001good evening yall are having so much fun I can't get everybody settled down that's a good good audience to have good evening and welcome to the Orange County school board's regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday January 14th and thank you all so much for joining us tonight we have joining us at the dis we have Vice chair bird member Salam Mona member Fant member Douglas member Vanos member Vice chair Gallow and member Felder and myself we're all here wonderful as a reminder board members will not be engaging in outside Electronics during our meeting so that we can focus our full attention on the business and celebrations in front of us a note to my fellow board members District staff and any members of the public who might be speaking into the mic please make sure that
002your mic is turned on and speak directly into it so our YouTube and orange TV viewers can clearly hear you and now I invite you to join us in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and now for the pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right Deputy superintendent do we have any changes to the agenda that's you I apologize Madam chair I was tying my shoe there are no changes to the agenda thank you so much with no changes to the agenda I will entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as published motion by member Fant is there a second second by Vice chair all in favor please
003say I opposed motion carries unanimously so this evening I am pleased to share some excellent news and significant honors so we can kick off this first evening of the Year first of all we have some special guests with us this afternoon from Winter Park Health Foundation they have joined to present the foundation for ocps a check for $700 $1,000 that's pretty awesome yeah you can clap These funds were made possible through as I said the Winter Park Health foundation's coordinated youth initiative and partnership with our foundation by by way of background nearly 30 years ago the two foundations launched the initiative to focus on promoting the health and well-being of students attending 13 of our CPS schools in the Eatonville matland and Winter Park communities to date the partnership has provided grant funding totally just
004shy of $24 million just then th those dollars go those go dollars go to support schools in the Winter Park area this initiative known as CVI I'm sorry cyi is based on a national model endorsed by the center for Disease Control and prevention it benefits the students who attend Aloma Baldwin Park Brookshire Cheney dri Hungerford Lake M Lake Mont Lake cilia elementary schools also aabon Park School Glen Ridge and maand middle schools the Winter Park 9th Grade Center and Winter Park High the cyi provides funding for several programs the chill which stands well I don't know what it stands for it's a counseling program for 6th through 12th graders who are struggling with depression grief low self-esteem and other issues the health school team's initiative which promotes and supports students and staff's wellness activities the
005school nursing services that staff School clinics with registered n nurses at the oton park school Glen Ridge middle and Winter Park High this program also provides cyi School clinics with medical supplies and our school-based health centers at Glen Ridge middle and Winter Park High which are open to students and families at our cyi schools they're staffed with nurses practitioners and licensed practical nurses who provide physicals and primary and Urgent Care as you can tell they are doing a lot to make a difference in our community and in our schools the students if you'll bear with me the students who attend Aloma Baldwin Park Brookshire I'm sorry that'll teach me to use an iPad so I want to end that with thanking the Winter Park foundation for partnering with our foundation to fund and provide so
006many healthy opportunities for our students could we please bring them forward so we can thank them in person up here better still would you offer a few words that thing will come up it will come up I think that's as high as it's going to go oh this will come up thank you for whoever's pressing the button thank you chair Jacob school board members my name is Nicholas Abrahams I'm the president and CEO of the Winter Park Health Foundation it's an honor to be here with you tonight to just celebrate this moment of nearly a 30-year partnership and this $710,000 this year alone is an investment in our children and I think I speak for everyone in the room that we say it's well worth it and so we are grateful for your team and
007all the work that they do on an annual basis to make sure that these dollars are going where they're needed we're grateful for our Board of Trustees for allowing us to continue this program one of our trustees Dr Karen bonallo is here tonight you all know her separately and being a supporter and champion of ocps but she's also one of our amazing trustees and then if I may take one moment of personal privilege I've been in the role for about 4 months so I get to come up here and take a picture and say nice words but this program would not be possible without one of my colleagues who's been there since the absolute beginning and who was part of the brain trust to put this program forward and that's Deb Watson and so we
008are we are Beyond grateful your team her team they talk every day on how to improve the lives of our students and so grateful for the partnership and we'd love to take take a picture with you and hand you the check if that's okay absolutely and one of the things I failed to mention we have a mental health commission we formed the board knows about it for ocps for our students and for our staff and Deb has been a faithful member and your contributions are invaluable and represent so well the mission and the purpose of the foundation we agree so come on forward all right Perfect come on up you're coming for the said all those nice oh boy you know me I like to be behind the scenes oh yes you can alici okay
009thank you thank you tell you if you ever wonder what kind of a community we are all you have to come to do is come to a couple of our meetings and you'll see the enormous support that we have from one end of this County to the other and we are so very grateful okay next I want to congratulate the person down at the end here who doesn't know he's the deputy superintendent apparently our Deputy superintendent Dr armster for making positive changes in his life to improve his health as a result he's been honored by with the American Heart association's 2024 lifestyle change award and he has been an inspiration to all of us who work with him and love him so much he received this amazing Accolade during the greater Orlando heartwalk at the
