001e good evening everyone we're be ready to begin this evening's board meeting Sergeant at Arms has the front lobby been cleared yes thank you Chief we request that all electronic devices be turned off or put in silent mode also please refrain from using flash photography except during the special presentations portion of the meeting I'm pleased to welcome you to the April 9th 2024 school board meeting the time is 6:01 p.m. and this meeting is hereby called to order prior to the start of tonight's meeting you've been joined a performance by the North Fort Meers High School theater Department this amazing group is under the direction of Janelle Lux and student choreographer Ava sturl they have performed scenes from The Lion King Jr the musical the entire show will be performed on April 18th at 6
002p.m. and a April 20th at 2 p.m. tickets can be purchased at the door or ahead ahead of time on ticketleap.com also the QR code you see displayed on the screens we'll take you right to the musical platform please give this group another round of applause e great job North Fort Meers this is what our school district is about please give us a moment while they clear their performance area thank you e okay that was amazing it's going to be a hard followup the rest of this meeting to those amazing students I will say that we'd like to take this opportunity to remind the members of this public of the district's Mission which is ensure that each student achieves his or her Highest Potential and the district's Vision to be a worldclass school system pursuant
003to board policy 0164 uh1 board member Patria will be participating in voting by phone this evening so she on right now so member Patria yes sir I'm here thank you before we move on to the rest of agenda I do want to take a point here and I want to take the opportunity to welcome our new superintendent Dr Ken Savage to this District thank you for your service Dr s Savage thank you sir okay at this point this we're going to move on to the agenda this evening's agenda includes the invocation presentations of colors in the Pledge of Allegiance acknowledgements recognitions public comment consent action items which include three items under Board office two items under academic Services three items under Business Services one of which is good cause item and at and Dr Savage
004will provide an explanation for that one in one moment so if you could go ahead on that actually Dr Savage if you're yes thank you chairman this item was added as good cause due to the change in the superintendent's office and is required to continue the business of the district okay thank you Dr Savage as presiding officer I find that there is good cause to add this item to the agenda so please note that to the agenda we'll also have four items under Human Resources 17 items under your operations and four items under good of the order of their business so board members is there a motion to approve the agenda I move to approve tonight's agenda do we have a second sure all second thank you okay moved by Miss Langford Fleming seconded by
005Miss juven Elli let's please record your vote at this point and Miss Patria is it going to be online or verbal for your vote I am online okay thank you okay motion carry 70 the as is the custom of the board board member Langford Fleming will lead us in the invocation after which board member Jordan will lead us in the presentation of colors and Pledge of Allegiance please stand Miss lenford Fleming please lead us in the invocation thank you if you so please bow your heads Heavenly Father we approach you with hope and humility we ask that you bless our schools the bastions of Education Infuse each classroom with your Divine wisdom and enduring compassion extend your omnip hand over every student nurturing their potential and guiding them on Paths of Enlightenment we plead your
006grace to permeate the whole school Community strown together through common goals and shared growth bless us all fostering environments of love where knowledge thrives we also ask you for your wisdom over this board our superintendent and I pray for protection over our schools and those who serve within its precious walls please bless the school staff with well-being and unwavering support as they are entrusted with the Ence and honorable task of educating our young people with a grateful heart we acknowledge their devotion asking you to endow them with strength and wisdom may they Foster Bright Futures in our children's lives it is in this I Pray amen introducing the candidate who is presenting the national colors of Pledge of Allegiance tonight is Major retired Ronnie s Spangler senior Army instructor from Mariner High School major Spangler
007served 29 years in the US Army in various assignments including the Gulf War Afghanistan Germany and West Africa this is Major spangler's eighth year as a jrc instructor and a second year instructing in the school district of Lee County thank you very much for your service and thank you for being here thank you m Jordan presenting the national colors tonight is Cadet Colonel Trenton Olen Who currently serves as both the commander of the Mariner High School fight and Triton Brigade and as the school district g county Junior RTC Deputy area commander at Mariner Cadet Colonel Olson has achieved Excellence inside and outside of the classroom and currently carries a 4.61 GPA he was nominated and selected to attend the prestigious American Legion boy State program and as a member of the Mariner Marksmanship team Cadet
008Colonel Olsen has been a driving force in the team's dominance at both the local state Regional and National level Cadet Cadet Olson has been accepted to attend the University of South Florida where he will begin his undergraduate education to pursue a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army through the USF Army RC program please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated this evening student representative is derva Sharma derva is a junior attending Fort Meers High School derva is part of the IB Program actively participates in a variety of stem and math related extracurriculars most notably duva
009is the team captain and the lead programmer of world champion first robotics team Java the Huts duva is also an active participant in science fair and inventor fair and other stem competitions and has won several awards at Regional State and National levels recently duva has been named as a national stem Champion is one of three students who will be presenting Florida at the national stem Festival in Washington DC After High School duva hopes to pursue a degree in engineering eventually become an entrepreneur please welcome duva moving on to the next part of our agenda is acknowledgements and Dua please go ahead sir is it red if it's red you're good yes thank you chair Fisher the character word for April is integrity adhering steadfastly to a personal sense of honorable and ethical Behavior the design
010you see displayed on the screens is by Abigail Fielding an 11th grade student at North Fort Marius high school next is recognitions there are four recognitions this evening the Florida music educators Association All State selections the 2024 FHSAA State Wrestling champions the 2024 high school and car Charter School voter registration challenge winners and the recognition of Team Java the Huts advancing to the world championship board members please join me in the pit for recognitions I forgot to say I forgot to say some B officers and I always do that great forgot my oh you're not the only one no I've got the yeah I always do it good evening each year the Florida music educators Association FMEA holds Statewide auditions to fill the spots in their 23 Allstate performing groups the student musicians accepted into
