkovan yes Madam chair we have one for your approval this evening I would like to ask Miss Lisa Divina to join us um and just to tell you a little bit about Miss Davina she has earned her bachelor's degree all we have here Mr Young who has accompanied her thank you Mr Young Miss Divina has earned her bachelor's degree from the University of the Philippines she has been working with Volusia County Schools since 2016. she has served as an office specialist and then she
037moved to the administrative secretary for the chief operations officer in June of 2021 she became a technician in planning and GIS today I'm recommending to you board Mrs Lisa Davina as the planning coordinator with the planning and business department if approved by you this evening in her effective start date will be April 26 2023. support you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion to approve Ms Davina for planning and business motion to approve thank you do I have a second I'll second thank you so Mr colonis made the motion Mrs Burnett has made the second any further discussion I'd like to say thank you because you you have you're one of those people that have come in and you've worked your way up and you've learned each job and moved up
038so I'd like to thank you for the time that you've put in to learn this okay if there's no further discussion than I'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously [Applause] and and we have a list of jobs we already want you to take on um Madame chair school board members superintendent Dr balgobin good evening and thank you for giving me this opportunity I am honored and humbled to be appointed as Volusia County's school's planning coordinator as a relatively recent transplant to this country I did not expect this change quite so soon still I cannot deny how happy I am because the hard work of the last eight years has had such positive results for me first and foremost I thank the almighty
039for setting me on the path I now travel it continues to be a thrilling of the wild Journey I would also like to thank my mom and dad for sacrificing so much for my education they believed education leads to a better brighter future and the only inheritance they can give us their children dishonor that you have given me is so Bittersweet as my mom my best friend and cheerleader would have loved to have seen this come to pass in her lifetime I also thank my husband Clemens who's outside right now for the his gracious and generous support as I advance in my career thank you meet the sorrow for your prayers you are indeed The Wind Beneath My Wings I would also like to thank the people who have mentored supported and challenged me in
040my close to 16 years of Public Service most of which were in public policy and program evaluation in my work data is crucial to good decision making however I believe too that public policy can make lives better when decisions are informed not only by data but also by wisdom and The Human Experience it is this truth that informs my school planning work there is always there is the risk of seeing students as just a set of numbers charts and Trends however I see in each Volusia County student a potential successful member of society that is why I am committed to being their voice at the planning and design table and their Advocate to the communities around them so they can learn in a safe healthy nurturing environment and become the best versions of whoever they
041want to be thank you again for this opportunity to be the planning coordinator for Volusia County Schools I am deeply humbled and honored have a good evening everyone thank you thank you [Applause] we'd like for you to step up at this time for a photo and I hope they're getting your husband we had no idea he was outside he needs to come on in too it's here for the husband ladies and gentlemen um congratulations probably going to be a crazy person we are now moving on to item 5.01 recognition of Community member for the Volusia Hispanic chamber of commerce so Madam chair board members you know how much we value our partners in education we couldn't do this work without them and we so happen to have with us here this evening a wonderful partner
042in education with us and that's no other than the Volusia Hispanic chamber of commerce the Chamber of Commerce the Volusia Hispanic chamber of commerce they have done so much work with our school district they work very closely with our esol department and they really represent not only our Hispanic students but students as a whole look at all these beautiful faces these wonderful people that are here today I I just want to say to each and every one of you that we're so very appreciative of the work that you do which completely completely aligns with all five of our goals and it's specifically for advancing student achievement not just in Volusia County but in our nation I had like to ask Miss Lourdes Leon power she's the president of the chamber to please introduce her team
043that are here and we would like to recognize you we have a certificate and a picture yes please hi thank you for having us here is it's a pleasure always to be involved with education is very important for us to be able to showcase our business economy and make sure that everybody knows that Hispanics are growing so I'm just looking every woman of course and um and also it's a pleasure to introduce our board of directors we have Joe Hearn our vice president Lilian Mendez she's our secretary and we have Franklin Rodriguez he is our director of government Affairs and we also have a trustee today a very important trustee which is Rafael Garces from Halifax Health thank you [Applause] we are so happy that you're here and for everything that you do and so
044we it's an honor to have all of you here this evening and please at this time will you come join us for a photo oh Mr cologne has something he wants to say oh thank so first of all I want to thank you all and congratulate you all for the work that you're doing in our community the Hispanic chamber has stepped it up and is uh made its position in our community to ensure that everyone's interests are represented I mean you've got the Joe Hearn as the uh past president I think past president right of the Volusia chamber next up so president-elect and so it goes to show that it's not just about the uh Hispanic Community but it's all our communities and your involvement in our schools uh is does not go unnoticed I
045mean it's not uncommon to see you I think I've spent more days with you in the last week than we've spent in a long time but uh again thank you all so much for uh representing our community as well as the best interests of all of our students so thank you thank you now you know past president title is much better much better than the vice president he is great thank you yes all right here we go um [Laughter] [Applause] very nice oh it does oh I know behind that car and I saw that Red Bull came the next item is item 5.02 recognition of students and staff for the schools of character thank you madam chair as we know the month of April is self-control and we have several students that we're going to
046be calling up but our student winner who best exemplified self-control is Ezekiel mancilla from Taylor DeWitt Middle High and I see our wonderful principle there in the back yeah now this student was nominated by his wonderful principal Mr Jonathan Pierce Ezekiel showed true true true I have it three times here so I know it's true true leadership and self-control during a recent basketball game during which there was a verbal disagreement between players and that had occurred but Ezekiel stepped up he really stepped up in to de-escalate the situation I was able to do it successfully thank you for not only exemplifying self-control Ezekiel to your fellow students but also for your sportsmanship I I think you serve as a great example not only local but also National um so if you will come up with
047your principal please and if you have family here let's recognize it [Applause] we'd like all of you to come forward we're going to get a picture with him and then with all of his family and friends don't worry [Applause] all right and your sister [Music] foreign we're gonna have to double up the principal needs to be in the back too you're tall perfect thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you chair Mr cologne had this Duty we are now moving right along oh no we still have more people in this category yes yes chair we have now our staff winner our staff member who is the winner of again self-control so this person is Miss Stephanie Crow Miss Stephanie Crow is an office specialist at South Daytona Elementary she was nominated by her very own wonderful principle
048Mr Adrian Bronson Mrs Crow serves as one of the school's front desk office Specialists no matter the circumstances she takes care of all incidents with much grace and respect while always maintaining a calm demeanor and does with does so with the utmost professionalism thank you Mrs Crow for exemplifying self-control within Volusia County Schools for our students for our families and for our parents Partners please come up and I see your school family back there in your personal Family come on up so we may recognize you [Applause] no problem yes very good [Music] nonsense congratulations [Applause] for any of you that have visited a front office that first person you see when you walk in the door trust me they do have to have a lot of self-control because not everyone's always nice when they walk
049through that door but we appreciate Miss Crowe all right moving on now to item 5.03 recognition of students state champions that's the only clue I'm going to give Dr balgeban yes Madam chair let me ask Mr Larry Beale or our specialist from for the athletics department along with Dr Gabriel Berea our assistant superintendent for the High School Division and they will introduce the rest good evening chair Haynes board members and superintendent Dr balgubin we are very excited about tonight and the theme is the theme tonight is weightlifting and state champions so with no further Ado um you're going to hear some amazing Feats of Strength today and I'll let Mr Beale uh take the charge superintendent bhagavin chairwoman Haynes and board members and other guests at this time I will turn over the microphone to
050Mr Michael D drama the principal of DeLand High to talk about his kids thank you good afternoon everybody good afternoon chairman James Vice chairperson superintendent of and the rest school board members um it gives me great honor to talk about Miss Mia Rhodes she is our class 3A 154 pound state champion she set two records in the process with a 205 pound snatch lift and a 240 pound clean and jerk she is also the number one ranked women lifter in her class in the world she is a Pan-American Champion the USA national champion and a world champion she travels all over the world competing events all while maintaining a 4.5 GPA [Music] 200 pounds wow he's so tiny Mrs is D drama foreign you guys did hear that she's ranked number one in the world
051[Applause] so also at this time as everyone is going up for their picture we have a little surprise for Miss Rhodes she is the Florida Dairy Farmers lifter of the year so she is just finding out about this right now [Applause] since 1992 the Florida Dairy Farmers High School sports award program which recognizes all 30 fhsa sanctioned and recognized Sports has honored more than 5 000 of the state's top student athletes and coaches past winners have gone on to the star at the Collegiate and professional levels and some have even represented their country in the Olympic Games the program exemplifies Florida Dairy Farmers commitment to young people and emphasizes to them the importance of keeping Dairy as a primary part of their diet at on-campus ceremonies Farmers present student awards to student athletes and Lead
052assemblies and milk toast putting a face on the dairy industry for future Generations floor four Florida Dairy Farmers the program is a long-term investment buying the state's Youth and the award is looked at at by many athletes and coaches as the Florida high school version of the Heisman Trophy congratulations [Applause] [Music] we need you guys all right here we go thank you [Music] [Applause] oh come on all right we've got some additional state champions in the house yes but wait there's more and then and look what you have to live up to we have the weight lifter for Nationals so at this time now we would like to step to the plate with New Smyrna Beach High School Mr Merrick principal proud principal and he will introduce his coach and his team ah yeah I
053know you hear the metal good evening everyone good evening thank you for inviting us to the school board meeting we have a an outstanding team that put forth a great effort at States this year and traditionally do so led by this gentleman here Mr Tim McRae one-time Olympic State lifter uh Olympic lifter himself and a graduate of Spruce Creek High School so we're fortunate to have him in the community but year in and year out he brings forth a strong team for us at New Smyrna Beach High School and he's going to present to you our lifters how you doing I just want to say thank you for uh inviting me and the team and uh I'm gonna try to make this quick because I know it's it's many of us all right so we
054have uh let me pull this up all right we got a little with Olivia Wilson she's a senior she snatched 130 cleaning jerk 190 and bench press uh 200. she got first place in traditional [Applause] up next we got Asha she's a sophomore she snatched 155 cleaning jerk210 bench press 265. her total was 475. um she got first place in Olympic and traditional wow [Music] next we got Olivia Bond West she's a freshman she snatched 180 cleaning jerk 240 bench press 180 her total was 420. she got first place in Olympic and first place in traditional and she also holds the cleaning jerk state record which is a 240 clean jerk those are my three girls now I also have two boys um we're going to start off with Isaiah McCloud he's a sophomore he
055cleaning jerk 275 bench press 405 total was 680 and he got first place in traditional Ryan Gary He's a junior he cleaning jerk 240 bench press 295 his total was 535 he got first place in traditional and he's also a two-time state champion out recognizing their accomplishments and uh I appreciate it thank you please come forward [Music] they have families [Laughter] thank you congratulations [Music] come right here [Laughter] okay mom mom ENT wait wait wait principle there you go Thompson okay very good [Music] [Applause] [Music] job good job I think there's another group of state champions in the house because I see an orange jacket which gives a clue yeah clue that it's a great day to be a hawk that's right that orange jacket tells us that come on up Dr sparker we're waiting
056on you at this time I will bring our cross-country principle up so Mr Gomez doesn't get on him about weight lifting and he will present Dr Todd Sparger will represent and present his Spruce Creek lifters as their state champions [Applause] thank you thank you everyone good evening I Spruce Creek High School has a lot of proud Traditions but one is certainly our weightlifting program the school opened its doors in 1976 in a 1979 we won our first state championship in weightlifting uh with with Coach Ramey he went on to win 13 more championships uh in in coach Nelson uh sitting here to my to my left who was a student when coach Ramey uh was the weightlifting coach became we were pom King homecoming King I can't remember yeah so he was uh uh and