010University of Central Florida in November so a little background last July do Dr arm Brewster wasn't feeling well in the office he went to Orlando Health's ER and found out he was having a heart attack one of his arteries had a 95 5% blockage surgeons acted quickly to insert stance into his heart to increase the blood flow and I'm happy to report he's doing so much better Dr arm Brewster is inspiring others to eat a healthy diet riding his bike regularly showing his and showing okay his IR repressible joy for life and for this I can totally vouch because when he is on the fifth floor or whatever floor he is on you know it's unmistakable there is laughter in fact one day there was so much screaming I actually got under my desk CU
011I thought something something really bad is happening and it was it was just him laughing with this howl that really caught my attention so it is besides the fact that he's a role model and we're proud of him I speaking from my heart it is absolutely a joy to be in his presence he was a principal I can't even imagine well no I can't imagine I was going to say I can't imagine what that was like for the kids but I can because he was principal for one of my kids but only for about a year but he's just an amazing person and so with that I wanted to get a picture if we could with Dr armster okay come on up here we're GNA well we're going to make you stand you don't have
012to get your steps in you can just stay up there you like no not me the one beside you wantang I'm on good big smile big smile again hold on look happy everybody look up that photo in amazement like Point like a he's the man all right so my last comment on that Dr armster for all of us who have the privilege and the pleasure of working for you for all of the staff and students who benefit from you thank you for taking that seriously and going to the hospital and for all of you who may have that moment in your life where you're not sure my dad was one of them and think that it's just a pain or you breathing hard or you'll get over it or heartburn go to the emergency room
013we need every single one of you with us so thank you with that I would now like to recognize a really good friend of mine pla C Sports CEO Steve Hogan for the wonderful ways he and his organization support ocps schools and teachers so just listen to these numbers more than 1,000 classroom projects have been funded and nearly 400 teachers have received support since 2019 as part of the FCS that's Florida Citrus Sports abbreviated the FCS partnership with the college football playoff Foundation that's a total value of 400,000 so far ocps teachers are also set to receive funds from a $250,000 check for classroom resource resource resource projects the check presentation was made during the cheit Citrus Bowl at Camping World Studio Stadium oh my gosh on New Year's Eve with our with our own
014Bridget Williams there if you will allow me to brag a little bit about some of the incredible work that has come out of the partnership last year FCS teamed up with McCoy Federal Credit Union and Florida Blue to donate a new LED scoreboard to Jones High School Orange Center Elementary score School scored a touchdown with a media center makeover by FCS the playoff foundation and lyt Orlando in September 2023 for the past 10 years thousands of our atrisk youth have received free admission to Camping World Stadium events teachers have been recognized on the field during major bowl games and FCS provided a group of District 5 school level teachers of the year with a $500 Office Depot card at F CS has hosted free summer camps at Camping World stadium for hundreds of ocps students
015for more than 25 years as FS FCS continues its philanthropic Mission they're working towards a goal of $1 million in funded projects for ocps schools and teachers that's worth a round of applause and now let me call up Steve Hogan Steve you have a minute for a couple of words we' sure love to hear from you it's so good to see you again thank you chair Jacobs and for allowing us to be a part of the you know Orange County Public School family it's really a family to us we also earlier in my career had the opportunity to partner with Valencia and do the first Tak stock and children Grant Orange County didn't have at that time with Sandy schugar the was a million dollar contribution to have kids go all the way from seventh
016grade with mentors through graduation 100% of those kids graduated high school and went on to college kind of cool but that became Valencia promise today but as I digress but I see many of our West Lakes family in the west downtown neighborhoods here tonight and I know they're not here for me but I appreciate always seeing you and having you allow us Florida Sports to be a part of your family Carl Brown is here and I don't know why you came tonight but he Carl runs Legacy Cafe which is in the heart for those of you it's on you should love this chair Jacobs cuz it's on Jacobs and Tampa Avenue you can you can remember that go have the best breakfast you've ever had over at the heart which is a legacy Cafe but
017Carl Brown's a good part of the family as well but thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of this anything we can do for teachers I got tell you one of the greatest moments is every time we recognize teachers in in one of our Stadium events and they ask all the teachers in the stadium to stand up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of of teachers stand up and they are just jacked and the crowd couldn't be happier to give them a huge round of applause so thank you for all you do for our kids and I'm happy to be here thank you come on forward and bring in the team Steve bring your team up love the cheart hello oh my God everybody say cheese cheese we don't follow Dr you
018did baby you did okay now I'd like to invite member Fon to tell us about an honory who planned recognition in October was derailed by Hurricane Milton okay thank you chair Jacobs Well I'm super excited tonight I have the honor to recognize blankner school's third grader Miss Haley Barber who is here with her mom and dad and her sister and grandmother and amazing principal Mr nappin so thank you all for being here but why is she here today so miss Haley earned second place in The Apprentice category at the national 2024 Braille challenge in Los Angeles back in June and Haley is no stranger to Excellence because she won first place during the central Florida Braille challenge in 2023 and I believe it was for two categories right I think that's what she told me
019it was for typing Braille was that correct and for reading the Braille yes which is incredible totally amazing she will also be participating in the 2025 competition next month and before we watch this excellent exciting video showcasing your accomplishments Miss Haley I wanted to say what an incredible young girl you are we met just a few months ago at school and I have to say how much I love and admire your confidence and spunk Haley you are such an inspiration and I'm so proud of your hard work and determination you keep up the great work sweetie so I'm going to come down I'm going to walk down and I'm going to come find you if mom and dad and sister and Grandma want to come up Mr napins and I have a little treasure for
