School Board Action Meeting: April 12, 2022

001good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting sergeant-at-arms or designee has a front lobby been attended to ensure public access thank you the school board meeting of april 12 2022 is now called to order the time is 601 prior to the start of this evening's meeting we have been enjoying scenes from the adams family this performance is presented by the ida s baker high school theater company the director of of this group is sarah jones if you want to see full version of this musical comedy tickets for their upcoming show on april 29th and 30th are still available please scan the qr code on the screen above to purchase the tickets through go fan and again we really appreciate the kids being here today at this time we will

002take we're not going to take a brief pause because we've already done that they are gone so we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district vision to be a world-class school system can you turn the page here this evening's agenda includes moment of silence presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance acknowledgements recognitions public comments consent action items which include two items under board office five items under academic services four items under business services two items under human resources 16 items under operations which two are good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for these two items yes madam chair item 15 the total project cost estimates for m

003j was added to maintain the j elementary and mm addition project schedule if contracts are not engaged by april 13 2022 the project will realize a substantial cost increase and or a delayed opening past the fiscal year 23 24 start of school date item 16 the purchase of the right-of-way for g weaver hips was added to meet the closing timeline requirements thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these two items to the agenda board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda i'll move to adopt the agenda as printed thank you miss fisher may i have a second i'll second thank you mr ivanelli it has been moved by mrs fisher and seconded by ms g benelli please record your vote and this roman i cannot see it

004because the screen is it's not up yet i can't it's not coming up just vote i okay 7-0 motion carries thank you miss vaughn will lead us in a moment of silence after which miss morgan will lead us in the presentation of colors and the pledge of allegiance miss vaughn please lead us in a moment of silence please stand as you stand this evening for a moment of silence i would like to suggest that you send your thoughts and prayers to the brave people of ukraine who continue to endure egregious brutality from the government of russia thank you miss morgan introducing the cadet who is presenting the national colors for our pledge of allegiance tonight is sergeant major robert charles hightower junior army instructor from north fort myers high school sergeant major hightower served 30

005years in the army in numerous assignments and retired as the quality assurance sergeant major for the united states army combined arms command sustainment center of excellence this is sergeant major's major high towers first year as a jrot instructor in the district welcome and thank you for your service deputy brigade commander he was also selected as a future brigade commander of north fort myers high school jrotc he is actively involved in all jrotc teams he is a color guard commander as a as well as a member of the drill team for three years he is also a member of the red knights raiders team for three years he is also a member of the north fort myers high school musical theater please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag

006of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you may be seated thank you miss morgan this evening student representative is cole weiler cole is a seventh grader at colusa middle school with a current 4.0 gpa a member of the national junior honor society and an assistant ambassador at colusa middles musically inclined cole currently enjoys playing the keyboard cole plans to pursue an engineered degree after graduating from high school and a career working for illinois musk welcome cole at this time our student representative cole will be will present the character word and design and design for april thank you speaking and it's going to okay it's going to be up there the character educational word for april is integrity the

007ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy dr martin luther king jr the design you see displayed on the screen was created by liz rand marrero an 11th grade student at mariner high school good job buddy and now thank you cole now you're going to proceed with the acknowledgments school board of lee county acknowledges the following events for the month of april 2022 a minute administrative professional week april 24th through 30th 2022 earth day april 22nd 2022 florida school volunteer month april 1st through 30th national autism awareness month april 1st through 30th 2022 school library month april 1st through 30th 2022. thank you okay next on the agenda is recognition board members and coal please join me down

008in the pit you're doing a great job over here please thank you so fort myers-based first which i'll explain in a minute first tech challenge robotics team oh you're pushing it up there go ahead java the huts notice java j-a-v-a the huts avoided a trademark violation has advanced the world championship competition to be held in houston texas between april 20th and april 23rd 2022 49 teams competed in the state championship in winterhaven florida on march 5th 2022. the java the hutts team won the overall first place inspire award given to the team go ahead the inspire award is given to the team that is a top contender for many other judge awards and is a gracious competitor and is the first of three teams from florida to advance to the world championship first stands for

009for inspiration and recognition of science and technology it is a global robotics community with teams spread across 110 countries with primary focus on advancing stem education first tech challenge is a category a category of robotics competition for students in grades 7 through 12 teams design build and program a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams i'm going to call your names and give you a certificate and then i would ask you to go up and shake everyone's hand and then stand in front of the board i'm sorry is there a principle here we are a community of base team yeah there are a lot of different schools represented here so first robert robbie stewart robbie is a sophomore at bonita springs high school he is part of the mechanical design team and

010the build team lead for jth congratulations advaith menon advaith is a sophomore at dunbar high school he is part of the programming team and is the documentation lead and web designer for jth druva sharma druva is a freshman at fort myers high school he is the programming lead for jth congratulations kayden keen kaden is a junior at fort myers high school he is a part of the build team and is the lead mechanical designer for jth there is another student who is unable to attend tonight his name is kyle keane and kyle is a junior at fort myers high school he's the graphic design lead and helps create the engineering portfolio for jdh caden can i give this to you i is there a relation there yeah okay i'll bring it to you can we

011have a round of applause please and i saved quinn conocek for last because i know quinn quinn and my boys went to elementary school together and my most memorable moment with quinn was in third grade when i went into the classroom to teach the three branches of government and he was so committed to phonetics that he called it the judicial bran branch he fully understood the concept of separation of powers he just couldn't say judicial at that time i love this young man he is going to change the world and i couldn't be more thrilled to give this certificate to quinn konasak quinn is a sophomore at bonita springs high school and he is the pr and marketing lead for jth we need to see how it works first we promise it's not me yeah

012we designed most of these parts we designed ourselves using a cdc machine and 3d printers yeah all right they have as many remotes as i did yeah there's a lot of systems of movement on the robot so it actually takes two drivers to control the problem thank you guys so much thank you so much thank you guys so much for having us they are still raising funds for their trip just fyi okay we got you have a go he's marketing he's marketing us right now there you go okay next i would like to invite to the lectern miss brenda strebel mr richard cuddle and i apologize if i'm saying your name wrong miss beverly burke i know i got your name right the foundation for lee county public schools in collaboration with the voice of

013the constitution cape 912 or 12. and i'm sorry did i have your name on here ma'am oh and sarah let's not miss sarah and sarah and the lee county school district offered all middle schools all middle schools in lee county a chance to participate in the voc essay project they're through their generous voct cape 912 and private donors provided student pocket constitution constitutions free to all participating seventh grade civic teachers to support classroom instructions in civics history and social study classes students were invited to write an essay based on information found in the u.s constitution each participating middle school selected their best two essays to submit to the foundation and the cape 912 inc we're we're a selection committee of cape 912 members and the golden apple teacher greg bolen reviewed and asked and i'm

014sorry reviewed and ranked the essays to come up with the top three and now i will turn this over to mr richard caldwell president of voice of the constitution cape 912 which you are here so i'm going to bring you up here please thank you and then here's you have the names and everything already you do you've probably done a better job of talking on yourself thank you good evening speaking voice of the constitution is proud to sponsor the constitution essay contest for the 12th consecutive year we would like to thank the foundation of lee county public schools and the lee county school district for their ongoing partnership and support for this program congratulations to all of the voice of the constitution essay winners the quality of the essays were very close making it a

015challenging decision for the selection committee the third place winner is austin sumi of lexington middle school please come up with your teacher miss cynthia volpe austin earned a 50 amazon gift card for himself and the staples gift for his teacher with an outstanding essay titled foundation of the u.s constitution thank you congratulations okay here we go second place is tyson privy of three oaks middle school unfortunately he's not here today but he his teacher is here so austin earned a excuse me tyson earned a 75 amazon gift card for himself and the staples gift card for his teacher cynthia rustino with her excellent with her excellent essay entitled responsible citizenship i couldn't be here i'm the language arts teacher you're representing yes you're welcome thank you okay okay well i think we have the first

016place winner too first place author's winning essay was this was on the subject of federalists and anti-federalists congratulations sarah huda of three oaks middle school please come up and receive your prize we earned a 200 amazon gift card for herself and the staples gift card for her teacher again cynthia rostino cynthia could not be here this evening but i want to congratulate personally cynthia for having not won but two winners to this contest thank you thank you that's not mine did someone leave a cell phone miss miss burke sarah did one of you leave a cell phone up here down front excuse me the boys were the mr nolan will you check with the boys to see if they left a cell phone please foundation yeah she just said no oh that's going to be