057uh obviously became a teacher in our district and then ultimately uh came back to Spruce Creek High School and ultimately took over our weightlifting program and uh in between that time uh the the 13 state championships that coach Ramey won uh we are at 29 uh state championships now oh so [Applause] I already followed coach Ramey and then Coach Rando our current athletic director in the back of the room there uh one uh six state championships during the time he was our our weightlifting coach we won our with 29 uh this is 28 in the traditional and then we were the this year the Olympic became uh a sanctioned Sport and we won the inaugural 3A class uh in in in the traditional uh but but coach Ramey and Coach Sylvia and Coach Manilow on
058the back of the room there and Coach Nelson to talk about them or introduce them uh obviously uh these are strong young men uh but but they're they're great human beings uh and and Coach coach Nelson and his team uh really work hard to instill that that part of of of what the weightlifting meant to him uh as a student when he was at Spruce Greek uh to to keep that tradition and keep that aspect of of of what's important uh through through weights through through this through this discipline so we congratulate uh coach Nelson and the team and let him talk a little bit specifics about exactly how that win came about so coach Nelson [Applause] is that right uh thank you for having us and uh we we uh we appreciate the opportunity
059to be here uh just this this team uh consists of five seniors and um as far as state qualifiers five seniors and then the rest are underclassmen but we had two individual state champions one in the traditional lifts which was a bench press and cleaning jerk and that was Gabe Hernandez he'll be up here in a minute he'll he has a cowboy hat on big tax yeah he's starting to miss and um he had the highest total in the state with a 780 pound total he had a 430 pound bench press and a 350 pound cleaning jerk and then we have another state champion was Jake batillo another another senior of ours and he was um he was the Olympic champion in the 219 with a 595 pound total he had a 350 I think
060it was 345 or 350 pound cleaning jerk and then that that consists of the cleaning jerk and the snatch Olympics so um but just the the the teams uh the young the young men obviously they have to lift the weight so they're the ones that should be given the credit but but coach Sylvie coach monello my assistant coaches they do a great job and and I owe you know a debt of gratitude to coach Randall coach Bennett coach Lowry and Coach Ramey of course who founded the program you know so uh this is I'm just I'm blessed to be here be a part of this and and be fortunate Dr sparger's support and uh just um we're just glad to be here we appreciate you having us [Applause] get up front here so no Jake
061you're good Jake first Jake was our Olympic champion good job Jake and then Gabe was our traditional champion and then pretty much everybody in the room scored Luke Strickland uh Jesse Smith uh JB uh John Benning and then uh Ryan Young's Zach Karen Jacob Atkins Soul tester uh Bradley Bingham Alex Sebastian who else is back there anybody else and then coaches coach Mel and Coach Silvy so we had 11 lifter score at the state level to win both titles uh for each each Olympic and traditional so that was uh this is the inaugural Olympic Championship so we're we're uh we're really proud of them for that and they did a great job foreign [Laughter] thank you all right we're gonna take the entire back off all right hey how are you really thank you right
062here Angel's gonna do this right here please do not hurt the superintendent right here we have this it's gonna fits fine um Dr Maria can you come in a little more this far forward and then get you in there athletic director we want to see this gentleman yeah you guys are perfect stay right there you know mama was finished mom of a coach good [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] foreign ER thank you thank you Mr Beale we are now moving on to item 5.04 recognition of students for a battle of the books thank you madam chair that was a lot of fun you know what when it comes to Safety and Security in our district we've got a lot of people that we can tap into uh make notes of that Miss chastity all right so now
063we're gonna go to battle of the books and we have our winners we have our winners for elementary we have our winners from middle and we have our first place High School winners so uh just to share a little bit with you our Battle of the books it's for grades 3 through 12. um 46 schools with about 230 students participating in the event over 40 volunteers from our district and community members that participated as judges moderators and time Keepers in these competitions so our first place elementary school winners are from Tomoka Elementary congratulations goes out to Valentina Alvarado Elena Nugent Carter Edwards and Dira Rivas as well as principal Julie roseboom is in the back and coaches Dr Tunis Fordham and yanelis borgon they're here with our wonderful Elementary winners and I think their families
064might be in the audience as well so if you will come up for us to take a picture and recognize it [Applause] oh I am so sorry Miss Haley Lucas I'm going to call your name Miss Haley Lucas here we go that way [Music] good job thank you for having us I am really excited um everybody takes a chance [Music] [Laughter] oh my goodness thank you very much not yet stay there that's when you win a trophy this is called the paparazzi [Laughter] okay the last one thank you so much [Applause] thank you um congratulations adios [Laughter] I think Middle School is up next middle school is up are you ready for Middle School is everyone ready for Middle School okay so we continue our first place Middle School winners are from so how do
065you we don't know what school it is it's on there oh Mr cologne Southwestern Middle School [Applause] whoa congratulations to JP Stryker geneve log Miller Claire Smith Quinn rust as well as principal Miss Jacquees Copeland who is in the house here today along with coaches Miss Suzanne Pierre and Miss Holly Asuka Miss Holly Asuka actually could not attend this evening so we would like to ask the team all of our wonderful winners from middle school to come on up your families and the school family [Applause] congratulations thank you proud of you guys so good [Applause] all right you're gonna win tomorrow congratulations winners now we're moving on to high school okay so we are moving on to high school Mr cologne he's just gonna hold on to the the trophy I don't think you get
066to hold that one between chair and Mr cologne well for those of you in the audience ready the the high school that won this it's the land High School [Music] this goes out to Riley Kellogg Ashland shawaski shawski Ackley and Foster Emory miles and Riley Garrison we also have our very proud principal here Mr digiarolamo and coaches Catherine batanglio and Miss Heather Carter if you will join us please along with the families [Applause] we said Southwestern middles getting them ready for delandai you guys [Laughter] that is great congratulations [Applause] wow yeah I don't know what you're gonna do with all that money congratulations thank you all right we are moving right along to item 5.505 recognition of staff for volunteers of the Year thank you chair as you know we were long awaiting um the
067state winners actually right so we have some amazing amazing Partners who contributes their talents and resources so they're so generously to our schools because they truly believe in teaching and learning in our vision so we've got a short video for you can you pull up that video thank you [Music] [Applause] out of 43 okay men active mentors you are the mentor of the year the real Michael Jackson our chair has the million dollar pin all right you are the person that kids want to go to they feel comfortable talking to you not only do you help support them but you help support our teachers in the classroom I was fortunate to have coaches in my life when I was growing up without father or whatever and uh my coaches kind of saved me so that's
068why I do it for them because this is my way of paying it back read this for me what does it say it says outstanding volunteer poor for me for you what they looked at all of the youth mentors right Volusia County and you're it so you're going State my dear yes okay see she volunteers well over 500 dedicated hours to the Performing Arts and they went on and on and on they said for four years since her first year as a freshman here at Pine Ridge she has volunteered countless of hours to performing operating and managing in all areas related to the Performing Arts in and outside of the school you represent yourself you represent Panther nation and you represent Volusia Schools in a way that we are so proud of you thank you
069my son actually won this award probably about 20 years ago and went on to represent the state just like they're going to do and I you know reading about what all you've done and everything I believe you are the perfect person to represent Volusia County of the state and we are all going to be rooting for you yeah because you've done wonderful things thank you thank you very much I have you know quite a few hours but it doesn't really feel like I've spent so much time because it's all been stuff that I really like to do so it's it's been really enjoyable so thank you guys [Music] so we had our schools submit um a family event that they do that's that's very engaging that you know really illicit community and that everybody they
070see that it's making a difference it's it's engaging you know the family and Community engagement is one of our goals right and how important is to or strategic plan light up light up Enterprise is the chosen one thank you for the district okay so we're here to honor you and your staff and thank you all for the work that you're doing in engaging our community because every event I've come to here it has been outstanding it's it's a full house and your families love you the family believes in the work that you guys are doing and we're so proud of you when we get community members and parents to come out and be a part of their children's lives we know that that's the best thing that we can offer children because they need them
071to be in charge and and to be there for them the example that you lead in this school in terms of building a team together so that they see the the bigger Vision to do what what what is required but to do what is best for kids it really is directly correlated to your leadership and it is a team you have a wonderful team of people here I have seen them time and time again work alongside with you along that same vision so we just want to thank you again for your leadership and the heart that you have in serving this community and our children it's it's truly special [Music] the look look at this read it so that everybody can hear outstanding volunteer out of the school board of Volusia County Miss Tina freed
072[Applause] Tina is one of the most dedicated hard-working caring selfless people I know she volunteers countless of hours to help the students in the band she is literally here for everything that we do as band concerts football games parades practices fundraisers Etc when you're asked why do you volunteer in Volusia County Schools you answered with the following you said I volunteer not only for my own daughter but for all the kids because seeing them learn progress and succeed through their high school years in band is totally inspiring and you were chosen there were 24 nominations and you are the one all right what you do for these kids is amazing truly like she couldn't admit a single word because I happen to know this lady here couldn't do it without you because it's a lot
073of work and the fact that you step up and do this every day and you're here on campus there's no better gift to give kids than to be a part of their life and I guarantee you every one of them in here is thrilled that you are being honored today so thank you so very much for everything y'all truth y'all don't realize how much y'all inspire me to keep going to keep moving and just you know I do this for you and I do love y'all thank you for a Christine Sands and Mrs Christine Sands is that is that you this certificate of appreciation and recognition of your support of public education and your dedication to the students at Beachside Elementary but it's at our outstanding volunteers arrives with the first Bell almost every day
074I want to know how many days she was not here and and Gregory puts in at least four hours daily I commend you for helping all these years and you do it so graciously and everything everyone says about you is so positive so please take this pin and wear it proudly on behalf of all of us in Volusia County Schools and I feel like I'm giving back something I'm good at it so I can do it and yeah the kids just just you feel so fulfilled with all her smiles Alex and she is the owner of gourmet kitchen and they've been a participating business with Volusia County if you guys open your doors to us two years ago um and our kids great have have really enjoyed going there getting the opportunity to learn how
075to bust tables and uh you know scrape dishes and and do all the things that happen in the food service area we nominated you guys for evolution partner of the year I told you that and you guys were selected so this is this is probably one of the programs that's nearest to my heart it is one of the most nearest programs to my heart I can understand for you both of you extending yourselves I was in that plot that many of the weekends with my mom and dad so yeah make excellent food but what you do for the kids is so efficient amazing we decided to do it it all worked out fine and we have just really enjoyed the students being there and helping us they're a great help and they're they're a lot
076of fun to be around so we've enjoyed it foreign [Applause] [Music] we are so blessed in Volusia County so when I call these honorees please come on up with with your school family your personal family and I will call you just stand here and then we'll take you one at a time up here so we can take pictures with you for a partner of the Year Gourmet Kitchen represented by Elise cernick along with Seabreeze high school principal Mr Harris Tucker and anyone else that's here of your personal or professional Family come on up and let's give them [Applause] Angel was just station you guys and get you ready in line and then for a mentor of the year Mr Mike the real the real Michael Jackson from Galaxy Middle School joined by principal Edie Velez
077and any other family members please come on up let's give them a round of applause [Applause] Mrs Alicia Douglas our proud principal of Enterprise Elementary School which we know that she won the family community involvement award please come on up with your school or personal family [Applause] Reagan gatz the wonderful youth volunteer of the year on Pine Ridge High School principal Mr William Reeser [Applause] Miss Tina freed or adult volunteer of the year and DeLand High School principal Mr Mike diggerola foreign Sands our senior volunteer of the year at Beachside Elementary principal Miss Lynn Bruner [Applause] that's right [Applause] [Laughter] right here that's it yes here we go foreign [Applause] [Laughter] my daughter my father [Music] thank you will you take a second fix it everybody thank you [Music] Bulldogs right here in the house