020you and I have one for sister if she wants one too because it's kind of fun to share the fun you know all right we going to play the video oh yes yeah let's play the video play the video first I got all carried away with that put that teaser out there I want to see the video Miss Glover's second grade class is practicing Ela this is going to be our last one and it's Haley's turn to answer every single person on Earth has a brain a simple sentence to go Haley to go Haley with so much meaning I would describe Haley as resilient there are many things she has to overcome each and every day she doesn't complain about things and she works hard day one in kindergarten she has wanted to do it
021all herself and be just like everyone else despite being born blind that's exactly what Haley has done chapter 2 the challenges from reading and writing it is to going on adventures at recess with her classmates come on guys we got to explore the whole field and everything in between knock knock boo do why are you crying it's Halloween Haley is persevering every day I'm special because well I can't really do the same things you can but I can do it in a different way overcoming so this is the map of the classroom and adapting so you are sitting let's see right like right here with a no quit attitude I know the world is going to be full of tough hard things that I have to get past a strong message I can't give up
022I need to try again and I need to try harder from an even stronger little girl yummy that has everyone listening sure she's different she can't see but she's the same as all of us way per thank you yay Kudos haly we are just so proud of her and she is so inspiring we have so much to learn from Haley I also want to thank our teachers and exceptional student education department for supporting our students and tapping into their unlimited potential yes now I would like to invite member Gallow to tell us about the ocps wheel cats their recognition back in October was also delayed M Gallo thank you chair Jacobs I am proud to recognize ocps will cats a wheelchair basketball team that shoots hoops at College Park Middle during the second semester of
023each school year the team's 2025 season will begin on Wednesday February 26th get through the students have three coaches adaptive physical education teachers Susan darty Mark randio and a volunteer who is a former teacher Lori chuski did I say that correctly sweet the will cats practice and develop their skills and then participate in a intra Squad scrimmage basketball game at the end of the school year a big thank you to Lonnie Flores District senior administrator of Athletics and wellness services for purchasing four discounted Sports wheelchairs for the wheel cats that cost $2,500 each Lonnie and his assistant Steve Mel picked up the sports wheelchairs from Top in sports in pelis Park so ocps would not have to pay the delivery fee four of the ocps wheel cats also play for the Orlando Magic dreamers a
024wheelchair basketball team led by the central Florida dream Plex last May the dreamers played against an adult team at Legacy middle I actually attended that game at Legacy middle and I have to tell you how amazing it was to watch these kids play basketball I was just in all of their ability on how tough they are and what a tough sport basketball is and they were just Fearless I don't know I they were just Fearless in playing basketball it was just so heartwarming it was just so heart it was great it was so heartwarming to watch our whe cats are champions I'm honoring them tonight for their perseverance and skill four of the 13 Wheats are joining us this evening I also one of the reasons that it was I really wanted to recognize the
025wheel cats wasn't just because they're awesome but because I wanted to bring attention to what we're doing in Orange County and I wanted to bring attention specifically to the wheel cats and adaptive PE it's so important to offer exclus exclusivity into our schools and into our team sports every child regardless of ability should have the right to play in a sport and to be active so this is just I'm just so happy for all that volunteered and brought this to Orange County for the will like I said for the whe cats are here please come forward when I call your name and we're going to take a group picture so stay up and I have some coins for y'all as well chainel lak's middle sixth grader Rebecca deorio leg Legacy Middle School 8ighth grade student
026chance Kar seventh grade homeschool student jetel Pana and Timber Creek High ninth grader Adriel Rosario Georgio coaches and our athletic leadership please come join us for a picture and I just want to say how proud I am of all of y'all and how excited I am that we get to honor y'all this evening congratulation wheel cats and a big thank you to their coaches and our district team Mr pomerini do you know if we have any speakers on the agenda okay okay thank you so much board members I'm G to ask that we revise the agenda just slightly in terms of the order member Gallow needs to drive to Tallahassee and it's 620 so I agree I think we'll all agree that's almost a 4-Hour drive and we need to get her on the road
027so with no speakers on the consent agenda we're going to come back to you Dr arm Brewster but this will just take one second I just want to vote on this and kick her out the door okay all right so there's no speakers on the consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved motion by member Gallow and seconded by member Vanos all in favor please say I oppos motion carries unanimously Goodbye Oh yeah it was yeah oh wow okay thank you member Felder second it wow okay thank you my hearing is a problem here all right with that said get out of here I just have one question about the consent agenda please so and on the consent agenda there was and I've already talked to Dr Williams about it
028there was impact fees listed that we were waving for affordable housing I'm in 100% support of waving impact fees for affordable housing but I would like the board to receive a definition of what affordable housing is the length of the affordable housing is it 60% affordable 40% not is it a shared like what when we wave these impact fees what does it look like because my idea of affordable and a developer's idea of affordable may be two different things so if in the future we could just get that information it would be extremely helpful thank you yeah absolutely and it's really it's I think it's it's like a Statewide definition but we will get that to you thank you now will you go okay good please drive safe thank you so much okay definitely drive
029safe I've made that trip too many times it's boring and that's not good okay let's come back to celebrating Dr armster you're recognized to introduce our newly appointed okay we have one introduction this evening and this is Sharice hurdle who is the acting princial who is the acting y' y'all behave for two seconds I only get to speak twice now y'all good who is the acting principal at Rolling Hills Elementary and has done all that needed to be done and tonight is now the official principal at Rolling Hills Elementary and you may remember her you may remember her as assistant principal of the Year this past year so anyway congratulations and it's all yours okay good evening esteemed members of the school board and Dr AR Brewster it is with immense gratitude that I stand