017a bummer okay thank you all we're giving him just a second to clear the room and again this just shows what our kids are doing in the district and i'm just so excited for them okay the next on the agenda item is public comment today our assistant school board attorney miss shayna zupke will address public comments msuki please address the item of public comments to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district if you completed a public comment card please put it in the basket provided at the back of the room if you need a public comment card they are provided by our staff located in the hallway outside of the boardroom the rules concerning public comment are posted in and

018will be made from the microphone in the back of the room please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on school district issues abuse of language is prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing or display of temper during the public comment time is prohibited speakers who fail to follow the proper decorum in the chambers will be will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers we will be we will take recess if necessary if there

019is not decorum in the chambers per board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is three minutes if there are 20 speakers two minutes if there are thirty speakers and one minute if there are thirty one speakers or more the maximum time allowed for the public comment is one hour sixty speakers you will find a countdown on the big screens and in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the microphone i will call your names five speakers at a time please follow staff's direction when lining up madam chair there are 17 speakers that wish to address the board this evening thank you which is equates to three minutes per yes that will be three minutes per speaker thank you and

020i will call the first five speakers oh yeah let me one moment okay please make sure you have completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comment the card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information to staff for follow-up the cards are located with the staff in the hallway is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the board but did not fill out a comment card at this time cnn before we start i would just like to bring something forward it has come to our attention that an old equality florida poster was found at one of our schools and a text message was sent regarding a similar issue please be advised that the district has removed the poster as well as had we have not

021used that poster for over a year and the text message is under review the school board will abide by all applicable laws and maintain our commitment to non-discrimination dr savage can you please comment to this please yes just to reiterate what you said madam chair my understanding is that it was a new principle to the school immediately upon being brought to the principal's attention this the poster was taken down and disposed of so just wanted to make sure that just support what you said that it was addressed and i think anything else related to this would continue to be looked into relative to text messages and things of that nature thank you very much mrs yes i'd like to call the first five speakers sharon mcgill jackie o marina church denise nystrom and dan severson

022good evening sharon mcgill i'd just like to take a minute to address the public comment issue that's come up a few times this week and to address the board about it i come here to address the board i don't come here to address the audience so if people feel compelled to turn around and look at me when i speak that's their choice but i'm here to address the board and whether i'm standing in the back of the room on the side or i could be in another room as long as i was on speaker and you could hear me it wouldn't matter it does not matter where i am in the room to address you so i just want to make that perfectly clear and understand why this was even an issue to begin with

023is because there were certain people who were disrespectful of the protocols that were set in place by the district so actions have consequences and us being in the back of the room are the consequences of those actions by those people next i'd like to thank legal services for the presentation on the superintendent the elected versus appointed i think it was very comprehensive there was a lot of information and as was discussed i think it could be shortened for public review and still fall within the education guidelines and i think the district actually owes it to the stakeholders in the community to do that i think it's their responsibility to educate them about the issue like you said no advocacy of any kind attached to it and if a board member doesn't feel comfortable discussing it

024with the public that's their choice but i do think that the district has a responsibility to lay out the differences between having an elected and an appointed superintendent thank you hello everybody so loud my name is marina church i'm a mother of two wonderful kids who attend veterans park academy for the arts in lehigh acres last two years has been not easy for all of us and especially for our kids i'm here today because my kids really want i come to school to have lunch with them i try to come there i try to make this simple wish to come through i call to your office before trying to go to our school and got a positive reply that doors are open for visitors in all schools in lee county i told to my daughter

025that finally we can have lunch together at school when i came i saw posters all over front doors that visitors are not allowed many of them but i was sure school administration just forgot to take them off our principal came out to talk to me and said that he doesn't allow any visitors by his own choice his own decision i am asking you to clarify the situation please and help me with that matter so kids and parents finally can enjoy a simple normal lunch at school together like it was used to be two years ago thank you so much thank you good evening denise nystrom last year many community members asked that to err on the side of transparency that the bill of rights be placed front and center in the code of conduct and

026i am requesting that again that a parent would not have to search a link to find sb 582 or sb 1557 mrs fisher at yesterday's workshop meeting the 2223 code of conduct was discussed and you asked a very poignant question you said who is deciding to arrest our children over minor infractions that's something that i've shared conversations with other people about and i thank you for sharing your concern about that i think you hit a very important nail on the head i have seen the faces of children plastered on the news for minor infractions and i think to myself how are they ever going to return to school it's a traumatizing incident sometimes they will even give their home addresses one incident alone does not define a child and since you brought it up i'm

027asking you to please to continue bringing that up and to look at the code of conduct in terms of its tolerance policies once again i would also like to thank dr spiro and his academic team there are a group of us that have been meeting with his entire team to discuss the issues many which we have discussed here for the last year and we are working very very collaboratively together towards solutions that will meet everybody's needs his team is professional and collegial and i cannot thank them enough thank you again dr spyro finally i would like to thank mrs gittins for speaking about allowing the public to make our comments at the side microphone and for be willing and for being willing to change her seat to make that happen it does help to establish

028positive relationships between us and the board i have attended several governmental discussions lately with national figures there is no wanting there there's no checking of pocketbooks and so once again i'm asking for the board's consideration to have us return to the side microphone thank you very much will the following speakers please line up mary hartley jada fleming armor pearsons mike racecott and joe phillips good evening can we put the clock back please miss roman thank you i'm dan severson it's been my honor to serve in the this country in the military for 22 years during that time i observed all types of leadership from destructive self-serving policies which undermined the unit morale to models of integrity and self-sacrifice which create purpose and unit success i've witnessed lee county school system an organization where the majority

029of the team of over 12 000 employees believe in the mission of making good citizens for our future unfortunately this leadership is failing that failure is reflected in poor morale mistrust and abuse of system resources teachers are frustrated bus drivers are underpaid and ill-equipped to deal with problems and most importantly the board has lost the trust from the very people who put them in charge the parents last year we had protracted hearings and voices from the parents dealing with the lgbtq and the posters that had been brought forward as was stated tonight that seemed to have been a one-time occurrence how do we know how we know that wasn't posted there for quite a while or is not in other buildings so that's that's a question that has gone to the heart of this issue

030now because you've resurrected through that process a mistrust of this board and it's going to take some real positive measures to bring that trust back i believe that the ability for the parents to speak and to speak from the side rosters is pivotal to beginning to replace that trust but i also believe that in order to regain that trust we're going to have to have some real positive movements in terms of the kind of lunches that we're feeding our kids number one i have been out on the streets and talking with particular parents and those lunches are subpar and i believe that's a direct reflection of some of the actions that were taken from this board over a year ago on the on the contracts so i i appreciate the efforts that are being put

031forth from that rostrum but there have been some bumps in the road and some hurdles that will now become yours to overcome the taxpayers the children and the community deserve better thank you thank you good evening hi hi i'm mary hartley and i want to ask the board tonight if they were aware that some teachers need aids in the classroom to help out one teacher in particular is an experienced teacher who has teeth taught all around the country because her husband was a military intel officer and they are both cape coral residents they graduated through the lee schools and so she's been teaching this year in the lee school this teacher in particular has never experienced what she has experienced as a teacher in the league county schools she teaches elementary and she struggles to

032teach in between breaking up fights having kids arrested and she has asked the district for an aide to help out manage fights so that way she can teach she said her what she teaches is no longer fun in the classroom because she breaks up fights and she is just shocked absolutely shocked she's never experienced this kids elementary kids being arrested she told the police oh i'm sorry i got ahead of myself the district has denied teachers in aid which would greatly help her instruct in her classroom instead of breaking up fights she has since quit she will not be with the lee county school districts next year she said she's taught in many school districts but this has been the worst ever and she's so sad because this is she's a product of the lee

033county schools and i hear we have a super a new superintendent and i hear he's overpaid i would like to know if any of you or the superintendent would be willing to give up some of your money how much you guys make for this to the teachers or the aides that they need or the bus drivers let's not pay bus drivers or teachers enough to retain them right what happened to all the coveted funding that all the school districts were getting and then has the district forgot that the bus drivers and the teachers are what keeps this district going you need them in order to have you guys up there have you forgotten without without them and all of our tax money none of you would be sitting there so i'm here to ask if

