001good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome as I call to order the September 2023 meeting of the Escambia County School Board whether you are joining us via our live stream or in the audience we appreciate your interest in the education of the students of Escambia County I ask that you silence your cell phones at this time and I remind you that if you wish to speak to either an agenda item at the public hearings for policy changes or at the public forum you must complete a speaker request form found at the table at the rear of the room and bring it forward to miss dwelly at the front table and is this board's practice to pull items from the consent agenda when someone asks to speak to them the consent agenda items include curriculum and
002instruction Finance human resources and operations on the form please be sure to indicate whether your intention is to speak at the public forum or to a specific item on tonight's agenda you must submit your speaker form prior to the adoption of the agenda that this meeting was properly advertised in the Pensacola News Journal on September 1st legal notice number it is the tradition of the Escambia County School Board to begin our meeting with an invocation or a motivational moment followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and this month Mr Adams district one will lead us thank you sir before we go to invocation superintendent want to comment on a very sad situation for our district yes thank you board member Adams this morning while at work we were notified in the superintendent's office that yesterday evening
003we lost one of our students in a tragic tragic accident so what I would ask is this evening as we bow our heads and Reverend Porter leads us in prayer that you would pray for comfort and peace for the parents of that student for that student's family for the fellow students at that school for his teachers faculty and staff and for us thank you Mr Adams thank you sir at this time we'll invite Pastor Gary Porter of the Encounter Church to come to the podium for the invocation please rise and we will be followed within with the Pledge of Allegiance let's pray gracious Heavenly Father we who first want to be mindful of this family that's lost a precious child Lord we know the tragedy and the pain and the suffering that goes when a
004loss like this occurs we pray for the family we pray for their friends we pray for the staff at the school we ask for grace and for comfort and for peace father we thank you that all those things are possible because of what your son has done for us when we come tonight to you in faith asking for your wisdom and your discernment and your grace to be given to each of these men and women on this board who solely for the purposes that Jesus asked us to pray for when he said and declared to us that thy kingdom would come and that thy will will be done on the earth even as it is in heaven I ask that you grant them all the grace that awakens within them as in all of us
005as constituents of this school district the spirit of fear of the Lord that would remove all other fears I ask that you give them wisdom beyond their own understanding and even beyond their own life experience and training a wisdom with understanding and Prudence to fully govern and direct this school district in ways that honor you the most high and with honor and respect our school staff and students in helping them achieve the highest degree of academic study and learning and to become the best Future Leaders and citizens of this great nation give a spirit of unity and commitment that we can all find ways to work together for the advancement of all of our students and our staff we ask for divine protection for all in Safety and Security as we seek to achieve these
006goals let righteousness rise as the sun and darkness and evil be dispelled and driven Away by the hosts of Heaven itself I also stand in the boat of this community and speak peace to the storms that face us as a community and as a school board we ask that all of this be done in the most holy and wonderful matchless name of your son Our Savior Jesus Christ amen amen the pledge Allegiance through the blood of the United States one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all at this time we will move to the adoption of the agenda of Mr superintendent are there any additions or deletions to your recommended agenda yes sir under Section 6 proposed editions or revisions to school district rules first reading item a has
007been deleted item F has been added which is changes to school board policy chapter 7. 7.02 7.05 and 7.14 under section 15 consent curriculum professional learning item a has been added summer reading books for K-12 students under section 16 consent curriculum student services Item B has been added Enrollment Services student transfers under section 24 consent Finance procurement item Q has been deleted item R has been added that's a bid award for condiment spices and Staples item s is an ad it's a mimic wood Amendment one excuse me Staffing agreement Charter Schools USA Warrenton Preparatory Academy item T is an ad add additional USDA commodity purchase item U is an ad annual agreement renewal building Wings LLC item five is an ad annual agreement renewal docuware software and services item W is an ad annual agreement
008renewal that's for VMware software licenses item six is an ad annual agreement renewal Blackboard software and services under section 25 consent Human Resources instructional professional Item B has been deleted item G is an ad instructional reappointments item H is an ad approved the following job description on the professional salary schedule effective September 19 2023 coordinator threat management item I is an ad amend the 2023-2024 department personnel planning document for the call center 4125 Protection Services Department under Section 30 consent operations facilities planning final payments item a has been added construction manager at risk Services window replacements at West Pensacola Cordova Park Montclair and at the J.E Hall Center under section 40 items from the board Item B is an ad ecps superintendent evaluation instrument under Section 41 items from the superintendent student discipline item a
009and Item B are both deleted item C is an ad formal hearings item D is an ad disciplinary assignments and then finally under section 42 items from the superintendent employee discipline item a is an ad thank you Mr superintendent State Statute and school board rules require the changes made to the agenda after publication be based on the finding of good cause determined by the person designated to preside over the meeting and stated in the record is there any objection from any board member to the additions or deletions being none do I have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended for good cause at this meeting Mr chairman I move we adopt the amended agenda I'll second moved and seconded any discussion saying none please vote approve 5-0 thank you Mr superintendent next we will
010have our committee and Department of reports and special recognitions I will start with the Stellar Employee of the Month Mr superintendent yes sir Escambia County Public Schools office of community involvement is proud to recognize Mr Shar Houston as a stellar employee for the month of September 2023. Miss Houston if you'll approach the podium thank you we would like for any of your co-workers friends come with you okay shashar I'm getting ready to read some stuff about you okay when discussing dedication to Shari Houston immediately comes to mind she exemplifies the traits of a hard-working employee who consistently goes above and beyond to support the faculty staff and students of Oakcrest Elementary School with a tenure of 24 years within our district Miss Houston has held various positions including teacher assistant library media Clerk and presently
011as an administrative clerk all of which have been exclusively exclusively within Oak Crest Elementary each day she arrives with a positive attitude radiating a smile and charismatic personality that brings light to any room she enters over her extensive career Miss Houston has consistently shown she is not simply an average employee she consistently arrives early and willingly stays late to ensures tasks are completed while also extending assistance to fellow colleagues who may require additional support her commitment to excellent Excellence is evident as she strives to make a positive impact on the lives of everyone she encounters despite not working directly with students Miss Houston always warmly greets them with a good morning and a smile frequently offering words of affirmation and encouragement such as have an amazing day I love you and I know you can
012do it these smile these small gestures have an immense impact on the success and well-being of our students illustrating her genuine love and care for them throughout our tenured Oakcrest Elementary Miss Houston has fostered lifelong relationships with our parents community members and students alike she consistently makes time to attend extracurricular activities of both current and former students supporting their academic events and sports with enthusiasm from the stands truly she embodies the Oak Crest motto of every student every day whatever it takes and is a valuable member of our team Miss Houston provides outstanding customer service to our parents consistency consistently receiving expressions of gratitude for exceptional support not only does Miss Houston serve as an outstanding role model for our students but she has also set set an example for her colleagues her dedication to
013going above and beyond and making everyone feel welcome is commendable whenever a fellow employee faces a challenging day or personal difficulty Miss Houston quickly steps in to offer support and assistance her compassionate nature and willingness to give cheerfully to others is truly admirable she is an angel and a blessing to Oakcrest Elementary School infusing the campus with warmth and a burst of positivity that cannot be fully described in words Miss Houston's unwavering loyalty ensures that she can always be relied upon to perform our duties to the best of her abilities tashar Houston is a stellar is Stellar because of her excellent work ethic and dedication to the staff and students throughout the Escambia County School District she contributes to the healthy culture that supports High performing teachers leader leaders and staff it is for these
014reasons and so many others that she has been selected as a stellar employee of the month for September 2023. Miss Houston will receive a plaque a pin and a check for one hundred dollars from Members First Credit Union tashar I'm so proud of you will you please come forward and greet the board foreign I would just like to say thank you I feel truly blessed and honored to receive this recognition I would like to thank God for my entire okress family the Escambia County School District my husband my family for their unwavering support throughout my journey thanks again for this amazing honor foreign for benefit of the public we have four resolutions that will be coming forward and we're going to do it in the same manner we did last month where the board members
015are going to come in front of the podium and we will do each resolution read by the deputy and vote on it by hand and we also are going to move forward the administrative appointments so that we'll stay there for that purpose also and then come back and see be seated before the public hearing ready yes sir all right can you get back cyber security Awareness Month resolution whereas the Escambia County Public Schools recognize the vital role technology has in our daily lives and the future of our nation and whereas internet users citizens and our information infrastructure facing increasing threat of malicious cyber attacks significant financial and personal privacy losses due to identity theft and fraud and whereas maintaining the security of cyberspace is a shared responsibility in which each of us has a critical
016role an awareness of computer security essentials will improve the security of the school district of Escambia County Florida and whereas the president of the United States and Congress and the U.S Department of Homeland Security have historically declared October as National cyber security awareness month and all citizens are encouraged to learn about cyber security and put that knowledge into practice in their homes schools workplaces and businesses and whereas records recognizing that cyber security starts at the top the information technology department will take the lead to deploy training for all Escambia County Public School Employees and students this month the I.T Department with assistance from our Community Partners will present promotions and Outreach focused on different areas such as being cyber smart recognizing fishing threats and giving cyber security the priority it deserves and whereas the school
017district of Escambia County would like to recognize the information technology department team for the consistently amazing work they do to keep our systems safe they will be sharing additional cyber security tips throughout the month of October now therefore be it resolved that the members of the school board of Escambia County Florida does hereby recognize the month of October 2023 as cyber security Awareness Month be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the regular meeting of said board and that a copy be tendered to Mr Brian Johnson manager of information system security and representatives of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Pensacola Police Department adopted this 19th day of September 2023. this is the adoption of the resolution make a few brief
018comments superintendent thank you board thank you for the time but especially thank you to our partners FDLE could not be here tonight they're a very valuable piece of what we do in our elementary schools we're continuing that effort this year we're very blessed in our community to have some of the leading electron detection canines so what we do in our in our elementary schools we bring those canines in as part of the discussion about cyber aware so again thank you to our partners Pensacola Police Department Escambia County Sheriff's Office and FDLE thank you resolution National bullying prevention month whereas bullying is unwanted aggressive and repeated or potentially repeated physical verbal or emotional harm intentionally directed at a person or group of people and whereas bullying occurs in neighborhoods playgrounds schools and through technology such as
019the internet and cell phones and whereas various researchers have concluded that bullying is the most common form of violence affecting millions of American Children and adolescents annually and whereas targets of bullying are more likely to acquire physical emotional and learning challenges and whereas students who are repeatedly bullied often fear such activities as riding the bus going to school and attending school and community activities and whereas children who bully are at greater risk of engaging in more serious violent behaviors and whereas children who witness bullying often feel less secure more fearful fearful and intimidated and whereas the State of Florida and the school district of Escambia County commit their resources to ensure the success of the national month of awareness now therefore be a resolved that the school board of Escambia County Florida does hereby recognize
020the month of October 2023 as National bullying prevention month and encourages students parents and staff of the school district of Escambia County Florida to engage in a variety of awareness and prevention activities designed to make our schools and communities safer for all children and adolescents be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the regular meeting of said board and a copy be tender to Connie Farish and Sabrina Cunningham directors of elementary schools Dr Michael Roberts director of middle schools Lisa Morgan director of high schools and Kerry Coots director of alternative education adopted this 19th day of September 2023. solution thank you have a second moved and seconded any discussion seeing none please vote by raise of hand 5-0 thank you make sure okay Miss Payne Red Ribbon
