001good evening ladies and gentlemen we're ready to begin this evening's board meeting Sergeant arms is the lobby clear thank you we request that all electronic devices be turned off or put in the silent mode also please refrain from using flash photography except during the special presentations of any of our meetings I am pleased to welcome you to the August 22nd 2023 school board meeting the time is 603. and this meeting is called to order we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district's Mission which is to ensure each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district's Vision to be a world-class school system this evening agenda includes the invocation Pledge of Allegiance public comment consent action items which include one item under Board office
002one item under executive services five items under academic Services one item under Business Services two items under Human Resources two items under Information Systems six items under operations and five items under good of the order of their business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda Jordan I'm here to adopt the agenda as written is there a second second would you please record your vote thank you the motion carries 7-0 foreign Fleming will lead us in the invocation afterward Miss Morgan will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please stand heavenly father I come in prayer asking for wisdom and guidance when making decisions that affect our children families and staff of Lee County I pray for wisdom for the board as well as our superintendent I pray that you cover our children
003and staff with your blanket of safety in all places protect our hallways our lunchrooms and their cafeteria workers our buses and their drivers our fields and their athletes and coaches our auditoriums and their artists I pray that you watch over our law enforcement our sros and those who have volunteered to keep our schools safe father I pray for our teachers that no matter the subject they will teach our students what they need to know that will help them become good and productive adults who are respectful and beneficial to our society father thank you for allowing us to serve our community here in Lee County please watch over us all as we leave tonight keep us safe bless our entire County bless our beautiful state and God bless this great country it is in your name
004we pray amen amen pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic with liberty and justice for all please be seated the next item on the agenda is public comment Mr course McIntosh please address the item of public comment School Board policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on the meetings agenda or any matter relevant to the operation of the school district please complete the 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
005comment to remarks made by the speakers concerns will be addressed by the superintendent or his staff as necessary and the chair May comment as deem appropriate at the conclusion of the public comment the superintendent may also comment if deemed appropriate the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on the district issues such as duties responsibilities decisions and the general operation of the district the school board is Viewpoint is neutral during public comment we ask that the Quran be kept and respect be shown which is what is expected when the government agency conducts official business therefore abusive language such as cursing insults derogatory language living against an individual or class of people are not are prohibited further personal tax searches name calling are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing or display of Timber during
006public comment is prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order by the board chair of the parliamentarian any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone by board policy and may be removed by the chambers from the chambers by the sergeant in arms policy 169.1 the time per speaker is three minutes if there are 20 speakers two minutes if there are 30 speakers in one minute if there are 31 speakers or more the maximum time allowed for public comment is one hour 60 speakers you will find a countdown on the big screens in front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone would automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the microphone I will call your name
007spy speaker is a Time please follow staff's directions when lining up Mr chair there are eight speakers that wish to address 24. 24. there are 27 speakers so it's gonna be two two minutes a piece okay so we're gonna start I'm gonna call the first five Jamie Merchant yep I don't think she's on here tonight of course is there anyone else that is would like to speak and is not filled out a comic cart is our record after the weekend contact you afterwards I apologize we have 24 speakers and we will start with the first five I will call now first smoking Joe Mr Todd dusenberry Jennifer Addis Dr Paula Porter and yeah from Deborah Ram I am smoking Joe the district wants 2.6 billion over the next decade to build 16 schools another speculative
008cost of 423 million for remodeling and additions to eight other schools 22.5 million to acquire land you sure don't mind asking for money but when it comes to your duties to protect public funds you have been negligent and ignored your fiduciary duties this board has refused to have a forensic audit conducted and have discouraged those who asked and blackballed whistleblowers ignoring reports submitted to the district like the deposition of Al Oaks which reiterated the corruption and thievery within this District this along with other complaints fraudulent bills created were ignored no one has ever been held accountable so you sit back and let the statue of limitations wear out to acquit common amongst you woke politicians real conservatives are real tired of euphonies armor wants the position created for him by him to be the anointed
009one to communicate with the legislators while he retains the position of liaison to the construction advisory committee and also the audit committee value adjustment committee as well this new position is a perfect place for him to lobby for the election of his son-in-law for the board of County Commissioners you spent 230 million dollars on Hurricane cleanup and repair yet schools are still in poor condition let's start with the forensic audit of the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in the name of hurricane damage the only reason anyone would resist an audit this hard is if they are guilty or covering up for someone else so tell us again who doesn't want this audit we need accountability for all of you first time I can recall a school board endorsement for a candidate of other political
010positions so much for the board being nonpartisan all the millerites proudly supported openly support for armor son-in-law the Franklin Park demo was awarded to armors son-in-law's company the fact that the board has publicly endorsed a vendor and the vendor has led to the chair is a conflict of interest stop foreign I've been a teacher for 20 years at Lee County School District all of them at Cypress Lake High School I'm also a coach for 20 years at least one sport and in some years as many as Seven Sports in the school year I love my job but love will not pay my bills we have great admin at our school and do not have the coverage issues at Cypress Lake High School as there is all over the County right now coaches pay for bowling
011I've been doing 13 years I started out 800 I'm not 810. monthly bills have gone up over 9 000 for me for the last two years and my pay has went up 3 000. this is not sustainable for me I'm in my 20th year I have to decide what I'm going to do next year am I going to be teaching here in Lee County am I going to give up teaching or am I going to go to another state teachers work two to three jobs with having to cover under the old agreement which is about thirty dollars a day teachers must take work home which interferes with their second job and family most teachers will have to cover because of the current teacher shortage where does the board stand on wages as it would we
012would like to see teacher what we would like to see teachers make a year a real number I've heard several times teachers underpaid and they deserve more money what is the number Broward County was looking at a hundred thousand and I've heard before in this from public sixty thousand years we need real numbers to make decisions for our following year we don't even know what our contract is going to be until halfway through the school year what does it cost to continue to recruit so many new teachers compared to paying your veteran teachers to say I've already heard of at least 15 teachers I've left in the first 10 days how much money was spent trying to recruit them when we have veteran teachers I would say for a few more dollars teachers cannot pay
013their mortgage their rent this was going on All Summer Long in our chat line weekly teachers are leaving because of the cost of living and low-teacher pay we have teachers I cannot put food on the table and are looking for food banks we talk about a world-class District but we're paying low-class wages by paying a livable wage your teacher retention will go up also pay for your coaches as I've heard many times over the last 20 years how important a role coaches play ten dollars over 13 years one moment please there's clapping is not allowed so please refrain thank you I'm packing house Road in Alva I'm here to speak against the new proposed high schools going in there there's no infrastructure to support it you're asked you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of
014cars multiple times a day coming through neighborhoods that don't have the roads to to support it and I think it's still advised and with multiple high schools in Lehigh and one in Riverview you'd be better off expanding those instead of building a new one thank you as a next speaker comes up we like to have Rosemary Mary Libby McCoy Dr Shirley Chapman Robert Daniels Polly Schwartz and Patrick finkler good evening I'm Dr Paula Porter for many meetings now I've heard the phrase protecting parental rights stressed by multiple speakers as I as I am sure we all agree including those of us in the purple group parental rights are fundamental aspect of family autonomy and is an extension of parents responsibility for their children's well-being and development let me be specific the practice of book challenges
015that is prohibiting books or materials available in our schools can have a significant impact on limiting any parents ability to expose their children to a diverse range of ideas and perspectives of the parents choosing when books are challenged banned and removed from the schools parents are deprived of the opportunity to decide whether their children should be exposed to challenging topics often found in these books the current media access form claims it promotes and protects parental rights while simultaneously removing them if challenge books are back on the shelves after a review why shouldn't the parents be allowed to with their own children to access it if that is their choice while the board and others indicate their desire to protect students the unspoken aspect of this practice is to take away the rights of parents to
016make choices for their own children's think of a brick when we can chip off a small piece of a brick and it's unlikely to be noticed what is happening here is it chipping away of the parental choice to acts for Access for children a small chip of Parental lights right is slightly removed under the guise of protection I will be brutally honest the media access form as written is not protecting parents rights it is taking them away the school board's rule should be to facil role should be to facilitate educational opportunities while respecting the boundaries of Parental Authority thank you I'd like to remind the audience at least there's no clapping hear from their Acres Florida I love my country but I fear my government my comments is in the future we're going to have