034any of you be willing to give up some of your pay so that way teachers can have an aid to help out with the fights in the fights in the classroom or pay bus drivers more maybe 20 an hour of work because the bus drivers are the backbone of our district they are the ones who get our kids to and from schools safely and everybody should get on board on that thank you good evening excuse me armour persons i'm the grandfather of two students in the lee county school district he sort of missed the point when you said all the posters have been taken out of the school i don't that's not important what's important is the policies quote best practices that poster had on it and the best i can tell all those policies

035are in effect boys identifying as girls can go into the girls bathroom teachers can keep from the parents problems and counsel the kids it's the policies that are the problem if this isn't the case i'd be great if you could direct me where the board has the policies written down so parents may look at them and learn what they are i have not been able to find them i sent an email out to all the board members when the poster showed up and again it's not the poster it's the practices that are on the poster i only got one response the response says focus on critical issues and quit feeding red meat to your base that was a totally unappropriate response issue is a critical issue if it concerns our parents i mean our students

036excuse me thank you good evening evening my name is mike rasiko i'm glad to see we had some folks here talking about stem i recently retired from a stem position in detroit and cole glad to see that you are interested in pursuing automotive career because i just retired from gm and i used to work at their test tracks and at their technical center and i realize what stem positions require they require a lot of integrity of science and data and i know all the folks that have leadership positions here and teachers it's a hard job i home schooled for a while i had four sons and i also sent him a private school public school but i was surprised in the when i was in working that there was very few americans in some of

037the higher technical positions so it's encouraging to see the stem activities in the school but i think we need to go farther and part of that i think is to is to show some leadership yourself i came here last fall or whatever it was when you had the meeting on mask and i didn't get to speak and being an engineer and looking at a lot of data i found some scientific studies on mask and they showed that the masks don't work and i also had a son that played some college basketball and if you if you investigate the virus you find out it's like the holes in the mask are like six times bigger than the size of the virus so i'm pretty sure i could keep up with my son's three pointers if i

038was shooting at a basketball hoop that was three times or six times the size of it normally is so i just encourage the board and people making these decisions to especially for the stem students to actually look at the data and you will see that it doesn't make sense for those kind of situations i know we're not using them now but it's just an example of showing some leadership for these kids and i'm glad that martin luther king was mentioned because a lot of the folks that i worked with in stem were from other countries taiwan india the middle east all over the world and they all had great character they didn't they didn't have all these side studies on the things that were on that poster or other things they focus on the fundamentals

039and in those countries you know they're they've been beating the heck out of us in stem for a long time so i guess i wonder what's on the agenda the boards sometimes you know like he spoke about what the process is because the process in my mind should be you know what get measured gets done and reading writing and arithmetic should be top priorities not and making sure these posters aren't on there so thank you will the following speakers please line up dr edward draz sidney skirtich robert roper tara jenner and christy divijelli and there is actually 16 and the last speaker would be ryan monroe after good evening jada langford fleming seems that we are back at a genesis moment a year ago you store stirred up the hornet's nest and you had 300

040parents attend a school board meeting because of something that was slipped into a code of conduct that the school sent out and here we are a year later still seeing this ridiculous and inappropriate poster in classrooms i have heard that the poster was put up on an accident the only accident was that the poster was taken a picture of with a student an administrator and then put on social media i'd also like to encourage the board to enforce their own policies making it very easy to find by the parents so that these posters can be taken down and then reprimand the staff who continues to violate the policy that you put in place another failure of the board the state provided raises and yet are hard-working underpaid teachers have not seen the raises they deserve

041inflation continues to increase and not only is this not fair but it's wrong we are having a major retention problem here in lee county with teachers with paraprofessionals and with bus drivers this is really important the teachers the bus drivers the cafeteria staff the paraprofessionals the janitorial staff and many others are the backbone of the education system here in lee county and they deserve the raise that they were promised thank you smoking joe before i start i'd like to wish everyone here a happy easter even some of you atheists such a wonderful time of year but i won't be hiding any eggs this year searching for none i'll be able to hunt to expose more of the corruption and answers to the question this board bunny hops around every day the bus drivers still forgotten

042as they see you keep spending money on buildings pay increases for administrators and lawyers we where is the justice and the people who we literally put the most trust of our children's safety in every day not being paid an adequate wage weaknesses lee county demand a forensic audit on the process of procurement and relationships between board members and vendors between the maintenance department procurement and chris patricka we know there is collusion going on and that has to be addressed we come to you meeting after meeting and it seems like this board is deaf to the request we ask of you i will also add that we're still back here in the back of the room at the recent workshop miss gittins was berated for as trying to be a hero when she made the suggestion

043that we'd be brought back to the front what are y'all afraid of i don't understand it if y'all haven't noticed the crimes are being committed on that side of the desk i can assure you that no one wants to get further away from this board than the citizens of lee county miss patricki you're safe miss jordan i don't think no one's going to run up there and snatch a patch out of your head oh wait somebody done beat me to it i'm smoking joe peace good evening dr edward grass is it coincidental or ironic that the school board word presented by miss jordan for april is integrity defined by the american heritage dictionary steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code or in my own homespun way i view integrity as doing what you'll

044say you'll do to quote dr savage on a different issue one is too many one poster sets the tone for what the public thinks accident or not it was there and it was seen so i asked you this did the board show integrity when they told the parents that all the posters would be removed from the schools did they do what they promised does this instill confidence in in the parents and in the students and does it instill confidence in other actions the board has taken or will take in the future remember this is an election year and the voters are watching you as a board are familiar with 100 1.42 paragraph six standards of ethical conduct for instructional personnel and school administrators you may need to apply that when it comes to this poster

045now at a workshop yesterday you reviewed the new student code of conduct for the 2022-2023 year does this new code of conduct comply with the new florida statutes pertaining to education that will be enacted on july 1st 2022 house bill 1557 i'm sure you've all read it already but let me just review a few points it requires district school boards to adopt procedures that comport with certain provisions of law for notifying students parents of specified information it requires such procedures to reinforce fundamental rights of parents to make decisions regarding upbringing and control of their children it prohibits school districts from adopting procedures or student support forms that prohibit school district personnel from notifying parents about specified information or that encourage students to withhold from parents such information it also prohibits school district personnel from discouraging

046or are prohibiting parental notification and involvement in critical decisions affecting the students mental health think about this when you're passing new board guidelines for mental health care for emotional and physical well-being read your statutes school board this is your lifeblood thank you good evening hi i'm sydney skurdig i'm a student at florida gulf coast university and i wanted to come here and share an idea i have about implementing mental health into the high school curriculum i know there's a program called wellness wednesday and i think that is a great step into the right direction however i believe there should be a course that goes more in depth about mental health and dives into those hard conversations when i was in high school my freshman and sophomore year i struggled with mental health and often struggled

047internally and kept to myself and wasn't involved in much activities luckily my parents were able to recognize that and what was going on and i was able to get help however not many students are as lucky as me they might feel uncomfortable talking to their parents or maybe their parents don't even know much about mental health and most of these students who don't have any understanding of mental health are left untreated or undiagnosed which decreases their overall academic success rate they have a lower gpa and less involvement within the school and having a class on mental health would be ideal and it's essential to go more in depth about mental health and discussing treatment options coping mechanisms where to go for help who to ask to help and how to deal with others who might

048be experiencing mental health such as their family friends or peers this course is needed more than ever especially within these last two years ever since coba there has been more and more mental health cases and it is important as a school to provide students with the with the support anyways i hope you can all consider implementing this course and thank you for allowing me the time to speak thank you good evening i just want to take a minute thank the board i haven't done that in a while and i like the reminder that we've all gone through a pandemic and it's been a little over two years and that is something we all have in common and it's not been easy on anyone most of all kids to be fair but i do know that

049during this pandemic and even before that i want to speak to the reference of mistrust by dan siverson and then the reference to the microphone being the back of the room which i don't know like at least i feel like we should pick our battles and i just don't see why this is the most important one communication is important but the microphone the back of the room seems a little bit unimportant in the effort to make a solution in addition to that if i understand correctly the microphone is in the back of the room and the security is out there because of threats that the board received for over a year i know you guys don't talk about it and i can't imagine what that's like because i'm not a board member but i do

050wish that you would open up about that so the community would have some understanding of the reasons for some of these things and you can tell me if i'm wrong but that's my understanding some of them if i understand were death threats some of them were climbing over a wall to enter someone's house okay this is a big deal so it's one thing to put up with you know angry parents but it's another thing for angry parents to attack you and that happened for at least a year it happened on august 30th when lee county made national news we were on newsweek we were on msnbc we're in independent uk because a doctor got shoved off the curb because a woman got punched in the face by anti-masked man the conservatives who were the anti-masters