030before you this evening as I officially transition into the role of principal of Rolling Hills I want to sincerely thank you all for entrusting me with this opportunity to continue serving the students families and staff of Rolling Hills it has been an incredible journey and I'm honored to continue leading in this capacity to the school board and District leadership your support has been instrumental in helping me step confidently into this role to my family friends my sisters thank you all for standing beside me with encouragement and love along with Dr Vasquez and Dr arm Brewster I would like to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude and thanks to Dr Raheem Jones principal leader Lisha Mill principal leader Kimberly Hankerson and Dr Frederick Brooks thank you for continuously believing in me over the years
031I am so grateful for the impact you've had on me and my growth and development as a leader I also want to give a special recognition to my Rolling Hills family thank you for accepting me with open arms last year as your assistant principal and cheering me on as I transition to the principal this year you all inspire me daily and it is because of you that I was able to see seamlessly transition into this role with a deep sense of purpose and excitement for what lies ahead I look forward to continuing to serve the roling hills Community and building Upon Our shared vision of doing what is best for students families and the broader community so thank you all again for this incredible opportunity all right I have to apologize I changed the order
032of the agenda I never know know how many people are being recognized but judging from the crowd I knew there were going to be I'm serious I thought there were yeah and I'm like this going to take a long time cuz there's kind of 10 people that were recognizing can we bring the crowd up I'm not King you how many do thought it was last year smile big smile again all right just let's get the they're coming come on up y wait Dr Jones is a record you back there probably not didn't she think it was I did I thought it was more than one do you remember that green dress she wore last year oh my stunning it was like she yall come come on come on we get you in there he's a
033master photographer he'll put you where you need to be some come on now y'all get over there this is this is this is a picture for the ages right here this is incredible I had a hard time getting my wife to show upos snug there we go snuggle snuggle good look happy hold on one more and then p contract with me come on a feries yeah yeah little more and just give me a like there we go I tell you I know I thought they were going to be so many of them it was gonna oh jeez yeah I know you gave me that and I'm like this it takes a little while jeez oh gosh okay at this time I would normally call on Ron Pard president of the orange education support professionals Association
034but he did explain to me that he didn't have anything critical to say he always like likes to brag on his members he also did point out that he had a prior engagement with his grandchild and we were running very late in this meeting so of course I told him I wouldn't even accept his comments because grandchildren Trump everything if you ask me so instead though we will start with somebody who I just think is amazing and that's Matt Turner a president-elect of the Orange County Association of school administrators for the those of you who haven't had a chance to meet or spend any time with him you need to make time cuz he's he really is incredible welcome well Happy New Year to you as well yeah it's good to see you all good
035to see you too well I'm so happy to be back it's been a great new year I wanted to come out and talk a little bit about what okas has been doing we've We've shifted our folks a little bit from you know what what can you do for us to what can we do for you right so we're really working on our member development with our principles and our assistant princi principles so you know that's coming in a variety of ways our first way is we're really working on how to build better relationships with our staff you know I don't know if you knew this about me but I started as a perah and then I was a substitute teacher now I wasn't in Orange County but when I was you know a younger lad
036I was a par to get my foot in the door and then I did substitute teaching so I've really seen the gamut so you know talking to our principles we just have a heart for our staffs you know our teachers our classified staff sometimes we put up with our district leadership as well but all the staff that goes into it so you know we just want to let you know we're working with our administrators on how to work with their staffs and build great relationships with their staff that's kind of the first things we're doing the second thing we're doing is we're we're noticing that education is changing and the one thing we're very proud of in Orange county is that we're proud of the product that we have I'm very proud proud of the
037offerings we have in Orange County we're switching our Focus from just you come to us now we're going to come to you we got to go to you and proove prove to you what great products we have here the programs we have so we're teaching our people how to be better marketers you know I make this joke with Dr arer but in the 70s they sold a million Pet Rocks you know how do you sell a pet rock you got to Market it right and that's what we're doing and we have a much better product than a pet rock so we're really working on getting that word out too we're doing a variety of professional developments with our leaders we're doing financial planning we do some legal training with them and how how to handle
038some controversial situations with with with class and dignity and reaching our community so we're working on that and then also we have some initiatives on how to lead a healthier life you know the principal role all of our roles but especially the principal role where we're you know we're at our schools you know 60 hours a week we got to figure out how to eat healthy how to exercise and stay healthy so we're working on those type of initiatives kind of the last thing we're doing is and I to me this is the most important thing is we support each other we make mistakes we're not perfect things are coming at us so fast we say things sometimes that aren't the best and we need support for each other and you know the lot of