011this into these groups are considered the best of the best at that particular level and instrument the students submit blind video auditions that are compared with those of hundreds of other students these students represented our district at the FMEA All State Music Conference held in Tampa in January the following Lee County students were selected as all state students from over 10,000 10,000 Statewide entries the school board and superintendent are pleased to recognize and extend congratulations to these musically talented students tonight we recognize Elementary and Middle School Allstate music students some people may not be able to attend because they have other commitments this evening but I am going to read the names of the principal teachers and students please come up and be recognized when I call your school I ask that members of the
012public pause their Applause until all students have been called first up Cypress Lake Middle School principal Matt Miller teachers Steve Dean students Simon Allison and Mary holder come on up conflict okay they have a conflict this evening let's just give them a round of applause anyway from Edison Park creative and expressive arts school principal Sher whiff teacher Samantha O'Brien students Darby Lee krider Kirsten row and meline row go in yeah go on in I should just leave that can to shake everyone's hand no yeah we can oh it's going to hit sorry I can take it okay from Norton excuse me from North Fort Meers Academy for the Arts principal Andy Miller teacher Melissa Belle and Christina Moffett students Maya cman Caitlyn Hammond Daniel perugi peruga and Taylor Reese please come forward for you congratulations
013he well time from Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School principal Dr Karen prentis teacher Katherine May student Samuel Mays congratulations well done and from the Santa Belle School principal Jennifer Lusk teacher Joey G Gian Jango I am so sorry Jango students Alexandria Broadwater Teegan Clark geneveve ha Jackson halberton Joshua Schwartz Aubrey Wilson Maria zachritz congratulations I'm sorry about that from let's see did I do Spring Creek no no from Spring Spring Creek Elementary principal Jillian F Fiora stac teacher Stacy McDonald student Isaac Baker congratulations hi J good see you and from Three Oaks Middle School principal Forest Walker teacher brand harer student Maya Zang all right yep yep do ready I'm good let's roll okay the school district of Lee County is proud to recognize the 2020 for Florida High School Athletic Association State Wrestling champions
014the tournament was held in CMI Florida from March 1st to March 3rd 2024 so let's start with these amazing athletes first up Mariner High School senior Cameron French Cameron won the class 2 State title in the 126 PB weight class let me get that for and next Mariner High School junr Maximus Brady Maximus won the class 2A State title in 132 lb weight class congratulations okay the school board and the superintendent are pleased to recognize these athletes along with their coach Clayton French for their commitment determination hard work that led to this outstanding accomplishment congratulations each year the Lee County Supervisor of Elections office invites all public high schools to participate in his high school voter registration challenge since 1999 this Outreach has been successful in the registration of thousands of new young voters when
015a high school responds to the challenge issued by the elections office Representatives provide voter education presentations after which all eligible students are invited to register to vote this year the following 12 Lee County high schools participated Bonita Springs High Cape Coral High Cypress Lake high Dumar High Estero High East Lee County High Gateway High Ida S Baker High Island Coast High leehigh Senior High Mariner High School nor Fort Meers High School also this year the Lee County Supervisor of election invited charter schools to participate in this Challenge and two Charter Schools responded to the invitation Oasis Charter High School and North Nicholas High School from September 2023 to February this year the supervisor of elections office registered 1,175 new voters and has updated the voter information of 470 students the school board and superintendent are
016pleased to welcome Mr Tommy Dole Lee County Supervisor of Elections and Mr Juan Diaz Community Education Services director who will announce the first second and third place winners of this year's High School voter registration Challenge and the first place winner of the charter school School voter registration challenge welcome well thank you for having this I want to thank my team wad director of Community Education Department Tony Ryan has helped them out and they work very hard along with 20 part-time P we call them patriots they go are at the schools at every event they can get to registering voters and educating voters too our you know our one of my constitutional responsibilities is to educate voters and the high school challenge is a it's a great way to educate the young people coming up getting
017ready to vote and it's a proven fact that if you get somebody to vote the first time they're eligible they will make it a habit for a lifetime habit so thank you so now I'd like to present the trophy far as the high school trophy for third place Island Coast High School with 128 registrations it's 14% of eligible eight 17y old 16 year olds I also want to mention that the princip principles who allowed our team to do presentations are the are the highest scoring students the highest scoring schools it allows them to you know give them the importance of voting why you should vote how to vote the three ways of voting and that those are the schools that scored the highest second place eastle County High School with 100 they had 166 registration
018that's 16% registered congratulations thank you thank you awesome our first place among the high schools is Lee senior high school with 220 registrations 177% out of the two charter schools that participated Oasis High School registered 151 students and that was 40% of the eligibility oh yeah oh congratulations they're not here tonight congratulations okay I photo off okay come on than good evening Fort Meers based First Tech Challenge robotics team Java the Hunts Java the Huts has advanced to the world championship competition to be held in Houston Texas between April 16th through the 20th 2024 and that's in a week the team won the Florida state championship on March 2nd 2024 first stands for for inspiration and recognition of science and technology is a global robotics Community with teams spread across 110 countries with a primary
019focus on advancing stem Education First Tech Challenge is a category of robotics competition for students in the grades of 7th through 12th teams design build and program a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams Java the Huts is made up of students from five different schools when I call your name please come up to be recognized Delany Balcom 10th grader well this is Old Well 10th grader I'm sorry at fsw Collegiate High School thank you good job and then Nash Balcom Paul Lawrence dumbar School grade eight thank you thank you thank you Nini F Fernando dumbar High School 10th grade atth minen Dunbar High School 12th grade they're here are they here on okay not here thanks not here he was and then Robbie Stewart Bonita Springs High School 12th grade thank
020you this oh oh Dua Sharma Fort Meers High School 11th grade the school board the school board and the superintendent are pleased to recognize the accomplishments of jaob the Huts First Tech Challenge robotics team and wish the entire team the best of luck at the world championship you earned it I'll give a moment just to clear the room as the family's exit great job everyone amazing night I forgot to turn it off as oh no no oh yeah it's still on turn talked to him earlier everyone moving on to the next item on the agenda is public comment attorney depri Bruno please address the item of public comment thank you and good evening School Board policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's
021agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district please complete a public comment card and put it in the basket provided if you need a public comment card they are provided by our staff the rules concerning public comment are posted in the back and will be made from the podium in the front center aisle please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers concerns will be addressed by the superintendent or his staff as necessary and the chair May comment as deemed appropriate at the conclusion of public comment the superintendent or board attorney may also comment if deemed appropriate the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on District issues such as duties responsibilities decisions and the general operation of the district the
022school board is View Point neutral during public comment we ask that decorn be kept and respect be shown which is what is expected when a government agency conducts its official business therefore abusive language such as cursing insults derogatory language Lev at an individual or a class of people are prohibited further personal attacks such as name calling are prohibited in addition clapping hissing booing or display of temper during the public comment period is prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decor the chambers will be ruled out of order by the board chair or the parliamentarian any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 01691 and may be removed from the chambers by the Sergeant at Arms for board policy 01691 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if
023there are 20 speakers 2 minutes if there are 30 speakers and 1 minute if there are 31 speakers or more the maximum time allotted for public comment is 1 hour 60 speakers you will find a countdown on the big screens 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 Mr chairman there are nine individuals that wish to address the board this evening and the time per speaker is 3 minutes thank you attorney debr brono is there anyone in the audience who wishes to make public comment who is not not fill out a card yet if so please raise your hand okay
024seeing none attorney TBR Bruno please begin public comment thank you Mr chairman will the following individuals please line up Robert Daniels Christine Garis Pondo Dr paa Porter dick Delorenzo Robert Daniels I'd like to once more endorse Mrs Jenner's suggestion of pro rating the time when there are not 20 speakers so that each can speak longer if they so choose I've spoken before requesting that the student access to the internet be throttled and limited on their Chromebooks while in class to help cut down on distractions I was given the indication that was not possible I was trying to work today on the guest access internet in this building it had all the restrictions I would love to see our students deal with while I was trying to get my work done could not even open my
025personal Gmail but I definitely could do anything the students needed to do getting into YouTube Google and my work assigns things next item was the AI I was told that it was not possible to limit access to the AI that guest Internet access definitely did a good job of that I also spoke with an independent programmer who was self-taught he said in two weeks he could whip you up a program to automatically block any AI program that you needed him to automated never check it again or it could take one it person about 20 minutes a week to update that list there's not that many different options for kids to access this grows more important as we have fewer and fewer teachers help monitor the kids their internet access and what they're doing inside of
026the classrooms I'm going to say once more that pay is a huge driving Factor when I talk to teachers about why they are leaving one recent study said that just to meet basic needs for a single person in Southwest Florida you have to make $47,000 to support children and live a quote unquote comfortable lifestyle 94,000 the only people starting at 94,000 are your stage 12 administrators they start just under that so the teachers definitely are far from but I've been saying these things for a long time I have some words from teachers to kind of Express why we're losing these teachers this one teacher they say they taught in Michigan for 20 years the district gave them a runaround for 6 months months about crediting their teaching experience and then only credit them for 10
027years at a rate of 10 cents per year on how much more they were being paid another one I was marked down on my evaluation for a student using their IEP accommodations during my observation I tried to explain the situation but my administrator did not want to hear it and lastly I can't afford diapers I can't afford groceries I'm so depressed I keep hoping the district will help make it better I feel hopeless I feel powerless thank you next speaker please good evening Dr Paula Porter Lehigh Acres there are several issues I wish to point out about the media access for from qek first of all it is not mandated by law it was wholly a political ploy to appease an extremely small vocal group of constituents yet the choice of parents as to what
028their children can access has long been available through Destiny this unnecessary form due to the software used for parental consent as I was told does not upload or talk directly to Destiny this becomes a staffing issue dealing with workload that is not focused on the main job of educating our students is the information individually uploaded to the destiny database by the media Specialist or a teacher or does the form require media specialist to review yet another element before a child can gain access to learning materials there's also the expectation that parents need to complete another form before their child could start school I repeat this form is unnecessary given parental access to what their child is allowed to check out and read with the district's Destiny exess other than a political desire there's no relevant
029rationale for this form that I have found or heard from anyone only a handful of Florida school systems have a similar form this is a case I believe as what was sold as an emotional rhetoric to protect students from what was deemed but not supported with any evidence as a removal of access of books that a minority determined harmful for students the creation of the form did not consider the potential consequences of adding to the beginning school year forms for parents and even more the amount of work required by stool School staff and either adding to the destiny database or some other check and balance system to determine what a child can successfully access in a student School library As taxpayers We already pay for Destiny the library management tools with this form we're taking
030away valuable time that could be spent in educating our children with unnecessary and duplicated busy work not to mention taking away time from parents in the care of their own children thank you well the following individuals please line up de Shane Walker Ryan maride Tara Jenner Sergio Cruz next speaker please please approach good evening my name is Pina tondo I also sit as the under the Florida Republican assembly as a chair for human trafficking and child exploitation I went I attended the be meeting a couple weeks ago here and I took some photos of the slides that you had displayed it hears a I heard quite a few times the throughout the whole meeting resilience resilience resilience resilience under the State Board of Education requires instructions rule under 68- 1.0 9412 includes three health education