051were the attackers these are things that happened and if you're not sure just look it up in the news these are important things and you certainly have the freedom to laugh second i want to talk about the lgbtq poster and i want to just speak up on behalf of children that are lgbtq i think that when someone's different than me i should listen to them and i think that's the case with lgbtq we should do more listening in reference to what the board members get paid if i'm not mistaken board members and i think miss jordan may have even done this a couple years ago get paid the same salary as the first year teacher salary and if i remember you reduced your own salary a couple years ago my last question is if bus

052drivers are still in negotiations can we bring in arbitrator can we make solutions thank you good evening robert roper the time has come for this board to answer to the parents of lee county currently the district policy concerning counseling for children that may be questioning their gender is to place that child with a counselor that is only capable of taking that child down the road further in their gender confusion you currently offer no alternative such as restoring the child to their sex assigned at birth last year the policy became an unwritten policy since that time i've worked with you to remedy this situation that allows the district to put the child with a gender affirming counselor for an unspecified number of visits in an unspecified period of time without parental permission or notification your one-size-fits-all

053approach to a complex topic is very dangerous to the students there is not one single other emotional disorder that you would treat the same universally like you do gender confusion let's let me just review what's at stake here in the proposed student code of conduct you clearly state that lgbtq students are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide for god's sake inform the parents and let them decide what's best for their child we're not talking about counseling a child that's afraid to take a test this is life or death one of the arguments i've heard from the district forever is these students claim that their parents will kill them if they find out i'm going to ask you to stop hiding behind that excuse if that statement is believed to be true by

054the counselor then it is required by law that you report it to dcf immediately and by the most expeditious means not to continue to counsel that child the absolute last thing a gender confused child needs one that has suicidal ideations is to be told that their worth is in their identity that they are victims of oppression or discrimination and their future emotional stability depends on society rather than giving that student the support and the control they need over those ideations to control for themselves the district has been using an unwritten unapproved board policy long enough now is the time to put it in writing and get the board approval along with public comment what i have shared tonight are facts they're facts that are undisputed by staff and the board christy eva julie okay so

055i've got something related to the agenda for tonight i have a question regarding agenda item i1 which is the piggyback on hernando county schools i just want to know is there a list of the classroom instructional materials that lee county school district proposes to piggyback like is there a breakdown or what exactly is included in this piggyback and where can the public find that information and then i would like to see the board revisit the issue of public comment at the podium as was mentioned by ms kittens and by many members of the public today and i would ask that the board to reconsider allowing the public to return to the podiums as a show of good faith and of the board's willingness to work with the community there is nothing unsafe about allowing the

056public to return to the podium especially with that fine young man standing right over there who's not even three feet from it so if anyone were to try anything i mean they're not getting very far so i don't see any especially after i've been frisked you know at the front door and my purse and everything else has been searched so we know i don't have any dangerous weapons on me i can't what am i going to do spit a spit ball like there's nothing i'm really that anybody's going to do from the podium and it would show us the public that you know you guys are willing to work with us just my two cents thank you all very much hello good evening hello ali county school board my name is ryan monroe here last

057year y'all i was trying to speak and i got a list the week before and then i came here they told me i wasn't on a list i spoke up they arrested me and removed me from the place this is the first time i got this folks since i got arrested last year for trying to speak here about this issue with the school boards and the and the pedophiles that are infiltrating the schools and we have to watch out for them i don't think you're all pedophiles but that's how they're getting in and you don't have a right to talk about sex to any of our kids you don't have a right whether they're male female or whatever you're making up these days you don't have the right to talk about that the pain that's

058the parent's job even in religion like if you're a baptist you wait to get confirmed if you're an adult until you understand what you're doing you're you're advancing sex gender changes to people who have our children and you don't have the right to do that a teacher doesn't have a right to do that the cop doesn't have a right to do that postman any guy in the street did that in my neighborhood look out so we're out of now one minute i did want to say that he ought to return cursive riding to the school to have the declaration of independence written and understood by the people who are going to the school is very important in fact even the spanish folks that are coming to the country now should learn cursive writing so they

059know how to read their rights it was originally written in cursive writing and i had to teach my son he was in this school district cursive on my own because you guys have failed to do that the leaders of the world should know how to write their names sign a bank check sign a mortgage and sign a lease and know how to read the declaration of independence they all shouldn't know how to read the constitution and they need to be free of your religion which is this liberal ideology sex gender-ism we don't let god in here by accident you didn't find ten commandments you found the gay agenda it wasn't the ten commandments how come it's always by accident it's the it goes on the other side it's like by accident you know they don't

060cover the hunter biden scandal they don't cover anything that advances the other side of the issue now i hope you all know i was hoping to run for school board then i messed m met miss gibbons over here i thought she was nice and i said i don't know but if y'all voting for the stuff we have to run against you and get you all out everyone here so if you don't come out publicly against this stuff you're going down that concludes the public comments there's one more there's one i'm sorry i apologize tara jenner board policy 1.10 which was recently or not so recently updated and revised 728 2015 specifies that any policy must go through the process of being reviewed at a workshop presented to the public where public comment may be made

061after proper inadequate notification unless there is an emergency exception in the case of an emergency the board with a quorum may adopt emergency policies without complying with the waiting period or public hearing requirements there must be a notice of the specific facts and the reason for finding an immediate danger and these must be published on the district website prior to the policy action and the emergency policy shall not be valid in excess of 90 days from the adoption or effective date the coveted protocols on public speaking located here in the back of the room the wanting and searching of the public have failed to comply with these emergency protocol processes there was a never a bored motion to adopt them never any notice and the time frame of 90 days has long expired even had

062it happened that way the process of adopting a permanent protocol change was never followed current board policy 1.11 revised last on 1114 2017 so it stands as written does not discriminate between the general public and those invited by the board when it comes to which microphone we speak from and there is nothing in any of the board policies which have been properly adopted that approved the searching and wanting of the public upon entry into the boardroom prohibit us from sitting in the front two rows when there's nobody there or speaking to board members before or after the meeting or during the recess as long as the members are amenable to it so i will follow the advice that was discussed in the briefing earlier today for training of our kindergartens that teach us to say

063stop and use our i mean business voice when you feel a situation is unsafe well i'm all but accused of being a threat just a few moments ago and even though i've been searched and wanted before coming in this room and there's disparate treatment between the general public and those who are invited by the district to come and speak well i feel threatened i feel violated my consent as dictated by the florida state constitution which outlines my rights tell me to say i feel unsafe i feel threatened i feel icky so stop and i am using my i mean it voice and i'm calling on the so-called safe buddy adults in this room which include the board members and the sheriff deputies to help out board members take a stand and nullify this action the

064current process discriminates against the public and invoking these states and that concludes the public comment madam chair thank you again we thank you all for coming here this evening to voice your to have your voices heard we definitely hear each and every one of you i will speak on the code of conduct we just started speaking on that so that we'll be going going out and to the public for people to still have their inputs on that we have received several emails which have gone to the superintendent's office regarding some things that they were sharing about the code of conduct so just know that will be coming out and they will be asking for more opinions on that was just a first look at that so i just wanted to mr patricka could you explain

065the protocol board protocol regarding email and who responds and okay so the protocol for thank you mr trica when we receive emails it is the emails that come through we should have the i as the chair should be answering that we have the office that answers it depends on who it comes to if we have individual emails that come to us as individuals then all of us would have the opportunity to to send you back a response on that i know that i heard that someone received only received one respond i know personally that i responded to that same individual so i know that he probably hasn't looked at that yet but we would have been in meetings all day so i know we did receive quite a few emails between yesterday and today so

066some of those emails will be i know i personally sometimes will respond to them at one two o'clock in the morning but i try to read all of them so i just want you to understand that we are not ignoring anyone we definitely want to to respond and it is our position is to send it to the superintendent's office and so that he is able to have the appropriate person or team member respond back to you with your answer also let's see what else negotiations we're still negotiating we are finished negotiation with the spoken talc so that is finished so that's the pay for teachers bus drivers cafeteria every all of the all of the hierarchies there so i just wanted to let you know that i think that just happened yesterday was the last