039lot of the feedback I get is just thanks for being there we don't have all the answers but thanks for listening and thanks for being there so that's really why I'm here tonight to Showcase that I actually have another purpose too I want to let the board know that tonight is my last day at okasa I'm stepping down to to do a few other things one of which is I've been added to a commission at the state level with with with the commissioner which is very exciting for me and so I'm diving into that I'm doing some of my own personal legal stuff as you know I'm I'm diving into the legal World myself so learning some more things like that but it's time it's been eight years for me and it's time for me
040to step on so I wanted to let you know that after today I'll be stepping down and in better hands with Amy mccale as our new president principal of Sunridge Middle School so this will be my last day well I wanted to say thank you so much for all your listening over these last eight years I've spent two years as president as you know one is president-elect one is past president you know I've kind of been in the throws of it all you know through the pandemic and through everything else so it's time for me to step away and do something else I'm going to stay on as kind of a legal advisor when our members are being investigated or they have other issues going on and but it's time for me to step away
041from the nitty-gritty from the day to day I did want to remind you of one more thing if Dr AR Brewster is doing a great job don't forget okasa pulled back out of retirement okay but if he's having a bad day we had nothing to do with it all right but thank you guys so much for your support and of okasa and for me personally over the years and I'll must come to these board meetings and I can't believe I kept it under three minutes but I only have four seconds left so thank you guys so weird look I just gave you a minute ago like huh a bad day if he's okay he had one bad day he was having a heart attack but outside of that and I wasn't there to see it
042but outside of that I have not seen or heard a bad day from him so yeah you're doing good yeah yeah well all the nice things I said about you and you're leaving I'll be at West Orange if you need me will you still be at West he's not leaving being a principal he's leaving o as the President we got him a little long with the state yeah longer let's can we negotiate on that I'm so glad you're not leaving us and leaving our kids that makes me feel better okay thank you all right do we get to hear from your successor yeah please I'll try my best to get to the microphone at his is there's a little something over there that makes it thank you hi thank you I've been on the okasa
043board for several years years now I've been the president-elect this year and I'm really looking forward to in my colleagues and working towards Positive Solutions for our students staff and families and communities I want to thank Matt we've been on the board together for a while and although I was expecting this in the summer thanks for throwing it at me in January I really am excited to support the colleagues and work towards some Positive Solutions so thank you and I look forward to we'll take back to your members how much we value them absolutely I just they make such a huge difference in our schools I at Orange County I came Orange County government I was really concerned coming in as mayor about changing the culture that was my number one goal change the culture
044and when I got here like 200 cultures when we had 200 now we have 213 cultures literally the school administrators the principles and the vice principles they APS they really set the culture set the tone for sure and it's absolutely critical so let them know that will we support them we believe in them we're here to help them in any way that we can and we glad you are as well and we appreciate your support as well thank you thank you teamw work have a great day okay thank you all right moving on all proclamations the board knows this but for the Public's benefit all proclamations were adopted by vote of the board on August 27th of 2024 board meeting as either celebrations or observations and the list will remain on the agenda for the
045entire school year and we have since we have taken care of the consent agenda let's move forward we have nothing on the non-consent no public hearings so and I would normally call on Dr Vasquez but Deputy superintendent do you have a report for the board thank you madam chair just a couple of items and I'm sure you've heard of it but I wanted to make sure we are launching a districtwide reading challenges month it's called let's read ocps and it's for all students employees families and community members let's read ocps will run from January 27th through April 30th participants are encouraged to read at least 500 minutes throughout the challenge the ultimate goal districtwide is to reach 20 million minutes of reading participants will log their minutes in beanstack a Launchpad application that motivates and
046rewards students for reading the challenge includes our school board members it also goes beyond the ocps with participation from local government agencies public libraries local businesses and Community groups let's read ocps was spurred by a successful reading initiative led by Schoolboard member Melissa bird and the Apopka nonprofit reimagined communities last year I'm excited to see it reach more readers this year and build excitement around literacy similar initiatives take place all over the country including in Broward County Atlanta and Charleston for example watch out soon for poster sets arriving at schools to hang in the front office Media Center cafeteria and other locations please review the December 5th memo for dates and links to kickoff sessions and other useful resources but if you have your calendar open now these kickoff sessions will be held January 21st
047at noon and January 22nd at 9:00 a.m. the public facing website with additional information is read. ocps.net again that's read. ocps.net I know I'm already planning my reading list I do not to bring up the subject of books again but when I was going through a little bit of a journey years ago with some cancer issues I actually finally read slaughterhouse 5 and it was ironic that it came up tonight it reminded me how thankful I am to be here tonight so it was a it was a good reminder of some things so that being said I also want to share with you and I know you've seen this but again just want to make it out there for the public ocps is soaring high in our graduation rates 96% average graduation rate among our
04822 Traditional High Schools that's well above the state average of 89.7 the overall ocps graduation rate including Charter Schools increased to 89.3 and a major shout out to Lake Nona High 99.6 Timber Creek High 99.1 I knew that was going to happen okoi High 99 and I do a special shout out for okoi I got to open that school you guys rocked it okoi Knights and wiir high 99% they led the way I'm incredibly incredibly proud of the dedication and hard work of our amazing students teachers parents and administrators this success is a true Testament to their commitment to Excellence so I'm excited to see what goes on next that wraps up the reports for tonight so hopefully that's some good news great absolutely absolutely thank you so much all right Mr palmerini do you