031topics resilience education two is substance use and abuse educ education and three child trafficking prevention education and these are grades from K to 12 unfortunately I must have Mard or didn't hear anything we do have a pandemic here with child trafficking and we're talking about books and so forth and which should be provided to parents children and so forth as I walk through the as I walk into this building I don't see anything for child child trafficking prevention whether there forms or posters so my question to the board has the board provided children trafficking prevention posters is there a hotline for children to call is there a safe place for children that have been that been have been trafficked if so how is this information communicated and what books are available for children and parents
032for preventing and child trafficking and programs and basically just I'm looking for if anybody could just provide information is also the public have prior can the public also have view the materials for what is being displayed within the schools thank you all good evening I'm dict lenzo I a new arrival here in Florida been here about a year and a half and I've been reading about these these books and things that are being put in the schools and I'm just finishing up a the new Peter schwitzer book on on China and he goes into the this tick tock which you probably all are familiar with and all the surveillance that they're doing and monitoring of the students and getting all that information back to Russia and the situation is kind of dire right now so
033my point is that the they've introduced this new concept into the schools of CRT critical race Theory and I think at the time that we're going through all this termoil with the government especially we're heavily in debt we're into a couple of Wars Nationwide and we're it's a time for Unity not a time for Division and this CRT is to me it seems like a lot of division dividing up the races racial Theory hear the words like white supremacy and so forth and I think this is just driving us apart and giving us an opportunity giving the Chinese an opportunity to to U exploit this situation so I'd like to see you know a more careful restriction on this CRT in in the textbooks and I understand there are committees now working on this and
034i' ask the board to take cognizes that another thing in the with all this gender Theory and having sexually explicit things in the in the textbooks and this is also driving the support and it's very detrimental to the to the children my granddaughter who has a PhD in in psychology is doing a study on the effects of this on the U on the children and her preliminary findings are that this is really detrimental and is driving the students to to distraction so I'd ask the board to take very careful analysis of all of this woke Theory that's going around and concentrate more on the fundamentals Reading Writing arithmetic and social studies and with that I'll thank you next speaker can come down good evening everyone my name is dios Shan Walker I'm here to say
035thank you to the COO Mr Stevens in my 12 years working for the district I have never seen a district leader as compassionate and caring as this man I have never seen any leadership Personnel in transportation beside Mr Manny Mr Jared Mr Purdue and Mrs Charles meet with new employee and hear their concerns his pres has made a positive impact on employee es and staff morale quote if you care you should be shaking hands and kissing babies end quote Mr Stevens made sure to visit every class of new hires drivers and attendant each time he visit he made sure to reach out to all employee mechanic office staff drivers attendants and custodians even returning drivers were shocked that someone in his position would meet and welcome them to the district let them know that how
036valuable they are to the district you did not just sit in your office and answer call reply to email or go to meetings your leadership gave us in transportation a sense of belonging unlike last summer when I was asked to go home and less than a week later I was asked to come back let's just say all the work was still there for me when I came back you care a lot about the people this is what we need from our leaders Mr Stevens you will be missed wishing you all the best in your future endeavors and know that you are our s and comment on behalf of the employees of transportation we all wish you would reconsider and stay a little longer to bring about the change we so longingly deserve thank you good
037evening my name is Sergio Cruz and I wanted to start by apologizing to Mrs giia vanelli for not sending the email that you requested in preparation for that email though and in tonight's meeting I just wanted to get properly informed and U and have all the current upto-date information before I sent that off secondly I wanted to congratulate Mr Savage and following suit with my relationship with Dr berer I hope to build that rapport with you and you know continue partnership with your with your office to see how we can strengthen the district's U Services toward students with disabilities in celebration of April's autism awareness this month I wanted to discuss a program that I believe would truly change the lives and projection of the students within the district and in the future and that
038program is called peers as partners learning program what is it the PPL program it provides reciprocal academic social and interpersonal benefits to students with and without disabilities across the school campus the peers as partners learning program is comprised with students with and without without disabilities who are Partners in the PO course and they comprise that school's specific program this is ran through the Florida inclusion Network short for Finn who the district already kind of operates with they're known to do the district and school levels BP's assessment and they provide a lot of the district's professional training in regards to inclusive education opportunities and things like that so they already have a working relationship with the district they're funded by the floor Department of Education the program can be customized to some extent to be appropriate
039and meaningful for each school and or district with their participants the programs currently have curriculum codes at the middle school and high school levels with some districts even implementing a unofficial programs that at the elementary level to help promote the tenants and principles of the program making it a easier transition and for capacity building at that next level some celebrated examples are Hernando County Orange and Simo County were actually Dr berer was at when he was able to implement one of the programs most celebrated programs up in Timberlake High School as well as Miami and Palm Beach areas current support I'm at oamic with my son and we voted to do our bpy assessment a year early the Mr howy show has sat down with them to discuss what that PPL program would look like
040and what that would so we're hoping that becomes a program at that pro at that school unfortunately my son won't be able to take advantage of that but I'm hoping that'll be a legacy he'll be able to leave moving forward we're you know trying to have conversations with that with his projected high school and I've already met with you know staff that would help Implement that and be part of that program and as of two days ago manate Elementary Mr Scott the principal out there and their AP has thank you Mr Cruz your time is up good evening it's Ryan Monroe they mispronounced it when they said it but you got it right now it's Ryan Monroe and thank you for letting me speak it's good to come here every once in a while when
041the issues of CRT and transgender issues come up in front of Lee County School District I'm just like you know my son went to school here from prek all the way to fsw and you know I am prot protective of my son and now he's graduated he's gone off to another college right from high school and I'm proud of what he's done but I don't I didn't like to hear that couple years ago they were going to have boys in the girls' rooms and a boy a gym and gym and sports things like that and then all of a sudden Dan santis started taking care of some of it but not all the issues seem to be taken care of there still CRT in our schools there's still transgenderism in our schools and there's still