021Week resolution whereas Alcohol and Other Drug abuse in this nation has reached epidemic stages and whereas it is imperative that visible unified prevention education efforts by community members be launched to eliminate the demand for drugs and whereas the national Family Partnership is sponsoring the Florida Red Ribbon campaign offering citizens the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to drug-free Lifestyles no use of illegal drugs no illegal use of legal drugs and whereas the national Red Ribbon campaign will be celebrated in every community in America doing Red Ribbon Week and whereas business government parents law enforcement media medical religious institutions schools Senior Citizens Service organizations and youth will renew their commitment to healthy drug-free Lifestyles and whereas schools and school districts throughout the country along with national programs are among those with Innovative users or Innovative answers my
022apologies and whereas the state of Florida and the school district of Escambia County commits his resources to ensure the success of the Red Ribbon campaign and the national theme be kind to your mind live drug free now therefore be resolved that the school board of Escambia County Florida does hereby recognize the week of October 23rd through 31st 2023 as Red Ribbon Week and encourages its staff and students to participate in drug prevention education activities making a visible statement that we are strongly committed to a drug-free School District be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the regular meeting of said board and a copy be tender to Connie Ferris and Sabrina Cunningham directors of elementary schools Dr Michael Roberts director of middle schools Lisa Morgan director of
023high schools and Kerry Koontz director of alternative education adopted this 19th day of September 2023. thank you ma'am do I have a motion thank you sir moved and seconded any discussion seeing none please vote raising your hands Euro thank you disability history and awareness weeks resolution whereas this resolution is set forth designating the first two weeks in October of every year as a disability history and awareness weeks and encouraging our schools to provide instruction on disability history people with disabilities and the disability rights movement and whereas there are approximately 440 000 students with disabilities in Florida's K-12 education system and approximately 6 200 students with disabilities in Escambia County and whereas research has shown that students with disabilities experience greater academic and Social Challenges than non-disabled students and whereas Escambia County School District finds that
024in order to ensure the full inclusion of all people into society there is a need to increase public awareness of the history of disabilities and the disability rights movement and whereas Escambia County School District finds that recognizing October as a disability history and awareness month and encouraging schools to include instruction and events focused on disability history increases respect for and acceptance of people with disabilities now therefore be it resolved that the school board of Escambia County Florida that's hereby observed the first two weeks of October as a disability history and awareness weeks be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the regular meeting of said board and then a copy be tender to Mrs Sandra Hill director of exceptional student education adopted this 19th day of September
0252023. do I have a motion resolution we're going to move now to the administrative appointment s appointment asking the board to approve Misty Lynn Hendricks moving from position TSA mathematics subject area specialist to the position of subject area specialist mathematics mathematics I have moved moved and seconded any discussion seeing none please vote by raising your hand 5-0 thank you so I don't want to take up a lot of time thank you I don't want to take up a lot of time but I do want to say that I am overwhelmed with gratitude to be appointed as the new K-12 math specialist I've been beyond grateful to have a lot of wonderful people in Escambia County who have been a supporter for me going back all the way to my Consulting teacher my administrators my teammates
026my friends and I just want to thank them for believing in me and my mission and vision for education I also have to think my personal team my husband my family my friends near and far and take a second to talk about my goal as the new math specialist excuse me so my goal is to Foster learning for mathematics I want all of our students in Escambia County to be mathematicians I don't want them to say oh I'm not a math person we've got to fix that and in order to fix that I we have a lot of work to do we've got to remove barriers for six those barriers that are causing them to not feel successful in math because everyone can be successful in math I want to make sure that my small
027But Mighty mathematics team there's only five of us currently but we want to make sure that we are supporting every student therefore we have to support every single school and every teacher and every family member because we want to make sure that everyone has the tools that they need so I just want to say that we're all in and I'm excited for this new adventure thank you thank you so much we will now go back to the agenda and as it's regularly done and public forum is our next item we'll begin the public forum but the purpose of the public forum is to give members of the public the opportunity to address the school board on any matter regarding education and the administration of our schools in this setting we as board members are not
028compelled to answer questions or respond to you and typically will not engage in back and forth dialogue in this venue however this board and the superintendent will note your contact information for responsive appropriate as always we invite you to contact any of us by phone or email for follow-up a list of our meeting times and locations is posted on the Escambia County School District website speakers must adhere to the guidelines printed on the back of the speaker form on the form please be sure to indicate whether your intention is to speak at the public forum or to a specific item on tonight's agenda please direct your comments to the chair you are expected to be respectful when you're addressed to the board you are also asked to use titles and not individual names personal attacks
029against school board members superintendents staff or employees will not be tolerated if you fail to follow these guidelines you will be warned by the chair and subject to removal if violations continue each speaker will be allowed three minutes Mrs Odom will serve as parliamentarian Miss buswell is our timekeeper and we'll start the timer with your opening remarks the buzzer will sound when your time has elapsed and when the timer sounds please bring your comments to a close our first speaker is Doris Hayes followed by Brian seifstein good evening superintendent of the school district chairman and school board members and all of you good evening my name is Doris Hayes and I've reside at 2618 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Drive and I'm a member of the East Side neighborhood Improvement Association but what I'm here
030for thank you so much for calling because my grandson is back there he's got to go play football at six o'clock so I'm just doing it but anyway what I'm I'm here for to speak on the items of the school book the books the history books banding the history books the school books what what I was what I wanted to do say is that it shouldn't be under one leadership it should be the parents and the and the students are discussion not under one leadership and as a parent and a grandparent we don't want our history silent we want it to be taught to our children it is not to eliminate the history of a people because our generation need to be truthful and acknowledgeable in the past the present and the future okay and
031when you eliminate the history history of any ethnic group you are also trying to eliminate the history of their educational history and of the racial discrimination prejudice discrimination of that group and that's all I have to say thank you so much for your time thank you ma'am thank you for calling Ryan sieveston followed by Neil tabot I'm on our country is short on money School staff and it seems we're also short on taking responsibility for decisions the new laws passed by the Florida legislature have cost all of us time money and people who the loss of people who have moved out of the state because of those things you're inconsistency in what you deem acceptable in school books has cost your staff their dignity time and guarantees losing lawsuits brought against the County due to
032the Discrimination for those book removals the way this process was supposed to work is you have media Specialists community members and teachers you hired use their train to recommend what books are appropriate and which are not not religion not politics but training and experience should be making that decision not an individual you are appointing to hide from the responsibility to make a final judgment please don't switch decisions on children's educational materials from a rigorous process to just a hand wave of a single individual that's all Neil tabot followed by Jerry McIntosh good evening chairman school board members I'd like to remind you that all of you elected by the majority of people in your District so both people are dependent upon you to represent them as I understand it two people have brought all the
033objections to books who are you going to listen to the people in your District or a loud minority thank you Jerry McIntosh Tosh followed by Belinda Donaldson Jerry I'm sorry I didn't say this you have six minutes you have minutes donated by Belinda okay so thank you I rise in opposition to any one person being given the power over all of us and what we are representing here tonight as far as books are concerned I don't think anyone one person should have that kind of power over the ability to make a decision to ban books and I've said so many times before if we stay on this Trail this trajectory that we are on the same thing happened in Europe many years ago where not only did they ban books but they banned people they
034put people in ovens over there the rise of the rise of dictators totalitarian regimes all was a part of banning books and what has happened since then it caused War Death destruction and this is why I'm concerned about anybody any one person having that kind of power that's a dictatorship and we all know it and so we should end it and stop miseducating our children and be sure to make sure that our children are truthfully educated so that they will have the benefit of making sure that they understand how things happen so that the future will not be so bleak if we continue under the trajectory that we are on we might end up in Civil War and everything else in this country the total breakdown of Law and Order if we continue on that
035the trajectory we are on slavery did not benefit black people in this country those who run around talking about woke have no idea what they are talking about woke was a adjective that started in the 30th when people was not allowed to Lodge into hotels when they had to use the bathroom in the woods they could not stop at certain stations service stations to get to get gas this is the meaning of woke woke mean to be aware of what's around you the things that may cause your life this is why we continue to tell people to stay woke stay concerned about the things that are going on in this world because it's going to affect you sooner or later Martin Luther King was right when he said whatever directly affect me will indirectly affect
036you so we have to stop this this madness that we are on as far as Banning books telling people that these cultural Wars that has so caused people to begin to hate and kill people for no reason except the color of their skin and we have to stop this now before it's too late and this should go all the way to the governor's office because we are not afraid of the governor or anyone else as far as that is concerned so we want our history taught the way everybody else is inside taught and black history is the history of America slavery is the history of America lynching is the history of America redlining is the history of America bombing churches 60 years ago to this month four little girls was killed in a church because
037of hatred and violence the terrorism that has taken place for so long in this country need to stop and that being it starts with you at this level so that we can stop move on and get proper education in this country that everybody everybody has a right to so I tell you now that we are heading to a lot of trouble in this country if we don't stop these cultural Wars if we don't stop this hatred and violence that's taking place people were killed and been killed in churches in stores and in schools and everywhere else because of a violent mentality that has taken place in this country for too long and it must stop and it must end our children have to suffer on the conditions that we are asking to be taught to
038other children so that we won't continue on this road of hatred and violence because they need to know what took place they need to know that what all the ancestors what happened during those periods of time we need to know and our children need to know we will teach our children but all children should know what they need to know as far as the racist ideas the violence that's taking place in this country the so-called lone wolfs and all of that it has to stop now so we can now not you know our children don't need to be demeaned in school or demoralized but children need to be able to discuss issues that affect all of us and that has not been done and I thank you so much our next speaker is Francine Mathis
039followed by Tristan Martinez okay but anyway hello to everybody good evening and good evening to let me tell y'all something I gotta say this and I ain't got too much to say but that used to be my world history teacher Mr Keith Leonard and I was so surprised to see him sit up as our superintendent but he is he'll tell me when to stop talking because he's still telling me what to do I ain't even classroom no more but I just really want to say that as a teacher myself that I want to see I want to see all of history talked to every child it really really breaks my heart to know that my history my Heritage is not taught to everybody because everybody needs to know if you don't know where you was
040How You Gonna know where to go and if you don't know what happened then how do you know how to stop it from not happening again and that's one thing that we're not doing and I'm not saying to just talk about the bad things that happened because slavery that did not give us an opportunity at all it was sad it was demoralizing but our children do need to know about it so don't happen again and we need to also teach our children that you shouldn't feel embarrassed of what happened there's nothing to be embarrassed about is something that they need to know so the other races will know what we went through what our lives was like and what it could be again and we pray to God that it doesn't go back that way