067day of that thank you so that will be completed and thank you for caring about all of the employees dr savage i know there was the question about going into schools can you respond to that one yes i actually asked dr spyro and he said the visitors are permitted back in the schools i'm sorry say again please he dr spyro said that visitors were welcomed back in the schools he messed as soon as i heard that because my understanding was they were and so he confirmed that is the case i also asked if the principles had the individual discretion to eliminate that and he said no and so if there is a concern at individual sites we typically work through our constituent services with the supervisor of that particular individual school they work through that

068piece we'll be happy to take that information i happen to know the parent and that particular school so we'll make sure that gets routed to the right person to follow for follow-up thank you i appreciate that and then let's see what else there's so much and then as far as the i know the young lady had spoken about the mental health and there's only so much stuff that we could do with the mental health and adding based on what we are allowed with the board of education and correct i you're speaking of the fgcu student who spoke about the mental health course yeah i was taking notes and that we'll circle up with what we current what are our current offerings that touch on that we had a little bit from the comprehensive health presentation

069earlier today but i don't think it goes to quite the lengths of what was suggested and i think it is an important topic but i don't have an answer at this point on that well thank you and then i also want to share the monthly words that we receive and we do not pick and choose those they come to us through the foundation they go out there they greet the student with the winning the prize that they have won for that month so this is something that we get every single month we get someone new from all the different schools so that's not something that the board picks and choose what word we will use and as i tell the kids every time because i go to the schools with them because they get a

070pizza party or a donut party but i tell them i said choose your words wisely because when you do guaranteed this minute it's up there they will be used on us so please make sure that you choose your words because we will hear them at the board meeting so i thank you for you know making sure that you are you know seeing what the kids are saying and i do appreciate that we will go ahead and again we appreciate all of you coming and continue to email us because we get several several different ways of communication and we thank you for that the next the next on the is the approval of the action items in the agenda item consents the documentation for action items listed under consent is made available to the board members

071seven business days prior to the board meeting we are expected to review all the materials and we will have an opportunity to speak with the superintendent with any questions we may have regarding the recommendations some of these items have also been briefed or workshopped with the board in advance of appearing on the action agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under the unfinished business table items portion of the agenda miss giovanelli i have none miss fisher following the review yesterday i have none thank you ms patrick no thank you miss kittens i have a question the good cause items will they be brought separately or will it just all be a part of the major vote it's a consent it's the consent agenda but will the good cause

072items be brought up separately no no it's important just all be a part of the thing yes as it always is okay all right no i don't thank you miss yvonne i have none thank you miss hwan miss morgan i have none and i have none there a motion to approve the agenda's consent action items with oh nope we do not have any i'll move to adopt the agenda's consent items as printed thank you mrs fisher may i have a second second one thank you miss one motion by mrs fisher seconded by miss vaughn and please record your vote my screen's not coming up there we go how do you vote miss morgan do you have it miss morgan yay yay miss fisher thank you miss roman did you get everybody sign okay 7-0 motion

073carries thank you okay next on the agenda is board members comments and actually i'm going to do a little bit different tonight and i am going to ask our guest mr cole to give his comments first i'm thankful for her like meet her thank you okay thank you're okay i am thankful for letting you be here tonight i could have been here without the support of my teachers that's really all i have to say because do you have anything exciting happening at school that you want to share yeah on may 9th national junior exercising are having new members and we're gonna throw a party for it for them okay and as an ambassador what do you do i just go to meetings answer some questions you get advice from that from that ambassador fully get

074some advice because next year i'm taking over okay so as an ambassador you help others yeah i help others sometimes help the ambassador but enjoy the time he kind of guides me i'm so glad i have these support of people in my life that's all i have to say thank you so much i just have one question for you not a lot of students get to sit up here so what do you think about the opportunity to sit up here what did you think about this whole thing i'm just grateful that means i'm trying on the right path very good thank you thank you so now are you okay to stay for a little bit why would we go through the questions with your parents are you ready or do you need to leave i

075just may i said belly text my parents for a second that would be great okay thank you and then you can come right back go that way okay okay thank you thank you miss morgan i'm going to start with you sure so i don't i just have a sort of a statement to make not not any real comments tonight just want to remind the public that in the lee county school district students have the right to study in an atmosphere free from bias and prejudice students have the right to to respect and to be respected students have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect in an environment free from bullying or harassment students are expected to be respectful and civil i think it's really unfortunate that members of the public cannot model this

076kind of behavior that we think that we believe is really important to helping our students become good citizens and those are my comments thank you miss morgan i'm glad you're feeling better yeah thank you thank you i wanted to start by mentioning something that mrs morgan actually said this afternoon about upgrading the tech system in the in this room i know there were there was a time or two fairly recently where miss morgan had to call in and i was not feeling well this morning and i decided to call in and it was difficult at best because when i called through the system i my sound was breaking up apparently and then mrs dupree bruno had her own phone next to a microphone but the problem with that is whereas i could speak and be

077understood i really couldn't hear what people were saying in in the boardroom so this really is something it's not frivolous we've talked about this before and i don't remember how old the technology is here i know we've mentioned it but keep in mind i know my computer that's my desktop that sits at home isn't as old as what's in here and it's pretty sad so i think the time has come that we find some some money for that just for the sake of all of us hearing and being heard when either we're not when we're under the weather or traveling for school business a few things that i do want to mention is some of the things that i attended somebody this afternoon mentioned the foundations take stock in children luncheon i always love going

078to anything having to do with that program back when i retired from teaching before i came back into the education field formally as a school board member i was a take stock and children mentor for a couple years and for those of you who don't know anything about the program children and at this luncheon this was the luncheon where children were i don't remember if they used the word inducted but basically inducted into the program and it's a great thing because the children receive a mentor their own personal mentor who meets with them at least monthly at their particular school and when the children and they enter the program often in seventh grade and it goes through graduation when the children finish this program successfully they are awarded excellent full scholarships so it is a

079wonderful program and i always love going to any of the take stock and i think isn't the graduation one coming up i forget what date it is but that's that's always a pleasure to to see they're not children anymore to see the young adults come across the stage and how proud they are and their mentors and their parents for for the former children graduating from the program somebody also mentioned learning for life the talent show which was i think it was not this weekend but the weekend before sometimes the days run together several of us here miss givenelli and miss kittens and to miss jordan were judges with that and such great talent and all kinds of talent from playing the piano to dancing and singing and it really really is uplifting to see to

080see the kids and i don't know i'm always taken by the really tiny ones and there was this one little boy who was just amazing in his in his poise and he performed solo i'm sure you're happy i'm seeing the smiles and we all remember and he won a prize and he was so proud and it was really it was really fun okay so last night i attended the last equity and diversity advisory council committee meeting and that's i've been the liaison now this is my second year and i will since we do two years and we will be i guess next month choosing different groups i love that group because i would say i told them yesterday you are people after my own heart because like me they are not afraid of saying something

081controversial they'll say what they think and they came up with they had there were some different activities and they came up with a lot of things that were really really important to them i haven't formalized these things they're one or two that should be prevent presented to the board as an official recommendation which i will do probably at the next meeting but some of the topics included recruitment and retention of of teachers and talking about attainable housing and it was interesting because earlier in the day yesterday we actually had had our workshop presentation on the code of conduct and one of the things that we were talking about which we asked to be removed from the code of conduct was hair color since it's it's become pretty commonplace to see people with blue hair striped

082hair purple hair you know i haven't been around enough teenagers to see all the various shadings they do but it's it's become commonplace as a matter of fact i threatened to come my last day here with unusual hair some of you would pay to see that wouldn't you a lot of them have left i'll let you i'll tell you what i'll let you at some point i'll say what color do you want or colors do you want i bet you will a small business enterprise all of these things are presentations that were made to edac and they took them very very seriously and one that i will bring back to you that i mentioned they were disappointed that the board didn't choose to adopt the district the redistricting that they preferred but they haven't forgotten

083the idea of eliminating at large seats they're looking to have single member districts seven single member districts so i will bring that back a little a little later because when they first brought it up it was too late during the time that we were doing the redistricting to really study that and do all the study that would need doing but that's something that they're really they're they're really concerned about and would love to see and the other thing is they were happy because they support term limits so they were happy when i told him that the governor had signed the 12-year limit actually had it been me i would have put an eight-year limit on it but anyway that he had signed that and they were adamant that they supported that so just a reminder