042debates about which books are right and wrong for the students the only thing I can say about that is ACC you have to really get to Accurate history and we have to make sure there is no CRT or transgenderism indoctrination in the school books we want to stick with the Reading Writing arithmetic basic things that students learn we don't we don't want these extra things that people bring in cu believe to some people like you know I'm a I'm a Christian I believe in Jesus and not everybody who doesn't believe in Jesus may have another religion and I believe that's the purple shirts the purple shirts have their own Jesus and most of them I would say because they don't Jesus doesn't believe in boys in the girls room no matter you can be tolerant
043I mean I'm tolerant my whole life I was going to school they say you know make sure you're tolerant of other people co colors races Sexes whether they're gay whether they're lesbian and all of a sudden we're so tolerant they think they're going to get in our classrooms and teach our children this stuff and it's there's no way that we can allow our tolerance as a country as American to allow these things into our classrooms and to poison our students and our children we're only 200 something 50 years old my family's been here since the Mayflower we have to keep going and if we're going to destroy our country if we have the CRT in here this transgenderism in here is we have to unite about one thing we're all Americans and we America has
044good history bad history we live in Lee County named after the Confederate president Ro you know Lee Roberty Lee so we all we all have our crosses the bear but we need to keep our children safe we need to protect them from what's right from what's wrong we know what's right and wrong and I expect this board to do the right thing especially the Republican MERS time is up sir thank you for your comments good evening Tara Jenner I just would like to acknowledge the fact that today is the officially declared day of the end of the American Civil Civil War from April 9th 1865 I didn't hear any mention of that and I'm kind of curious just to know whether or not there was any celebration or any acknowledgement of this in any of
045our schools today because that's a pretty significant issue because we've talked an awful lot about people coming together and trying to get along nothing quite like reconstruction though it did take a while to really take hold but nothing like taking someone you totally disagree with and a whole grp group of people you might totally disagree with and find a way to work together as a unified country so I just kind of wanted to point that out just in general I found it very interesting that the word of the day was integrity and yet we had a very important board meeting yesterday and it was scheduled at 1:00 in the afternoon when none of the staff and none of the teachers in Lee County could even attend and I find that to be a little problematic
046yes you might have met the letter of the law with the 24-hour notice but the intent of the law is to give public an opportunity to be involved in the discussion and it was actually circumvented because of the time that was adopted also the expression that you have a right to your opinion but not to the facts comes to mind it is not in fact a fact that there is no law that would allow or require the document that is for the challenged books parents have a right and that's a god-given right to decide what is appropriate for their children to claim as a fact that Destiny can be accessed by the parents and that should solve the problem is a bit of an erroneous statement because the parents can't read all the books and
047know all the books their children might check out before they do and if I'm not mistaken Destiny does not necessarily include the books that teachers may have in their own private libraries so the goal of this particular system that we have in place right now is to be able to challenge books that might be of concern to parents sequester them and give parents the authority to decide if they want their children to access some are all of those books or none of those books or whatever the case may be I also found it rather ironic that the board chairman of your committee for that particular discussion a couple of weeks ago was accused of being biased when he called out more of us that were in favor of the form than against the form I
048don't think he called any of them out for their behavior and yet the bias on the board was clear with the number of people that were wearing purple and so that wasn't mentioned either so I encourage you all to look into those issues thank you Mr chairman that concludes public comment for the evening thank you attorney to PRI Bruno before you proceed either Dr Savage or attorney to PRI Bruno is there anything you do wish to address in regards the public comment I don't I don't have anything Mr chairman Mr chairman I'm I'm happy to provide just some brief responses if you'd like please proceed Mr superintendent thank you so much just in regards to Mr Daniels he had two two kind of bodies of piece one was asking a member I'd like to have
049a member of staff to reach out to him just for the substantive analysis of the techbase the filter aspect as well as the AI you know in in the we didn't hear all of that but just one aspect the AI piece just to kind of give you some sense because AI is very broad some of the programs such as chat GPT do get blocked but all of the generative AI presents some different challenges but we just really want to make sure we fully understood that filter issue so member of staff you're going to be pretty easy for us to locate and just really appreciate again you always advocating and looking out for for how to improve the conditions in the classroom the second piece kind of touches on that which is just about the you
050know as a member of the Union you have a bargaining entity that Bargains on your behalf not just for compensation but also for all manner of things to improve that piece so I hope as you engage with your union representation you're hearing the advocacy that you're you're sharing here at the board table represented on that side and if if not then I encourage you to reach out to those folks because obviously we're we bargain with the with the entity in that half that's engaged as we speak with Dr Porter just wanted to address you know that we're going to have a member of our team correspond with you just to followup it does appear that the destiny system does not have the connection as you described anytime we can improve the efficiency of that process
051we'd like to do so I'm going to get briefed on that a little bit more tomorrow to understand some of those issues Miss torto just on the child trafficking posters really rather than just focusing on posters any of our preventive efforts I'd like to get a summary of that information we provide that to our board members and the board weekly so that you kind of understand what is the gamut of of the totality of what we do throughout the year as it pertains to child trafficking and I'll ask that information also be shared with Miss torto as well as anything that's appearing on our public facing website that will try to draw attention so if other constituents reach out to you with that wondering then we can point them to the resources that are available
052that highlight those pieces if those exist so we'll be following up with that as well this week for Mr Delorenzo and a few others who who talked about the CRT aspect of it I just want to as it pertains to that classroom instruction you know just as a stance in Florida one of the things that the state Florida is committed to even though we have local control one thing that is not subject to local controls that pertains to our school systems is the focus on benchmarks and our Florida standards so both standards and benchmarks that is what we are obligated to teach that is what students must teach and that is what students are accountable to learn and so as a system that is really our core work everything else kind of flows from that