041but if we don't teach it might this is a very disturbing topic to me because when he was talking about the kids being blown up in the church as you know just a couple months ago weeks ago in Jacksonville what happened what happened that should not have happened and we need to talk about it and we need to teach it so it won't happen again the same thing happened in Jacksonville it could happen in Pensacola Florida and what will we do if we don't know exactly where we've been through what we've been through we got to stop it we could right now have someone to go to go into the schools and to do this to someone to go in and kill people in our schools our African-American children it is happened before in the
042past why wouldn't it happen again so we need to talk about it we need to teach it and we need to let them know there's nothing to be embarrassed about because sometimes when you talk about certain things African-American children they get embarrassed because they don't know how to react to it because they don't never hear about it we don't ever teach about it so that's what we need to start doing we need to start teaching it so they won't be embarrassed and as a parent I have taught mine and I do tell other parents you need to teach yours but we also need to teach other races about our heritage so that's all you don't have to tell me sit down but I just want to say thank you so much and it's an honor
043to be able to speak and before you and I thank you Tristan Martinez Tristan has three more minutes donated from Cannon Boyles Canon would you raise your hand to show that you're okay so Tristan has six minutes next would be Charlie Nichols first I would like to thank the board for its reception at last month's meeting while I still believe that AP Psychology could have and should have been offered I understood the logic but I'm not here to continue that discussion I'm here to speak on what I believe to be the overarching issue that creates such friction between students teachers and the board which is the lack of consultation and involvement of all three groups in decision making now to clarify I would like to state that I'm not by any means stating that the
044board does not allow students and teachers a chance to speak their mind and influence some decision making the very existence of this public forum States otherwise what I am saying is that this should be expanded to the very workings of the board itself that students and teachers should have a say in creating board policy instead of just at the end when it has already essentially been decided upon I remember a few years back when I spoke about an issue in the 21 to 22 students rights responsibilities handbook I was told that schools are quote not set up to be independent democracies that it was not my right to decide but I and many others turn 18 soon and many more former students will be able to vote next year in the election it is our
045right to decide but this right should not come after a student leaves High School it should come while they're most involved with schooling and can actively see the effects of it now had this Doctrine been followed I believe strongly that the vast majority of issues this board has had in recent years with students and teachers would have been completely avoided take the AP Psychology situation had there been more input either a better solution could have been made or at least the decision would have been more properly communicated with those it affected the most the same with the book reviewing issues and most influential to me issues in the student's RNR In Sum the feedback and input of teachers and students should be actively sought and considered by the board to a much greater extent and
046while it may take some effort it solves many issues the district faces and I see I have some time left over so I would like to give a briefer monstrance to the book reviewing which has been described as a book Banning system and I understand that it was done to in accordance of a Florida law following which I completely understand but the system of which is incredibly inefficient it takes numerous resources away from the county that could be spent doing other things and is horribly mismanaged it blocks students from learning but not just any students students who are disadvantaged the most students who do not have outside resources at home who can supplement what they're losing at school I remember at my school Pensacola High School I came in one morning eager to look at
047the library and just see what they have I personally love the old history books they have in the back but to my horror every single book at PHS was pulled out and whatever the correct solution is pulling out every book is most certainly not it thank you for your time Harley Nichols has six minutes he has a time donated from Kathleen Baldwin thank you ma'am and next would be William ah Caplinger thank you sir thank you Mr chair I had an opportunity to read a simple story and in that story it Illustrated a moral and a spiritual lesson that I hope that we will learn tonight it talked about a farmer who goes out to plant wheat in a field and he went to sleep while he was asleep others came along and they planted
048weeds in the wheat Garden when the community is asleep Tallahassee has threatened the certification of teachers based on biases and legislation teachers will lose their certificates because they fail to perhaps have the appropriate books as per constitutional legislation their professional judgment is no longer needed the classroom libraries are closed the regular library in the school is closed only the principle who seemingly have the time to review any request to show videos a medium media activity lessons to students it Grieves me that teachers are having to go through these kinds of issues when teachers I'm sorry when the community sleeps the number of teacher vacancies during the summer before school began was somewhere near 200. and it concerns me that we're unable to recruit teachers and give bonuses so that we can be assured that they
049will have a job here in Escambia County we also found that one of the other areas of concern is that many of the teachers who are new to the city comes and they're unable to find housing because the rent is so is rather high and it's difficult for them to be able to pay the rent based on the salary that is given when the community is asleep we find that poverty the poverty level at one time in 2021 was around 31 000. we pay new teachers 45 700 which means a teacher is only one thousand two hundred dollars away from the poverty level so I'm really concerned about what's happening when the community is asleep and I believe that it is time for us to wake up how do we do that when we wake
050up we will allow those persons as this young man who just walked away who would become 18 to register to vote and when he vote he will make a decision not only for those of you who are seated here today but for those of you who those who will be there who are there in Tallahassee making the decisions that they're making now when this community is awake what we will find out is that we can go back to a situation that occurred here in Escambia County where we found that teacher shortage was about to happen we looked into the classrooms like the young lady who received the award earlier today and we capture those individuals talk to the University of West Florida and we begin to develop opportunities for those persons to get a degree
051in education and become teachers in Escambia County Florida when when we are awake we can begin to pay decent salaries I remember going on recruiting trips with Elvin mccorvey and some of the others and the students will pass by our tables and they will laugh at the salaries laugh at what we had to offer and they would go right across from us to Texas and take those bonuses take those beginning monies that will help them to get started in those communities and we sat there and watched the things that occurred so I asked that we need to continue to stay whoa thank you for your time thank you sir next is Bill kaplinger followed by Pam Schwartz my point is Bill kaplinger I have lived in Pensacola since the early 70s my son was born
052here in 1976. he went through the school system here both some private school to begin with the Creative Learning Center and then on through the public school system finishing PHS and IB a student and very much and I've been very much impressed and satisfied with the path of Education in Pensacola Florida at least until recently I just want to caution you that to do what apparently has been done and not just by the school board but where these social issues and side issues and unhappy decisions has really put the reputation of our community Pensacola Florida which I am a strong member of and strong defender on I guess my bottom line really is please please don't blow the great reputation that Pensacola has had over years over emotional sideways issues we need to teach our
053kids more not less and I ask you to please consider that and know that we care we care about this town we care about each other and our reputation so thank you for listening thank you sir Pam Schwartz has nine minutes Paula Montgomery would you raise your hand Paula you go donated three minutes and so did Barbara Beck okay thank you've heard me before I am a mother a grandmother I taught in Escambia County School District starting in January of 1970. for 30 years when we were newly desegregated under court order in my first month of teaching my husband was shocked because I would go home with my box of books to do lesson planning and boohoo and have a nervous breakdown and he said what do you mean you've always wanted to be a
054teacher I was the first of my family to go to college on scholarship I graduated with honors and he said you mean you're going to have a nervous breakdown your first month with a real teaching job and this was 1970. my family growing up I didn't have money I grew up in the age where children should be seen and not heard but I had a foundation of faith hope and love and my family believed in the importance of working hard in the American dream and education was in part of that I still believe that education empowers and enriches everyone everywhere if I had not had Stellar employees back then as we have today who have gone into education not for the money it's never been about the money but it's a calling it is heart
055work and it is hard work and it makes me want to cry at what has happened that I think is a smear on the people that I worked with for 30 years and when I retired because of my frustrations over legislative policies and laws that made the Educational Employees have to spend more time on paperwork and policies to satisfy partisanship rather than truly helping Educators and the students they were trying to help in spite of poverty and what I witnessed and experienced happening to the adults who worked in the system as well as students I saw nepotism cronyism racism sexism genderism way back then and I have worked my entire life in public service committed to serve as I believe my faith tells me to do trying to be an instrument of peace and harmony
056and I am so sad by my government at every level and especially in my state that targets groups of people with derisive remarks changes our curriculum to where we cannot even say diversity equity and inclusion in spite of the beautiful biodiversity that our creator gave us and we have government officials who say that we should not even use those terms that we should not consider the social emotional needs of our students and we have fear and intimidation of people who want to keep their jobs but they are fearful of losing their jobs because of confusing laws and how they are implemented at every level the book Banning and the things that are going on in the State of Florida are causing us to lose veteran teachers and even people who have any degree or a
057warm body that we try to put in our Public Schools our public schools have been demonized our teachers have been made scapegoats for ongoing 30 years and it's becoming worse and worse in my 75 years in recent years and it is tragic what is happening this Sunday's paper had an article extremism will cost us democracy if we don't fight it and it's talking about government officials that are targeting lgbtq people I have family and friends and fall into those categories we have people of color I have friends red yellow black and white and brown every color I am a Christian person but I have friends who are Muslim and Jewish and Buddhist and others I have had the opportunity to travel and get to know people of other cultures and they all want what our
058Declaration of Independence said are certain among which unalienable rights from the Creator they all want life liberty and justice and we are not seeing Justice there is too much discrimination going on with our elected officials every day and I am begging all of you to search your hearts because our government that's trying to play God and indoctrinate people with false lies and spending big money with corporations and other people and they are not giving everybody Equity with Health Services mental health especially which is a tragedy and everybody is stressed out these days our children when they see the adults who are angry and they put more guns into the world our children who see what's happening with our book Banning and our children who maybe come from homes where they are having families that are
059lgbtq who are good citizens and good parents but they are acted and they are treated as though they are an abomination of God they are all God's creation so this is what our children are witnessing so it's all dwelling good to pass these resolutions that we have passed from the beginning of my time in this school district but extremists that are willing to demonize and Target groups of people to try to get votes and to perpetuate their personal power and profit it is a tragedy and God will be their judge one day in my faith and what I believe because each of us is act is to act individually and not act like my interpretation of the Bible is better than yours or my faith is better than yours we have had vandals by teenagers
060on Jewish Tabernacles here in Pensacola we had a 15 year old girl who got a gun shot at her mother didn't hurt her mother but killed the mother's fiance we have child abuse going on in every economic status that happens in our churches and other private places that are now homeschooling private schools for profit and churches that may be indoctrinating children in ways that you don't even realize that can't give the special education services that our Public Schools can sometimes times but with the new laws they're all leaving the public schools because the public schools have been demonized and I am here to say that September is suicide awareness month I am an advocate for the National Alliance of mental illnesses and I have family and friends that suffer from mental illnesses and the statistics
061are shocking here the United States is in crisis with mental health and every level the sadness and suicide year after year according to the CDC report in February 2023 nearly three and five 57 percent of United States teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 doubling that of boys maybe it's because women's Reproductive Rights and choices are being denied them and freedom to women I would say my girls and my granddaughter and my daughter I'm worried for their rights and freedom here and we have other statistics I am on the board for Gulf Coast kids house every month we have statistics and you see it in the news this week There's a mother in prison because a 15 year old was babysitting multiple children one of whom had to be hospitalized in a horrible
062living condition and didn't have food and things that are going on the poverty that we experience and the stresses on the mental health of the families much less our employees when they don't feel they are able to comfort and support children in need that come from these homes and now we have more homeschooling and more schools that are not regulated and the way you're regulating book Banning it's not the books on a shelf you'd better be checking the virtual the social media and the bullying that is going on there let's do something about the mental health and well-being of all of our children please thank you ma'am our next speaker is Christina Force followed by Jill Lewis bags I believe I was donated three minutes by I don't have that by Jill Lewis tax that