017a lot of enrollment in our schools our sales tax is going to be coming up less monies for building schools so we got a lot of things to look at here years ago when I first come into these meetings and that was a long time ago we built schools from empty Walmart shop buildings we got a Sears and robots building at the Mall Edison Mall we can use buildings like that for our new schools so we got to look at where we're spending this money I know this board and previous boards is use the kids tax the people and don't worry about spending it's always spending spending spending you know we went through Atkins 2020 deal for new schools I don't know what happened to that so our sales tax is coming up so we
018gotta look at being proven and how we do things let's look at empty buildings and let's watch out for our taxpayers last thing I got to say is as an Armenian I went to Saint John's Orthodox church and learn Armenian history my Jewish friends went to theirs churches synagogues and learn Jewish histories black history should be taught with American history I see no extra reason to pay for that let them go to their churches like I went to my churches and learn Armenian history so let's make equal good evening I am Rosa Mary Lippincott McCoy I speak for myself my family my ancestors and the future of my families my great-grandparents came here after the Civil War as pioneers to a little spot that's called Alvin and they thought was Paradise there were many little
019families who located there they worked hard believe me if you know what mosquito you think what mosquitoes are today you don't know what mosquitoes are they grub the land they've tilled the land we had the first schools we had the first churches we had the first Library we had the first bridge and we had the first school and the first school was built and completed by the local people in 1913 grades one through twelve now you people took away a high school 50 some odd years ago you didn't ask us you just took it well I'm telling you we want our high school back however the place that you have chosen is wetlands and Wildlife and you have to four lane two roads have you not consider this all you have to do is change
020the location to Highway 80 between east of Joel west of Charleston Park is High Ground no Wetlands our Wildlife is protected and Heavens you can build on high ground and when you enter Lee County from Henry County you're looking at a lovely School and when you leave you're looking at a lovely school I ask you to take this into consideration because we don't have many Wetlands left and we certainly don't need the truck good evening my name is Shirley Chapman and I have a saying I've had it for years over the 37 years that I was a teacher slash administrator in this school district and that's anything worth doing is worth doing well so I want to commend you for having hired Dr Bernier because as far as I have noticed and I have really
021been noticing he seems to be a superintendent for all people so I'm excited about that we'll talk about that more later the other thing I'm standing up here for is because we need a middle school in the Dunbar Community we need a middle school in the Dunbar Community it appears to me that we seem to be going back to almost neighborhood schools and to tell you the truth I really don't have a problem with that but I graduated from Dunbar High School in 1964 prior to segregation and I had excellent teachers so it all depends on the teachers but I just want to say to you I want you to give it some serious thought because we need a middle school in the Dunbar Community thank you so much foreign Daniels hello once again the
022time before last and I spoke here we had a bit of a response coming from the board to which it was said message heard loud and clear when I was listening to bargain yesterday or bargaining session yesterday I know all of you are highly intelligent people so I must have failed to communicate my thoughts properly we're facing teacher shortage that is only going to get worse we cannot in good faith advise our best students who have talent for teaching that we can see they give their presentations to their peers their peers get it as good as if we explained it ourselves can I in good faith advise a child to go into debt for four years of college to come out the other side not only not able to pay their student loans but not
023able to pay their mortgage not able to pay for a decent used car not able to keep a roof over their heads let alone any chance of supporting children or family moving ahead of them when I was a young man I decided I wanted to be a teacher not because I thought I was going to get rich but I just thought I'd be able to live well my grandfather who mostly raised me was dyslexic and heart of sight almost blind but he was able to support his family however he didn't learn how to read until I learned how to read because he left school at the age of eight with his teachers calling him stupid dumb and uneducatable I watched this man build a house with his own two hands down to the electrical wire
024and without assistance he wasn't dumb stupid or uneducatable he just needed teachers around the same time I was a child we also had a fellow who was a motivational speaker you may have heard of Matt Foley he talked about living in a van down by the river that was the punishment if you screwed up right now it's something no teacher can afford because we can't even afford the lot rent down by the beach as our next speaker approaches I like to call the next five to get in line please Connie Dennis Keisha Allen Thomas Denise Eberly Lou Navarro and Gwen giddens good evening my name is Patrick finkler I'm a resident of Alva who lives near the proposed high school and middle school I'm against the building of the high school and middle school on
025Joel in Tuckahoe while I was not in attendance for the August 16 Workshop I did listen to it with great interest in the workshop it was presented that there's a school desert in the East Zone a map specifically shows the lack of schools in Lehigh Acres and not in Alva the demographic studies of that this board relies on for the growth projections if they are accurate then why is the proposed School in Alva acceptable it would seem that this board would want to locate a school within that school desert which is in the heart of Lehigh Acres or as one of the previous speakers stated they need a middle school down by them the workshop was also an eye-opening for me as a taxpayer new and existing construction projects or 202 million over budget one
026project canceled with five million dollars no tangible benefit four projects delayed and you want to spend 2.1 more billion dollars my career is largely focused on it project and portfolio management and I.T Capital planning I'm no stranger to large and complex projects delays in overspending do occur from time to time however in business projects are over budget by 202 million then someone would be held accountable projects canceled and new spending delayed I have many more comments that I emailed this board but I would just like to say in conclusion that I would recommend this board explore alternative locations outside of the proposed Alva area and it would encourage this board to come and speak with us as we have a lot of differing opinions but I brought many of my neighbors you will hear from
027them tonight thank you very much good evening my name is Holly Schwartz I am a resident of Alva and I'm here today to support an alternative potentially to the nnn high school on Tuckahoe and Joel in Alva first of all I completely and totally support and appreciate the expertise that you all have my father retired from the school board so all more power to you and in another life I work for a County government and my blood pressure was immeasurable so I really do appreciate what you do the concern and I too watch the capital Workshop I thought that was very helpful a lot of information that came out of that but the one thing I think that the chairman mentioned that was the most important was utilities and perhaps when the property was purchased
028maybe we thought that utilities would have already met that site but it really isn't anywhere near it and I think we're going to find that's going to be a pretty great expense the other concern I have is that property is in a crucial Wildlife Corridor the county has spent millions of dollars on assembling property all the way from Carter Road through keiki Creek and I know you've all seen the maps but it's it's a really nice Wildlife Corridor in an area where we cannot replicate that in this County anymore it just can't be done so I would hope that whatever decision is made we consider that property as part of that Wildlife Corridor which which provides wildlife habitat water filtration flood mitigation passive Recreation for the entire County I didn't think I would take this
029long so I'll go but I'm looking forward to working if whatever does go there to make sure that it is appropriate to the parcels to the South which are conservation land thank you foreign good evening my name is Connie Dennis and I am president of Alba Inc I am speaking for myself I want to thank you for allowing input from the community regarding School Board issues I have heard the name Ruby Daniels mentioned several times and I just wanted to share a little bit of information regarding Ruby Ruby and I were members of the initial Community committees for the Bonita Springs High School we saw all the committee how all the Committees work together to solve problems and explore new ideas for meeting the needs of Bonita Springs the East Zone was to have the
030next High School and Ruby was excited at the prospect of once again having a local high school in Alva she had taught environmental science to many children and saw a need for teaching it at an advanced level she even took her students to the Everglades camping the idea of having a high school close to preservation land she was really happy about that with so much land available she envisioned using it for experimental agriculture activities she was very disappointed when Gateway was chosen for the new high school and apparently she was told by the administration at that time that Alva would be next Ruby passed away almost two years ago I don't know what her opinion would be today the current plans are for high school and then a middle school the situation is a lot
031different now than it was when it was first explored in 2017 less land available for teaching Agriculture and land use more people and more traffic there appear to be a lot of problems that were not anticipated in 2017. I don't think we can confidently say good evening I'm Keisha Allen Thomas the youth program director at quality Life Center and my comments are concerned in the transportation changes so I want to extend my warm greetings and appreciations to you all I would like to begin my comments by expressing my sincere gratitude to those who have been responsive to the numerous emails that convey the sentiments of the community we proudly serve at quality Life Center it heartens me to know that our voices have been heard I am particularly thankful to Dr Bernier for returning my
032phone call and engaging in a productive conversation it is reassuring to know that our concerns have not fallen on deaf ears this gesture exemplifies a willingness to understand and address the concerns of the community especially in these challenging times we took it upon ourselves to encourage the parents associated with our Center to attend tonight's meeting the intention is to empower them showing them that they possess a potent voice and an opportunity to actively participate in the Democratic process especially during times of change it is not just about are reacting when things deviate from their expectation it's about consistently engaging and influencing decisions that shape a shared future it is vital to acknowledge that this change has implications across various organizations while our initial Focus might be on how it impacts the families we serve we