053responsibility and so they don't that additional latitude is not present but but I just wanted to make sure that I at least highlighted that's one safeguard the State of Florida puts in any who does not do that is accountable based on those processes I want to thank Mr Walker for just sharing some comments about Mr Stevens creating a sense of belonging in transportation and just really highlight servant leadership the importance of servant leadership not just with the obvious case of Mr Stevens but just in general with the board's focus on a speak up listenup culture we really appreciate when when folks are willing to share kind of that experience with leadership and that they're having a positive experience and we look to build on that and continue to expand that type of work so thank
054you for coming and using your voice today to share that for Mr Cruz again just your advocacy and passion I'm sorry you ran out of time because you know you're you're absolutely you highlighted some some some definite Partnerships that we do have and continue to try to enhance with the afford inclusion Network so you're right on point there and just really always love hearing the passion advocacy you have in such a space I also appreciate that you said it's not just about your son it's about other other folks as you move forward so thank you for kind of highlighting that advocacy as well and look forward to having someone reach out in terms of you know just continue to engage productively and to help have the influence you'd like to have Mr Monroe again that
055was mentioned CRT but it wasn't specific just to the curricular side it was really more in general of of other elements just want to make sure that just to frame critiques of this nature since there were a number of speakers that had some similar themed comments Our obligation is to have procedures and systems in place to review evidence of of these types of things so that we that's what we can respond to is when there's evidence that something is inappro improper or inappropriate that's that's as a system that is kind of the way we approach the work as a district and so if those systems are functioning there should always be data there should always be feedback those are the type of things we look at every system in process can always be improved and
056we always seek to do that but it starts with kind of the evidence that the system is not working effectively and so anytime we have folks who who want to share it we all just we just also ask if you'd like to provide some evidence for us to review we certainly appreciate that it helps our team properly identify if there in fact there's a violation of the law and last but not least Miss Jenner I don't have the information about the Civil War but I just appreciate the cander to share that U valuable insight about the world and about our communities and about how we work together thank you for that I will probably have an answer on that but again I just want to highlight again that the comment I made about for Mr
057Monroe which is processes you know so every process was is well intentioned to try to address the letter of the law that is kind of Our intention to have that again we always seek to make them the best possible which is focused on evidence data feedback and so forth to evaluate those processes thank you so much for for all the public comments that's all I have chairman thank you Dr Savage it's appreciated just a few things briefly the meeting yesterday time is was the essence so we did the best we could under the circumstances we had so in regards to some of the discussion about CRT we don't don't teach CRT in the school district of Lee County we follow the law in regards to that I just want to thank everyone for their public
058comments we as a board truly appreciate your feedback so thank you so much everyone we're going to move on to our next agenda item which will be approval of action items under the consent agenda the documentation for Action lists items under consent is made available to board memb 7 business days prior to the board meeting we're expected to review all the material and we 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 so first up member juven I have none thank you Miss Patria
059no thank you okay M Jordan I have none thank you Mr psons and I have none M lford Fleming I have none m Morgan I have none and I have none at this point is there a motion to approve the agenda's agenda's consent action items with the exception with the full agenda excuse me okay Miss Jordan I move to approve the agenda as written okay do we have a second I'll second thank you okay Miss juvenile motion moved by Miss Jordan seconded by Miss juven Elli please record your vote board docks is moving a little slowly again okay motion carries 70 so at this point I don't we don't we're not introducing any administrators tonight I believe correct I believe we have two oh my apologies so yep if you want to proceed with that
060Dr Savage thank you chairman thank you chairman I'd like to recognize tonight is Gina fortunado in our location of Human Resources field operations filling the position of director Human Resources field operations I'd also like to recognize Mariana Hall who's joining again in HR with our talent acquisition as a position of recruiter so is Marana here this evening no okay that's right well let's we'll still give her of appla that is all I have chairman thank you Dr Savage sorry about that I must have read that in the wrong place my apologies so at this point we're going to move on to item R which good of the order and board member comment so at this point I promised that we'll go make sure that we go over to our student representative derua so sir please
061proceed thank you as a lifelong lcsd student I owe my success to the incredible teachers and the schools that have shaped me I've always had plenty of opportunities to participate in interesting extracurricular activities such as Odyssey of the mind at Allen Park Elementary math counts competitions at Paul lawen sunbar middle school and the innumerable clubs at Fort Mars High School throughout my journey in elementary middle and currently at high school both the teachers and the school administrators have been very supportive and encouraging of students like me who participate in activities within and outside of school one of the most significant extracurricular activities I'm involved in is robotics I do this outside of school I'm part of a community- based team with students from several Lee and Coler County Schools I'll tell you firsthand that this
062program has changed my life trajectory and I'm confident that my fellow teammates who were here previously will say the same I would like for every Lee County School District student who's interested in robotics or any other Hands-On stem programs to have the opportunity to explore the same while structured learning in a classroom environment is important and necessary it's the project based Hands-On learning that gives students The Edge either they decide to pursue college or join the workforce After High School stem is the way of the future my request to LCD lcsd is to PRI prioritize programs like robotics which is a k through 12 program and offer it to as many public schools as possible the best part is students not only learn the hard skills such as 3D designing building and programming but they