084that coming soon they're going to be reforming in the next in a few months reforming some of the boards because one of the things that the edac members were reminded of and miss reader who takes care of these board advisories is going to send out notifications to all of and some of you may be advisory board members to all of you on advisory boards in case your term is ending in which case if you want to be on that board again you're going to have to reapply and finally it's great absolutely great god bless america that we all can come in here and say what we want without fear of retribution sometimes and you know i'm disappointed that tonight i heard from so many of you same old same old i heard what you said

085i did listen one poster is accidentally one lgbtq poster is accidentally left on a wall in a school picture taken on social media and suddenly i didn't even count how many of you it becomes the issue that rises to the top the microphone in the back of the room frankly i really don't care if you're here or there i want to hear from you i don't honestly see that it's that big a deal because again in this country we are allowed to express ourselves and you know it's not something that lee county made up it's it's a tenet of this great nation that you have that right and you know maybe it'll be changed maybe it won't as i said i don't care either way but just thank god that you have that right and

086as i said at the very beginning of the meeting i had the pleasure of introducing the moment of silence maybe a few of you took my suggestion that you think about the brave people of the ukraine who are fighting to preserve their democracy and i know all of you have seen the horrific devastation of that country and it's at the hands of brutal brutal aristocracy of russia just and anyway i'm not going to say any more about that except thank kevin you're in this room you have microphones whether it's there or there i understand soon we're going to have actually your pictures is that happening soon on the big screens yes i had well i spoke to mr newlin and i know miss lancaster is not here so that's why it was not okay okay

087yeah so you'll be on the big screens and again just be happy that you're here safe in this country and take a page from some of the things that i said that the edac committee was concerned about things like recruitment of teachers things like how we are being fair or unfair to minorities in terms of the way we organize our districts because as you well know districts are often gerrymandered to give the best result to the people in power find please next time come with issues that are on our agenda come with issues about why haven't we instituted the proximity plan yet come with issues about how we're spending money on whatever item you think doesn't deserve to be supported by us even those of you who said about cursive writing i've had that argument

088with my daughter who works in technology who tells me i'm very old-fashioned and nobody needs to write in cursive and that it everybody types and all of that i still write in cursive so and anyway all right it's time for me to step down off my soapbox have a good evening thank you miss vaughn miss kittens well i've i've heard on both sides of the fence a lot of people talking about why don't we get down to the issues why don't we discuss what the issues are and i've listened and over and over again about the arguments on both sides about speaking at the back or speaking in the front it was my understanding that microphone was put back there because of covet and we had plastic up here because of covet after that was

089to and the people that didn't have masks were in another room because of covid all the other things that happened you know with scuffles and all that kind of stuff but the reason that back there happened was because of covet tell me if i'm wrong so if we are allowed in schools and kids are allowed in schools without maths and all that why can't we i agree with you i agree with ms vaughn saying we need to move on and talk about something else so let's just go back to what we were doing and fix it and we'll talk about other things it's difficult for me to see your expressions when you're way back then i know it'll be on the screen but then we'll be looking on the side trying to see your faces

090on the side i'm sorry i know that you think i'm going against the authority saying that we won't be safe i don't believe that and that's just me but i think that as a board sometimes we need to just think outside of our own little boxes there are so many times that if i bring up something and i've said this before collectively there's a sigh of oh we can't do that and i have brought up things and ideas and let it go somebody else says the same thing 10 minutes later and oh i agree with miss so-and-so it happens all the time if you want to know what i mean go back and watch the meetings i do and i see the size and i see all of the stuff i was working on writing

091something this afternoon and maybe i'll share it with you someday the story of the unicorn and i will share it with you when i'm finished and you'll understand so anyway as far as all that goes yes we need to move on yes we need to move off of some of these topics that we just keep beating to death and move on to the achievement gap fiscal responsibility community involvement what is going on with our schools our with covid having kept our children out of school for almost a year and a half and we're getting ready to end another school year what's going to happen to your children if we don't test or if the tests don't come out well are they going to move on and at what point are we going to hold them

092back because they're not ready because they missed out on that stuff that's serious we are an education organization we need to spend our time figuring out how to educate children not how to shut me up we need to talk about what's happening with children so that's my soapbox on that it probably won't go anywhere because no one seems to understand what i'm trying to say let's you know it's something that we could just stop and fix and we could have just one mic up in the front and be done then we go on talking about other stuff but anyway i hear from people and get messages and texts and stuff from people in the community about different things and i'm always on my soapbox about communication and i still feel as a district we don't

093communicate clearly enough and quick enough and part of the cause of some of the statements that we get are because we don't communicate quickly enough and clearly enough today is tuesday we heard i think yesterday evening or this morning that the bargaining had come to a positive conclusion so we need to get that out we don't have to go into all the details but to let people know so before they come and stand up and say we're not doing what's right okay that's that was done last night yesterday in the workshop i talked about how on on the agenda it showed 32 million dollars for manasseer and the extension of lambs building and i said can we break that down well interestingly enough i turned on the tv this morning when i woke up and

094one of the tv stations was talking about those two projects and they broke it down and it was awesome there's eight million for this and there's 24 million for this one and everybody took a sigh of relief it's like okay we know what's going on we make stuff too difficult you know it's like putting children in a room and if we leave them alone as adults they'll play and have a good time for hours and the minute we go in there and tell them something then you know it's all a mess so one i don't know if superintendent of you can take just a second to just give a nugget on what happened with bargaining and how it where it is now are we done with it and where can people go to find out

095exactly what's what's happening and what happened if you can't then just say so and tell people where to go to get the information i think i can say we have a tentative agreement as a joint statement that was sent out yesterday i think we could use all the language in that joint communication and it's a tentative agreement i think that we could release all of that information specifically as is that right mr dodic looking at our hr with both parties both bargaining this was spout which was the second of course and where is someone that thinks that we're not doing right by the bargaining and all that where can they find this information easily okay all right can you repeat that yeah it was as mr dodge said but i think we can try to

096find a way to address more public traffic in that way the labor labor relations website and that's something if it just happened when we pull up the website that should be a banner going across the front since it's on everybody's mind so if they go to the website boom here it is this is the latest someone mentioned about with the code of conduct and the parents bill of rights and if you go back and watch the meeting yesterday that was one of the things i asked that we show links or whatever to the code of conduct and where we are honoring the bill of rights and in there and i hope this is an opening of cameras but i have a question isn't there and this is for the attorney i thought i heard at

097one point that there's some law or something as to why if a student does not want information shared that we don't have what what is what's is it hippa is it what is it so there's hippa which is with regards to sharing of medical information but i think what people are referring to is house bill 1557 that has been signed by the governor and i will advise that academic services and the legal department are meeting and reviewing that and coming up with a plan of action to address the particulars of that law in addition we will have our policy and we will have processes in place that will implement that law as well so we are working on it we're very much aware of it and we will be in compliance with the law okay

098now just that statement has helped somebody out there that's listening to this or sitting in the audience to realize that they don't have to get up at the mic and say you're not doing this communication first and early stops a whole lot of confusion my final thing i'm going to say i still got my lighthouse up here no matter what happens i look at this lighthouse i put it up there for the purpose of saying to me that everything i do everything i say my facial expressions which sometimes are not stellar there's somebody watching and there's somebody taking away from my behavior that it's okay to act like that in public i'm sitting next to a young man that's watching me and listening to every word i say and he's going to leave here and

099either go back to school and say there's one crazy one up there whatever but i am making an impression on how he understands how to sit on a dais how to talk to people how to communicate with other people and to me that is extremely important in my position so i will end with our word integrity the ultimate measure of a man or woman i gotta add that it's not where he or she stands in moments of comfort because this isn't comfortable sitting up here most of the time for me and convenience but where he or she stands at times of challenge and controversy thank you and have a very happy easter thank you miss kittens miss patricka please yep i'm just looking for something i've already given my comments but i do want to

100give a shout out to owen ames kimball thank you for being here the board approved tonight item l12 that ranked oak number one for construction management services for the cape coral technical college expansion so excited for that project i have to assume that you have already worked with director peace and if you haven't you're in for a treat because i believe he's incredibly qualified and i think you're going to have a really good time with that i appreciate your work and sort of i guess it's kind of faithful that your prior president steve shemp was here today to present to us on the independent sales surtax oversight committee and i don't know i just feel like that's faithful because he brings automatic credibility to that committee and you are also very capable so thank you