033should also contemplate how it could enhance the attendance and engagements of the students who face severe disruptions last year and our role as a community agency I believe is imperative for the board to grasp the intricate dynamics of such changes communicating matters of this magnitude should not only be limited to school board meetings but should also extend to a community setting I propose that the board collaborates with organizations like quality life centers to foster a more inclusive platform for discussing significant changes as the next speaker approaches I like to call the next five Sheridan Chester Rocky rager Julian Ramirez Marge Cox and David Carter Can I submit this okay good evening Denise Eberly Al the Inc director I've submitted you hard signatures of the people of Alva in North Olga that are opposed to these
034schools I represent them and myself I have personally met and spoke with all of them Alva is our lives Alvin has a rich history as the oldest settlement in Lee County it's Reddit its residents are dedicated to preserving the tranquility and beauty of Alva a stewardship to Wildlife and its environment working to promote the role character natural resources and agricultural lands these massive compounds of schools within a very environmentally sensitive area is not in any way compatible with our community no matter what the curriculum may be these are Urban schools not small country schools the continued use of the narrative that Alva once had a high school is obsolete there's nothing romantic about these schools built within Lehigh which is urban following these schools would come developments and therefore destroy our rural communities they would
035be no more there are many significant issues connected to the properties opposed to the proposed property they will have significant additional costs it is right in the middle of 2020 preserves Wildlife Corridor to the east west and south basically that whole area is pretty much a wildlife corridor there the southern portion is connected to the school property divided by simple wooden wire post vents the scrub jay prefers many endangered and protected Wildlife Travers to proposed property and our properties panther black bear gopher tortoise they crossed Joel Boulevard and Tuckahoe roads they come over to bedroom Creek for water we personally observe them the people of Lee County had paid Millions to protect and preserve the wildlife and conservation lands this portion of Alva is Rich with wildlife traffic lights noise thousands of students and staff
036buses construction dump trucks for years it takes to build these schools will devastate this area now good evening superintendent board Lou Navarre retired teacher Top member I'm asking the superintendent and the board to revamp its discriminatory policy of not allowing visual aids here at citizens input time it's a violation of the First Amendment two I'm asking the board to again reconsider with the calendar committee to make Veterans Day a holiday and not a hurricane makeup day how can the board portray to the students and everyone else patriotism when we had to make Veterans Day of hurricane makeup day because we had to do 21st century politically correct things dismal reading scores again 46 on the fast test now let's not blame that it's new FCAT FSA fast same old same old you're dragging your feet
037on my sixty thousand starting pay with full longevity increases teacher shortages why can't I teach when the school board makes what the starting teacher makes today why teach when administrators are knocking down six figures here downtown in summer triple dippers.org check it out why teach when principals and assistants start around 78k and the principals are doing better than that why teach when the union president makes 78k a year and the executive director six figures why sub for 15 bucks an hour and no benefits women's parity no teachers no nurses they're all going away of the Roman Catholic none none why are you talking about schools and this that and the other the kids are failing they can't even hit 50 literacy good evening Gwen Gittens good evening everyone the first thing I wanted to say
038is to the public a lot of the things that we talk about in this district and that the board talks about cannot be decided here they're decided in Tallahassee with the Florida School Board Association at Florida Board the doe board they will be meeting tomorrow morning at nine o'clock in Collier County and you should go if you can to get some questions answered the other thing is there's an hb1 survey that parents call me about they received it on Sunday night and tried to complete it and they couldn't as soon as they tried to complete it went away and the questions are what was it for can they access it and where were the results this afternoon and for several days you've talked about moving to one meeting per month and you're meeting with the
039superintendent my question is when do you intend to listen to us to all of us because we have three minutes once a month that takes it down I mean twice a month now that takes it down to three once a month when do you hear our voices when I sat on the board the reason that I asked a lot of questions was for the sake of the public so that they understood some of the difficult things that we were covering it wasn't because I didn't do my homework if you decide to do one meeting a month and you're meeting privately with the superintendent where you get your questions answered but we have no idea what those questions are or those answers if you decide to do that you should also add a monthly District specific
040Town Hall that you hold every month whether there's one person two people or 50 people that it is a standing meeting in each district foreign good evening I'm Sheridan Chester and the president of the substitute Teachers Association for Lee County and I've been a teacher for 23 years we don't do this for any other reason other than we love the children and you want to make sure that there's a continuing of Education in the absence of a full-time teacher I was going to talk about something else but I heard today and it could be wrong so I wanted it clarify that there was a policy might be in and stated where you would be piggybacking off of Collier County using their Staffing services to hire Subs I'd start I'd heard something before about people using
041Kelly Services the same way and you're talking about paying something like then it was like 45 dollars an hour per teacher when all we're asking for is 19 to start why would you go through that kind of trouble when that's all we're asking for and you're throwing away the best of the best of the teachers that care about these children and what's happening to their future thank you very much thank you good evening I'm Marge Cox I live in Bonita Springs I'm a retired educator and I come again to say I appreciate the work you do I know it's hours of your time and energy and I appreciate what I've seen out of the curriculum committee this year as I've attended those meetings as well so I was disheartened when the work that the curriculum
042committee did was basically disregarded and I hope that you'll take another look at that and give the plan that they put in place another opportunity to be heard and discussed and accepted they've worked hard I appreciate their work because I appreciate your work Lee County Schools deserve the best we can give to them and our students deserve all we can do for them and I just want us to keep in mind that it's a we're all here because we care about students let's remember to put them and their needs first thank you foreign speakers to get in line please starting with Jesse Smith Ward Dickinson middle and Stuart Dr Samuel Stewart and the nad's powers good evening my name is Rocky rager I live in Tuckahoe Road in Elva and I like to say that
043me my wife my kids and our cattle oppose the school being built in Tuckahoe thank you thank you good evening my name is Julian Ramirez I'm the youth program's coordinator at the Quality Life Center I'd like to make a comment regarding the transportation changes as many of you already know the quality Life Center has been offering services in the Dunbar Community for over 30 years we see ourselves as a partner with the public school system an extension of what you do we're servicing the same families and children the recent decision that has been made has had a negative impact on our community and we want to make sure that we can communicate the impact that is having so that you can make a more informed decision As you move forward we provide academic enrichment programs
044that supplement what's happening at the school system we're seeing increases in gains in the academic program that we're having internal we have certified teachers that have been previous employees of the school district that are providing services to our young people in small act in small one on in small groups and also one-on-one for wellness services so we're doing academic enrichment we're doing Wellness services and with everything going on in the world post covid post and you know how important mental health is this is having a negative impact on our families our families are already struggling with different situations this is only adding to it we're having to freeze enrollment until we can actually fulfill the need of all the young people that we're serving we can serve more young people than we're serving right now
045and this change is affecting the quality of the program that we can provide lastly we want to be an institution we want to be here 100 years from now but just like you we depend on Public Funding the parents that bring the parents that we serve the tuition alone doesn't cover the expenses of the programs that we offer so we need to be able to figure out how we can work together so that we can serve our young people so they can realize their fullest potential thank you thank you good evening I'm Madeline Stewart thank you for letting me speak to you I'm here to talk about trust purple group was formed to voice our trust in and our support for the teachers and other Professionals in the district now we are very concerned about
046an unnecessary media access form that actually restricts parents rights to allow their students free access to all educational materials available in the library because it was rushed through there was a technical glitch quote-unquote leaving parents confused and misled if they signed on their phones why do we even have such a form the law does not require a media access form only a handful of the 67 districts in Florida even have such a form the default for the majority of districts is the right for all students to have free access to all available educational media if individual parents want to restrict their own students access that is their right and then they can complete a form we ask you to retire the current form we ask the we ask the professional staff to go back to
047the drawing board and create a simple form that protects the rights of all parents and students for access to books and finally we're very concerned about the morale of classroom teachers as they begin a new year with the so-called culture wars still raging we ask you to protect the teachers from those culture Warriors who are ferociously attacking them on all sides now is the time questions good evening I'm David Carter I live Alva here opposing to high school into Middle School I was here last meeting everybody for me said pretty much what needs to be said about I want to recap on it a little bit the infrastructure is not there your nearest city water sewer is probably two miles how much is it going to cost to run that put in a water plant