063also learn valuable soft skills such as public speaking and teamwork thank you for your consideration thank you great job Dua now we're going to move on to member juvenile okay I'll be quick last Friday I attended Edison Park they had a Mexican restaurant and my granddaughter she must have knows she likes her tacos so they had Mexican restaurant and what they were doing was actually counting money it was decimals and learning that and they would order their food and then pay for their food and count the money back and forth and they had a cashier and it was actually a cute little task and they did it several times they ordered and purchased quite a bit and I think my daughter granddaughter might have been up there a few few times but it was really
064cute and learning experience for the students and as well as me actually so I enjoyed that immensely I just want to Mr Cruz I wanted to will acknowledge and celebrate your Autism aare Awareness Month I think that's great and bringing it to everyone's attention because everyone needs to be heard and I think that's really important regarding that form I wanted to talk about that for amendment that really is just putting the power back to the parents and I think that's really important that we never circumvent parents and it's making the parents be a parent and parent their child so I support the form and will continue to support that form and I don't believe that it does anything but puts the power back into to the parents and I think that's very important I wanted
065to talk real quick about creating a speak up listen up culture and making sure that we as a board will continue to support the anyone any staff member that has has anything that they ever want to talk about that they have that option and they're welcome to contact me I'll give you my phone number you can call me anytime or my email because it's important that culture in the school district is essential for fostering and open communication and collaboration among all staff members as a leader it's important to set tone set the tone by actively listening to staff valuing their input and demonstrating that their voices do matter encouraging open dialogue providing opportunity to for feedback and addressing concerns in a timely and respectful manner are all key components of creating a culture where Staff
066feel comfortable and speaking up my by prioritizing communication and creating a supportive environment should Empower staff to share their ideas and concerns and feedback ultimately leading to a more inclusive productive work environment and I will always support that so thank you thank you Miss Patria thank you sir I'm going to hold my comments until I'm back in the building thank you thank you Miss Jordan okay thank you I did have I just a the media access form we had I just wanted to ask this question because I know when we first started when that first came about I had said that I was going to come back months later and now it is many months later just to say and I apologize Dr Savage that you're now sitting here and I did not ask the
067other person who was there how many parents have not filled out that form and how many CH that which would make how many children not able to access the books and that was something that I promised that I would bring back and I failed to do that so in hearing this today I am bringing it back just to get that answer you can send it to me what however you want to do it is fine I just I made a promise to do that so I want to make sure I'm following up on that Mr Cruz I always appreciate listening to his words I also have children who have are part of the Au autistic family and I know that we have best buddies in our system that work as mentors and work with other
068children which is a great organization and I sent to you all the we had eedc last night and what I did was there were so many things that they had they had asked so what I did was I had sent you all the request that they have and I think I left mine in there no it's the end of the year recommendation so you will have an email from from me to everyone it was just the U equity and diversity advisory committee end of the year recommendations which would include legislation legislative sessions Equity guide investigation process student code of conduct Recruitment and Retention and proximity plan and last night they worked as a team to these were subjects that they had people come in and speak to them about so last night as a as
069they broke up into teams and they spoke about you know what they got out of it or what they did not get out of it any recommendations that would come back to us as a board and how they might help us or what our needs would be for them to help us as well so I went ahead and I just sent all of that because it is a page and a half of dialogue and then that way that gives you an opportunity to read what they have said and then perhaps at at another date and time we come back and discuss it I wanted to thank Janelle Miss Lux from North for Meers High School I don't think I've ever missed any of their shows The Lion King is coming up the kids do a
070phenomenal phenomenal job this is a family A place where you can take your entire family and just enjoy what our students do all of our schools are magnificent when it comes to this and we really should be supporting them and going and watching their shows and they're all PG rate it you can take your family so take them all bring it bring everybody bring Grandma bring the kids and Dua I just want to thank you so much for being here I know that you and your team I'm I'm so excited and proud of you that you made it to the world and you're going to win that I know you are and I thank you for coming to student advis ad advisory and showing and presenting to those children and you how excited you got
071them to be about what you all do so thank you so much for everything appreciate you and that is it thank you thank you Miss Jordan Mr persons I'll start with the student advisory I went to that meeting the other night it was very good I think that was there last one of the year and they have done so much all year long I want to do a shout out to the School teacher recruitment they're doing a great job they had a couple weeks ago I believe at FGCU we I shouldn't say the word snagged we recruited 19 new recruits to be teachers for next year so that was awesome so great job and I believe they have a virtual recruitment coming up on April 20th I believe so that'll be good too we had
072a con good construction meeting I went to the other day of construction advisory and a couple of things from that they did talk over the school at tuckaho and Joel some and then they talked mostly about procurement and they're going to have someone from procurement come to the next advisory construction meeting so that's where they are they're and then they'll be making some recommendations so other than that you know we with the Easter holiday that was about it for me thank you Mr person thank you Mr person lford Fleming yes I completely agree with you Miss Jordan I absolutely love when she belted out that first note with the lion King I got chills and all down me so I they were phenomenal and I'm hoping I can get to a show you're right so
073derva thank you for being here it sounds like you've been to three amazing schools you said Allan Park dunar and Fort Meyers and I credit all those teachers you had along the way but also is your mom in the audience so you have an amazing support system at home as well so you make sure you thank her and I know that you have a very bright future ahead Mr Daniels thank you always for coming and advocating for teachers and we do appreciate your comments and I know that the board goes home and thinks thinks a lot about what you bring to the to the microphone or to the table each time you're right Chromebook safety is it's important that we stay on top of security especially with AI and the things that students can re