078foreign [Music] yeah double shot oh yeah is that okay with you thank you everybody yes there you go hang on okay here we go everybody focused thank you guys whoever this belongs to um all right players all right let's hear from our winners nice meeting you nice meeting you I love you so much thank you Beachside the RV side that's right we are now moving on to item 5.06 recognition of Staff great people great Deeds Dr balkovan and chair I know we're having a lot of fun this is our final recognition of the evening we would like to acknowledge two or more of our outstanding staff members two more two more I have or more there is another piece there but that will be at the end um actually we have an instructional and a
079non-instructional so congratulations goes out to the ESC teacher Miss chalene barlinson from Spruce Creek Elementary he was nominated by her wonderful principal Miss Hall Miss Burleson's provide and actually I had the pleasure of visiting the school this day on this particular day when we met Miss Burlington and I think one of our board members was there with me as well right Miss Thompson Ms Burleson provides transportation to school every single day to a family who actually is here now from they fled the war in Ukraine and this wonderful lady here has been going above and beyond when she saw there was a need extended herself and she's like a second mom now to this family so we would like to congratulate you and and take a picture with you and the family I think the
080family is here as well right principal Hall okay she's been an angel to this family so we're very grateful for all that you have done please join us let's do a [Applause] thank you for you oh hello all right yeah [Music] to be afraid we want to go to work for the next time that's why you're here we're good we're good we're good we're good all right [Music] so I think principal Hall needs to stick around a little bit because our non-instructional winner is actually a school Way Cafe manager right there at Spruce Creek um Elementary Miss Veronica Kiff where is Miss Veronica [Applause] if I actually performed a heimlich maneuver on a colleague who was choking at um at Spruce Creek and I had the pleasure of meeting her as well and that was
081just to listen to the story right and what she's went what she went through I think you were there with me also you heard that story it was truly truly touching so emergency Personnel was informed that Miss give Miss gift she had what what she was going through pretty much she couldn't breathe and right away Miss Kiff just intervened and saved her colleague's life which ended up avoiding a tragedy that day by just her enacting in action right away um and we have a short short video for you guys since you weren't able to experience it but you need you need to hear a little bit more about it so angel [Music] this is what your principal said she told the story she said two students who fled from the war in Ukraine enrolled at
082Spruce Creek this school year their mother was also hired as a fair professional the family Strokes with Transportation as they only have one vehicle Chilean stepped in that's you yes to give the mom and her two children rights to and from school daily so that they no longer have to pay Uber Mrs Burleson has been an angel to this lovely family and I'm so grateful for all that she does for them and you know what it's people like you that makes our world a better place and it acts like these that makes this world a Kinder place you're part of great people great things should do so much much so a lot for our family so she's my friend yes [Music] they were spending almost twenty dollars a day just to get to school back
083and forth to school because she doesn't drive and so I saw her walking home one day offered her a ride and told her I would be willing to do it every day it's on my way to work and back and I do it every day I wanted to help a family and she's a great friend and a great person and they needed the help so I was willing to do it can you tell us a little bit what what this Superwoman did but she noticed a co-worker that was in distress she wasn't able to breathe and she performed the Heimlich and saved her life I don't think I could have made it to the paramedics no we have so many good people in this world and that's what this program is all about you know
084we have pockets of greatness everywhere I actually work better under pressure so it's just something that just came natural it wasn't until afterwards I was shaking and realized oh my goodness you know I really was shaking afterwards we are more appreciative of each other now we're more patient because you realize that things can change just like that but it's in moments like those that you realize how really fragile life really is how precious it is foreign [Applause] I do also have to highlight quickly Miss Laura Clark she is with ong's ice cream treats and and actually she has really partnered with this event and was there with us also that day so also thank you for being a great partner with us [Applause] there's Hobby please [Music] ready [Applause] spread the word if you guys
085have on tonight thank you it's a family are you working there there's a job she has an announcement just give me a minute and remember when I said two or more so um Miss Laura Clark and her husband who's hiding in the back from unk's Ice Cream has a announcement to make um thank you for having us here Madam chair um Dr V we are actually very very proud to announce that uh next week we are donating um two dollar ice creams to every teacher staff in Volusia County we are working on the schedule right now um to get everyone assigned and put together some schools are upgrading to higher packages where we will be donating 25 of those sales back to the school um up to this point we are also proud to announce
086we have donated 14 458 dollars to Volusia County Schools since January not including what we're donating next week proud to be part of this community part of the school board we have six children ourselves um three right now in Volusia County Schools and then three more coming up but we are just so glad to be part of this and thank you all for having us thank you we have we have a little something for you as well of appreciation from the board is your husband that's hiding come on husband so nice of you there he is [Applause] always thank you all right all right we are at item 6.01 which is public participation we're going to just do five cards at this time and immediately following these five cards then we will take a break
087um so I'm going to announce who the first person is is going to speak followed by the second person so that they will be ready um and our first person tonight is Mrs Betty powers followed by Jennifer Howard welcome Mrs powers let her come right up here she can sit we are happy to have Miss Powers in the house I would just like to say to the school board to the superintendent and to the school board it warm my heart this day when I came and saw all of the students and the parents and the community everyone together and especially our students and our parents that is wonderful that's what it's all about and you know our school system Volusia County School System it all has always been number one and Mr purses and some
088more people in here they know that and parents I'm proud of them and I talked to some of the kids and it just made me feel good but what I would like to say I'd like to talk to the school boards the superintendent about the extra time that we in Title One schools had in the reason we had it because we needed that time for learning we needed it for the children to feel safe we needed it for uh our kids some of our kids from where they come from some people have no idea where our kids come from what environment your environment is like and that extra time had the teachers the teachers needed help every person on the campus is important you know we start with our superintendent with our school board and
089all of our staff teachers parents and Community we have always Volusia County has always been at the top and I was so proud when I came in here this afternoon and I saw the parents and the students in the community we needed that extra hour for our teachers to be able to work with students in their achievement levels that's real important and the different when you set up a classroom you set up a classroom where you have your different groups your achievement level groups and every child is affected by that and so I want to meet with the school with the superintendent and with the school board and maybe some parents to talk about why we did that and why that was so important and it helped to make all of our Title One School
090successful and we had no D's enough we made our teachers parents Community we had the village and I was listening to one lady about the ice cream or whatever you have the village and all the volunteers we had the village and we need a village again but I want to say to the boat to the superintendent to the board I need your help I need to I want you to listen to me and we can discuss the importance of that plus one and the importance of plus one and what helped make our Title One School successful and I will come back next school board meeting and then I'll talk more at death when I ask you all and talk with you all because I do want to talk with you about my concerns and the
091importance of it and I want to thank you this evening very much and we will be talking and I would love to get with you and make an appointment to talk about it thank you thank you Mrs powers next up is Jennifer Howard followed by Mrs Andrea Finkel thank you is Jennifer Howard not here all right I'll hold her so Mrs Andrea Finkel you're up next followed by Mrs Elizabeth Albert okay [Applause] good evening Dr balgovan and members of the board I am speaking I'm reading a letter actually from Reverend Dr Todd Barton the pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church he was not able to be here this evening and I volunteered to share his message he says I am writing today as a concerned member of the community and someone who has had children
092in the Volusia County School System I recently had the opportunity to participate in the committee review for books some wish to be removed from the library shelves overall I thought the committee approach was a good process in my experience when multiple people can speak to something better outcomes for all are achieved therefore I support a committee review approach I understand that the board is considering allowing principals to remove books from shelves if there is a complaint without input from a committee to put this responsibility on an individual would in my opinion be a heavy burden to carry principles are already under tremendous stress as it is one person should not have the ability to remove books there is already an opt-out option for parents and this coupled with a diverse community-based Review Committee should be
093good enough historically the censorship of books for education or any other reason by the preferences of one group over another never ends well it is my hope that the committee review and opt-out processes that are already in place will remain a solid Common Sense foundation for the education of our children Faithfully Yours Reverend Dr Todd Barton Pastor Trinity United Methodist Church DeLand thank you Mrs Elizabeth Albert followed by Ms Sheila Butchart good evening Dr balgubin members of the board members of the audience as a child I was taught to tell the truth everyone will tell you that they want you to be honest with them until you are and then you become the enemy being a leader requires an individual to say things that are hard to hear to say things that are unpopular but
094are often necessary advocacy requires strength and a commitment to others and I am here tonight to advocate for the students staff teachers families and communities served by our plus one schools the decision to end the plus one program is one that I am asking to be reconsidered the plus one program currently provides two and a half hours of additional academic learning time per week which equals 95 additional academic learning hours a year the reduction of academic classroom Learning Time by this amount is more than concerning to me and the teachers and staff members I serve it has been shared with me that the data does not support the continuance of the program however what reasonable expectation is there that improvements or just the maintenance of the current level of learning will will occur with less
095classroom learning time high quality core instruction cannot be replaced by anything else the impact of coherent consistent systematic instruction is immeasurable in our plus one schools all students receive this every day pre-k through fifth grade currently benefit from this model the proposed plan to replace classroom learning time with tutoring will not include all Learners at these sites while interventions currently provided during the additional learning time are part of the daily schedule for every child tutoring is optional and there is no guarantee that those who need it will receive it I ask that you also consider the timing of this decision please give the teachers staff students and families time to plan for a change of this magnitude if our focus is on remediating learning loss and filling the gaps that have been created by almost
096three years of interrupted learning due to covid then please allow additional time to remain in place we cannot say that every minute counts if we are willing to take so much of it away in a couple weeks we will celebrate teacher appreciation week I urge you to show the teachers and the staff and the students and the families in these plus one schools that you truly do appreciate them and give them time to adjust to a change like this if this program has to go let it go in the 24-25 year but not like this not right now thank you [Applause] Sheila Butchart um Dr Baldwin School Board I'm here tonight reading for a teacher from a plus one school significance of this decision should not the significance of this decision should not be made
097lightly or hastily the district States the decision is based on data but the data has not been presented to any of the stakeholders including the parents teachers and or support staff if the program does not work and the data and evidence should be presented and discussed rather than just a blanket statement without being presented facts to back it up we are here for our students and their families their voices should be heard and the repercussions to those families should be considered this will impact parents employment and child care needs it will add unnecessary pressure to families with little notice families should be given at least a school year to make the changes that will be required additionally we know that evidence-based best practices indicate that small group instruction and therapies are most effective the effectiveness
098of these groups are affected by group size the district is already short staffed and have already impacted the size of our groups including small group instruction as well as small group ese support that is provided to our students these federally mandated services will be affected by this decision erases two and a half hours of contact time with our students those two and a half hours can be further broken down into five to thirty minute groups these groups will not disappear go away as the services are federally mandated but rather these students will be joined in with other groups therefore impacting the size of the of the students in those groups where does this leave the struggling and ese student students and families in our school should be given the opportunity to succeed this decision and