048and a sewer plant how much more extra cost is that going to cost us and it recapped from the last time I was speaking how many of our whales are going to go dry when y'all put that in to be able to feed two schools of that size you know we had a meeting somebody was talking about years back all this was brought up then and that was back before Frank Mann passed away and Ruby Daniels passed away and all in all these years nobody's ever answered these questions and then y'all wonder why we're so much aggravated with this situation we get no answers out of this the school does not belong there the property is full of endangered Wildlife over there it's like I said last time I appreciate y'all listening come out there
049about six o'clock in the morning sit on my porch we have a cup of coffee and you can watch the traffic go out during the afternoon to walk around that property and see what's in there thank you hello my name is Jesse Smith and I've worked in the district for 11 years all at Gateway Elementary I wanted to share my story and that of others at my school my significant other and I both work for the district we do not have any dependents and I cannot imagine the financial strain a dependent or two would bring to our lives we share a car and don't even make enough money to pay for our mortgage and get another car loan we all deserve more money and for food housing and cars we don't make enough to survive
050here in Fort Myers we don't want to leave but it's almost impossible to stay on the salaries we have especially when we could go a little North or a little South and make a little bit more we also have no subs there are classes being combined daily at my school and many others across the district we have no teachers the teachers are covering for other classes that have no teacher and they're being paid almost nothing teachers have already walked out this year and the district can't even get people to sign up for a job fair we keep being tasked with more work have more students showing up every single day we are fed up we deserve more we will quit myself included and there will be no one to take our places teaching is all
051many have ever wanted to do but if we can't survive we can't teach here the this is ridiculous as our next speaker approaches I like to call the next five to get in line please starting with Debbie Lee Colombo powers Carolyn Edison Priscilla Edwards Lucas Rogers Angelique Vasquez my name is Dr Samuel Stewart and I love my country I love the public schools and I know you have hard work and listen you have to listen to a lot of people but I was just wanted to share you a minute of thought Public Schools were created to be non-partisan so that we could protect students and children from political Warfare so teachers and students could have the sanctity to create a positive learning environment so people like a poor boy from Middle Tennessee could go to
052school get an education earn a degree earn enough money to live in Fort Myers but anyway please the public schools built the greatest country in the world and I just want to remind you that Hitler once bet that his Nazi trained soldiers would defeat those Public School folks from America he lost that bet they returned and we built the greatest country in this world we built it together all kinds of people and we need to reach out and remember that and keep the political Wars away from the children and respect the teachers teaching is hard work that's why a teacher once told me you know if we didn't have weekends we wouldn't have teachers going on it is hard worked try it for a few hours teachers need the respect and supportive parents and administrators
053and board members to protect them not to put them in a situation where they're going to be fine for having a book in the classroom not for and creating an environment where they're keeping books out of their classroom so you won't have a problem anyway I'll give you eight seconds back thank you good evening my name is Ward Dickinson I live on Styles Road in Alva we're I'm opposed to the proposed school there on Tuckahoe and Joe Boulevard as previously said there's no existing infrastructure our roads the traffic is just it's it's getting worse and worse every day it's more and more crowded I think Alva's population right now is around three thousand and versus Lehigh which is around 122 thousand so to put a school in the middle of Alva for for 3 000
054people I mean to serve that Community I think that's that doesn't make sense to me the additional traffic you know bussing students from from Lehigh all the way out there again he exposes your students in the buses in in the cars to to risk again it's it clogs the roads out there which are again already it's just it's impossible Harley it's just barely barely possible in the morning to get to where you need to go because 80 Joe Boulevard is just is just jammed again the buzzing would waste Fuel and just it's just again exposes everybody the children and other people to unnecessary risk so thank you for your time hi good evening I'm Dan powers and I live on Tuckahoe Road just on the east side along the canal across from the proposed high
055school I'm just going to do some points on an email I sent to each one of you myself we're against the school in that location as well as almost all my neighbors are this site's a bad choice for a variety of reasons you've already heard a few of them Joel Lane is Tulane through that preserve area and I don't feel all that additional traffic works well with that it's located next to the 2020 preserves all the noise and light pollution there is not conducive to the wildlife in those areas there's just about every species of animals you can imagine on there Bobcats go for tortoises Scrub Jays occasional Panthers Bears fox squirrels Etc the local streets such as Styles and packing house just cannot handle any additional traffic a school bus and a car can't
056even pass on those roads I routinely get run off just trying to go and do my neighborhood errands the proposed school would also be Upstream from a community that was already been decimated by flooding after Irma many houses down there destroyed mine barely missed getting flooded raising the land for the school and draining it into that Canal would only lean to more serious flooding the existing canals can't even handle the water now my own home would probably get flooded I think a good solution is others have said might be to relocate this proposed school to a site more appropriate I was involved in the petition Drive last time about seven or eight years ago and overwhelmingly the people that good evening thank you for taking my question I am an educator of 35 years I'm
057from Fort Myers my name is Karen Edison I have a big concern about the chipping away of public schools when Lee County offers so many educational options in private and Charter and Christian Schools why are we going after public schools and limiting their books limiting the curriculum when a public school is to prepare our children to live in public life where there is diversity where there is inclusion elsewhere how are they going to understand other people if they do not learn about other people and yes there are churches we heard about them that can teach but not every child can or does go to church and we cannot rely on the quality of that education and the impartiality of that education so we rely on the public schools to not chip away at public education
058diversity and inclusion thank you foreign howdy y'all my name is Debbie Lee Powers I live on Elva in Elva on Tuckahoe Road East Side you guys want to put the school on the West Side Mr Carter just spoke my husband just spoke it's a lipid cot just spoke all from Elva we're we're Mr Carter my husband I live on Tuckahoe David Carter lives right on the edge of Joel and Tuckahoe East like he mentioned that traffic is just all screwed up that's not a nasty I'm sorry just not a bad language I'm sorry but yeah you know really I'm not here for statistics I don't give a dang about statistics but I care about we moved there 23 years ago let me paint you a picture of our road it's a two mile long one
059lane Dead End Road it's covered with ancient old live oak trees people have Farms they have cattle they have horses we have a horse stable there people have chickens on our five acres there's over a hundred trees there let me tell you quickly when I was in junior high school in high school I was a percussionist I played drums very good at it very loud too I know what marching band is I was in marching band we don't have any street lights on our road we don't want any street lights we don't want sound there when I go out the edge of my five acres at night and I look up in the stars I can see stars I can see meteors not school lights that are going to be there all day time on
060not the football team not the baseball team not the band again as other people said you're going to encroach on generational property there on Styles and packing house we don't need a school here put it in Lehigh where the last rural area of Lake County that's why we all move there guys we expect to move to drive 15 miles away to Lehigh to to LaBelle to ties that's how we like it I was here years ago when we fought this I said pretty much the same dang thing please listen to us we don't want to be certified no school needs to be there please find another location we are the last people as the next speaker approaches I like to call the next speakers starting with Brianna Jenkins the dandrick McLaren Amanda codon Evelina Sherman
061good evening my name is Priscilla Edwards and I'm a parent of Lee County as well as a new parent of the quality of life center and as a mother who needs to leave for work by seven by 6 45 every morning the Belford school does not ring until 7 25 a.m work does not end until 5 30 but the kids need to be out of school at 2 10 and on to their next destination I would like to know in who's favored the transportation changes are made for for the children of Lee County this year having a daycare but not being able to commute having to change daycares be at risk of losing child care services getting to work an hour late every day and leaving to work early an hour every day I don't
062believe that the transportation changes were made in the best interest of the parents or the students I don't understand the convenience of having a daycare service that the children cannot get to and from them and if the parents were able to transport their own children there wouldn't be day cares a lot of children have been left without transportation with the decision to cut before and after care services with daycares this year and thank you for your time foreign my name is Lucas Rogers and in my short time on this Earth I have seen many things but never have I seen any something like in my own School teachers and Librarians needing to wrap up bookshelves in order for legal action to not be taken what anyone can or can't read thank you for your time
063thank you hi my name is Anjali Vasquez I'm a parent of the previous student in Cape Coral and I'm here to talk about the access or lack of access to books in school this District's mission is to be a world-class school system and it really like begs the question how we're going to do that with less access to literacy with teachers not having freedom to teach and engage students there's a very small window of time in a child's life where you can really Inspire them to be curious and to find out that there is something it may not be something that a lot of people are interested in but something that will capture their interest that they could work at they can improve and they can see rewards from and that's what books help kids