074reach retrieve through technology be it phones or our Chromebooks so thank you for continuing to make that important to the district it just reminds us I think this afternoon I know I gave the invocation and I us I usually I always include our amazing sro's and our security team that is here each and every night we have amazing Lieutenant sergeants and our team with the sheriff's department that always that I'm very appreciative of and I and I neglected to say that this evening so thank you very much for not only serving us but serving our community and then we've had a couple of glitches in the last couple of meetings and it's really important we thank our technology team because Joe's always here to save us so I just I just thank the whole technology
075team for all the they do they're here 247 and and I appreciate that but on a on a very light note something I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks is graduations and it's right around the corner and I look forward to seeing the success and the fruits of the labor of all of our Educators and most importantly the hard work of the students that got there that's all I have thank you Miss Lang for fing misss Morgan I can't add anything to what my colleagues have said so I'll I'll take a pass this evening thank you thank you Miss Morgan I'll I'll try not to make this go too long a couple things some of us were able to celebrate Kristen Stevens this morning the AP of the year from East Lee this morning
076to give her a little bit of surprise she is a state finalist one of three so we're excited to see where she goes and she's number one to us so couple other things oh sorry darua great job it's great to meet you again and to see you continually up here thank you for what you do and again as I ask every other student you know when you get through engineering and Entrepreneurship come to Lee County stay in Lee County if you can okay we need you thanks Mom okay so I had the opportunity to attend as well young men leads young men leads collaboration between the school district and the foundation and it was amazing to see thank you to Jared Edy for that thank you for the invite and got to see some amazing
077discussions among the students that was that was amazing I also was able to was a speaker at the Gold Coast Rotary Club over in Cape Coral and had a very interesting discussion so and brought up some great points so outside outside of that is all I have at the moment so attorney to pre Brun do you have any comments thank you Mr chairman I'm very impressed with your leadership as the team captain and your advancement to the world championship Dua you're well on your way to an exciting career that will certainly enrich everybody's daily lives cuz I have a feeling you're going to do big things and it appears that we have another Steve Jobs in the making the founder of Apple so congratulations board members I had an opportunity to attend the national spring
078law Council of school attorney seminar AR this past weekend it is always worthwhile to meet School attorneys from across the nation and this year I had the honor of being one of three panelists in the general opening session joined by the division legal council of Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia John Foster and Jim Walsh of Walsh Galos Travino of Austin Texas and our moderator was Margaret an Hoy the general Council of Baltimore school system in Maryland we discussed and updated the attendees on the relating to the First Amendment and board meetings finally I wanted to acknowledge and thank the board for the highly effective evaluation given this evening I know this is an evaluation of my performance but it's also a reflection of the district's legal team the assistant school board attorneys and our support
079staff work tirelessly to support the board and the administration with legal compliance and it is our pleasure really to serve this board and the administration and do our part to help us become a worldclass school system so thank you very much board thank you attorney T Bri Bruno Dr Savage yes chairman I just want to answer a few quick questions from one that an earlier comment that I did not have this information earlier but I have it now one of our staff members actually went back and relistened to Mr Daniel's questions to make sure they understood the filtering issue and they want to make sure I draw attention to a tool that is referred to as light speed which is a classroom tool that allows the teachers to have content control essentially what the students
080can and can't do with the Chrome books while they're in use and so that's one piece that allows them to block sites only allow certain sites lock a device so they can pay attention monitor what they're browsing and so forth so we want to make sure that that is an additional tool that we've provided understanding so he's going to work with the team lvis Administration and the tech team there to provide training resources support to help with that piece so just an example of the diligence as staff is listening to this comment real time how seriously they take it may address Mr Daniel's comment but it may not but it's just again I want to highlight really take a pause for a moment to highlight a staff you mentioned the tech team that is out
081there helping but you also should know that your academic Services team Miss Jordan as you asked that question about the data and also meanwhile Miss patrika had a similar question requesting really a lot of the same type of information they're already on it I didn't even have to ask they were already jumping in to try to provide those answers I had multiple responses on that and you mentioned about human resources you heard about Mr Stevens you know talking to the bus drivers really I wanted this opportunity during a transitional time it's always difficult this certainly has been a rough couple days for our board to highlight the professionalism and dedication of Staff we are not perfect we will make many mistakes we do probably make mistakes every day but we never stopped trying to improve
082Miss Gianelli when you talked about this desire to improve be the best we can that is the Comm commment of the professionals who are sitting out in this audience that the tireless Dedication that they put forward a reflection of all the unique people that have joined our district that have been in our district working together to serve our our elements here and I just wanted to kind of draw attention really celebrate our staff during this time period as well as well as the leadership which which I'm so privileged to work with just wanted to mention to drua team captain being a leader but I love the blend of the entrepreneurial side and something I just want to to highlight that he said was in the the content of his response is so important for us
083we so often talk about test data and test results and achievement scores and that's very important it's it's a good accountability to help us but one thing we it's harder to measure is that enrichment of Applied curriculum where you're able to do things such as robotics that take physics you have technology you have courses that in theory are one thing but when you bring them all together and you manifest in this technology it is extremely complex work very gratifying but when you see it and you hear it in our leaders our Future Leaders who are bringing that spirit and leading those teams across multiple schools together that to me is one of the Pinnacles of what our system can do and so just to expand that work so Dre I hope you will continue to
084inspire the next generation of students middle because I know you have a middle schooler on the team as well I just really appreciate that piece and really wanted to highlight that example of that type of work in action and those are the comments that I have for today thank you Mr Mr superintendent at this point the next scheduled meetings of the board are Tuesday April 23rd there'll be a school board workshop at 12:00 p.m. a Schoolboard briefing at 2:30 p.m. followed by Schoolboard Action meeting at 6:00 at this point having no other business come before this body and seeing no objection this meeting is adjourned the time is 7:31 p.m. have a great evening good job