099the significant short notice is the opposite it diminishes our families and our students we need to show our families and our students that they come first and that means including them in the conversation and considering their needs above what the district wants did Miss Jennifer Howard return all right then at this time we are going to take a break we will return here into the boardroom at 7 pm thank you it's okay welcome back at this time we're moving on to the consent agenda is there any removal of items from the consent agenda we'll start with Dr balkaman no Madam chair not from my end all right board members are there any items on the consent agenda that you would like to remove for further discussion as Madam chair I'd like to talk about 10.02
100Grand Amendment actually probably both of them but the one is good I just have some questions regarding grants and that kind of stuff you want just 10.02 10.02 yes ma'am all right are there any other board members that would like to just have further discussion on any of the consent items all right so Mr clone do you want to discuss it for a separate Vote or as part of this vote I just have some questions so I this Federal programs Grant that's the title of there and so I wanted to take advantage to ask some questions I know there was a lot of commentary about the plus one and I've got some questions uh and so I if appropriate if it deemed appropriate I'd like to take advantage although I'm not sure if plus one
101is plus one is not federal but um if I've got some questions on that it is if that's okay okay I'm not sure miss Roman is also here but the one that you've asked to pull which is entirely appropriate is Title II money and so they can explain to you what Title II money is used for I appreciate that good evenings members um so title two is a Federal grant but it is not the one that supports our plus one program but we're happy to answer any questions that you have about that the plus one program was previously funded by Title One so I'll help title two is for teacher and principal training and recruiting so they're under the federal Grant there's Title One Part a title one part C Title One Part D title
102two title four used to be title 10 announced Title IX and whatever other you know School Improvement and everything else that we're getting so if if appropriate I'd like to ask some questions I saw the opportunity because we talk about grants and federal programs so before everybody left I wanted to so if that's okay so plus one is a you know I'm start off with I don't know a whole lot about education and I haven't been here uh more than four years so could you uh speak a little bit about plus one and maybe some of the concerns that we've heard um maybe some of the history because now I'm confused plus one in our district in Volusia County actually started in about 2003 it was a pilot program at Woodward Avenue Elementary however it
103was not implemented school-wide it was for the single gender classes at at the time and since then and we no longer have the single gender classes and obviously Woodward is no longer a plus one school but we've had several different iterations of plus one as far as funding goes since that time and even as far as amount of time that students are actually held in school since that time there was a time when um in about 2010-11 where the state actually mandated an extra additional hour for the lowest 300 which was based on reading scores for schools and it was funded at that time through lowest 300 Monies uh two years ago the state uh struck the language and and then it became optional but the state struck the language that made the additional hour
104mandatory or even optional and also with that withdrew the funding however we had continued the program with our highest poverty ranked schools and those were the top five at that time so a few of the concerns that we've heard specific so it's my understanding that during the time of plus one um schools would go in and out of being plus one schools like they did not stay plus one schools all the time is that that is accurate we have had schools come off the list because it is funded through title one whenever you have a federally funded program like this you have to have a very specific methodology for how the schools are selected that get that funding um and so we implemented it through poverty ranking so the highest level of poverty down and
105if a school came off of that list so at one time and I'm going to look at Miss Roman but I think it was 12 or 13 is the number that that came to my mind when I came to this position um we had schools that for instance if you had Stark West Side Campbell and Stark fell below and another school jumped ahead of them the option we either needed to fund that other school to maintain Stark or we could or slowly phase it out and that was what the choice was made that's how we now have five the decision was made to continue to fund the five highest poverty schools which at the time not true not necessarily for next year but as of last year were Stark West Side Palm Terrace Holly Hill
106and turkey so are we doing this for cost savings um well no we don't really have we're not saving the money is Title One money so that money goes back to the schools back back into the to the title one budget which must be used to support students there was a question about the data what what is the data show and what data did we use to come up with this decision I know there was a question about or a comment about stakeholders not being involved in the decision so how did what data did we use and um and how do we communicate with the stakeholders so when we think about the um five schools that we have listed here as receiving plus one of course we look at our um data as it relates
107to the school grade historically but then we also look at data that is happening throughout the school year as well but I want to talk about if it's okay I want to just talk about really going to some explanation behind the support that we um are providing and that schools are providing their school their their students and their teachers as it relates to increasing and building capacity within the school and then increasing student achievement we know this year is the first year that that we're going to be assessed in Fast and I think it's important to understand that the supports that the state also has provided through different grant opportunities and monies is to be used where we can be strategically very intentional with what we do with our with our schools and especially the
108those that are our highest at-risk schools so I want us to go back and think about even the beginning of the school year when we talked about the different grants that these schools receive for example many of our schools that scored or be rated this past year as a des rated school did get the UNICEF Grant now remember with the uniseig is to serve Title 1 schools identified in um D so for example tour T that's an example of of that in this particular scenario and so they can use that money to be able to attract and retain effective and highly effective teachers with um with either seventy five hundred dollar bonus for Effective regarding the state it has to correlate to the state vam um or highly effective which is fifteen thousand and then
109within those same funds that pot of money Purity small can utilize that for collaboration so planning time tutoring professional learning even in purchasing positions um one of the things that Dr Hazel has stated was that these funds actually go back to the schools so the increase um per student allocation is going to give that money back to the school which gives the school a little bit more autonomy to decide how to best service the school instructionally the students instructionally um but then we also have the tssa many people say Tessa for that which is a turnaround School supplement services and so for example when we look at Palm Terrace when we look at West Side they all receive they receive the allocations to be able to strengthen for example their Community Partnerships academics being able
110to re to recruit and retain highly qualified Personnel so many of them were able to put in a bonus for that as well it's not dictated by the state how much as unisig is but within their within their plan they're able to State how much they would um was a stipulation but then how much money they would allocate for those bonuses professional learning um and again um it could be tutoring it could be any type of collateral planning beyond the school day um and and teachers get paid for that um but then we also have and all of this no matter if you were unisig and or or if you were um tssa Tessa you also have these four different grants that all of these schools are able to take advantage of which they have
111so the iawa um we're using it for before after school tutoring with the focus of literacy stem Civics but then there's also the ARP supplemental grant that the state has granted um districts which is can be used for which we are using it for transportation for tutoring and summer programs but then we also have sr2 which is for academic tutoring clubs and we have sr2 supplemental that was supplemental and sr2 which we use for collaborative planning project so if we if we think about um in terms of how do we maximize what we have and use it very intentional so that our students and our teachers get get the best out of the situation that that they're um that that they have to build their capacity to be able to um really meet the student
112needs we're doing that very strategically with all of these different funds if that makes sense now on May 9th at the workshop I I do intend to come and um really go in deep in terms of our data horror Focus schools are doing as far there was a mention of uh Financial impact to the employees um are they have we leveraged I know there was a I had a question about the transfer Fair had already happened and so um have we leveraged um what the potential is because I do tutoring I think is 45 minutes for an hour right tutoring is 45 minutes with the 15 minute planning time with the 15-minute planning time and so um how does that translate to pay wise for the folks who have been in these schools so um
113there were well there's a couple of avenues for that uh tutoring as we said that that is an opportunity at each of these schools through these grants the pay for tutoring is thirty dollars an hour um if it's after school if it's during the school day it's hourly rate if um then we also in addition three of these sites have the 21st it's three right to have the 21st century Grant what does that mean so that's that is a program it's very it's an extended day program beyond beyond the school day that the students attend it requires certified teachers to teach the program and so they can also earn um earn pay during that and so what are we doing because I know when was transfer fair over the transfer Fair has actually ended um
114your that is correct this was announced after contractually the timeline is driven contractually so for both the transfer fair and for the announcement of plus one the announcement of plus one whether if it's going to con if we are going to initiate plus one at a school then that requires a two-week notification prior to the transfer Fair however if plus one is going to be discontinued at a school then contractually that is um by May 1st no later than May 1st me no contractually we are too notified no later than May 1st for the to discontinue it it's on the contract would we so let's say we did have a teacher who decided they wanted to make a move would be would we be willing to help that I don't know if that's not a
115place to ask but well okay so I'm going to put on my HR hat and answer that um absolutely and I have already worked with Stephanie Workman um and we have put in our Communications to the teachers that anyone who wishes um to to transfer wants to talk to Human Resources um we were more than willing to do that they just need to contact Stephanie Workman directly and her email is available that's all I have is there any other um any other board members have any questions I'm sorry I just you know this is I mean we've been hearing these conversations and I just I'm trying to piece it together what I'm gathering is that this program ended many years ago and we kept it going and ultimately how much is this so you're saying
116that we're not the schools are not losing money we're not bringing this isn't coming out of general fund this is Title One money that we were telling the school how to spend it and now they're going to keep their money and spend it however they want to their proposed Title 1 budgets which are preliminary until you get the the actual award um but for all five schools the proposed preliminary budget is higher than um this current Year's budget and that is it's different for each School the amount that it is increased because we pay on a per pupil allocation which we raised may I so in addition to everything that you've heard also because s or the sr2 there's two com there's a component to sr2 which is mitigating learning loss that encumbers academic tutoring
117and clubs that's one section and the other is collaborative planning and uh for for our schools that will be considered focused schools for next year we're looking at 1.6 million dollars that will be assigned to those schools specifically for either a collaborative planning or additional instructional minutes with students whether it's remediation or acceleration or schools can choose to do both I'd also like to add um for those that are listening because I think we have a few more cards on the same topic um at a later point in public input is this is not a decision of the board this is an operational decision that is made and is made every year from the time it started as a pilot with the gender classes at Woodward to it being part of the lowest 300 in
118reading and at that time I worked at one of the schools that one year we would have it because we would fall into the lowest 300 in reading and it was a high poverty school but we weren't using poverty ranking at that time we were using the lowest 300 well then we would have the plus one we would actually do the full hour of instruction it was not a 30 minutes it was a full hour we would do it first thing in the morning because everybody was involved whether PE teacher school counselors everyone had a group with very specific learning criteria along with materials of what we would use with those kids well then we bring the grade up and then the next year we would lose title lose the plus one and we wouldn't
119have it I mean that's what it was like it was like a roller coaster there for a while and then as the state started you know moving away from the lowest 300 and and requiring it is when it became a piece and that's why the There Was You Know up to 13 or 14 at any given time and now it's down to five but a piece that I think Miss Hazel said that or Dr Hazel said that people aren't hearing and we've talked about this is we have moved away from the hundred day count where we would determine the ranking in poverty order for free and reduced lunch we went to cep last year which is the community eligibility plan piece and we did that because by doing that we were able to offer free