063she's next is Jill Lewis Doug's here and you are donating your time okay go ahead as the first vice president of the Democratic black caucus of Florida I cannot be silent we will not allow current politics or anyone to whitewash American black history black people or Black Culture black history is American history any attempt to lie about the impact of slavery is an attempt to uphold white supremacy black history does not begin in slavery it begins in the indigenous cultures and empires of Africa and just like how the Roman Empire led to the current makeup of Europe is taught and the various Asian Empires are taught the African empires and South American cultures should be taught no person in their right mind would say women throughout history benefited from rape no person in their right
064mind will tell a survivor of the Holocaust that they benefited from the Holocaust yet the census and the so-called educational board unanimously agreed that it was okay to say that black people had some benefit from slavery that is insulting that is degrading and that is unacceptable all children of every race gender and background deserve to have accurate history taught the transatlantic slave trade lasted 366 years and moved 12.5 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean it was the largest Force migration in human history when you add American segregation Jim Crow mass incarceration that is hundreds of years of massive human rights violations genocide and hate we are still fighting for justice let's tell the truth supplemental materials like prageru should never be approved prageru is not accredited it is not a university it is not based
065on fact when we look at the implications of prageru throughout the State of Florida teacher contracts largely protect them to have the autonomy to build into their lessons prageru videos yet as a school board you can say this is not part of our lesson plans this is not part of our Maps this is not part of our curriculums yet I am dismayed by The Silence of each of you to say nothing to sit in silence and complicity this is our children I stand here during Hispanic Heritage Month yet what have any of you said at all what are you saying you have a right you have the ability to impact generations with what you decide right now and right here I'm just asking you to do the right thing and tell the truth stay woke
066them need to take a point of contact for just a second bear with me thank you thank you I need clarification from the parliamentarian on something our next speaker is Neil McDonald followed by Mary Lynn McDonald I apologize thank you for this opportunity Mr chairman and the rest of school board and I just wanted to talk tonight about just to read a few excerpts from some of the books that are on the list that we're looking at and the first book I'm going to look at is called yoke and it's it's on the it's actually on the website that's it's a administered to by the school the school district yes before you start reading excerpts from the book are these excerpts that will offend children or some people yes all right then I would say
067at this time before you read any excerpts and in the past we have not had anyone do it because we were believing that our streaming would that would violate FCC regulations streaming does not come under FCC as we have seen in other school districts there is a right to read those but before you do if there's any children or anyone in the room who feels like they will be offended or distasteful or in any way they don't want to anyone who's on the live stream may want to mute before excerpts are read go ahead okay all right so this is an excerpt from this one I said it was dark and when he's when he switched from sucking on my neck to kissing my mouth again I moan in that way that every girl knows
068how even if they don't want to it was surreal when he took my hand and guided it to his fly I was shocked by how suddenly I was touching Holland hints penis and how hot his penis felt it was not unlike petting and unseen or hairless cat when the spirit of feverish ooze landed on my hand it glistened as it cooled and there was a lot more than that particular book and that was in our high schools next one's called collateral and this is in the high school level says the side they say the size doesn't matter but in my estimation it makes things both problematic and sort of amazing I quickly learned to relax my jaws coax him inside my mouth little by little it was intense and all I'd wanted in those moments
069was to make him feel like the most important man in the world size definitely mattered when he finally slipped inside of me if I hadn't if I hadn't been so wet it would have been uncomfortable as it was he filled me up completely a sensation I had never known he flipped onto his back pulled me on top of him his eyes never left my face as he lifted my hips slid me backward against his critically heart erection and it goes on and on and on and gets much more epic than that believe it or not another one's called defy me this one's in the high school this actually is at the at a middle school level too chair may I ask your question yes ma'am go ahead have these books are they on our challenged
070list have they actually had a an official challenge they have been pulled from the shelves okay thank you whether are they still available on online or not just curious I don't know the answer to that on we wouldn't know if they're online online could be through anything that's if they're pulled from the shelves at our schools they're staying there waiting for a determination by the media specialist as to whether or not they are in adherence with current regulations is that correct Miss Odom right so they are off the shelves at this time I don't have any if the gentleman wants to continue to read from books I don't have any problem with that's what he so desires I've been trying to take notes as everyone has spoken and that was the note that I had
071written to myself so I'm asking if you read from books you'll please give the title so that we can check all corridors to make sure that we have done what we said we would do so thank you yeah the first one was called yoke yolk y-o-l-k the second was called collateral and the third one I believe is called defy me this and okay this one says by trying to regain control myself even as her eyes widen her arms going suddenly still Aaron she says what's the take off your dress I say quietly understanding awakens in her eyes she says nothing she only looks at me carefully as I watch imprisoned in place find a cute form of Agony her hands are trembling but her eyes are willing and wanting and nervous she shoves the material
072down past her shoulders and lets it fall to the floor I drink her I drink her in as she steps out of the dress my mind racing gorgeous I think so gorgeous my pulse is wild when I ask her to she unhooks her bra moments later her underwear joins her bra on the floor and I can't look away from her my mind unable to process the perfectionist happiness she's so stunning I can hardly breathe and then it goes into this deal in the shower where it gets really crazy in there so I won't read anymore I just want to bring those attention there are many many of these okay a lot of people in here have come up to me or several companies ask words and said why do you think we're into pornography and
073I said if you don't think this is pornography I don't know what it is and so this is some pretty pretty bad stuff and there's a lot of these if you go with the list that's actually out there you'll see that thank you thank you sir did I ask him what list he's referring to Mr McDonald are you talking about our destiny system where all the books are listed for each school it's it's one that I believe that the lady that's over all the media specialist is on control of yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay so all these are listed in there along with all this so they're all all on the challenged list they're all out of the book okay those have all been removed from the shelves right now right but there's still
074a chance they still have to be reviewed is that correct they are in the process of being reviewed yes right they are not available for checkout thanks to what I'm saying is let's go ahead and get them removed completely then that's my that's my standing on that yes right all right we typically okay thank you all right Mary Lynn McDonald next after that is Vicki Baggett who has six minutes chairman school board members thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight I first want to say how grateful I am and I believe I speak for many to have a new superintendent who has Vision strategy and backbone this is so refreshing I'm also grateful for the member members of our board that have been consistent in standing up for the good of our
075children both their physical and their mental well-being we all know who you are and we thank God for you the fact is our public school system is broken the truth is there's still hope for repair and restoration it is obvious there is a strategy that has long been implemented through the Nea to train and re-educate our children so that they easily accept sexual perversion hatred violence alternative Lifestyles suicide and more it's called indoctrination and it's been going on behind the scenes well-covered and unnoticed by most for a very long time but now the hidden things are being brought to light and this dark agenda is being clearly revealed if we dig a little deeper and look for the source the Nea has used to get to the heart of our children we will find the
076American Library Association our Escambia County School District is under the American Library Association this group is highly aggressive about pushing alternate genders alternate sexualities and really and anything goes mentality to our children they are known for bullying with their Library Bill of Rights trying to present it as a hard and fast rule of law equivalent to the Bill of Rights however this is a farce a United States District Court Judge has ruled that the American Library association's so-called Library Bill of Rights actually means nothing to indicate that there will be a private cause of action based upon a violation it is not federal statute it is just a scare tactic so should this be used as an argument against our district it has no validity I want you to remind you that even after House
077Bill 1069 was put into effect in July we still have multiple books in our school libraries and on our students Chromebooks that push an aggressive sexual agenda which includes sex with anything and anybody sex with animals sex with teachers sex with the dead and nothing is left to the imagination the American Library Association approves and occur encourages these types of books that are clearly setting our children up for Destruction but the good thing is we can remove ourselves from the American Library Association if enough districts do this the state will demand that we drop them throughout other districts in our state have already done it this is happening in many states right now parents and school boards are saying enough is enough isn't it time that we here in Escambia County say enough is enough
078for our children appeal to the school board tonight to stand up for the mental well thank you of our children all right next is Vicki Baggett Miss Baggett has six minutes of three from Christopher Marshall Mr Marshall will you raise your hand thank you good evening I'm here tonight to talk about checks and balances we have made great progress towards getting rid of sexually inappropriate books in our libraries but we still have a way to go why is finding these books still so easy to do as a matter of fact as of this morning there were close to 350 books in our cataloging system labeled as adult has anyone begun checking these for aging content inappropriate material what about our online programs that our district is providing for our students have you begun checking this
079after being warned about some content found last year I can assure you this is not going away parents grandparents and other concerned citizens are realizing what has been placed in front of our children and an entire Army is rising up Nationwide and yes I'm helping other districts and other states as hard as I can I'm an Avid Reader researcher and writer every single night I am receiving calls from parents about books they are finding either in their children's schools or online and many of these books are open violations of obscenity laws to put it bluntly I am still finding books weekly in this District that I must submit I keep waiting and hoping that our Librarians will step up Bravo for doing what you needed to do about books that should have never been ordered
080to begin with who decides when to restrict a book for minors when it has been submitted on sexual grounds as recently as last week I submitted a book that has situations in it where a boy masturbates and his orgasms explode on his bed and he is worried about the maid finding the sheets sticky there are also sections of voyeurism of watching his little neighbor this book was originally not restricted from middle school in our district after email exchanges to our library media specialist her response to me was that she was basing this on professional reviews but she had not read the book herself and she was interrupted while working on the spreadsheet she did end up changing it after my email so one person has the ability to restrict or not and this is based
081on so-called professional reviews and not on reading the book and applying current law yet reading is required of the person bringing this to your attention checks and balances the same applies with the opt-in or young adult restriction status an example is Looking for Alaska currently at Warrington Middle School which has sections regarding getting laid and masturbating but another part involves watching a woman crouch on her hands and knees while a guy kneels behind her she hollers give it to me and don't go too fast keep your grunting to a minimum I won't keep going but the next part has to do with the girl trying to figure out what to do with the man's penis as she puts it in her mouth I ask you board members because ultimately you are responsible is this sexually
082appropriate for minors apparently somebody in our district office thinks so and this leads me to my next point last year when I started finding so many age and content inappropriate books I asked over and over who has ordered these books nobody could answer or would answer I now know whatever the American Library Association pushes we jump in head first last year we were told and our council at first agreed that books could not legally be removed from school libraries when they openly violate federal obscenity laws after all our wonderful ala pushes this point on a daily basis but now everyone is realizing the Pico decision States otherwise even ala admits it at this past Summer's Texas library conference when they said and I quote school boards have greater discretion over school library materials if the
083board can demonstrate that the materials are educationally unsuitable or pervasively vulgar the removal may be upheld by the courts we know that the current president of ala has declared herself a Marxist lesbian and under her far left Progressive tenure she has pushed the 13 most challenged books as being anti-lgbt however she fails to even mention the sexually explicit and pornographic material we know there are links between the Ala and George Soros we also know the Ala promoted and defended drag queen Story Hour at public libraries while showing hostility towards religious Americans so far Missouri Arizona South Carolina Pennsylvania Montana Texas Idaho Wyoming Georgia Mississippi and Alabama are disassociating from the ale LA and now current districts even within Florida are doing so as well should our taxpayer money go to a self-declared Marxist last organization