064discover they can explore different things in a in a safe way in an age-appropriate way and never in the public school history of of myself as a student and as a parent have I ever come across a notion that books are a danger that literacy is a detriment we have the reading Festival here every year we have AR because we know that books encourage kids to be better students and now all of a sudden we're doing this 180 and taking away one of the best if not the best tools the kids and teachers have when I speak to parents that are peers even have younger kids that are not in the school system all we are thinking about is are we staying and are we going are our kids going to be prepared to college
065when it's that time I'm running out of time I got seven years and then he's going to be applying to schools we are looking to take our education take our careers Take Our Roots our homes everything because we cannot rely on our students to be educated in this state in the school district and I believe that's what you guys are supposed to be ensuring hi my name is Brianna Jenkins and I would like to speak on the cuts of after school buses as we know it is extremely dangerous for our children to be left unattended at this time they don't have enough teachers or Subs I want to know where exactly do they get the staff to man The after-school programs that cannot accommodate every child at the schools my daughter has been attending quality
066Life Center since she was three years old and she is now 11. she is in danger because she gets off the bus at 4 45 to walk home alone not to mention that I have to get home from work and have another child to pick up at another location then rush home to meet her the bus is being cut has caused a severe safety issue for all children affected and I ask that you reconsider reinstating these buses thank you thank you hello my name is McCutchen and I'm here about the buses and the school teachers they my belief is that is that they need to be paid a little more you will maybe have more school bus drivers more teachers you know I don't know if y'all ever been on a school bus before but
067you know how hard-headed children are we all have been a child before and you know the children get the bus drivers a lot and they have to put up with a lot the school teachers are in there with a hard hitter I mean they have to put up with a lot you know and that's something they should get paid a lot more for you know imagine just imagine y'all don't get y'all paychecks for June July August you know where where it's going to happen then so I think that y'all really do need to help them bus drivers and the and the school teachers out a great deal you know it's this is this is really crazy about how they don't have this income for the people but thank you all y'all have yourselves a good
068day good evening my name is Betty Ann Sherman the current obstacle for freedom in our school system is the ability for any parent who opt out of allowing their child to borrow a library book while removing the ability to allow other children to have access to that very same selection obviously no two people see things exactly the same way a book that one parent sees its valuable helpful and informative for their child may be seen as unhealthy of little worth and perhaps even vile or morally bad to another parent it is clear to many of us the passage of many laws recently all limit classes that have limited class instruction and they have left teachers and media Specialists scared and confused as of July 1st HB 1069 for example limits K-12 classroom instruction on reproductive
069Health most notably barring teaching of human sexuality until 8th grade and other subjects including menstruation before sixth grade with puberty commencing approximately three months earlier Each decade since the 70s it can be normal for Pew Beach to begin at age seven or eight and the need for a child to have an interest in taking a book out on this subject if it has not been challenged or removed from the shelves in her school library Administration is a normal bodily function that affects both girls and boys data from Maryland Coalition Coalition against sexual assault shows that a lack of comprehensive sex education is linked directly to higher rates of sexual violence and if taught can reduce the rates of sexually transmitted infections and promote healthy relationships why are some folks concerned about the ease of being
070able to challenge books and keep them from all students the worst case scenario so many books offend so many that the mere existence of libraries in our schools becomes too threatening or difficult to manage and they are closed so far in Florida over 600 books have been challenged and removed many are written by people of color many were read over the years by you and me and our children and millions of people thank you thank you thank you good evening Amanda Cochran thank you guys all of you I am don't envy your job I know that there are hard and important decisions to make and you guys have heard a lot this evening I am a concerned Alva resident I Echo the comments of many of my fellow Alva and Northern East Lehigh Acres residents
071for the same reasons that they've already more than adequately articulated I am supportive of constructing schools in areas where they are most needed we ask that you follow where the student population numbers lead as it pertains to current residents who can support it through attendance and not disturb precious land rich and Wildlife and in areas surrounded by rural and conservation land current infrastructure has been echoed tonight over and over does not support this proposal in regard to the issue of traffic with all due respect Lee County is well known for its history of putting the cart before the horse just this morning on my way into work there were two large construction trucks that had collided into each other and flipped over completely because of a high traffic on a two-lane Highway with way more
072daily traffic than we have adequate roads for on the roads surrounding the area where this is being proposed there has been loss of life in recent months and it happens far too often please consider placing these schools where it can be justified through the surrounding population thank you Mr chair that includes public comment I want to thank everybody for their comments I'm sure the board listen to everyone I've got a couple of comments I want to make and then I'll turn over to the superintendent responses very first Speaker Mr Phillips said something that was false but personal to me he said my son-in-law had a contract with the school district that is totally false he's never had a contract he works for several he has done work for several construction companies and one of them
073had the contract for Franklin Park and they asked him to do the demolition but he was never approved and I had no and no one on the board had any saying that was totally up between the contractor the other thing that I would like to mention was forensic audix this school is audited by three different entities the state audits us every year every third year they do a full Financial audit we have an internal auditor that on the years that the state does not do a financial audit they do it and then we have an external auditor who audits Finance but also audits all the different operations from HR and to cyber security to all all areas of our district so we are audited I am all for audits if there is a specific reason
074to look into something and that's what these audits usually do if they find something they dig down into it on the access form the very first choice says a parent can give their child access to every book even if it's been challenged and put back on there except for age restricted books which was even before the access form there are certain books at certain ages children students are not allowed to check out there is another one that says they can check out books except books that have been challenged and then the third option for the public to know is a my child can't check out any books so a parent has a choice we cannot keep a child from checking out a challenge book that has been put back on the Shelf if the parent
075chooses the first one that is the access form and I think I'll just go ahead and oh I did want to say one other thing we have had three schools that we built out of I believe it was Kmarts and so we do look for options like that to save money whenever possible so that's that's also another thing I want to clear up a couple of things Mr superintendent did you have any comments just a couple Mr chair let's start by talking since you left off there let's talk a little bit about the capital plan the capital plan was presented to the board last week as a draft plan in order to ensure that both the board and the public could understand what the growth in Lee County looks like over the next 10 years
076with the additional number of seats that need to be provided for our growing student population we are looking at the possible need for 16 more schools needing to be built in all of Lee County the area most heavily impacted would be the east side of town the other area would be Cape Coral but there are needs also for us to go in and renovate older school buildings to ensure that we don't forget the students who go to school within what I think you would refer to as Fort Myers proper some of those school buildings are aging out and they desperately need to be addressed so that our students like the students who go to Franklin Park Elementary can have a first class learning environment just like the surrounding sort of Border or the circle that
077surrounds Fort Myers as we build more and more new schools as we progress outward the capital plan as it was proposed as a plan not as a pathway to move forward not approved by the board but in a workshop to have a very good and deep discussion related to the capital needs is more than some of the figures I've heard thrown out today it specifically is about a six billion dollar plan we are not going to have the money nor will we ask for six billion dollars what we have to do is we have to let our board and our community know what specifically we have as pressing needs moving forward and then this board along with our staff is going to have to make very difficult decisions about where we choose to build and
078where you don't choose to build so I don't want anybody to take the numbers that were shared last week as the final say in this they're still incredible amount of work that still needs to be accomplished as we look towards a 10-year building plan when it comes to high school nnn I can't thank the residents of Alva enough for continuing to turn out you probably know as well as most of the community does today was supposed to be a date certain to bring It Forward we have delayed it is not on tonight's agenda that is giving my staff additional time to seek what other options might or may be available we're hearing you I'm not sure that it won't come forward for phase one because phase one provides the board with some additional information regarding
079infrastructure property other construction costs that may be too large or too great for this board to consider Phase One Construction is not the beginning of building a building it's the beginning of the investigation of the land looking at what remediations and what other opportunities would would have to be involved and if we had to build a whole water plant we probably would make the recommendation of the board that we think about a different site that's what phase one construction means it's not the beginning of moving dirt and building a building it's an investigation of the area and then making some determination if this area is viable or not but I'd like you to understand that I know the board is hearing you and I wanted to respond that I'm hearing you as well Transportation changes