120breakfast and free lunch to every single child and we talked about that here and we said that was a commitment that we had coming out of the pandemic was to ensure that children were fed and so one of the things and and I used to work in federal programs and when the cep came up and Miss Roman would agree with me and we looked at it when it first was rolled out by the federal government we didn't jump onto it because it was going to change the ranking of some of our schools and it was going to change it because it's really based on what we used to call food stamps then it went to EBT and now it's a snap program it's based on which parents qualify for that to determine what the ranking
121is but I will say over the years they saw that that was a problem and they made changes to it and when it first started it wasn't that you could offer free breakfast and free lunch to all children it was still in a ranked order but if nothing else that came out of the pandemic that piece got changed and we had the ability last year by moving to that program to give every child free breakfast and free lunch and I think every one of us will agree that that's the best thing for our children is that they have free breakfast and free lunch available because they can't learn if they're hungry and we know with what prices what have has happened with prices look at what a box of cereal costs now and cereal is
122not even the best like it's not the best food to give to a kid but it's expensive and milk has gone up and things like that so I lived through the roller coaster ride of this being at the school level then being in federal programs and the ranking this year because of cep is different and I know at least one of those schools in that list if we were even to maintain and say it's the top five at least one maybe a couple are no longer in the top five because of the way the information is collected so they would be dropping out of that and we'd have even if we said we could continue to fund it and take the money and put it there versus giving them the flexibility so what's happening now
123is when they get the flexibility it used to be you get your budget and at the top it would say here's the portion that's going to your plus one and it's non-negotiable because it's the salary piece of the people on campus and then now here's the budget piece where you have flexibility do you want to hire a Reading Coach do you want a math coach do you want an intervention teacher do you how much are you going to put into tutoring how much you're going to put into parenting events how much are you going to put into like materials and supplies what's happening now the part that was locked in up here is now going to basically move down into their budget and it gives them more flexibility on how they target that but a
124couple years ago the whole plan changed and it was no longer an hour's worth of instruction during the day that was systematic and pinpointed it it went to 30 minutes with an additional 30 minutes of planning and so you know I think we just have to look at all of it and and I will tell you I was at Blue Lake in the years that we lost it we brought buses in and kept our kids after school for tutoring so that we could still give them that instructional piece but um do you have any other questions Mr oh this is brunette sorry I I put that up late um so I'm hearing because I know we want to incentivize to keep staff at some of these schools um we need the students to have stability
125so I'm hearing from what you're explaining that the school will have that ability to incentivize the staff to stay with the funding yes through yeah um absolutely um Miss Burnett when we think about the different um pots of money that can do that with what we've been provided absolutely and actually they are and they have been but now they're able to utilize that as long as the staff um would like to tutor would like to um you know engage in collaborative planning um beyond the school hours absolutely they will get compensated I mean I definitely do feel like we need to make sure that the staff is you know stable at some of our lower schools thank you Mr persis uh thank you ma'am chair I didn't know we were going to go this way
126but since you opened it up uh a few things one um there's mixed evidence on the benefits of keeping children longer in a school day particularly Elementary children as an elementary teacher I remember how just worn out tired kids were at the end of the day regular day and then to add more to it I mean how fresh are they I mean how how ready are they to accept more more work so you know it's like this this cup is full and you're just gonna pour more on top it isn't going in it's you know so you may be teaching but how much learning is really taking taking place and if you don't have learning taking place then why are we doing it it's more like then it's more like a babysitting service for the
127for the parents because we're keeping them an extra half hour an hour whatever that could be I'm not saying in every in every single case but there is there's a lot there's probably a lot of waste how much damage too I mean you could get kids that are getting turned off because they're really not wanting this extra time to be at at school and uh so it could have a negative effect my thoughts on it I believe I've expressed this to the superintendent uh six months ago or so uh even with Dr Fritz I think I said this was that I do think teachers that teach at high poverty schools should be paid more I think they should just be paid more for the same hours of any other school so I'm not in favor
128of extending the the day but I am in favor of paying them more and how much more and what that is I mean that's you know that could be talked about but when you think about they were getting paid what 20 percent more or 25 how much was it 2017. they were paid one additional hour a day well it depends on how much their hourly rate is I don't mean the dollar amount I mean there was a percentage right like unisig share what Eunice I guess for unison so for uniseig you mean the um those teachers that are effective and highly effective okay Elementary School or elementary school so for example um enterity those teachers that either transferred in or have already been at the school um and that have a state bam score of
129effective will get a bonus of 7 500 and then for highly effective is fifteen thousand right and uh but are those teachers that at schools would just the regular six and a half hour day that bonus the regular seven and a half yeah I'm asking what what how much more money did the teachers make that worked at a plus one school it varies from teacher to teacher I think um I I don't have the the lowest number I think it was in five thousand something up to seven because it's an additional hour per day I think seven thousand depending on their daily rate of pay correct so you see the you see the huge difference um tutoring at thirty dollars in an hour isn't going to come anywhere close to the amount of money that
130they were making to work that extra hour and I say work that extra hour I mean half hour was planning half hour was was teaching but you know they were still paid that actually that extra hour uh I'm I'm concerned about teachers vacating those those schools I'm concerned from uh from the principles of a point of view you know getting the highly effective teachers that I want at my school and I don't think we saw that mass Exodus these last three or four years because of the plus one I mean I do think the plus one kept kept some folks there the plus one money kept kept them there you know teachings are hard a hard a hard job and it said it it may not have been all that positive for the students I'm
131not sure it was all that positive for the for the teachers to work an extra to be there in an extra hour to work the next an extra hour you know teaching's rough and and it's tough and and about spring spring break time you're usually pretty pretty well worn out and uh and that's just a regular uh elementary teacher with a regular schedule and you think they've they've been teaching an extra half hour with kids an extra half hour planning and all that cumulative effect I mean I'm it it it's it's going to take its toll so I hope you understand what um what I'm saying I I think there is an absolute need to have highly effective teachers that want to be at low property schools and there are some teachers that do an
132outstanding job and love it and are just the best and uh I I think those kind of P those teachers should be awarded what do you call it a stipend or a bonus or or something but something that that shows that we recognize the difficulty of of of the job and uh uh and we and we when we and we want to keep them there and to to your point Mr Parsons that's why I shared like that 1.6 million dollars which is for additional planning in addition to everything else that you've heard the different grants is going to be going to those Focus schools and you've been a practitioner in the field you've been a principal you see how it works all the bits and pieces Miss Haynes you talk beautifully because it took me
133back to when I worked in focused schools you're absolutely right especially with the little ones sometimes they get really tired by the end of the day and we've had to move that additional hour back when I did it like in the morning so you'll get them fresh and we work on those reading skills whatever it is that was needed for the hour and we played around with the schedule so that you were providing or you were doing a subject here in the evening really you know in the afternoon that they would be engaged or motivated to participate in because you're absolutely right it gets it's get starring but the 1.6 million dollars is is a assigned to those two areas that I've outlined which is additional planning and working with students whether for remediation or
134acceleration and it will be given to the schools the whole point is not to have plus one in schools year after year after year after year our students time is valuable as well and if we're going to have it it should be for a purpose right which is to meet those the remediation needs or acceleration needs and move on and as to what Dr Hazel and Dr Vai has stated that is why when we used to have plus one and when the state funded plus one many years ago because as of two years this stop as of 2011 it became optional when they were funding it we had to report and show and ensure that we didn't have the schools in that segment continuously either because it was not a way of practice it was
135a fluid way of intervening or accelerating students meeting their needs and moving on that is why you'll see students under not students schools on the list will go up and down Miss Thompson I just wanted to ask a couple questions to clarify so we have tutoring on here hypothetically could tutoring be done after school before school during school if a teacher wished or as school agreed to it yes okay and they would get paid for that tutoring out of this money that we've already discussed yes and will there still be say there is tutoring after school that excess Transportation will still be provided for the children yes okay well the they can apply for funding for transportation that's part of one of the grants um I do want to point out though that these the
136five schools that are being impacted one of the schools has no buses that because they're very much Community Schools so I think that's important too one of them has no buses I think the one that has the most buses is um has four and then I know we talked about how it changes and it fluctuates with the different schools will this plus one money be distributed to the five schools that we currently have or the ones where the rankings have changed because I see the only three of the schools from last year are the same for the upcoming year um let me make sure I understand the question so the the specific money that was used to it will go back to the same five schools same schools okay yes I mean it has we
137have to distribute the money in rank order yeah so whatever the per people allocation for that top tier increased for all of that tier all right thank you so much so to piggyback off of that I guess I believe one of the schools dropped to Ninth Place that's where I came but stayed in the same tier right they stayed in the same tier for per pupil allocation which is the amount multiplied by the number of students they have on campus in order to determine their allocation but one of the schools dropped tonight correct so if we were only going to keep like if we were going if on us because we don't make this decision you guys do it's organizational if you were going to continue this program then that school would either number one
138have been cut this year actually two schools would have been cut because they were below the five or we would have had to come up with additional money to fund everybody all the way down to the ninth spot that's correct and so no matter what decision you guys made or you were going to make two schools were going to have to be cut if you're going to leave this with five schools is that correct that's correct because of where their poverty ranking order changed yeah all right any other questions or discussion all right can we move back to the consent agenda we can I'm a little bit more confused than I was before but I'll ask the questions later all right so we are at item 7.0 2 now we're putting your item that you
139pulled back in okay because that has to do with it different Federal grant all right so we're moving on to the approval so if there are no changes now to the consent agenda do I have a board member who'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda I move we approve the consent agenda as printed Madam chair thank you Mr persis do I have a second I second that motion thank you Mrs Thompson any further discussion on the consent agenda items hearing none then I'll call for the vote all those in favor of the consent agenda items please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously we're now moving down to I gotta flip a to item 18.01 public participation Mr Gomez you have any additional cards over what you handed to me right as
140we took the break okay so board members at this time I'm going to follow the same process I'm going to call the first person and the second person so the second person is ready each member will have three minutes please understand that wall there is no commenting from any of us on the board nor those of you in the audience if you are in agreement with something that someone is saying you can do the jazz hands but please do not interrupt anyone that is speaking so we will start and I still am holding this card is Jennifer Howard here did she return okay then Jennifer Howard is a no-show then we're going to move along so first up we'll meet Beth Fogel Miller followed by Catherine sabald welcome thank you hello to each of you
141how you've heard the list members chairs guests superintendents staff and uh concerned citizens I'm Beth fogelmiller I'm a retired United Methodist Pastor I'm a DeLand native I went to Junior High in this building and remember fondly Jesse Moreland as my English teacher that year Emma Joe Foster as my English teacher at DeLand High School class of 75. I was an English major at Stetson and I understand something about the complexity of choosing stories for the appropriate ages I was a preacher for over 30 years David and Goliath good story for kids David being a king unexpectedly good story for kids David and Bathsheba maybe the youth group when we talk about consent and boundaries the plot to kill Uriah and cover up but the consequences of bad choices oh the lesser-known stories of David's other