049have a report for the board following Dr arm Brewsters like following Gordon back in the day that's never an enviable task but I guess I'll try it I just wanted to let the board know that we have the insulin litigation that you authorized us to join that has been filed on our behalf so we have it's now been filed and it'll go through the court process but since it's part of a large multi-district litigation don't expect updates immediately from it but I just wanted to let you all know it has been filed so I will keep you up to date on that and that's the end of that was that was that was not good that I mean that was as far as following Dr arm Brewster yeah that's what I'm say it's dry it
050was dry information and I can never meet his delivery and yeah but thank you for that thank you for the update okay we're gonna We Are we were going to move on to our individual committee reports but I want to go back to member Douglas and I was sitting next to her and I could see during our whole discussion she was making notes I'm pretty sure it was of things she wanted to say and so I'm I always want to hear what any of youall have to say but I'm particularly looking forward to this and I know it seems out of context but please share with us your thoughts on the discussion we were having yes it it was actually about the books and it's really thank you I'm just new okay I'm just saying
051just I don't mind the transparent but we just have to make sure that we have any communication with the parents that it's clear concise and explicit and make sure that there is no you know redundancy or any problems with this so and the other things that I want to I'm just really a little bit bothered by the reading of all these awful you know sexual in front of all these people and I think we can do better than that and not have can I interrupt you for just a minute because I'm so glad you brought that up and I almost said something and I think I need to in the future because for the public they're I'm sure they're wondering why am I tolerating this so there's actually I think it's state law or is
052it John you want to elaborate on we made his his when we had one member of the public come here reading portions of a book I told him I asked him three times to stop he wouldn't and we had to we had to have police escort him out and as a result of that we got response from the legislature so yes the legislature in 10628 stipulated that for any book that's part of a book challenge if parent or any resident comes up to start reading out of the book if the chair of the of the board stops the reading of the book the book would have to automatically be removed from the shelf so in order not to Short Circuit the challenge process with regard to any book we allow for it to be read
053so as to not automatically have a removal in certain cases where the book may stay on the shelf even as part of the challenge one the one thing I did want to remind the chair and members of the board of course the pre- agenda port of our proceedings are not recorded or broadcast so yeah that is the unusual part of what we're doing here is we're talking about something that we talked about in a meeting that wasn't recorded so that's true that's true so member Douglas the in the particular case the gentleman the book that he was reading was very problematic and in asking him to to stop I think I he asked the question if this is in your library but you won't let me read it and I think my comment was you
054know I completely understand because it and it was removed it was I read it superintendent read it several board members read it and it did come off the shelf but that was the first time that the board had anybody read and it was iic so yeah and it was eye openening but as a result of this legislation I do need to let people read but you bringing it up reminds me that I probably need to explain that right at the beginning because I'm sure people are thinking why why so thank you for raising that issue and now and I think it could be a solution to that how can we actually involve parents in the book process just in in a just informative way so that the can we bring to the attention of the
055media Specialists the books that parents have problem with do they have a a form to fill out do they come to the media specialist and say okay this is a book that we think you know you need to look at it closely that will help in the process of wed out some of the books if parents can help bring some of those books in yes we do have that process and we also have on the is your mic off I'm sorry we do we do have a process so that parents can bring books forward for to challenge whether or not they belong it sounds like the wrong word I think but to question and then we also have committees at each school that read and review and make a decision and the Committees have to
056have parents as a portion of the people that are there and that's one of the things I think when we bring this back for review of what our practice and policy is we'll go through but I think it would be really helpful if we had Miss Kibby come and meet with you and fill you in on all the background that got us here but other question be great that would be great and I think there's a solution if we have a system that is clear a system that is Distributing the books to each School differently no books double books for each of the media Specialists maybe we can read out a lot of those books quicker faster than we actually having all this long process that you know people are apparently dissatisfied about and we
057don't have to have all this reading coming into here and just you know I mean that's my thought I agree with you up until the last two meetings we haven't had for a while we haven't had people show up and read the books so it's kind of brought back to at least to my attention that H where are we in this process and I thought we were further along than we are but I do think as you point out there's probably a better way of getting this done so it's not so redundant if that's the way that would be great okay anything else on that all right member Salam monka well I'm disappointed that M Gallo had to drive up a little early because you know Lake nonv Timber Creek graduation rates and so I
058don't know why AR Brewster waited so long into the meeting for such a announcement but maybe we bring it back at our next meeting during my time to speak the other was a was around the books I think the book that came out SL house 5 it was it was brought to my attention as well that this book already went all the way to the Supreme Court because of inappropriate content and the Supreme Court did say in 1980 2 that it would violate the First Amendment and students rights to take these book out and so I to my earlier statement I think a lot of the discussions we're having about books and the contents when you have one or two sentences that could be inappropriate have to be contextualized and that's kind of what the