080these transportations are not these transportations changes were not new in February of last year the board at my recommendation made a decision to enter into what is called the elementary proximity plan at that time approximately five to six thousand students last year were late to school every day as a superintendent that is my job my job is to ensure that students get to school on time for the Educators in the room you know exactly what I mean that means in some cases a student never arrived to a first period class whether that class bpe English algebra one they deserve the opportunity to sit in front of their teacher and receive that education by trimming 15 000 miles off a day off the elementary runs we believe we are getting better and we'll start receiving weekly
081reports this Friday of our on-time percentages and the number of students who are leaving late we'll continue to provide those updates on a weekly basis to the board because we want to ensure our children get to school on time if you think about it that's the job as a superintendent along with his or her staff to ensure our children have access to the free and public Ed that we promise and that access is getting to and from school what I have shared with our non-profit Partners is that as these weeks move forward we will look for additional opportunities to number one get our students to school on time but also to abide by the law we have responsibilities and transportation to state law and we will ensure that we do that does not preclude us
082from providing additional routes to a queue or to a Stars complex or YMCA or Boys and Girls Club what it does mean is that my job cannot be door-to-door service for every parent in every day care I cannot do that and still get my students to school on time because if we do that for our elementary AIDS children what transpires during the morning and the afternoon is my middle schoolers arrive somewhere between 50 to 75 minutes late for their school day again the primary responsibility of me as a superintendent and I'm sure which my board holds me accountable for is to ensure our students have access to their school to their curriculum and their teachers we are going to have to look at different business models in our community as we grow Beyond a 45
08350 60 000 seat system and we start to nip at a hundred thousand a hundred and twenty 150 and potentially even 200 000 students in this community by the time this community is built out we have to start planning for our future and we can't continue door-to-door service because our students are not getting door-to-door service in terms of their ability to get to school one of the other things I'd like to think about and think is worth saying to people because some people raise the aspect of let's get back to learning I also point back to last week's Workshop where we specifically spent in an ordinance and great amount of time exactly where we should spend our time talking about education talking about the measurement of our students performance looking at other key performance indicators
084and a scorecard that will be public available for you not only to judge your school system but your superintendent in the work of this board as for our teachers we were asked to support our teachers one of the difficulties was mentioned by one of our teachers and for me going too far tonight and that is that bargaining did open yesterday so I have to be careful and so does the board regarding having too much conversation in the public regarding what is a bargaining session between the teachers union and our administrative staff and our spouse Union our great support professionals and our administrative staff the board has provided bargaining Authority to that administrative team to look at all compensation that will continue to be a priority as I said at the previous meeting we'll say again
085today teachers support professionals administrators schedule n we have to do something as a community to better support our teachers who are working very very hard in their classroom and I want you to know have been supported by me and will continue to be supported by me for the foreseeable future I believe other than the doe survey that was a very specific survey from the doe we were unable to change anything about it we were unable to look into it before we sent but we were asked to forward it from the Department of Education and we did so if it's confusing or it didn't make any sense to parents I apologize for that but it was not a specific survey from the school district of Lee County it belonged to the Department of Education and lastly
086regarding Collier County Staffing services and don't I know who made that comment I don't know specifically what you're speaking about but I will know how to reach out to that individual and I will get in touch with them lastly when it comes to books I've heard everything from retired the form to Media access form to books and specifically to a student who spoke to the her environment in her classroom we will take a look into not just any school but all schools to ensure that we are not denying access to classroom libraries and to our media centers that is not the intent of this board and as superintendent I will assure that our classroom libraries provided they're appropriate for the grade level that they are intended for and our media centers remain open to all
087students thank you Mr chair thank you next is the approval of action items under the agenda under a consent the documentation for Action items listen to consent is made available to board members seven business days before the board meeting we're expect to review all 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 board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business any I have one okay yes item L1 approval to award ITN number n237-460ln real estate brokerage services for acquiring selling and or exchanging sites for future schools and support services okay I'll go down the lot Mr Fisher did you have any wish to pull no items
088that's patrika no thank you Miss Jordan yeah thank you it's like performing no thank you and Miss Martin I have none thank you is there a motion to approve the agenda consent action items with accept exception of the pulled item L1 's Jordan I moved to approve the agenda items with the exception of L1 as written okay second a second please record your vote motion carries 7-0 we have one pulled item to address doc s is there anybody here doctor near would you please read your recommendation for the pulled item yes Mr chair the recommendation is approval to award ITN number n237460ln real estate brokerages services for acquiring selling and or exchanging sites for future schools and support services is there a motion to adopt Dr paneer's recommendation Miss Patrica so moved by Miss Patrica
089is there a second Miss Morgan okay any discussion Miss giovannelli yes thank you I'm the one that pulled this item my reason for pulling this item was because I had requested the list of all the brokerages that was solicited for this bit and so I actually requested it last Tuesday so I did not receive it until this afternoon and then upon looking at the list there was over it's over 1800 Realtors and brokerages as well as it was mortgage lenders appraisers title companies and someone that I'm a realtor by trade so I was familiar with the list and even one of the vendors on that list was deceased so I felt a little uncomfortable with the list is not an accurate updated list and I would I would want it I would want to have
090seen a more updated list so then I decided to make make a few phone calls for people some of the people that I didn't even know and some that I didn't know and asked if they received the email and the solicitation and all of them that I spoke to which was over six Realtors and brokerages none of them had received the email and I asked them to look it would have been around may I asked them to verify and look and they said they would remember receiving some kind of notification from the school district for a solicitation for brokerage so then that calls me to pause and I my concern is that are we giving everyone opportunity to to have a business and do business with the district as any brokerages and so that's why
091I pulled this item and I apologize for it being late but I received it late in the day as well so I would have brought this up in an email earlier to get the information if I had the information and so that's just kind of where I'm at I can't support this evening because I don't feel like they're I'm going to always side on giving everyone opportunity and all means all and I will always fall on that sword and making sure that everyone has an opportunity to be educated everyone has an opportunity to speak everyone has an opportunity to apply for it to be a vendor at this district and that's where I'll stand thank you any discussion other discussion I had a question for superintendent how time sensitive is this consent item considering what
092we're doing in real property and how the board has asked me to look not only in potentially procuring additional property but also look to sales to sales some of our assets it would be good for us to have someone under contract to do this work in my one-on-one coming up this week I'm going to prep you based upon a very intensive meeting I've had with our planning division in terms of both real property Acquisitions sales and some current municipality discussions related to certain pieces of property that we could lose through other governmental moves or decisions so I want to make sure we talk about that privately but I this is fairly important to the school district if you'd like to continue to move forward I just think at this time that is a pretty extensive
093list even if it is not up to date I am for moving forward and asking the superintendent to update the list for all future I can certainly look into the list Mr chair I appreciate that of diversity of two emails related to addresses I was able to confirm with our Director of Finance and who oversees procurement that both those individuals who say they did not see it were emailed whether they received it or whether it went into their junk mail I don't control their filters they would have received it on May 31st 2023 approximately five in one particular case it was 5 14 p.m we specifically checked the list for those individuals and they were on the list I don't know and nor do we have a way for to send out a read receipt
094when you send out 1800 there were four people who submitted proposals no bidders that came back and said we don't want to bid so there wasn't anybody who said no thank you and we can continue to update the list I was not aware and I take Mr ivinelli at her word related to somebody being deceased I don't I mean I don't know in that particular case till I have the email and can do the depth of of the looking at that particular case to understand how that or or how that transpired is there any other discussion for Fleming so with the latest news of the a very extensive list it is concerning that only four people put up a bid for this particular item out of the amount of people that were emailed that is
095that is concerning but I have I have a couple questions first of all TCG is in a five-year contract how many years through the chair to the super have we already been in contract with that company TCG was involved when I first got here when I first arrived to the school district Elite County and I found them not to be under contract I would have to go back and research as to when their contract expired but for whatever reason TCG continued to advise the school district even though they weren't under contract when I learned of that's why we went out with the ITN to make sure that we were abiding by the rules of regulations related to how the school district should do business I can get that information for you miss Plumbing because the