142children who watched their father um take what he did not own and then try and cover that up carried on and ripen incest and plotting against their siblings became a part of their family story but David is also described as a man after God's Own Heart what changed anybody remember Nathan there was a story that someone told David someone told an uncomfortable story and David saw himself and his behaviors differently stories matter even the uncomfortable ones they can change lives to read a book can take you places that you did not expect it allows you to consider other perspectives which perhaps is why it's risky but it allows you to consider another perspective not to swallow it whole to eat the fish and leave the bones as it were don't swallow it whole but don't
143take fish off the menu for everyone either I came to the workshop a month ago I must confess I do not understand the nuances of the difference between operational and policy I can do it in church but not here it seems to me however that restricting what we read doesn't work well for us it just doesn't age appropriate yes seems to me we have some policies that work let's use them let's use them well we could learn several things from the story of David one is the reality that whether or not you attend to you teach by example and I'd rather we didn't teach that organizing for power and other such things is just not good better that we learn the value of welcoming those who tell an uncomfortable truth and learn from their stories
144our children will learn from what we do and how we do it so let's do it well thank you thank you following um Catherine will be Emmy miles hi my name is Catherine sybold I have three kids who go to school in Volusia County and I served on one of the book review committees I want to talk about three quotes that have impacted me when thinking about the book selection process the first quote is from a member of the school board Mr Reuben clone representing District Five in the school board meeting on February 28th and 2023 he was speaking about how he believed we should ban any books with special sexually explicit language and I will quote him now he said if you think these books should be on the shelves then you might as
145well move out of Florida let's be real my heart broke when I heard the statement from you it deeply hurt to be told to leave my home because you disagree with me I believe these books should stay Florida is my home and my family's home we should act as reasonable people as we try to figure out what's best for our kids telling my family to leave the state is a disproportionate reaction to our discussion about what books students should access as a representative of the school board you need to act professionally and you should make an official apology the second quote I want to bring up is from the book review meeting that I attended it was about the book sold the book follows the story of a young girl who is human trafficked in
146India one member of our community of our committee sorry was a guidance counselor for the school and when she said really stuck with me she said in our schools right now we have children who have recently been removed from Human Trafficking situations and we have children who are currently being recruited into human trafficking situations and if one of those kids could read this book it could make such an impact it can make the kids who are traffic start to see how it wasn't their fault it could help the kids who are being recruited see through the lies that are used to trick them even if one of these kids had a friend who read this book it could potentially stop a child from being trafficked we reviewed the book believing it would be placed in
147one of three categories to remove from the library remaining in the library or put in a section where parents could opt out but after we made our recommendation we got an email that said it was in a new category an opt-in book this book could save a child from Human Trafficking restricting the book means less kids get help the final quote quote I want to read is from another book which was reviewed The Perks of Being a Wallflower whatever I've learned as an adult I have never forgotten what it was like to be that kid what it was like to feel like no one could understand these feelings because I could not understand them myself you'll be shocked to know exactly how many people understand what you're going through this doesn't mean that what you're
148going through is somehow less meaningful special or unique on the contrary it means that what you're going through is more it is important it deserves to be spoken out of seen and understood um this book that made me cry when I read it it made me feel really seen please keep the existing policy it works thank you following Emmy will be Ashlynn good evening my name is Emmy and I've been the president of our book club at DeLand High for the past two years books have been pivotal throughout my life and in my opinion books are incredibly important for children's developments these stories carry themes of love joy friendship and coming of age the aid in the creation of our own identities the messages and books deserve to be heard of course not all media
149is appropriate for all ages but this decision is one that should be made by that child's parents not a governing body discussions regarding what one is allowed or not allowed to read should occur at home and one set of Parental or governmental opinion should not dictate the entirety of what students are allowed to read if you don't like it don't read it but don't deprive another student from access to it I genuinely ask how is one supposed to develop an individual opinion about anything without first being exposed to diverse opinions by limiting options we are eliminating free thought and the ability of a student to formulate unique opinions and Views about the world around them our schools are here in Volusia County are a beautiful mix of different cultures religions races and sexualities and that
150should be reflected in our libraries there is a book out there for everyone and it should never be taken away from them thank you thank you following Ashland will be Liz Jackson good evening my name is Ashlyn chachowski I'm a member of the Zeland high school book club and also an Avid Reader the Banning of books is a misguided response to opinions cultures and ideas that are not your own there's also the limitation of information about historical events that are eerily similar to the events of today it should not be a select few that dictate the majority rather it should be up to each individual or their Guardians if not old enough to decide what they should or should not read a single cry that a book is inappropriate and suddenly it is up for
151review everyone's belief of what is inappropriate is different so where is the line it is up to each individual to curate their own opinion not you all the board limiting the scope of information to fit your own opinions it says on your wall that your vision is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an ever-changing Global Society how are students supposed to be prepared if you're limiting the information in this ever grow Ever Changing Global Society the limitation of information is a step towards indoctrination just because history can repeat itself does not mean it should thank you thank you following Liz Jack Jackson will be Jacqueline Crawford good evening I am Liz Jackson and I am media teacher at Pontius Elementary and I am reading several things from several of my colleagues I find it hard
152to believe that removing the additional 2.5 hours a week instruction that students at a plus one School receives is the best interest of our students at Palm Terrace we maximize the instructional time that we have and we hold multiple days of tutoring beyond our plus one day including Saturdays and this is still not enough instructional time for our students they need more we have parents that ask for more because they want the best for their children I consider the plus one status to be similar to the way we use IEPs and 504s to level the playing field for all students by taking away the instructional time that plus one offers to our schools it is if you are saying that fair means equal for all which we know it is not true it seems that
153your decision to End plus one is about the money but for our students it is about providing Equitable educational opportunities I am also wondering about this we lost two weeks of instructional time during the Hurricanes the last time was equated to 10 hours which we made up via the loss of 10 early release days it seems that this plus one change will result in plus one schools living losing 95 hours of instructional time and therefore our students will miss that amount of instruction you are partner in education Kimberly Masters math coach at Palm Terrace Elementary then I have several things that were texted to me during this time how can we offer tutoring during the school day when we're teaching how are we going to mandate our students to come to tutoring what students are
154we going to choose to tutor how are we going to get them there unisig is not for all teachers I'm the media teacher I will not qualify for that only third through fifth grade students our primary grades build our foundation they will be excluded from that time we will lose our highly effective teachers they have already come to me and told me that they will probably be leaving our principal has no leverage to keep our highly effective teachers there or to recruit them this is a sad sad time for our school I am very saddened and hopeful that you will rethink this decision thank you Jacqueline Crawford followed by Jeannie Maddox hi everyone I'm Jacqueline Crawford from Daytona Beach I'm a media specialist and I'll remind you I'm not a public speaker good evening Dr
155balgavin and school board members I want to touch on two points today the first is the opt-in policy that has been put in place for the books reviewed by consider reconsideration committees besides the fact that there has been no real communication on how this will be implemented leaving books off the shelf that were recommended to stay there and opt-in policy is downright and Equitable and simply doesn't work this is evident in the students who have not been opted in to receive simple Medical Care such as bandages or ice packs from the nurse it is not that the parents don't want their children to receive these treatments it's just that the form got overlooked in The Barrage of papers that come home at the beginning of the school year it creates a barrier to Quick treatment
156having certain books available as opt-in only puts a barrier between students and reading it is hard enough to get teens to read as it is placing this additional step in front of them might just turn them off of it altogether an opt-in policy is really just a form of self-censorship when a committee of people already determined that these books were appropriate for certain age levels the topic of self-censorship brings me to the next point I would like to address the line upon review a principal may direct the removal of material he or she deems in violation of Florida law that is included in the proposed changes to policy 320. the selection and challenge policy we have in place works and has been pretty standard for school and Public Library policies throughout the world for decades
157putting that kind of decision making pressure on one person is sure to leave to lead to self-censorship principals can't win either way in this scenario they leave a book in place that they are unsure of and fear retribution from the state or more likely they remove the book and potentially face lawsuits for violating freedom of speech and or civil rights having a reconsideration Committee in place to review challenge books and only removing a book on the recommendation of said committee is the way to maintain Integrity in policy 320. I ask that you keep our libraries Equitable by continuing the use of opt-out policies for those that are concerned and keep our media policy free of potential self-censorship at keeping it as is thank you Genie Maddox is up next followed by Katie Fay good evening
158the Volusia school counselor Association awards four scholarships each year to high school seniors students are asked to answer the prompt describe the positive impact any school counselor has had on your life here are excerpts from this year's four scholarship winners my school counselor is one of the most helpful people in my life throughout all four years in high school she's been right there by my side rooting for my every success and helped me through adversity my freshman year was when the covid-19 pandemic occurred when finishing up my classes online in April of 2020 my mom suffered a massive heart attack I was in contact with my teachers and most importantly my school counselor and making her aware of the situation she was able to help me so my teachers could allow for some leniency throughout
159her time in the hospital and Recovery I was in contact with my school counselor she ensured I was doing okay mentally and that my dad and I didn't need anything I'm still so incredibly thankful for everything she did for me I have many school counselors I could thank however I think my high school counselors have made the greatest impact towards the end of my sophomore year I was having issues academically and at home and my anxiety was at an all-time high I ended up missing a meeting and I had scheduled with the college and career counselor when I realized that I almost started crying in the hallway after calming myself down for a while I managed to speak with the counselor he noticed something was wrong and offered me some comforting words which immediately caused
160me to break down everything had come to a head after giving me some advice and signing me up for college classes I went on my way to my next class still a little uneasy however I was stopped by another counselor she sat me down in her office and made sure it was abundantly clear that my feelings matter and I deserve to be heard and seen my school counselor has always allowed me to come talk to her whenever whether it was about school or personal issues I would not have been able to handle the stress of IB or stay in IB if it wasn't for the support of my counselor like earlier this year when I was having health issues and I had to miss a lot of school for doctor's appointments I wasn't able to
161go to school missing that much school for anyone is difficult we're adding that to the coursework of IB made it difficult to feel like I could catch up my school counselor continued to encourage me and allow me not to doubt myself but to do what I could to focus on what I could to improve my situation sometimes the stress of it all would be too much so I simply would need a place to cry and just have support and that's what she did I was able to just cry and rant about my feelings and feel like someone was listening to me and there to support me my school counselors were the wind beneath my wings they worked both personally with me and my family to ensure I could be able to complete my Academy requirements
162and become duly enrolled at Daytona State I attribute much of my high school Success to my school counselors because they've assisted me with maintaining academic success developing the skills of organizations study habits and time management improving my social skills and identifying interest strengths and attitudes my school counselors have definitely been an enormous influence in my life and along the way they've kept my family totally involved it has often been said that it takes a village my school counselors are vital members of my Village and I appreciate all the efforts they have made on my behalf thank you I do have one question I know we're not supposed to ask questions but I have one will you share with us who your four winners are for this year once you've announced who they are yes thank