084that provides and encourages sexually explicit books to minor children under the guise of inclusion and diversity it is time to draw the line let your actions set a precedent I suggest the world Library Association instead they have no bias they have no political push just information quit padding the Ala Pockets with dues and fees and certainly quit following their suggestions after all have people in place to read and know these books just as you would expect from a classroom teacher it is your responsibility for this content thank you ma'am our next speaker is Aaron schneier followed by Rich Heinz next foreign thank you for helping us to speak today father in Jesus name amen and thank you all for board for having us speak today I wanted to read a passage from Genesis 19. I'm
085sure I'll be able to Bridge it over to education at some point the two angels came to Sodom in the evening and lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom when lot Rose when lot saw them he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the Earth and said my lords please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet and you might rise up early and go on your way they said no we will spend the night in the Town Square but he pressed them strongly so they turned aside to him and entered his house and he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate but before they lay down the men of the city the men of Sodom both young and old
086all the people to the last man surrounded the house and they called to lot we're the men who came to you tonight bring them out to us that we may know them know them in the scriptures means sleep with them you can look that up lot went out to the men at the entrance shut the door after him and said I beg you my brothers do not act so wickedly behold I have two daughters who have not known any man let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please when we do nothing to these men for they have come under the shelter of my roof but they said stand back and they said this fellow came to sojourn and he has become the judge now we will deal worse with
087you than with them I read this passage this morning and it actually came to my mind out of nowhere it was a fascinating thing to me that these men who were behaving wickedly who had come to have the guests of a man brought outside so that they could sleep with them after being rebuked by lot said well who is this man now to judge so they're telling lot is telling them don't do this wicked thing and the sodomites are sitting there these men that are committing a perverse act or wanting to telling him not to judge so the Bible tells us to take no part in unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them it's what's been happening the entire time we don't bring up the Bible because it's Bible Lesson time it's because we're
088having sexually erotic books pictures of naked people in the books that's it and it naked people so I'm asking that they'd be taken out even the books about sodomy thank you Rich holds necking followed by Christy aggerton Marshall good evening my name is Rich holsneck and as of three weeks ago I am a candidate for Escambia County School Board District Four all four of my children are products of the Escambia County public school system and our thriving young adults first of all I'd like to give a hat tip to the new superintendent and thank you for all that you've been able to accomplish in your first three and a half months of public office thank you I wish you continued success but I can tell you that there are there are those who are not
089excited about what you're doing right now some of them are actually on the payroll of school district and they stand in opposition especially on the matter of of of the books that are being made available to the children they don't like the existing state guidelines codified in law and they have no qualms about Slow Rolling enforcement or circumventing it the law completely you can't compromise with the opposition when it comes to the law and the safety of our children you can't straddle the fence when faced with Lawless ideological activism do the right thing God will bless you for it secondly I'd like to thank Vicki Baggett for being a diligent diligent Watchman on the wall she's been doing God's work and we should all be Watchmen on the wall Vicki's work tirelessly reviewing hundreds of
090books that have been found to be in clear violation of existing State statutes the problem is as as she just stated some of these books can still be accessed online okay and we can't rely on reviews by organizations like the American Library Association who are ideologically driven by activists who do not share the values of the conservative Florida Panhandle as already addressed the president of the Ala is among other things a self-proclaimed Marxist with an agenda not shared with the majority of citizens on the conservative and conservative Escambia County raising the bar and the education of our children is a collaborative effort that involves supportive Administration thank you involved parents teachers freed up to do what they do best teach the kids several quick recommendations we all need to be law-abiding citizens who support existing
091laws concerning the education for our children if we have a problem with the laws we need to take it up with the state legislature we need to be we need to close all loopholes that would prevent or permit a child in our school district to access a Banned Book on a district issued Chromebook on a district sanctioned online reading site that's got to stop it's come to my attention that one of our official online book reading sites explicitly circumvents parental Authority and does not permit parents to know what books their children are reading I don't know who signed this pact with the devil but it needs to be undone thank you for your time God bless you all right Christy aggerton Marshall followed by Melanie Eubanks good evening I am the one who has shown
092extended Grace upon this board you all know who I am when I say unbelievable Grace I mean unbelievable Grace Mr Keith you know I'm sorry Mr superintendent my intentions were made clear to not embarrass the school district any further than it already has been however I would like to drop some information for you all did you know an entire school board was suspended by the governor for violating direct clear law by not handling a series of serious warnings that led them straight to negligence by not protecting not only their students their educators the board failed my child once failed her again this year there will not be a third time Mr chair migrations today Mr superintendent I make no apologies I made that clear very Point Clear you want some insight into this ridiculous book
093ban let me tell you the stupidity of it any person that is identifying as a parent in their right mind with children within a public school system is going to have to make this make sense to me and understand this why would there be a need or a desire to have any type of books within the school district that explains how to kill teachers why don't you board members go explain it to Columbine High School Sandy Hook Elementary Robb Elementary Parkland High why wouldn't Pensacola's News Journal exploit Banning these type of books books and teaching how to take another's life books and teaching Direct domestic terrorism thank you and God's faith thank you ma'am Melanie Eubanks followed by Julie Patton thank you for the opportunity to speak and it's not taken for granted and I
094am very thankful that we can all share our different opinions and you know evil prevails where good men do nothing and we need to speak up we need to let our voice be heard and we need to protect our children and parents rights it's a good thing to be able to speak the primary objective of the librarian Media Center is to implement enrich and support the education program of the school that does not include porn we need wholesome content we must keep pushing forward to make sure that happens we need to still err on the side of caution even in high school I've noticed several books that have already been mentioned that are restricted to high school one that I am particularly familiar with because I read it talks about voice and what they do
095with their penis at summer camp and I probably should have said genitals in case any little ears were listening and it bothers me that there are people who think that's okay to be read in here because it's okay to be in the high school Shelf if you can't read it in here it's not supposed to be there and you know when we listen to other people we may not always agree with them but it doesn't mean that we hate them or we're going to try to destroy them anyway it means that we have differences and we need to have respect we want that for our children in our classrooms so we need to have it here and you know if other people read from a book that you don't like then just listen it's only
096three minutes maybe six maybe nine and we can all learn from that and you know if I do read the Bible then if it's only these few short minutes education should be built on truth and the Bible is built on truth and if that's offensive to you then I'll be done in a few minutes and we need to listen to each other we also need to consider the American Library Association and the books that it is pushing and we do not want to continue with lip service we want the action to continue to clean up our schools to make it a safe environment for our teachers and our students and our parents thank you our next speaker Julie Patton followed by Larry Downs Jr since nobody needed them what really concerns me is that at
097the beginning of this meeting you gave out an award some award for a bullying program okay and I agree that bullying is a horrible thing and we should not be allowing it anywhere and this whole campaign to remove books from the schools is a bullying campaign there's a very small number of people two who've recommended the books and a number of people who support them against the will of the vast majority of the citizens of Escambia County and so I think that it's important to recognize this as a bullying issue people who are trying to intimidate the rest of us by insisting on their own interpretation of what's good and what's not I'm doing a lot of study now on how we might bring some of these sides together and the people I'm looking at
098are saying that things seem broken right now because they are we need to make a change in our level of Consciousness because the way in which we are concretely sticking to a level of Consciousness that served us well at another Point won't serve us well in the future what will serve us well in the future what we're moving towards is something called integral consciousness and what that really means is less focus on on who's good and who's bad and what you know and an attempt to bring everybody into the community and the center and that includes black people and lesbian people and women when the young man read from Genesis about Sodom I found myself really sympathizing with lots daughters because when all of the people gathered to demand that the male visitors be offered
099for sexual favors lot said oh no don't sit in that way here I've got two daughters take my daughters okay that was a period in time when daughters were cattle property like men were I mean like like like slaves were and I guess that although I am Christian and I support a great deal of the Bible I think we have to be discriminating about some of these old stories and realize that the Bible was not very friendly to women I want to close by saying that Newsweek released their list to the hundred best colleges yesterday and Florida's dropped a bunch on the list because of what the governor is doing so let's move towards integral consciousness Larry Downs Jr and followed by Joshua Luther scooter that was easier than the crutches all right can y'all
100hear me Larry Downs Jr Plumbing LLC because fecal matters all right listen up you know I've heard a lot of stuff here tonight I mean are we ever going to get past this I mean I think we've formed the perfect crybaby Society the perfect one I mean there's no level that we can't drop to to cry and whine about everything Walter Williams who is a professor of Economics he's the one who said probably him and several others just like him said that he benefited from slavery he's black that's crazy right why would he say that why would he say oh Walter Williams said that YouTube it so anyways he said it but like like the book I wrote like the book I wrote I may need a couple more seconds the book I wrote you
101know it's okay to be white you know skin skin tones you know people of all skin tones have committed atrocities of their own throughout history we're going to sit here and perpetuate this and continue and continue the division this doesn't happen in my gym it doesn't happen me and me and other black men we don't have these problems that only happens up up here in these government agencies just like today Biden did a you know he did a new world order speech you know I mean it's clear it's almost like class Schwab was speaking for him now you know he didn't write that speech you know he didn't he's reading off teleprompter barely squinting his eyes I mean come on what do we have here this is ridiculous my wife's a school teacher she spends
10210 hours 10 hours a week extra on average a year that's 400 hours I beg her not to I'm like take care of yourself but she cares about those kids all colors it's amazing even when half the parents don't care this is a parent issue this is a society issue where we have pretty much dumbed down our society to where they want to blame everybody else they want to blame everybody for their for their problems when in reality we you know we are responsible for ourselves our own happiness you know that Bill of Rights doesn't guarantee happiness you know it's the pursuit of happiness and y'all you know through no no fault of y'all's own y'all have continued this perpetuated it more and more every time every time you do a new program a new
103policy you know for Equity diversion inclusion you're actually dividing the people that's the reality of it you can look at it any way you want adios thank you sir Joshua Luther is our last one in public forum so if there is somebody who submitted a form and you haven't been able to talk yet it is marked Mr Bennett was is the first one speaking to item 6c item 6 C and D student interviews with any outside government that's that's an agenda item it says you it says to a special problem or issue and it's your you will speak when we pull that item up if you want to speak now you could be a okay that's fine I have no problem with that so Mr Luther and then we'll have Rob Bennett good evening I
104was reading the superintendent strategic plan and on the one page version at the bottom it reads we commit ourselves to creating memorable Unforgettable learning experiences where diversity of thought is not just a creative necessity it's a moral imperative and the question I had was what system of morality is being referenced there okay so we can have moral Imperials without a system of a morale okay that makes complete sense another thing I want to bring up was the willful ignorance of our high school students about the details of a very major historical event two thousand years ago there was a man named Jesus who was crucified and reported to have risen again and today we count the years by when he came to this Earth so this is a very big thing especially looking at the