096reason last week in our Workshop we looked at a 10-year plan and a five-year contract with a with a commercial company brings us halfway through a 10-year plan with 16 potential pieces of property that we would need to be putting schools on that seems like an awful lot of time and potential business with this company if we haven't really gone out and researched the best of the best I don't think any of these companies are National companies I and I apologize for not doing my research because I I do know I'm familiar with TCG I'm not familiar with the others other than they're from smaller groups after I saw this but my second question through the chair to the super are we locked in to only being able to have one realtor I know the
097state has more than one group so are we as a board locked into only being able to use one realtor I would have to defer to legal counsel but I will tell you the philosophy behind having one realtor and that is if you have multiples then you have multiple people out on the street looking at pieces of property and sharing information one of the reasons why I say I need to go over this in a one-on-one is as as property becomes known as something that the district would like to acquire it's really important that we have singular and very discreet negotiations about purchasing that property or we could wind up in a bidding war so that's why you have one person in my experience in two different districts one person doing that work on behalf
098of the school district okay I would have to ask legal counsel and I would have to table that potentially because I don't know the course is prepared specifically tonight to answer that question well thank you for clearing that up I would be open to if it's not a urgent matter meaning like tonight at midnight I would be open to giving this a two-week window like I don't know I think I hurt mischief throw that out there but those are those are my questions and thoughts thank you okay any other discussion Ms Morgan sorry so it's really not a two-week window is it I mean basically you're talking about having to go through the whole process again so you're not talking about it yeah it's it yeah we're talking what month it could be I think
099at a minimum at least 30 days it could actually take longer than that to go through the entire process thank you Miss giovanelli so Miss Langford and to answer your question you're correct the commercial Realtors our brokerages can they're they work very differently than residential and you can have more than one in government agencies they'll have two or more working for them you can have one eight one agency list something while another one's negotiating for you because they're they may be exclusive a lot of times commercial Realtors are exclusive and they have that or there might be two commercial realtors that have that's not exclusive so it just depends on the deal with the seller the deal with the buyer so I mean that was something that I had mentioned to the superintendent I said
100we could still hire Trinity for the one transaction you can just use them for one transaction you can use them from multiple transaction actions this makes him exclusive for five years and we're committing it and just for a little history we didn't have a contract with Trinity and they had property listed for over five years and I the I'm going to tell you that I think they were they were mostly they never sold anything but one lot in Cape Coral and also the other property one other property in Cape Coral and then they actually were not successful on any thing that they had listed to sell so that causes me to have pause as well because the items they were they were procuring on for the seller but not for us as sellers so that
101is an alarming situation for me because I believe if somebody wants to sell something that opportunity should not be closed to one contract so I would be open to more than one contract thank you I understand the bidding war with looking to buy a piece of property looking to sell a piece I could see where we could list that possibly with multiple entities but I agree we should move forward maybe with one two as far as purchasing to be our agent for five years well a couple of pieces in the historical record since I've arrived we currently have no property for sale nor have we had any property for sale since I've arrived we have been holding on to specific pieces of property and I've had individual conversations with all of you we had one
102present presentation on all the properties that we owned I do believe one needs to come up for sale that is a single home family lot in Cape Coral that I guess was a gift to us we have really no need for that however property doesn't change in value property is an investment and we talked about that specifically until we could get a handle on our growth and what we needed and while we do need to procure property over the next five years we already have property that we have that we can continue to build some of our schools on as we move forward in the capital plan once we once we finalize what that looks like Additionally you are correct that if this particular company were to put a piece of property up for sale
103specifically the Cape Coral piece I could get it listed by every MLS agent that hasn't it's really the procurement process that I'm most concerned about having a singular vendor who works quietly with people who are sending Notions and intimations that they might be interested in selling large tracts of land that is not easy to come about it's also not easy to come about in our conversations with developers by using multiple different people it also then provides could provide some additional confusion but I'm here to do the will of the board I'm here to do the will of the board all right any other discussion I before we take our vote I want to apologize to all the administrators have just been I forgot that I understand and that's totally on me so we will recognize
104y'all as soon as we do this vote I apologize Mr chair could I also share something and I just want I want to be I want the community and all of you to be aware why some of our properties are not for sale some of our properties are not large enough to build a school building on but rather than getting rid of that asset we've taken the opportunity to begin to engage with different developers who are offering potentially and I've shared this with you the lease back of that property in exchange for building workplace housing for the individuals within our community who need it teachers firefighters policemen nurses and the list goes on it is a unique opportunity to look at some of our smaller Parcels that would not be large enough for an elementary
105school so before we put anything up for sale it was part of our strategy to make sure that we looked into these particular organizations who do this type of work who then would take on the responsibility of building leasing collecting rent because I don't think the school system wants to be in that business but we would be in the business of leasing our property to them potentially so I just want the public and the board also understand why some of the properties are not up for sale because we've not yet fully explored that potential okay thank you this will be a roll call vote Mr Fisher aye Ms giovannelli nay Miss Patrica yes please Miss Jordan hi Ms Langford Fleming aye Miss Morgan aye and I am an eye the motion carries six one Dr
106Bernier would you please introduce any administrators in attendance with a new assignment that was approved under consent agenda and again I apologize no I understand Mr chair I think it's good for them to see how a board works that's exactly the response you want to get when you say that if it had been quiet I would have been in serious trouble but I do I do believe it's important for our administrators to see see this with your actions tonight Mr chair members of the board you have provided a number of Administrators another opportunity to continue to grow in their career I'm Scott Nicholas will be joining Estero high school as an assistant principal Scott thank you Christopher Lightfoot will be joining the accountability accountability research and assessment division as a coordinator for continuous Improvement Angela
107McNeely will be joining the curriculum instruction Innovation and innovation in elementary as the coordinator Michelle Edwards will have the opportunity to be the assistant principal at South Fort Myers High School in failing guadardo we'll be joining Varsity Lakes as an assistant principal Mr chair as I've said in the past into the people who are seated now congratulations on your position please understand there's no greater trust or greater symbol of trust than being appointed as a system principal and a leader in the school district you have great responsibilities we expect you to carry those out and I want to thank you for your sacrifice to move forward in your careers because your hours will be changing your principals have Smiles on their faces and they're excited about the opportunity for you to go to work for
108those families who are present thank you for your support as your loved one begins a New Journey in their career under the great tutelage of the principles and the individuals who will be supervising them but thank you for the support that you provide them because I'm sure if they have the opportunity to speak you would be the first one to cross their lips to say thank you for all the support you've provided them that have gotten to them gotten them to this point in their career Mr chairman thank you can they be dismissed all right next yeah can they give can they be dismissed I've kept them here this long why not we just wanted an audience think again oh did Michelle did Michelle get called for Sunshine Elementary I don't think so she got
109cold I don't think she got there but did he call her I didn't hear her Michelle Stafford did you die I don't think he said Michelle yeah from sunshine I don't have her on my list say it say it right now yeah super did we announce Michelle Stafford's new appointment members of the board we did not announce Ms Stafford's new appointment it is not currently on my list but I think it's worth recognizing Ms Stafford for her new role congratulations for them to see how the board works all right next is the good or the order board members do you have anything for the good of the order Mr Fisher yes thank you chair real quick just kind of following up on our briefing conversation regards to meetings first off thank you to Dr Bernier
110for getting us some further information on that for reference the other thing is again you know we talked about obviously looking at meetings and you know lengths lengths and things like that again it's not it's not doing less it's making sure that we're we're being more efficient part of it is still continuing you know I want to remind people is getting out to the schools going through our schools getting out the community one-on-ones going the Chambers of Commerce those things that's how we get public input that's a lot how I get it I mean heck out in the soccer field with my kids that's one I get and that's what we'll continue to do so I just wanted to make sure that was part of our discussion as well I know that's you know my
111fellow board members do a great job of that as well besides that first couple weeks of school seems like as I said things are going very well I know that the principals are really trying their best the teachers are really doing everything they can right now and as just want to tell them that I appreciate you know the principals the teachers the staff and everyone the school district of Lee County thank you Mr giovannelli this is also our comments as well right okay do the ordering comments okay because I don't even go to the order so just real quick I just want to congratulate all the new appointments and they've left but including Miss Stafford and I just wanted to say real quick that our students are out there in the community walking to school