059Supreme Court has said in way more conservative times of of of American History and so you know obviously I think always for the transparency and communicating with our parents in terms of where we are in the process of media material and classrooms as well but I think as well I do want to limit the amount of time and resources that this District spends on something that comes up very little by our constituents compared to what we hear in our emails and all kinds of other issues so that was my two cents from from earlier right thank you thank you thank you for sharing that information about Supreme Court and 1982 was the deep dark ages of History to you it was year after I got married time yeah so you at least on this yeah
060I know at least on this I have expertise over you it's probably the only thing I'll ever have expertise over you and I do not I do not think it's a coincidence that m M Gallo left when she did I now that youve yeah I think there's something going on there all right one of the things that well we've got a number of committee vacancies so the school board has a budget committee a communication committee we have a spot on the Community Action board which is Orange County Board and those were filled by Karen ker denl Pam gold so we're going to need to come back and look at those and I think oh I'm sorry I thought it was thank you I'm I'm like I'm confused okay okay thank you so I still think
061we have budget right and I'm not suggesting that we need to deal with that right now but I am suggesting it should be member Salamanca budget committee budget committee we have a budget committee I know we'll we'll come back and we'll come back we don't need to do this right now I just want to put it on everybody's radio screen the other is Communications which was led by Pam gold so just want to float those out so that everybody's thinking about it so and then we've taken care of legislative and we're really happy to have you in that role one of the things that came up at the Central Florida Coalition were you on that call okay so they are wanting us to appoint a temporary legislative subcommittee would you be willing to serve in
062that capacity okay I think that would be great because that would be a lot of consistency and an expertise that you have okay are there any board I'm sorry member bird let's go to you and then member front thank you chair so first of all I wanted to say I am very excited about the let's read ocps reading challenge I'm glad that the rest of Orange County feels that they can now step up and handle the great record that district 7 set last year for reading we had a great time in district 7 with this and the schools loved it and the amount of reading the kids that were so excited about reading it was phenomenal and I'm very very excited to let all of you join in because it was a lot of fun
063every time you read you can you get to log your minutes I already have my stack of books ready so we're good and it's going to be fun I'm sure there'll be more on this but we're going to have a good time challenging each other I'm sure with the district who's reading the most minutes but I'll just say that my district has had a little practice for a couple years so you know you guys have a lot to live up to but beyond that you have a lot to live up to is me yeah no she has a lot to live I did want to share just one neat thing that happened a couple weeks ago in my community and I think that they have some pictures in the back to share but it's just
064a sweet story about fyis sweetle Elementary so the great Community partner that I have reimagined communities that helped with our do our reading challenge she the director that had a vision to spruce up the school with a simple mural for the library and so she went to the creative Hub of Apopka which is a nonprofit that works on Art and she talked to her she said let me talk to some people and so it ended up being five artists that came together and they spent a whole weekend each one took a different section of the school and they painted these beautiful murals and it was just it was just so sweet because it really was just so that's their mascot the Panther so it was really just supposed to be a you know something to
065brighten up the media center a little bit and a simple call was made to the community and I mean all these community members just got on the phone and made phone calls and found artists and all the artists were like absolutely we'll be there and do it and they spent an entire day you know couple days I think actually painting these murals and they're not done they have plans to do all these other ones among the school and so it's just it's a beautiful kind of story to make you feel good and to realize that really amazing things happen when communities work together to lift up their neighborhood school this is a whole wall inside the gym it's so neat let your light shine isn't that sweet the kids she has video of the kids
066walking in and just like like they couldn't believe it was just like a whole school transformation and over a weekend so and that was just Community coming together to let those kids know that they love them so you know maybe it'll help Inspire some other communities to do something but I'm certainly proud of our poka Community for helping F sweetly thank you for letting me share as well you should be member forant yes I just wanted to I want to touch base really quick and just say thank you to those on the board that are you know in favor of giving proper communication to our parents regarding the book process and just ensuring that parents are aware if there is there could possibly be explicit content in your child's School which we are still finding
067those and you know I think it's something that again when we review the book policy I think we as a board like I've said from you know from the moment I got on the board I really have challenged this board to have a set a like a standard that we want to live by what do we think would be appropriate for here for Orange County and then make that known to our parents so parents can say okay this is what would be possibly be in my kids school is this something I would like to allow or not allow and then parents can make that decision based on their child and so I appreciate that and just the willingness to be forthcoming to our parents and then I did have a question question regarding the science
068of reading and I don't know who might have information on this but I'd love to see how it is going I know we are training all of our K through2 teachers in the science of reading which has been incredible I've talked to many of our teachers you know kindergarten first second grade in District 3 who have said how incredible the training is and teachers who were trained last year I have a friend who is a first grade teacher and she said that her students last year had been with a teacher who had been trained in the science of reading and that entire class when they got to her typically she has you know at least several students who are behind reading level and this year not one student came to her behind or below grade