101i'd like to ask a question of the attorney if i may through the chair attorney dupree bruno would you during your comments update the board or refresh the board's recollect recollection as you did in the email if you could just share that information publicly the email that you just sent us tonight during the meeting thank you those are my comments thank you mr giavanelli please thank you i'll be quick because i just want to make a couple statements that i believe that we respect everyone and all means all and i know that as a district we try to do that we are trying to accommodate all students and where they're at but for me personally i believe in the respect of everyone that comes here tonight and what they say i listen i hear and

102i respect but mainly i respect parents and parents rights because that's the law and that's really important because we're up here to serve the parents and the students of lee county and so i think it's important that we make sure that we're doing that and and that means all students so i have a couple questions and this goes to dr savage regarding what communication actually went out regarding that poster and i know this is pr was your prior this was prior to your prior administration prior to you but what what direction was given to the school administrators regarding the poster because we at this board we do not run the day-to-day business that is done by the superintendent we don't know if there's a poster in a school because we're not at every school and

103it can happen you know things happen so my concern is you know maybe we need to send a reminder out if there wasn't proper communication because i don't really know what actually was sent out regarding the poster but my other concern is if the poster is still in schools and this is for you mr preet bruno are we in the violation of the law and there's two laws that i'm concerned with one is the parental rights law and the second one is actually the federal law that allows students to use the bathroom they identify that is the law and so i don't believe in breaking any laws and i believe in respecting all students so my concern is that we are making sure that we're doing what we're constitutionally doing and it's making sure we

104protect all students so can somebody answer that for me please thank you give me your so with regards to the poster my recollection of the poster has been a long time since i've actually seen the poster so i don't have to look at it again but my recollection of it was basically summarizing some of the law now i think one of the controversies that came up from the poster was that it had the equality florida logo which is an organization that has a particular stance and the district's position at least this is what the legal advice from office of legal services is that we do not take political stances and we do not advocate any type of political stances all we do is abide by the law so since that time there has been an

105additional several additional laws that have come into play the first being the major law that came into play last summer which is the parents bill of rights that's very indicative and protective of the parents ability to direct the upbringing of their children and that law has now i believe been solidified even further through house bill 1557 that has been signed by the governor and will become effective in july and that law is very clear as well in terms of protecting parental rights and ensuring that parents direct the upbringing of the children and specifically puts limitations on districts in terms of non-disclosure of certain information and encourages the district to help facilitate discussions between parents and children on certain issues so there's a lot of things that are out there again as i stated earlier legal

106services and academic services are reviewing this we're discussing it policies will be generated as a result of the new law processes will be put in place so that is upcoming this is something that just happened in march and so we are moving to ensure that it's effectuated with regards to federal law and the use of bathrooms there is a case and it's not just federal well yes it is federal because it's in the 11th circuit so we do have a casing john's saint john's versus adams which is the case that affects us here in the state of florida which is an 11th circuit case that case is currently still up to be reviewed it was sent back to be reviewed by the entire bench so we are waiting to see what will happen in that

107case but the ruling of the original case the last ruling of the case was that students will be able to use the bathrooms to which they identify in terms of their gender so that is the last law but that is still pending right now in the 11th circuit and that's just really important for the community to understand kind of where we're at we just have to protect all students and i believe in just you love everybody where they're at but that's me and so i'm going to be real clear about that i respect everybody that comes here i respect what you say what you believe and they're your rights to do that and i will always re give the respect and hopefully the respect comes back to me the same way that i give it

108out so i just want to be you know open and honest about it i support people's rights and i certainly will never circumvent a parent's rights because that's their right to raise their child and i think it's very important and that's where i'm gonna leave it tonight everyone have a good evening thank you mr evan nelly if i can just add to what you said in terms of laws because you didn't ask me this question but i think this is important also for the public to understand and the board to understand parents rights does not change the non-discrimination laws that are already in the books right so we do have title seven we do have title ix so there are a lot of different laws that are implicated in these types of discussions so i

109just want to make sure that everybody is aware that it's not a very simple thing there's a lot of nuances and we have to be very careful when we're analyzing this from a legal standpoint thank you thank you for the clarification and thank you miss given ellie miss fisher yes i made most of my comments before but i'm just going to shout out a reminder that april is child abuse prevention month as well as autism awareness month on the continuous systemic improvement committee last last month i forgot to give this report we had an hr presentation by rob dodick shelly halstead and susette rivera regarding recruitment and retention and hr processes we will be meeting tomorrow night and we will be talking about growth and land use also our student advisory committee will be meeting

110next wednesday the 20th and we'll be having a presentation on social media i want to thank cole who is a member of our student advisory committee for being our student rep this out this evening and doing a great job thank you i also want to thank the people who gave the career and tech presentation today and also the health education update i want to thank our staff who sit here patiently listening to all of our interchanges and giving us presentations and information that we need to help us make hopefully good decisions i want to thank the students and their families and our business partners for hanging in there with us during these difficult times so in my many many years in education one of the things that i felt like i worked hardest on was

111parent involvement we tried everything we could to get parent involvement because we want parents involved parents are our partners in education and before kids ever come anywhere near our schools parents are the first teachers of their children and they have an opportunity to develop those relationships and to know their children really well and happy easter everyone and stay safe thank you miss fisher and i said most of mine this afternoon as well and i would just like to share that dr bernier will be here come friday as a starting as a consultant so he will be here he is here already in florida so he'll be working out his month as it stands right now as our consultant and then working with dr savage to work a have a great in make sure that everything

112is nice and smooth so i'm grateful for dr savage and dr bernardo for doing that as we move the district board and again you know everyone has already thanked the of course we thank the staff for all the all that you do really appreciate it as well as call my friend here i told him if you're nervous you're gonna make me nervous so he's been really good right now because he was a nervous wreck before he came out here but i just and i also want to thank smoke and joe i guess he i'm going to ask him for his styling tips next time i see him so i really appreciated his comments about about my hair and i just at the end of the day i just you know wish everybody a happy easter

113and you know and for everybody to have peace in their heart and i really appreciate you all dr savage oh i'm sorry mr bruno so i was skipping her oh i'm sorry mummer and thank you miss supkee for being here with us today thank you okay mr priebrido i was asked to share a an email that i sent during the board to the board during the meeting there are times when as things are discussed i will send a reminder to the board about certain actions that have taken place in the in the past or reason for a particular issue and i did send one today this is not a sunshine violation because sarasota citizens allows employees to have communication with their board member and there was no discussion in this particular this was for informational

114purposes only and this was basically a clarification because there were some concerns as to why i heard wanding and back searches and that this was related to coven and the moving of individuals in the back so i will try to clarify a little bit mrs getting is correct initially when the microphones were moved to the back of the room it was due to safety concerns with regards to covid and the recommendation from the cdc about the six feet we had the plexiglass everybody was wearing mask that is correct that's the initial reason why these things occurred as time went on there were certain things that had occurred in boardroom as well as outside of the boardroom i don't think the public clearly understands because you would not have knowledge of these things that there have

115been threats that have been made to certain board members and there have been people family members who have called extremely concerned for the safety of board members and other staff and so there there have been things things that have happened that the public is not privy to we have an executive director of safety and security and his job and his staff with his team is to keep us safe and to keep the public safe and so as things are analyzed in working with the sheriff's office to determine how to keep everybody safe to include the public as well as the board we kept the microphone in the back we started wanting we did some back searches we did other things a question was posed under what authority did you have that right to do that

116because there is not a policy that was brought forth to the board for them to approve that and basically my email was just reminding the board that yes indeed there is a policy board policy 4.09 which is very explicit and talks about safety and that the board has the ultimate responsibility to keep everybody on its district facilities to include this boardroom to keep them safe that includes our students that includes our staff and that includes the board and that includes members of the public and the policy is very clear 4.09 says that the school board of lee county is committed to a safe and orderly educational environment and authorizes the superintendent and district staff to respond rapidly to any threats suggestions or predictions of violence that occur on any district-owned property and at that time

117there were threats and there was indication of violence so safety and security took appropriate measures to make sure that staff board and public were safe now this did even though there was this policy that authorized it this also came before the board because we took extraordinary measures with the searches and the wanting so on august 31st 2021 a recommendation was made to allow the superintendent or the designee to implement safety measures including bag searches and wanting for the safety of the public students and staff and the board during board meetings pursuant to board policy 4.09 which is threats of violence 2.03 campus disorder and trespass as well as florida statute 1006.145 which talks about disturbing school functions florida statute 790.115 which talks about the prohibition of possessing or discharging weapons or firearms at a school-sponsored