112walking from the bus stops walking in the street sometimes so please be really cautious and be you know careful because I've already heard some students and we've had issues and I'm just really want to make sure student safety and everybody is remembering now our students are out there going to school every day and there's their their kids and kids will be kids so we just want to be real careful with that and cautious and just a reminder that to look out for our students that are going to school every day also I just want to real quick just say you know I ask questions for the public at it's actually public engagement for me it's educating the public I get asked questions in the community and therefore I bring up questions it's because I am
113prepared and I ask the questions because it's important for the public to understand the process and if we skip over a process or exclude the public then what are we here for we're here to represent we're elected to represent our the people that put us here and I will always and will continue to ask the questions bring public awareness and I am prepared and that just asking questions doesn't mean you're not prepared the questions really are for the public and if we exclude the public in questions again and their concerns then we're forgetting why we're here so I will always do that and I just want to bring that up because it's my responsibility as a school board member it's a fiduciary responsibility and accountability accountability responsibility and I always want to be I want
114to be held accountable and I'm here to hold others accountable that we're employed superintendent for now as well as our school board attorney and our auditor so thank you miss Patricia thank you I'm excited to know that we are going to be getting more specific information regarding the cost of infrastructure to nnn so thank you for that very clear description of what phase one means that's the first thing the second thing is we're a great board because we're seven different people who view things seven different ways and my view of the work that we do at this table especially during an action meeting is it is the work of the board it is not the work of the public it's my job as an individual board member to go out into the community like you
115indicated Mr Fisher and explain what I do and explain why I do it and answer those questions in that Forum so I'm kind of piggybacking on what what you're saying Mr Fish Mr Fisher that was very Massachusetts of me and again different views make us a wonderful team but I believe that's our role here as a board is to literally do the business make sure we understand it and take that knowledge and go out and spread it those are my comments thank you Miss Jordan thank you I would like to say well congratulations to all of those with their new jobs that are we'll be starting very soon also I really want to thank the thecube for being here and the parents and the families who have come out to show support it's it's it's
116tough I get it's it's in my district so I really feel it and we want people to be safe we want kids to be safe I also want to thank the teachers who come out here always to share with us we do hear what you're saying and we do we actually do care and to the young man who got Lucas for Lucas I really appreciate the fact that Lucas stood up and spoke about his love for reading and the books the board is not it kind of hurt me when he said that we are deciding what they should read the school board is not as a school board member we do not decide what you all read and I just want to make that perfectly clear that is not our jobs to decide what you
117are going to read it's not my job and pretty much that's it just I really thank everyone and the people from Alvin just coming out just everybody coming out and sharing and speaking their words and allowing us to hear what you all have to say is great so thank you it's time for Fleming and to board member patrika's point about seven members of the board having seven different gifts and ideas and What Makes Us why I feel like this is going smoothly I agree with so far the first four that have spoken and everything you've said so thank you Miss juvenile for bringing up that point when questions are asked many times we as board members are asking those because they've been asked of us and so we are helping public find the answers that
118they have asked of us I also appreciate so much the quality of life center who showed up but there are many other outside organizations that take care of our precious students before school and definitely after school and I appreciate what they do in those hours of three-ish till six-ish when parents have to work so thank you for all of you that do that extra because you know it takes an entire Army to develop these children so thank you for that and I appreciate you coming and speaking I can't help but say it Dr Bernier but it's Friday Night Lights this week and I am so excited because football season's amongst us and I went to a really incredible exciting volleyball match last night so fall Sports is underway and just hoping that all of our
119athletes are safe and thank you to all of our coaches who spend those countless hours with those students so that's all I have tonight thank you Miss Morgan so I just want to point out for the public that we are in the adoption cycle for social studies and the community nomination Community Committee nominations are open but will close September 1st so if you're interested in participating in the social studies adoption cycle this is this is your opportunity I'm going I'm going to ask the board to consider asking the board attorney to provide information to us about what going for a mill referendum would require from a statutory point of view I know when we did the sales tax we probably started talking about it a good four years before we acted on it for a
120variety of reasons but I think it helps for us to understand to the extent that I mean I'm just I'm feeling enormous pressure to understand what it would mean for this community and what kind of action we would have to take so just throwing it out there and those are my comments thank you I just want to do a Public Service advertisement blessings in a backpack is a great organization it's that time of year again you know all the kids get all their supplies in a backpack beginning of the year we all know that but then they come to school and then many of them because they've been in this program on Friday they go do I get my food for the weekend because this program gives them nutritional food and they fill their backpack
121full so they can come back Monday morning not being hungry and I think it's a hundred and thirty dollars a year feeds I mean we'll feed a child for a year in this program and I made my donation today so I hope you all would look into that it's blessings in a backpack Southwest Florida Chapter so that's all I really have for this evening Mr McIntosh absolutely would you like to comment I have nothing but did enjoy sitting in here today it's been a great experience Mr Bernier just a couple of things Mr chair members of the board with your actions today you approve Family Health Care Centers of Southwest Florida that allows our students to be provided high quality accessible preventive Dental screenings utilizing the Ronald McDonald mobile on site at various Lee County
122schools and mutual mutually agreed dates and times this way students can get with certainly with parental permission the dental attention and health that they need additionally sometimes people wonder where money goes within our community when people pay certain fees related to Traffic infractions that money moves into the Dory schlossberg fund for driver safety education it was a the driver safety education act and with that money today you were able to purchase some additional driver's ed cars with training brakes to ensure that our not only our students learn how to drive but their driver ed teacher has a way of stopping the vehicle as well I also wanted to just reiterate I did I think I know what our sub our president of our substitute Association was talking about and that was the temporary staffing services
123that were on J2 this is not specifically regarding substitutes this is an opportunity and I'll give both Mr dotig and Ms McLean kudos to this there looking at alternative sources for us to find additional people to be part of our school system we're currently working with two other districts that have been using if you will a temporary service they've contacted and they've recruited retired teachers and yes we can do that but we can also utilize those individuals and those companies that have already done that so I think you may see more exploration into what some of our teachers were talking about in order to show in order to better ensure that we have certified teachers in every classroom I think at this point I'd like to just remind of all our parents about having very
124open and Frank discussions with their children about what they carry to school every day we have 16 schools currently working with open gate but before the end of the year we'll have all of them I hope that people will take the opportunity to look into their child's backpack and ensure that their child leaves the house in a very safe manner with things that belong at school and leave the things that don't belong the school or don't belong in the hands of children in their proper locations I want to communicate communicate to the community that connect with Lee is going to open on August 28th this is our online homework help parents can find more information about this currently by looking looking at connect with Lee on your student launch pad the middle school will be
125available tutoring will be available Monday through Thursday on school days from 4 30 to 7 30. elementary schools will be available from 3 30 to 7 30 and high schools will be available from 3 30 to 7 30 p.m currently this is staffed by Lee County teachers and they are being paid for this work but really an awesome opportunity for our students to get that at additional homework help because if you are like me helping with algebra 1 did not necessarily help there were lots of tears at my dining room table when I tried to help speaking of changes and things that are occurring to tomorrow is August 23rd which brings us to the 10th day of school 10th day of school means recalculation for our schools based upon student enrollment our budget department and
126teaching and learning division I'm sorry academic services division will go into that work and begin to look at how we're doing with enrollment what's expected and what changes if any are necessary I'd also like to remind people that our assistant principal pool is opening on August 26th I think it's really exciting to have that opportunity for other people who may have gotten their degree this summer to have the opportunity to join the ranks of being eligible I am too excited about football season very specifically many of us have invited to a morning event for the 25th for the ribbon cutting at Fort Myers field but then they will be starting their first game on their new field Sam sariani Knight that same evening I believe our expected if you're going to be there around seven
127with kickoff to be at 7 30. I believe that's all I have other than to say thank you to the board for the hard work and to the community and to all the staff that's present this evening appreciate you turning out as well our next scheduled meeting is on Wednesday August 30th it'll be a board workshop at 12 P.M and on Wednesday September 6th there will be a board briefing at 1 pm any board special meeting at 505 pm and aboard Action meeting at 6 pm at this point having no other business come before this body and seeing no objection this meeting is adjourned the time is 807 pm