069level and so I think that's just a testament to we're headed in the right direction and I would love to see training for the older grades as well I've got Middle School Middle School principles who are really pushing to have their teachers go through the training so I know that's not required but I really appreciate these principles and you the administrators who are really keeping that as a high bar because I think when our students we're seeing that they're reading on grade level or above they are soaring in all the other academic areas of school so it's been amazing but I don't know if that's something somebody maybe could share tonight or if we could just get an email how how the process is going do we know kind of maybe a percentage of how
070many teachers have been trained in K through 2 or if that's like a lot on the spot maybe something that we could be informed of we'll we'll get you those numbers Dr Brown Canon can we get those numbers not tonight but okay we'll get those I don't want to give you false I mean can make up good numbers and they'll sound great but I want to give you the right numbers please thank you I appreciate it and can I just say too I just want to give a really big shout out to our three Chiefs of our high school middle school and Elementary the three of you Jose Martinez and each of you Raheem Jones and Patty fritzler your leadership really I see it in our schools I see it every time I walk in
071and just the sometimes it can be a little challenging when you know maybe an administrator is moved or an AP is moved and you know I hold my breath thinking oh and then you say just trust me and truly just you all it's almost like this a puzzle back there that you are just figuring out exactly where people need to go and you have done an excellent job so shout out to the super tenant I know she's not here but for putting the three of you in place Dr arm Brewster thank you for doing that no but Dr Vasquez truly she picked some gems to put in place for those positions and then our ESC Department I see you back there too you have been just absolutely incredible I think you know this we couldn't
072be doing what we're doing without the leadership here and just prioritizing kids I feel like I'm being long-winded but when we just thinking of little Haley as she was here when I went into school at blinker they this is the first year they have the visually impaired students they also have U deaf and heart of hearing but as I was watching other students gather around and one little girl must have been in like sixth or seventh grade and she sat down at the lunch table and this whole group of other students come and just surround her and she can't see them it's a different feeling you're not really sure maybe even how to what do you do and the kids just jump right in and they were laughing and talking and it's like there was
073no disability or no no issue at all and seeing that truly that warms my heart and knowing that you know we're we're doing good with the Next Generation so thank you absolutely member Salam monka I also I did forget to do a good shout out because it was in December and so we didn't kind of have a meeting after that but we did have Innovation high school and luminary middle dedication and ribbon cutting which is really exciting to be a part of and I wanted to give a shout out to Jose and Patty for all the support you've done and it was it was a tough opening those schools on time as we all know because of construction on like Nona and just it's it was but the principle is both of these schools are
074amazing they're prepared they're doing such a good job at building community and you all have provided the right skill set for them to kind of hit the ground running and as well as our principal leads that work with you and you know principal Davis and Aldrich they're just they're just phenomenal the community loves them and they're doing a great job it's really hard to open a new school there's limited resources even if you're you know in Lake Nona just because there's so much startup cost that's comes with it and I'm also just excited for other board members to come and see Innovation high school I know Vicki came out and you know hard hats and our golf carts running around that Campus before it was built so I think we'll have hopefully opportunity out there
075in the future for the rest of you to come out and see what the new prototype looks like I think you'll you all like it so I you're always welcome to come to District 2 where the dreams come true that's right that's right all right member Felder everybody sort of shouting out for their district and we're about to wrap it up I do want to say that when Jones High they were able to go to State and of they they lost but what what was so beautiful about it they tied the school by the third quarter 3131 and other two just made that other touch down it just couldn't get through but what happened was that City commissioners City Commissioner Shan Rose who's the City Commissioner for district five commissioner barari Burns for district 6
076City Commissioner for district 6 and then Michael Scott who is the county commissioner for District I think it's three he's my Cy commissioner anyway they sponsored a plated dinner for the for the football players Black Tie white shirt we was black and white dinner and Deputy superintendent Dr Bridget Williams joined me and Dr wendam joined me and some of the members of Jones High staff but the football players and the coaches and you know it was just so beautiful I don't have it's in my office but they the principal principal Norwood presented the football players with a picture of the team and their 10 and0 and also Lonnie our countywide ad joined us but when I think about it yeah it's good to get the state and you get that big trophy but you get
077a lanyard but this picture of all of them on that team and the 10 and0 each of them got one of those big pictures framed they'll never forget that they never forget that so I just want to thank the district y'all know you know you all support Jones and the fact that I'm so very proud of them so what's Shannon did give a proclamation but mayor demmings Jared demmings who's a graduate of Jones High School and Tiger Pride which will be February 22nd he's going to present each of the players with a proclamation and we're going to have a parade to thank them you know to let them know how we are proud of them but you know I never heard of that doing that for them but I'm I was just so grateful the
078boys the young men loved it they were so surprised and I want to thank the bohem Bohemian restaurant downtown for doing it so I wanted to share that and thank you all so much thank you absolutely all right I think our business is done here this meeting is now adjourned thank you know I can't seem to hang on to maybe it's because I put this foot stool under here a long time ago it was when I had foot surgery n no a a