163you happy too thank you we'd love to know next up is Katie Fay followed by Riley Kellogg good evening Dr balgeman school school board chair and members and all attendees thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight my name is Katie Fay and I have been a resident of Volusia County for 35 years my four daughters matriculated successfully and with honors through the Volusia County School System I recently retired from my position as media specialist at Horizon Elementary School I want to thank you all for your interest in our school libraries we've recently learned a lot about the procedures followed when Library materials are challenged I thought it might be useful to discuss how library books are selected in the first place the procedures for selecting print materials are outlined in instructional policy
164320. the stated objective of the media center is to provide a wide range of books with diversity of appeal and representing different points of view these books must serve the needs and interests of individual students the process of buying books begins months before purchase order is ever submitted to the school's bookkeeper at the beginning of the school year the media specialist painstakingly analyzes the media collection and reviews all pertinent data they look at the average age of books within the different categories diversity of the collection circulation statistics student demographics student faculty and parent requests and curriculum needs this information is brought to the school media advisory committee a committee of administration instructional staff media Specialists parents and community members at this meeting additional collection needs are discussed finally the media specialist Begins the search for
165books the budget is limited it may only be possible to purchase 200 books so the search needs to be thorough following the selection criteria outlined in policy 320 the media specialist considers materials on the basis of accuracy of content timeliness importance of the subject matter quality of writing popular appeal and reputation and significance of the author and artist the media specialist consults multiple professional reviews for each book considered to ensure that the content is accurate and is appropriate for the age and maturity level of the intended audience once the media specialist has found the books they feel would best fill the needs of the school they send an annotated list to the members of the school media advisory committee for consideration the members have access to the book summaries as well as the professional reviews
166they have the opportunity to discuss the books and raise any questions or concerns once the list is finalized and approved only then can the media specialist submit the purchase order to the school's bookkeeper and the school principal for final approval the books are finally ordered all of these steps are outlined in instructional policy 320. these procedures meet all legal requirements the principal is involved in the selection of materials and is responsible for the final evaluation of materials the current policy works there is no need to change it I urge you to keep the policy as is thank you for your time and Happy National Library week thank you Riley Kellogg and we're moving on to Laurel Robinson followed by Shane's story good evening Madam chair school board members Madam superintendent my name is Laurel Robinson
167I love Liberty I love freedom the American flag flies proudly over our front door every day I'm a First Amendment Zealot and I quote I disagree with everything you have to say but will defend to the death your right to say it but life liberty and the pursuit of happiness does not credential me to make decisions on the books and materials that should be available to kids in school fortunately there are people who have the brain power education and experience to make these decisions we call them teachers we call them media Specialists Librarians and Educators these professionals possess the skills to evaluate the literary value appropriateness and impact that books that are found in our school should have unfortunately your changes to policy 320 gives these experts a back seat in the decision-making process when
168books are challenged you have allowed one person to make a unilateral decision regarding availability even a school principal should not be should be required to consult with appropriate staff before such a decision is made secondly the Review Committee now has a majority of non-professionals in a voting capacity with the possibility of overriding the expert analysis please restore the authority and respect due to people who have made educating our kids their lives work it's time to put personal opinions in their place a consideration to be sure but not as a determinant factor in deciding what books our kids can read thank you very much thank you following Shane's story will be David Finkel hey everybody sorry my wife's been bowling on Tuesdays so I haven't been here for a couple months I apologize for my absence
169I actually didn't come to speak at the border to the board today I actually came to talk about our state legislation um I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many people that have come up here and spoken more frequently or often than I have and I've said some things about this board that I now regret now that I know more in the district as well a lot of the policy that's set in place with it within the district is based on what comes down from legislation in Tallahassee The more I've dove into that the more concerning it is I've had some great people to help me along the way to to point me in the right direction to look into that legislation things like House Bill one which in my opinion is going to first
170of all is physically irresponsible the FTE funding that's attached to those kids is going to go to schools or go to homeschool and then kids are going to get we're going to find out they're not making progress or they're gonna get kicked out of those schools and now they're going to be returned back to our public education unfunded which means that we're going to need more teachers for those new students and we're not going to be able to pay for new teachers that's a disaster in of itself uh you know I I'm I've been a lifelong Republican okay for you know almost 40 years old and it is very concerning to see that one party controls the Senate the house the executive branch they have done so for more than 20 years and either they
171have been completely asleep at the wheel or they are intentionally attempting to destroy education and this is what happens when people align themselves with only a political party or they only align themselves by who is endorsed instead of actually looking at the moral character of the individuals that are voted into office people are not showing that they actually care about the students that live here in Volusia County to that point I wrote every single House member and every single Senator a letter I've called the governor's office multiple times and out of my attempts to contact these people only one of them has reached out to talk to me I've lived here my whole life I have a wife here we contribute to the local economy and I'm an educator in this County shame on all
172of them not that I expect them to hop to when I speak but you have an obligation to your constituency to address their concerns when I get asked working at a school why a child hasn't had a math teacher in three years and they asked me what can I do Mr story what can I do should I call the school board sure give them a call because they're going to tell Dr Balvin to do something about it and Dr Bogman is going to call the principal and at the end of the day what's the principal going to do you can't you can't they're not God they can't create people from the salt of the earth they can't take it out of out of dirt and clay and mold somebody into that classroom until we hold
173the politicians in Tallahassee accountable and I'm not talking about political affiliation or political ideology I'm talking about what the people are showing through their actions you're still going to have those kids sitting in the media center and in the cafeteria not getting an education thank you after Mr Finkel will be Sheila zinkerman good evening Dr belgaumen board members my name is David Finkel I've been teaching in Volusia County Schools for this is my 31st year I am on my fifth school and I'm currently at DeLand High School I teach English we have an effective policy in place to deal with books one that values the literacy I teach my students that there's two ways to look at almost everything in real life and in what we read and in what we write big picture kind
174of a global look and close up the things you can point to on the page or look at right in the world big picture what kind of District do we want to be big picture do we want fear of ideas and words to dictate what were to dictate what we do so that we're willing to create a culture where all books are suspect or do we want to Big Picture create a culture where we value books and literacy where we want to do everything in our power to create students who are readers and who become adults who read it's our goal to protect students so much from books that books aren't a presence in their lives and in their classes or is our goal to help them deal with the world and with themselves through
175the power of story close up many of my students don't have books at home they don't even bother to take the books off my shelf so there's not much data danger there they don't go to Media they need more books and encouragement not less most of them would rather be on their phones and Lord knows what's on those if we make having the wrong book in your class a punishment a punishable offense which is what I'm hearing pretty much all class libraries will disappear what if a student leaves an inappropriate book in my class am I liable if I can't prove that I didn't put it there why take that risk I may as well just take my library down picture close up no matter how you look at it in the name of getting
176rid of a few books that we think are dangerous we will be showing that we don't value literacy and we will be at risk of making Volusia County Schools a book desert Volusia County Schools is better than that right now parents who object can opt out of a book there is a process to challenging books please err on the side of books literacy and reading thank you thank you following Ms sinkerman will be um Jorah Young good evening good evening Sheila zinkerman let's begin with some common ground we all want what's best for our diverse students nevertheless the two policy changes in 320 well adversely affect them here's how the first Troublesome change is the proposed language stating quote upon review a principle of may direct removal of material he or she deems in violation
177of Florida law unquote think about how school children perceive it when their diverse books which they adore are confiscated by their beloved principle as I recall principals supported up provoking reading material in our schools they didn't remove it in fact a principal once gave me a book and a message said the word he said a word to the wise is sufficient and he handed me the book read it the vast majority of challenged books are authored by lgbtqia Plus black indigenous and other people of color when principles censor books it means losing diversity and representation in our schools one principal's opinion shouldn't dictate what's available in the question of whether a book has value cannot be determined by a single individual instead decisions should be made by a group of District professional Educators who are
178experts and on what books are students and how valuable it they are second Troublesome change is a proposed structure of the reconsideration committee the current one is working so don't change it to a 4-3 citizen majority parents have the right to know experts like media Specialists Librarians and teachers who specialize in book selection are reviewing the books they should be the majority indeed it is very unlikely that the district's professional Educators have selected books that meet the criteria of obscenity and are harmful to minors in the first place per guidance from the National Coalition against censorship recent letter to this board we urge you to amend the proposed policy specifically we recommend the inclusion of a provision mandating that experts including District legal counsel Librarians media Specialists and teachers with the expertise in the book
179selection thank you thank you following Jory young will be Jessica Hatton school board members Madam chair superintendent staff thank you so much for the opportunity to speak my name is Jorah young and I'm a resident of Volusia County my grandchildren all went to school here I moved here to be near them I was concerned when I was reading about what was happening in our schools and as a result of recent legislation so to better understand the issues and all the different perspectives I intended I attended this board's entire Workshop meeting last month I came here at noon and was here for the whole meeting some of you may remember I also studied the current process that's in place to select books and to evaluate any concerns that may arise from community members what I've come
180to realize is that the current process is really robust it's very complicated it involves a media specialist along with the school media advisory committee it includes the principal professionals and community members working together to create a collection and there's an equally robust multi-step process for addressing any concerns that someone might have about a specific book you have a comprehensive and thoughtful approach and I applaud the school board for their foresight in creating this process I don't know how long ago it was created but it was a smart process when I sat in on that whole meeting last month something really struck me about a conversation that this board had on an unrelated issue it you were discussing contracts they were contracts for the construction of sand volleyball courts and some of the board members wondered
181about the cost of the contracts and the chosen contractors they wondered if maybe the proposal should go out for proposal do you maybe you probably remember this from the agenda well one thing that really struck me about that conversation was when I believe it might have been the chair I noted that the gentleman that oversees the facilities improvements for our schools was a consummate professional and he followed all the procedures and as set out by the board in securing the contractors and that the contractor was vetted and on a county approved list of reliable contractors this board decided to respect the professional staff you said we need to recognize their highly qualified to do this job and by changing the process on them we will be placing a significant burden on the staff and causing