105heritage of the United States it was built on Christian principles so I guess you guys don't teach them about the historical Jesus or about what his followers purported and how that affects today because they were ignorant of the fact that both the Old Testament and the New Testament teaches that Jesus was punished by the father for the sins of people he came to redeem just totally ignorant of that and yes it's a crazy thing but it's it's a crazy thing that God would love us and it's a crazy thing that was taught both in the Old Testament the New Testament and it's changed our world another thing I wanted to bring up y'all recently approved about 800 million dollar budget for this next year which I believe you'll have under 40 000 students so that
106comes out to twenty thousand dollars a student whereas the average private school annual tuition is about average is about ten thousand dollars and if you want to throw in five thousand dollars for transportation that's great you still cut your budget you know three quarters of it you guys could save 200 million dollars by just sending all your students to private school and instead of flipping a coin to see whether or not they'll be able to read and write and do math you might have a better success rate and ultimately every one of you are accountable to God for what you do with what is prevent presented to you all have a lot of light and you're accountable to how you respond to it thank you Rob Bennett will be the last speaker in public forum
107again if there's somebody who thinks that they want to speak in public form but it's you haven't heard your name okay let me clarify on the piece of paper that we're supposed to check the first box to speak about an agenda item the second time I've checked the site it didn't say it says second box I'm not this I'm just not disagreeing the reason I asked if there was somebody out there if this wasn't understood when it was brought to me I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity when you had it sir appreciate that okay if we could check on public records request 1666 it's been out a month I'd appreciate a response from that email be great from Council or Deputy superintendent the reason I'm speaking about a couple items tonight is
108item six C and D codes of conduct changes I'm not discussing all the languages in there but about when we're going to talk about interviewing students that there should be another adult in the room besides the Leo if appropriate the staff should be in there who's going to decide who's what's appropriate in my experience the administrative Dean didn't follow policy when my son was interviewed and we weren't called till an hour and a half later who's going to deem what's appropriate the sheriff's deputy the ones that don't believe they have to follow School Board policy even though it's in a contract who deems what's appropriate I suggest you change the language in both of those especially in the elementary you know maybe a 17 year old can can figure his way through some things but
109a four-year-old can't a five-year-old can't you know Escambia County General Sheriff's Office general order 553 juvenile procedure part 553.66 C I'll send you a copy of it they keep going on about parental notification they should really do that it says it right there in their policy should the parent not be able to come and be present it suggests the deputy should request an objective School staff member to be present during any questioning the sheriff's department general order says it should happen you know but who's going to deem what's appropriate Escambia High School a couple weeks ago kids showed up with a black eye actually got the black eye at school two weeks after that got another black guy somebody called the DCF Hotline it's probably the right thing to do 17 year old kid administrator
110could have talked to him said VCF shows up interviews that student tells him who he is no other adults in the room with him interviewed his sister doesn't tell the sister who he is why is there no other adult in the room found out to have a you know it was a good faith determined to be false reporting in good faith understand that why are the kids alone when they're being questioned by a government official they're not a legal official so it's not in the code of conduct they're not law enforcement but they're enforcing law because they're executive branch of the governor's office if you were going to have an HR meeting with person with somebody you'd have another witness in there when I talked at the sheriff's Sheriff's himself chip Simmons there were five
111other deputies in the room armed on every side of me when we had that conversation it's a great time you have two Public Service organizations banking up their own rules on how to work together specific land areaing students that don't mesh the SRO agreement's supposed to fix that SRO agreement hasn't fixed that you also have now campus security officers the yellow shirts part of their job description knowledge skills and abilities includes interviews you don't have a policy on what they can do thank you sir all right we have somebody else who raised their hand if they wanted to speak now instead and I'll have you give me your name so I get things straight here and I've been given three minutes right from from Linda Gully yes who is Linda but she has to be
112in the okay I all right I'm sorry I didn't see the hand I was I looked over there because you were sitting over there hey Miss Kelly good to see you again all right go ahead yes thank you my comments were broader than just the book band so I wanted to go now I want to point out to you that the many Working Families the many working parents that are most acutely affected by this by seeing you know their the quality of their education of their children degrading AP courses being taken away all these different things they're not here today because of how overworked and underpaid they are you know people are working 40 50 60 hours and so there are a lot of there's a wide variety of people up here but a lot
113of us here today are older or students like myself we got to be thinking of the many many people who are shot out of this process who can't come to a meeting to listen for hours and hours to a lot of things that are not very relevant we're not we're wasting a lot of time on censorship and banning books and I don't think that's appropriate and we are experiencing in the State of Florida a war on our public education and it's going on from grade school to grad school this is not it's not sister young children who are being affected I go to the University of West Florida and our university has been acutely affected by the by a rash of policies our office of diversity equity and inclusion was shut down our staff and
114faculty are prohibited prohibited to host an annual coming out day well I will assure you that the students at the University are bringing it back and we're going to be hosting our own Librarians professors teachers our faculty are not an enemy we should not be demonizing demonizing them and we should certainly not be calling them our opposition they're not political leaders they are public servants who are merely trying to give an education to our students and they should not be penalized and targeted because they don't want to fast-track the censorship that's been going on we need to stop telling our lgbtq that they do not exist by pulling books that represent them out of the out of the classrooms out of libraries and these attacks are hurting our students this is happening across this country
115across this state and students are fighting back we're seeing that and you may hear a lot more of that soon I want to so in in the in the opening prayer this evening it was said that you are to use wisdom beyond your own experience well I ask you to empathize with lgbtq people students faculty and staff and put yourself in their shoes think about what it's like to be a transgender person in this country when our governor is going across the country right now demonizing transgender women cutting ads saying that you know we're abhorrent Abominations we should we should consider that and you know I for a very long time have neglected to finish my application into this into the school district because you know to be a substitute teacher because I figured that
116you that we're not interested in employing someone like me a brown transgender woman well I've decided that you know here in my hometown this place that I love Pensacola where I was born and lived on my whole life that I shouldn't be afraid of that so I will continue going forward and put that application in we are going to stay we're 1.5 million people cannot vote because of their prior felony convictions where prison gerrymandering moves people to places where they don't live taking away electoral power from their communities so we got to understand that like while you have been elected by the people you've not been elected by all of the people I've knocked on doors for campaigns here in Pensacola and it is crushing heartbreaking how many doors you knock on and you talk
117to the people and they say I would love to vote for your candidate but my right to vote has been taken away and it is disproportionately has affected older black Americans black Floridians we should remember that all of these anti-lgbtq policies violate one of the most important laws we ever passed in this country the Civil Rights Act and that's that's not according just to me the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that you know if you have a policy that only that apply that applies to one next but not another like say like it affects disparately transgender and gay people that is a right that's a violation of the Civil Rights Act because it's a discrimination on the basis of sex so we should not we you need to reverse course and pass comprehensive
118protections for students faculty and staff save the teachers union that has been undermined by the DeSantis Administration where now now we're requiring 60 percent just to keep your union well that's that's taking away our teachers speech rights is taking away their their right to organize labor and I and I know so many people with so many of my peers at the University of West Florida and other folks who are no longer interested in a teaching career here in Escambia County I know people who are afraid to be open about their transgender identity and they're leaving the state to go to somewhere else where they are not so hostile you know what's been going on is not acceptable this is my hometown it is breaking my heart that we have become so cruel and so hostile
119to people who maybe we don't understand all the way but I would say that we the people we the people we the people are not going to put up with this forever and you know I cannot wait to go back to knocking on doors we will do that and we will stay well here in the State of Florida and in Pensacola Florida foreign ladies and ladies and gentlemen that brings us to the end of public forum next on the agenda is the approval of the minutes item a the August 11th regular Workshop both the approval of item a3a second moved and seconded any discussion being none please vote approved five to zero thank you sir next is Item B the August 15th regular Workshop or a regular meeting rather Mr chair I'll move Item B
120thank you sir about a second moved in second at any discussion being none please vote approved five to zero thank you sir item C September 8th special meeting moved to approve second the motion moved and seconded any discussion being none please vote prove five to zero thank you sir no unfinished business of the administrative appointment was moved forward we are at the brings us to proposed editions revisions for a first reading our first item B changes to the school board policy chapter 4 instruction is their emotion I'll move Item B my second moved and seconded any discussion seeing none please vote approve five to zero thank you sir item C changes to the elementary code of student conduct is there a motion also moved moved and seconded any discussion Mr chair yes ma'am as we
121discussed yesterday I had asked the question about the if appropriate and I was wondering if we could get the attorney to address that issue for because there was a comment about it what was disgusting and I think is Mr Bennett still here oh I can follow up with him what was discussed yesterday was the way the language was written it created a situation of an absolute where School Personnel would be present in the room while a student was being questioned there are certain occasions where law enforcement tells us that no one else can be in the room and we do not have the authority to interfere with their law enforcement activity additionally we've had situations where parents have told us when we have notified them that they do not want School Personnel in the room
122so the purpose behind the language was not to create a situation where there was some ambiguity about who was supposed to divide decide what was appropriate it was to create some flexibility with the language to address those situations where School Personnel cannot be present rather than having an absolute requirement that they be in the room thank you thank you ma'am we did have that discussion we went further there was it was it was in this viewed and it was not overlooked and Mr chair and I want to say to the public if you watched our Workshop the other day we went on for a good long time and it was a lot of good discussions and that's why you've seen us move so quickly through the agenda thank you sir any other discussion on item
123C been moved and seconded the discussion's over please vote proof five to zero thank you sir item D changes to the secondary code of student conduct is there a motion move approval second thank you sir thank you ma'am moved and seconded any discussion here again the in a if appropriate was in this also and for the same reasons any other discussion seeing none please vote proof 5-0 thank you sir brings us to item e changes to the school board policy chapter 3 School operations is their emotion I'll move out of me a second moved and seconded any discussion on item e thing none please vote approve five to zero thank you sir our next one is item f changes the school board policy chapter 7 students is their emotion moved and seconded item f the
124discussion saying none please vote approved five to zero thank you sir we have one item for public hearing after emotion second I will call for the public hearing item a changes to public to to the school board policy chapter 4 instruction is there a motion I'll move out of May second moved and seconded I'll Now call for the public hearing we have two speakers both have nine minutes our first one is Lil Eubanks and Ms Eubanks you have Leanne Eubanks okay and Spencer Daves Spencer okay there he is all right thank you nine minutes I'm Lil Eubanks and I was a 30-year veteran of Escambia High School of Escambia School District recently the Florida state government has put a lot of emphasis on ensuring that parents have rights to be in control of their children's
125education make no mistake parents have had those these rights for many years they have had the opportunity to opt out of any library books they do not want their child to read or opt out of their child watching any film or video clip they might not want their child to see or acquire alternative assignments if they object to an assignment however the Florida legislature felt that these policies were not enough so they passed the parents Bill of Rights Senate 1014.04 which states that a parent has the right to direct the education of his or her minor child the passage of the law clearly states that this right only applies to directing the education of their child in fact our school board policy our school board rule 4.06 states that no parent guardian or resident of