118event or on school property as well as florida statute 790.06 prohibiting a concealed weapon at a school district meeting and other bodies of law as a result of this recommendation that came to a formal action meeting to the board on august 31st 2021 the motion was adopted and the recommendation was the motion was moved by kathleen morgan and it was seconded by mary fisher and the motion carried unanimously by the board so it did come before the board in addition to it coming before the board there was already a policy that allowed the superintendent through his designee the executive director of safety and security to take these actions and it's unfortunate sometimes because the public does not know all of the intricacies of things that happen behind the scenes but i will tell you that

119there have been things that have happened behind the scenes that made safety and security concerned the lee county sheriff's office concerned we had a board member that had to have police at their house surveilling i mean we had some serious issues and these are why these measures have been taken thank you miss did you have a question regarding if i may follow up with a question if if we wanted to change that policy what would be the appropriate steps to take from a governance perspective to go change the actual policy to change change what's happening right now in the boardroom so i mean i know the answer but i'd like you to so the board has had florida statute allows for certain meetings to be conducted in the shade which means that it's outside of

120the public and those meetings meetings regarding safety and security is one of those meetings and it's very logical why because you're having meetings with regards to safety and security so you want to be careful about that information the board has had multiple safety and security meetings where they have discussed certain things to include safety in the boardroom the board can have another safety and security meeting and meet with safety and security to advise and discuss whether or not there is still a need for these types of security requirements in the boardroom that is up to the board as to how they want to handle that and they are allowed to do that and at that time the board can make a decision as to how they want to proceed so would that mean putting it

121in the parking lot for future discussion like how would you can put it in the parking lot for future discussion you can decide to you know today say you want to do it's completely up to the board's discretion as to how they want to move forward miss kittens yes i'd like to make a motion that we at least have the meeting with the security and have whatever meeting is necessary to discuss this as a board and to look at moving forward or going forward and what our options are for changing if you could please make it specific and write it down use that little form that we have now and write it down because it's very hard for staff to capture the motion so that's why we want it to be written down and then

122we can make sure we get it done properly very simply oh would we need a motion for that she's she's entitled to make her motion if she wants yes my motion is that we have a closed door session with the board and safety and security to discuss moving forward with our safety and security procedures is that clear i'm still writing miss kittens just give me one second specifically with regards to the chambers correct yes okay so motion for closed door session to have a discussion with the board and safety security may i add regarding this the close regarding the meetings in the board room yes okay so miss kittens i'm going to restate the motion and make sure that i captured it properly the motion is to have a closed door session with the board

123and safety and security to discuss safety in the boardroom during meetings is there a second i'll second that okay all in favor special discussion is there any discussion see no discussion you have public comment oh we do public comment anybody that would like to speak please go to the back thank you and we will be speaking on this motion only tara jenner i'd like to thank you guys for at least listening to what we have to say the biggest concern i have is the disparity in treatment between the individuals and the public and those that you call to speak as guests of the school district i'd also like to mention the fact that if it is such a threat then why was it on one occasion when miss kittens was willing to speak with me

124and she was prevented from doing so in this very room that we were actually instructed by our sergeant-at-arms to go have the conversation out in the parking lot where's her safety there if i'm that much of a threat tell me that it's absolutely insane you guys are making up rules that don't exist now if there's a threat there's a threat but it needs to be an imminent threat and a viable one there are rights that we have and i have not seen anyone violate those rights when you've got security here who are your safety people as well as our sheriffs who are properly attired to safeguard themselves and others and we've been wandered on top of it all it makes me wonder i can go in and i can schedule a meeting with any of

125you and i'm never wandered i'm never searched there's no safety or security guard that's there with me back this summer when we did the review of the curriculum all that i had to do was sign in at the front desk someone opened up the back door dr spyro let me through the back i wasn't even escorted back to the room because he knew i knew where the location was where's the safety and concern there these rules were already in place at that time it's a disparity of treatment it's arbitrary and capricious and not only that but it's driven by your board attorney and your safety personnel and i have not heard the board make a motion on this the board did not bring this forward it was the attorney that brought it forward and your

126rules specifically say if there is a safety or emergency reason on how to change your policy and this was a change in policy that it needs to be done by a board member when there's a quorum also what's the safety issue in blocking off the two front rows is there a safety reason for that you don't know who those people are i could come in and say hey i'm coming in to support a student i'm sitting in the front row really pastor roper came in one week he's got to stand back here because he's apparently a threat but then another week when he's giving a 15-minute presentation he was actually escorted up to the front maybe it's because he's a pastor and miraculously one week he's a threat in the next week he's not i

127don't understand this i've asked your security people periodically has anybody ever tried to come in with anything they're not supposed to have and they regularly tell me over and over again that they've never seen anybody bring anything in for one situation that i witnessed myself and it was a young lady who came in with a keychain with some mace on it which was obviously something that she had in her hand and she used on a regular basis last week i was the last one in here after everyone thank you mr jenner miss nystrom denise nystrom well i want to say thank you what i heard in many of your tones this evening is that you're willing to at least have a conversation about this so i just want to let you know that i appreciate

128that i reviewed many videos from when i used to first come here and you know i'm coming to the microphone and i'm like hey you know i was an assistant superintendent and such and such and i really felt like i was trying to cultivate a relationship with all of you and actually i do think that i have cultiva cultivated a relationship with a few of you and i'm very appreciative for that but i do want to say that i appreciate this conversation in particular tonight because i do hear that some of you are listening right now so thank you thank you is do we have any other comments cnn the only thing i do want to clarify one thing when it comes to the law the obligation of the school board is to ensure that

129there is public comment prior to any formal action being taken by the school board the school board ensures that there is public comment prior to moving forward with its agenda items we control time manner and place that is case law this is a limited public forum which has a different constitutional standard than any other type of free speech so i do want to make sure that's clear because i think that sometimes it's confused and i want to make sure that the public understands this is a limited public forum and the school board has the right to control time manner in place thank you and i will go ahead and take a hand vote on that and then we'll move on miss morgan aye ms vaughn aye ms kittens aye ms patricka no thank you miss

130juvenelli aye ms fisher aye and i six to one motion carries we will schedule a meeting thank you yeah no i know i was thinking of the social security thing in my head sorry dr savage i gave my comments earlier so i'll just answer the questions that i took down through the board member comments the first was just a mentioning of the technology in the boardroom i know we did send an update in the last board weekly that there is a plan actually the next steps come in we'll give the timeline and whatnot so i do believe there's a significant bodywork on that's a normal infrastructure upgrade so it's just like anything else we'd upgrade any piece of the facility once it gets into disrepair or the technology becomes obsolete the next area we mentioned

131was just about the podium has been moved and we just actually resolved that with the meeting being scheduled on that the other piece with some feedback from ms kittens just about communication being quickly or clearly and just i think we can always continue to enhance what we're doing to try to better communicate and i think that is a critical priority for the organization as well and then last but not least i will miss giovannelli i will get with dr spyro in school development to find out what was submitted in terms of the equity posters what kind of guidance was given to the school administrators and then we'll kind of follow up i'm sure they'll have some of that of how they communicate and then whatever we have to do in terms of recommendation of ensuring

132full compliance on that part as well that would be great thank you absolutely oh good go ahead mr one question real quick regarding the infrastructure in here is that is that possible to expedite that to happen during our off month in july i think that is the plan actually they have a practice some of the technology i think is too deep they can't the most essential which includes the tri the tricaster i believe i'm saying that correctly and then that's like a piece back behind the scenes it's really significant but then also the call-in system i can't remember the name of it but it's so that we will have the ability to make the phone calls and that is i think scheduled or they're working to schedule it during that off month when it can

133be done i know last year that supposedly something was done but i don't nothing never changed last summer we were not allowed to have a meeting because they were supposed to there was two weeks they were supposedly doing something in here and it was a special meeting that was trying to be called and we couldn't do it because of that is what we were told and i don't think anything happened and i would just like to say in as we get ready to close is that when we do go and have this meeting for security that everybody remembers how we got here and why we were here so in saying that think about the reasoning what what took place for some of us up here and bring that there for a conversation so that way

134that's done it's over with and we move on next on the next schedule meeting of the board will be on monday april 25th there will be a board workshop at 12 p.m on tuesday april 26th there will be a board briefing at 1 pm followed by an action meeting at six at this point having no other business to come before this body this meeting is adjourned thank you and happy you