182them to lose time likely costing more money and also delaying a much anticipated Sports amenity that our schools are have been waiting for it struck me that all the same issues are at stake here in the changes you are proposing to your library rules you have highly trained and dedicated professionals working in your libraries and your schools this board has already put into place procedures for integrating the input of parents into decisions all these people professional and community members they all care deeply about children nobody is the enemy the changes you're proposing are unnecessary at best and place an added burden on your on your principle and they insinuate that deliberations that will take place when a brook is brought up as a concern should be a Battleground that you should pit the professionals against
183the parents and I would urge you keep the policy it is it is don't see this as a Battleground thank you all right um next up is Jessica Hatton and she'll be followed by Riley Kellogg who has returned evening I did not plan on speaking tonight but um after hearing some of the comments by the board I would like to address this title one issue but if my thoughts go back and forth please understand I'm not going from a written script um Mr persis you made a comment about what can we do for the teachers who are teaching of Title One schools that will now lose their additional income and I understand that thought but please understand they're not getting that additional income because they're at a title one school they're getting that additional income
184because they are teaching an additional hour per day and for you to suggest that they should be compensated just when they're not teaching that extra hour I question why when we have ese teachers that teach in multi-classes and Mild classes and are being bitten kicked hit going home with black and blue marks and when our Union comes to try and negotiate for additional compensation for them you want to go into negotiations and try and give them the least amount of money that they deserve as an ese teacher I find that offensive going back to collaboration you want to give the principals the money to form more collaboration groups more PLC more training teachers do not need more face-to-face time with other teachers we need more face-to-face time with our students not with teachers what is
185plus one offer these students we can do tutoring I do tutoring I'm at Pathways Elementary School I tutor I get my thirty dollars an hour but who are the students that I can tutor I can tutor my students that go to extended day I can tutor my students they go to a parent pickup I can tune to my students that go home by bus so when do I tutor them I give up my planning and I tutor them during my planning time but I'm not getting to all of our students at a plus when school it is the whole school that is getting that intervention not just a few I also had cannot tutor on the days that we have a faculty meeting because my students can stay what about my students that go to
186clubs do I take away their clubs from them for tutoring in a plus one school everybody is there till 3 30. then they can go to their clubs by taking away that plus one time you are taking away the opportunities from our students you say our students are tired trust me I taught a bana I taught a Palm Terrace plus one schools not one student ever said to me oh miss Hatton this extra hour is really hurting me we took away that early release on Wednesdays the students didn't notice the teachers noticed we were the ones who said oh way out can't wait to get back to having that hour off on Wednesdays the kids didn't kids are resilient they can work around we can work around those schedules you're concerned about those kids being
187tired well if we go to the younger classes so we give them that recess at the end of the day we give them that special area at the end of the day we work our schedules out for our students please from those schools that need it the most don't take away that extra tutoring time that extra intervention time that they need so desperately thank you Mrs Hatton next up is Riley Kellogg followed by Carol Sawyer [Applause] welcome good evening my name is Riley Kellogg I am an IB sophomore a member of the battle of the books team at DeLand High School tonight I am going to be reading in the author's note from flamer which is one of the books challenged from removal from Volusia County School libraries this book was pulled from library shelves
188against committee recommendation I ask you to please follow the committee recommendation and return this book to the shelves as these committees were put in place to follow District policy I will now read the author's note from flamer by Henry Holt this book is a work of fiction a yet most much of it is based on my personal experiences I grew up in scouting from a tiger cub all the way up to an eagle scout an assistant scout master there are many things I there are many things I am grateful for scouting got me outside it taught me how to work with others it gave me self-confidence it was a way to meet people who did not go to my school I made friends and though I don't see those people for years at a time
189when I do that bond is still there however there were experiences I had during my time in the Boy Scouts that were very hard as a closeted kid over the years the Boy Scouts have become more inclusive of sexual orientation and gender thanks to people in and out of scouting who made their who made their voices heard but when I was a kid it was not okay to be gay in 1995 the year in which this book is set gay and queer people were routinely vilified ridiculed and hated fear of AIDS only fueled the bigotry back then gay adult Scout leaders who came out were immediately removed from their post their Scout bylaws have become a more inclusive homophobia still exists in many troops today because homophobia is nationally and internationally a systemic issue like
190my character Aiden I felt overwhelmed by this culture of hatred also like Aiden I once kneeled in a camp Chapel with a knife against my wrist I wanted my anguish to stop I wanted to silence my fears I was so scared of high school that I thought I would not survive it worst of all I hated myself but like Aiden I found the strength to live and although living is scary when we consider to continue to suffer I would do it all over again to be able to write this book for you to hope to dream to want love these are dangerous acts fear and hope are bound up together inside of us alongside our flaws and our Divinity in this Darkness we can find an inner light to guide us and there is light
191in you even if you who can't see it thank you for the consideration have a good evening our final the final card I have for this evening is Miss Carol Sawyer good evening Dr baldeman Ms Haynes and board members my name is Margie Bristow I am an ese support facilitator at Holly Hill school and a parent of an ESC Pre-K student at Palm Terrace Elementary I'm here to advocate for the plus one program removing the plus one program from Volusia County will have a severe negative impact on the children and communities in the highest needs area of the county I live and work in Holly Hill I watch my community struggle daily with the lack of resources available our parents and students are facing food insecurity housing instability and job instability adding extra hurdles for
192our students to overcome to be successful our students need and deserve more face-to-face instruction time in order to close the educational gaps and Achieve proficiency the offering of tutoring is not a comparable app option you have five campuses full of teachers and staff ready and willing to teach belusha's highest needs students they have voluntarily decided to work at a school that has 30 minutes more instructional time the teachers on the plus one campuses already come in early stay late feed and close students act as mentors and contribute to their schools in many other ways outside their contracted job description we are already overworked and exhausted because our schools by Nature are harder to work in but after reducing our salaries and removing incentives to work at plus one schools who are going to remain of
193those who were left who is going to be available and willing to work tutoring sessions how many students will even attend the tutoring sessions offer offer our students don't regularly attend school as is do you think that they're going to attend the optional tutoring session as a parent I know my ese Pre-K student won't benefit from this decision I know as an educator for 10 plus years that tutoring is rarely offered to the younger students because of logistical reasons is tutoring going to be offered to my Pre-K child will it be offered to students in ese self-contained classrooms honestly probably not it's already too hard to staff these classrooms under normal circumstances who is going to tutor them and even if tutoring is equally offered my child still won't be able to attend I like
194many parents in the plus one communities rely on bus transportation for my child will transportation for tutoring be offered sorry this decision is taking away instruction time for mine High needs child that is unlikely to be recouped removing the plus one program will create more problems than Volusia County Schools is attempting to solve as a school district as community members as teachers and parents the focus should always be on what's best for our students removing the plus one program will cause students to lose instructional hours schools to lose passionate teachers and will cost more money in the long run if Volusia County Schools truly operates in the best interest of students then Dr bagaman and the board members need to show that by reversing this decision to remove the plus one program thank you thank
195you Miss Sawyer all right Mr Gomez I'm going to ask any other cards all right that include that concludes public input so we are moving right along to item 19.01 items from board member superintendent or board attorney for discussion announcement or approval Mr cologne question transportation for plus one tutoring and all that is that available we have the AARP Transportation yet the parent will have to apply the what we have we have funding for that so students who take the bus can participate in tutoring is what I'm hearing yes yes maybe we need to send that information out again um other than that I have nothing else thank you Miss Thompson I just want to remind everybody out there that it is teacher appreciation week next week and I know wait it's a teach appreciation
196week is is March 8th 7th 8th 9th I may May 8th 9th so it's not it's not next week yeah no no national teacher day is May the 9th it's a Tuesday national teacher day and national teacher day is always within national teacher appreciation week so it's the 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th I stand corrected thank you Mr purses all right well all all during this meeting we've been saying it's next week it's not so you know I'm just saying if you if you Google it absolutely according to national teacher appreciation day is May 2nd looking at it they do change it some years and we get into this discussion and so teacher appreciation week is May 1st through the 5th 2023. so next week okay I stand correct um next week I think they
197changed it because of stays on where you are something like that next week in Volusia County Florida it is teacher appreciation week so I just want to remind everybody I know there are a lot of parents that make baskets and get gifts and I just want to say even a nice little note to the teachers that do such an excellent job and educate our students just don't forget about them next week and other than that everyone have a great rest of the week Mr versus do you have anything you'd like to share uh I need a new calendar or something thank you for correcting me um that's your clue you have nothing to say I don't have anything to say that brunette no I said it Dr Paul I am excited bored because tomorrow we're
198having a meeting right here in this boardroom with 40 of our finest voices of Volusia our students as we are working and putting that that uh student group assembly that assembly together that's going to be representing our district as chairs stated earlier as we started this meeting today that we heard from three of our students uh last week at Mainland and they were so very impressive to the point that one of the Senators requested the video of our students as they were speaking about their educational experience so I'm meeting with 40 that will be inducted into the uh our board basically there will be advisors for for us the leadership team and the board awesome looking forward to that oh Madam chair I know what I was going to say it has to do with
199the um job fair next week it is tomorrow right or is it next week will you see Karen so she can give you a parking pass if she did not give you one already yeah yes whoever's going in the morning to the Ocean Center please see Karen to get a parking pass to put on your vehicle anything else Mr person it is tomorrow that's all it is tomorrow you know Mr Wolf okay so yes tomorrow is our job fair um I think Miss Maddox already left I wanted to share with her that one of the students that actually spoke at the superintendent event that day was from Creekside Middle School and he made a point to say what a difference his school counselor made in his life from coming in as a sixth grader and
200now being an also but also I don't know how many of you are enjoying me tomorrow evening but tomorrow evening is the Volusia County of exceptional children um annual ese banquet and so I will be there Miss Thompson okay I wasn't it is tomorrow night that's not next week all right no that is tomorrow night at the Brandon Center in New Smyrna Beach so I wasn't sure who all was um joining but um that is tomorrow night we have here is the thing um I we have a lot it we've hit that time of the year where it's back to back and there are times when we're going to have to split up we can't be everywhere because we've got senior Awards coming up at all of the high schools including the Volusia online learning
201we have graduations coming up not only for the 11 that we are responsible for but also some of the charter schools were invited to attend their graduations because those are still Volusia County School students and those are coming up there's just a lot going on and I have I've been trying to work with Karen to just get everything out to everybody as it comes in to make sure it's on your calendar but there there's going to be there's going to be a few nights where we're just going to have to tag team some of this to make sure that we have coverage everywhere but I'm looking forward to graduation season like it's exciting but I I really will encourage everybody let the legislator say we want our kids to graduate with high school diplomas I
202don't want those numbers to change right now that is that's just that's somebody looking at a number and not looking at the real kits that have done the work and so our kids um if if they would have graduated last year with the score that they had they should graduate this year with that score it shouldn't be changed in my opinion but that's where I stand on that and I thank everybody out there that has um send information up and talk to people in Tallahassee I'd hate to be a parent right now that would find out that my child could have graduated last year but they wouldn't graduate this year that's a tough pill to swallow but if there's nothing else I want to thank all of you for this evening I will say this
203Miss Bishop please do not leave and Miss Gilmore please do not leave we need to see you for a few minutes following this meeting but otherwise everyone else were adjourned and you are free to go