126the county has the right to determine the reading viewing or listening resources for students other than their own children unfortunately instead of using the policies already in place for directing their own child's education some parents have taken it upon themselves to try to direct the education of other people's children by attempting to ban books from school libraries so they are not available to other people's children they are infringing on the rights of other parents to direct their children's education no one parent should be able to have books removed from a school library just because the book's content doesn't support that person's point of view the media specialist guidelines state that the media center shall provide a wide range of materials on all levels of difficulty with diversity of appeal and with representation of different points
127of view state law says that the media center collection must support the broad racial ethnic socioeconomic and cultural diversity of the students of this state if you take a close look at the list of the 230 plus books that a small group of people are trying to remove from our media centers you can't help but notice that the majority of them are written by people of color or authors within the lgbtq plus community or are about the struggles of members of those groups removing these books from the media centers makes it appear to our children that reading about the struggles of diverse groups have no merit when in fact it has a great deal of Merit reading diverse books gives students a broader more realistic view of the world this also helps students dealing with
128their own challenges to know that such difficult circumstances can be overcome if the changes that have been proposed to school board rule 4.06 are passed the superintendent of schools will be practicing more of that Viewpoint censorship which the parents supporting book Banning are using it will allow the superintendent to determine that a challenge book can be removed without going through any process the current guidelines for selecting materials for the collection of a school library requires the consultation of reputable professionally recognized reviewing periodicals is the superintendent going to do that does he have time to read all 230 plus books in their entirety and still be able to run our school district the rules say that the procedure for selecting materials for the library requires the input of all stakeholders with transparency to the community and
129stakeholder and peer reviews removing a book from a media center should entail a deliberate process with input from trained professionals and community members who represent diverse points of view and who have read the entire book a book should not be removed because someone disagrees with or doesn't like the content by allowing the superintendent to remove books no parental rights are observed in fact they are taken away under the Florida Administrative Code only persons who are certified as educational media Specialists are authorized to make just selections of materials available to students in a school library I doubt if our superintendent has that certification if parents have a right to know about the book students are allowed to read they should also know what books are being removed why and on what basis public knowledge should cut
130both ways as far as I know no one knows what books have been removed from the media centers in this most recent Purge of books nor have I heard the criteria for what is meant by sexual content what does that phrase mean is it a passionate kiss between heterosexuals okay but not between homosexuals what is happening to the those books that are being pulled can we get a list of those titles what is the process for getting those books reviewed and put back on the shelves is the superintendent going to review these as well we need answers to these questions as well as knowledge about what criteria the superintendent will use for removing books is the criteria just going to be to listen to the person who has gotten a list of bad books from
131a group like moms for liberty or can the superintendent give us guidelines explaining why certain books are being removed the book removal process is tedious but if the district materials committees are allowed to do their jobs and the school board pays attention to their recommendations there would be a fair process and it would not be left up to one person to make these decisions when a group composed The Press professional Educators parents and community members converge to discuss a book Challenge and reach a conclusion about whether or not to keep a book in the media center despite what some board members might say that is a reflection of Community Values I suggest that parents who are concerned with which books are in Media Center collections take advantage of the opt out policies that are already
132in place and stop tromping on the rights of other parents who want their children to have access to the books that a small group of parents are trying to have banned from our school libraries please vote no on adopting the changes to school board rule 4.06 which will allow the superintendent to remove books from our media centers and bypass the district's committees and the board and I would like to say in addition that nobody is saying we want pornographic books in the libraries what we are saying is that we shouldn't have to close the libraries to do that thank you next speaker is Linda Fussell who also has nine minutes Drusilla James Drusilla James okay and Kathleen Varner thank you and before I get started I would just like to thank Lily Eubanks because everything
133I know about mathematics as an adult she taught me she is a wonderful teacher thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and y'all could get if you need any Refreshers she's good for it on Sunday August 27th in a public forum the main book challenge complaintant in Escambia County spoke to a group of people and said these words about the book Banning effort in the county and I quote we got a new superintendent the former director of the books the media specialist she resigned just people were changing we have a superintendent now who loves Jesus and is trying as hard as he can to follow the law and to get this mess out of our schools and my question is this true I was very very concerned is the removal of the
134books a done deal after what may be an affirmative vote on the rule change to school board rule 4.06 I'm extremely worried that banning books in Escambia County has become correlated to Jesus and become a religious action I support everyone's right to practice their chosen religion but I support more strongly the separation of church and state as guaranteed under our constitution it has been in recent months that the book Banning contingent here sees the new superintendent as a savior of sorts in terms of taking books off the shelf Banning books in Escambia county is clearly secular and should be treated as such once a book is put on a library shelf it becomes protected speech special interest groups are attempting to capitalize on a natural impulse response to get books immediately removed by their school
135board there is a process in place in Escambia County in which all books that are challenged can be examined for the supposed pornography or sexual content School Board rule 40.06 states that quote no parent guardian or resident of the county has the right to determine the reading viewing or listening resources for students other than their own children the Board needs to enforce this section of the reconsideration of challenged material and not allow one person to restrict all library books parents always have the opportunity to opt out of any library books they do not want their children to have access to rather than limit books for every child they can attend to their own student through the opt-out this new section of rule 4.06 was included in response to members of the board who objected to
136the decisions made by the district materials committee to generally keep the challenge books on the bookshelves and available to students several members stated that they did not know what was wrong with the Committees because the decisions were not reflective of the community once again not understanding that when a group comprised the professional Educators parents and community members converge to discuss a book Challenge and reach a conclusion to keep a book is actually a reflection of Community Values removing a book should be a deliberate process with input from trained professionals and community members who represent that diverse point of view and who have read the entire book a book should not be removed because someone disagrees or doesn't like the topic or content the new section of rule 4.06 allows the superintendent to remove books and
137bypass the district committees and the board a concern is that this rule open also opens the superintendent to concerns of viewpoint censorship this the very Viewpoint censorship that brought about not one but now two lawsuits against the school board Florida Statutes within that rule 847.001 says a book should be examined as whole in the definition of harmful to minors and 847.012 refers to sexual content and harmful to minors again examining a book as a whole so somebody's going to have to read those challenge books as a whole this rule also bypasses the stakeholders by allowing the superintendent to remove books no parental rights are observed parents of students in the district are not included in the decision and there are many parents who see their parental rights to have books available to their students excluded
138this rule relieves the school board from making the decision to keep restrict or remove books rather than implement this rule think about improving the reconsideration of challenged materials limit the number of challenges made by one person the district is held hostage by a main complaintant responsible for over 80 percent of the total book challenges there should be a method in place for those accepting rejecting the reconsideration request to confirm that the objector has met the criteria for objection for example there is a challenge right now to a book because the word is you quote the word is used several times throughout the book unquote really the word should our taxpayer.money be spent to carry out this challenge and speaking of taxpayer money consider the cost to The District staff time for reviews and cost of
139materials for the books if you are reluctant to limit the number of requests that can be filled at one time consider charging a fee when an objector files more than three to five challenges at a time this would model the way that public records requests can vary in cost depending on the amount of time it takes away from the regular work of Staff book Riot reported that the average school or District level committee review in Florida can cost between 500 to 800 dollars due to expenses consider the impact on student needs any depiction or description of sexual assault fits the definition of sexual conduct and a person with negative intentions could completely eliminate access to all books on the subject intended to support teens with the necessary information to protect and advocate for themselves for
140this reason it is important to limit the number of reconsideration requests of anyone any one person may make at a time the stated reason for most book removals especially those which concern sexual or social themes is to protect children at a time in which all sorts of material and imagery can be found on any number of electronic devices that is unlikely what they are likely to do however is to teach children undemocratic lessons that if you do not like something or just do not want to see or hear something you can just block it that you can keep others from exercising their freedoms and thinking for themselves trying to limit or refute or remove those freedoms is not patriotic and finally I asked the board again to put any book challenge because it violated HP
1411557 back in the school libraries of Escambia County participating in the marketplace of ideas a Democratic Society requires a thick skin removing books because you're afraid of what they say or more likely who might read them and what they might learn or think is anathema to Liberty I urge you to reject this new rule and put the books back on the library shelves and thank you very much that's the end of the speakers for the public hearing we do we have any discussion from the board thank you Mr chair because I am concerned with the interpretation that the superintendent has the ability to take any book off of the Shelf as I read the rule and I'm looking at our Legal Assistant that's why I was I don't normally look at my phone but I
142couldn't get it to come up on my but as I read this it's in the case where a book has been challenged because of its pornographic content or it's it's a violation of 847 Point whatever and those are the books that in consultation with the director of Library services correct they can determine to pull that book until it has been reviewed that's the way I'm interpreting this the other process that we've been having in place where we have a committee and those things will still happen with anything that is challenged on the basis of anything else am I not correct because the new legislation requires that any book that is challenged on the basis that it is pornographic or it contains sexual conduct it is required to be removed regardless of whether or not there's
143Merit to the challenge if it's challenge for either of those two bases it must be removed within five days it must remain unavailable to all students until the review is complete what has been proposed here is that the superintendent in consultation with the coordinator of Media Services shall retain the right to make a determination that the challenge to the title on the basis that it contains content that is pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.012 or depicts or describe sexual conduct is defined in Florida statute 847.001 subsection 19 unless such material is for a course required by Florida statute 100 human reproduction and health or identified by State Board of Education rule provides sufficient evidence to remove the title without review by the district materials Review Committee or board so that does create a possibility
144where if a book so very clearly Strays across the line that if the coordinator of Media Services says I know that this one is not going to make it she can bring it to his attention and rather than go through the expense of convening the committee to make the decision he can just direct that the book be removed but only on the basis of yes yes if somebody challenges it on the basis that it's woke or it violates House Bill seven no it has to be based on one of those two challenges and I wanted to add one other thing and Ellen first of all Elizabeth are you doing the scrolling will you open it and scroll all the way down because I want to make sure before I say this I'm correct will you
145scroll all the way down for me go back up real quick I just want to make sure that I once I've seen everything okay I'm I think I'm I think I'm good I won't answer all the questions you ask I'll try to answer as many of them as I can miss Eubanks I do not have Media Services certification so you're correct can you talk about the timeline because most of this policy was already created our previous coordinator of Media Services I just want to be sure you know I know I had the opportunity to call the other day and talk to you appreciate that opportunity I don't want you to think this is a Keith Leonard thing I want you to be sure you know what the timeline I want to be certain that all
146of our citizens know do you mind instead of it being me talk about the timeline of when all these policies were created I don't mind at all but I'm not I'm not sure quite what it is that you want to be conveyed but as many people in public forum very aptly described we were hit with an onslaught of legislation out of Tallahassee that required us to do a whole lot of things in in very little time and so we did in response to legislative requirements we had to adopt a procedure for parents to challenge books we the original policy that we adopted allowed parents we were required to take books off the shelves if they were challenged on the basis that they were pornographic or obscene but we created a process whereby parents could opt
147back in if they wanted their kids to have access to that book they could provide written permission to let them do that and that was the policy that this board adopted but then the legislature has come back and the Tallahassee folks said if somebody challenges it on one of these two bases it has to be removed from the shelves within five days and it must remain unavailable until the conclusion of all reviews they didn't write in any exceptions they didn't write in anything that allows us to respect parental consent for their children to read those materials it is a legislative mandate that we are required to follow so that's that's where we are I wanted to be sure everybody every day thank you thank you go ahead Mr Eubanks we typically don't do the back
148and forth but I think the superintendent would like to be able to have things cleared up if you would come to the mic so that it's recorded appropriately so my clarification the clarification question is so the idea is and we all agreed nobody wants pornography in the libraries or whatever so we're saying we're pulling those books and you are reviewing those books and deciding if they really need to be pulled or not I'm not sure I haven't been no superintendent that we've had has been able to do that because this policy has not passed okay but that's what this policy wouldn't that'll be one thing we would be able to do yes ma'am okay in consultation yeah with someone who does have Media Services certification but so are we still keeping the materials committees and
149the book review things if the books are have been pulled because they're woke or because they talk about you know something transgender or lgbtq or whatever that process will stick in place yes is that correct or are you going to be doing your review with that too well presently it's it's in place and that we had suspended it because of all of this that got thrown at us in the media specialist had a lot on their plates and so we're trying to get that part done first is that correctness Odom yes and I can speak absolutely that's correct we still do not have 100 percent open access at 100 of our media centers we do not have that yet ma'am okay but and is there a list available to the community of the books that
150have been filled off for for every for every book that has been challenged there is a list on our website it's a it's a in I won't say interactive but but it is a constantly updating list it's been in stasis for a while because we have put a halt on things but every book that for which a formal challenge has been filed it is on there you can there's a tremendous amount of information in fact just today we moved the link to it to the home page of the school district website so if you go to dot org escambischools.org on our home page if you scroll all the way down to the bottom there is a link that says challenged instructional I don't want to get this let's go in there but why what I
151want to know are it has it has the results of every book that has been challenged and in if they've been removed there are some books it's interesting that a lot of people are saying that you've removed all these books a lot of times the decision that was made was we're not going to remove it we're just going to restrict it to certain grade levels it's still available to certain kids determinations have been made regarding whether or not these books are age appropriate but also there are there are books that the committee themselves the school-based I'm sorry the district-based committee made the decision that these books are not age appropriate and they don't belong in schools it's all reflected on this list okay that includes the ones that have been pulled like since the libraries
152were closed at the beginning of school and Librarians are still going through them so we are required there is I don't remember if it's an actual statute the day is long and the mind is tired but I don't remember if it was a state board rule I believe it was that we are required to report to doe annually every single book that is removed from the shelves so that is something for which you can make a public records request either to us or to the state doe they should have that information and that process is still going on in the libraries absolutely because it takes a lot of time absolutely and just the logistics thing are the libraries the Librarians talking to each other and saying well I pulled this you probably want to pull
153that and not only are they talking to each other they are talking to me it is we had a meeting a couple of weeks ago I would tell you what I would call it but it was a very productive meeting we'll be meeting again I know that our High School director and Bradley met maybe last week or the week before so it's ongoing and we're getting as close as we can get as quick as we can because it's important for everyone yeah because it's sad when a student you know when you usually can tell a student well who has every all his work done well get a book and read it oh I can't because my classroom teachers School library is not available correct that's a sad thing but thank you thank you for answering
154my question thank you yeah Miss vessel I I hesitate but go ahead come up to the mic so people could hear back there I just wanted to cause does that involve particip I guess participation in the lawsuit is that why they have not we cannot we cannot make any comments no but the 1557 books with the attorney general saying and answer anything at this point in the questions you're going down the road yeah that's okay okay thanks thanks Miss Varner no no I have old people ears I just have one quick question the review committees are charged with reading the book in its entirety before they discuss and make decisions and so forth if this goes if this 406 goes into play will the superintendent and or the media director be required to read that
155book in its entirety because this is a problem that we've had with some things that are marked as pornographic when you see them in context there is a reason for it to be like that I'm going to have the opportunity to see you really really soon right when is the original sorry Thursday so yeah I don't want to put that question out for you there because it's going to be a friendly environment okay I'm looking forward to it yes ma'am okay the way the policy is currently written no ma'am I would not have to read it in its entirety to be able to determine if like a photograph in it was pornographic I would not have to read the entire book would the media director have to do such no ma'am not according to it
156but you're talking about just graphic stuff I mean pictorial stuff pornography and sexual content we're talking words also not just Graphics right yes ma'am okay a long long time she would tell you I do love Jesus so that's this is true thank you out there the thing that's bothered me about it is the perception has been given by again a small number of people to the community making assumptions and assertions okay so you know it got out there from people making those statements that were untrue and I don't want to get on the soapbox and but but I go back to every Media Center in this District was not closed the first day of school there there were ones who with in coordination with the principle and the media specialists at that site they said
157Hey in order for this to happen this and this I'm going to be closed but you know what I worked in this school district for 38 years and going back to my first years in teaching the media centers were always closed the first two to three weeks of school they were closed because especially at elementary level teachers and media Specialists and media aides were helping all the new kindergartners who were lost and wandering around and doing other things doing getting things ready getting textbooks out in in which classroom were they on and on and on so that wasn't something new and different but it was blown up by people to make it look like some horrendous thing was going on in Escambia County and it wasn't factual yeah there were there were those that were
158closed down but that decision was made by the principal and by the media specialist at that site and they're working through it they're trying to follow the law just as everybody else in in on the board and at the district level everywhere they know that the new legislation said those materials had to be reviewed had to be looked at now Bradley if I'm saying something wrong you stop me because you know I don't want to go over a cliff unless you know forewarn me if I am but but they have to be reviewed before everything is opened as it was in the past and it's because of the newest legislation period question all right but but we make it real quick because we really are we have beat this dead horse until he's well this
159is about pornography one of the selections that was read was about masturbation and I'm just asking is masturbation automatically considered pornography yeah we're not we're not going to get into this and evaluations is there a good definition of what we're considering yeah pornographic at this point at this point Mr chairman I'm done yeah I make one quick State you want to give me the expert on no I'm not going to be able to explain on that one you've been around longer bill I have been around longer and I have suffered through a few of those occasions that I didn't want to have to talk about it but folks it is now September the legislature will meet again in January and may I guarantee you what we are looking at tonight probably will have to be
160changed because they're going to come up with new ideas so you we might request that you call your local legislators and say give the school district a break we might need a year where there's a moratorium on school changes because we can't catch up it's completely impossible to know because this change we were working with in July excuse me so I mean just hang on the timelines have been unbelievable you know it used to be if there was a new rule came out you had they the state had six months to put it into enacting Rules by the doe and then six months later it went into effect now it's passed one day and they put in place two weeks later and it's just impossible for that to happen now someone in the rear of
161the room okay quick I'm talking about the length of the question not this not the travel oh well yeah I just have a question okay just ask you a question thank you for giving me this moment because I came back in and I'm trying to understand so Bill Slayton just made a fabulous point which is the legislation is the legislators are about to go back in and they are inevitably going to change everything or make it harder or make it worse and if that is the case why not keep it the way it is wait for that to happen and then make a change and my second thing is superintendent Leonard I can't imagine that you really want as much as Escambia County keeps having book after book after book that your time is going
162to be spent looking at books I would hope that your time would be spent on the issues that are at hand which are not reading books not that you shouldn't read books to get more educated to get more engaged but that's not what we put you in office for right now that's a different issue and we're not the same because then therefore he couldn't all I'm saying is that then we wouldn't have to have him your recommendation is noted but okay that's all I need that's all you need to do thank you so much thank you I appreciate it if if I could add one more I was requested to give a timeline and one one vital bit of timeline that I omitted not this year's legislative session but last year's legislative session the legislature
163passed a law that mandates that any book that is in a school library or media center must be reviewed and selected by somebody holding a media specialist certification so on top of the book Challenge and having to do deal with that the reason the libraries were shut down over the summer was because our media Specialists were tasked with the Herculean job of going through every single book in their library and reviewing it not for pornography not for obscenity not for all of the things that have gotten these books on the challenge list just on a basic level so that they can they can check the box and say this book I can certify has been selected by someone who holds a media specialist certification and I will defer to Ms Vinson on how many books
164we have in our libraries but if you consider how big a task that is that's that's the Baseline of what we are trying to get through in addition to managing these book challenges so I apologize for omitting that from the timeline all right we have we have had questions we've we've been responsive we are trying to be respectful of everyone's desires and wishes and I think everyone has a clear understanding we have a motion made we've had our discussion I did want to make one one question was asked about why don't we leave it the way it is and we can't leave it the way it is because of new legislation and we have to as someone so eloquently pointed out that whole board's been removed because they didn't follow law so we will follow
165the law on every instance but please vote passes five to zero thank you Mr superintendent thank you we're moving on to the consent agenda the next items of business is the approval the consent agenda can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda so move second moved and seconded is there any items to be pooled do we have anyone left to okay all the all the speaker forms have been done it was for the public hearing on that one so looking at it in curriculum anything Finance what can we scroll human resources operations blatant do you have something to pull all right seeing no one pulling anything please vote on the consent agenda approve five to zero thank you sir thank you next we go to number four items from the board moving into
166items from the board item a school board out of state travel is there a motion I'll move the move the motion if a motion is there a second moved and seconded any discussion being an unpleased vote through five to zero that did have the change for the one-way ticket didn't it I The Item B superintendent evaluation instrument is there a motion I'll move the evaluation instrument second moved and seconded any other discussion there will be one more piece of this with the rubric the rubric will be coming for the public to know right any other discussion seeing none please vote approve 5-0 thank you sir and next items items from the superintendent item C the formal hearings is their emotion move the adoption of the recommendation of superintendent second the motion moved and seconded any
167discussion being none please vote approved five to zero thank you sir item D disciplinary reassignments is their emotion move we accept the superintendent's recommendation thank you sir I'll second moved and seconded any discussion being none please vote prove 5-0 thank you sir our next item is number 42a employee discipline is there a motion moving second moved and seconded any discussion saying none please vote prove five to zero thank you sir lastly item 43 of foundation at 43a the foundation board of directors nominees is their emotion move to accept the nomination second the motion moving second in any discussion being none please vote approved five to zero thank you sir this concludes our agenda items lady and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen we are now adjourned okay