School Board Action Meeting: February 10, 2026

001Good evening everyone. We're ready to begin this evening's board meeting. Sergeant-at-arms, has the lobby been cleared? Yes. Thank you. We request all electronic devices be turned off or put in silent mode. Also, please refrain from using flash photography except during the special presentations portion of the meeting. I'm pleased to welcome you this February 10th, 2026 school board meeting. The time is 6 p.m. and this meeting is called to order. Prior to the start of tonight's performance, you have been enjoying music performed by the renowned Night Singers of North Fort Myers High School. The Night Singers under the direction of Miss Christina Cole Kohler, excuse me. This outstanding ensemble continues to set the standard of excellence in high school coral music, consistently earning superior ratings at both district and state festivals. If you would like to

002see more of this talented group, please scan the QR code on the screen or for information about their upcoming spring concert and the Red Knights Rock. Now, we're going to listen to one more song from the group. That was beautiful, ladies. You were beautiful. We will now take a brief pause in order to clear the performance area. Thank you. Awesome job. We would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district's mission which to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district's vision to be a worldclass system. This evening's agenda includes the invitation, invocation, presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance, acknowledgements, recognitions, public comment, consent, action items, which includes three items under board office, one item under executive services, three items under

003academics and student services, three items under school choice and administration, one item under strategy, Three items under business services. Three items under human resources. Three items under safety, security, and fleet operations. 13 items under facility operations. One item under public hearings. And four items under the good of the order business. Board members, is there a motion to adopt the agenda? Mr. Fischer. Mr. Pson, motion to adopt the agenda is listed. Is there a second? I'll second. Miss Langford Fleming seconds. Moved by Mr. Fiser and seconded by Miss Langford Fleming. Please record your vote. The motion passes 70. As is the custom of the board, Mrs. Gim Vanelli will introduce her guest to lead us in the invocation, after which Miss Shaviano will lead us in the presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance. Please stand.

004Please stand. It is my pleasure to introduce Major Fedelin Finel Phenellis, area commander of Salvation Army. We are proud to welcome you. Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. Thank you for Thank you for having me. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we come to you tonight to ask for your grace, to ask for your favor, standing red light. Thank you. Sorry. Let us pray. Father, we come to you tonight to ask for your grace, ask for your favor, ask for your wisdom. Father, we know that there are challenges that goes beyond our understanding, but we know there is a God in heaven who reveal mysteries. Father, we you know, we know you change the times and the seasons and you give wisdom to the wise. Father, again, we come to you tonight to

005ask you to guide these leaders. that as they make decisions on our behalf, we ask you to provide understanding that only can come from you so they can make decisions that are positive and that are pleasing to you. We ask you to be with us tonight and we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Introducing the cadet who is presenting the national colors for our pledge of allegiance tonight is Sergeant Firstclass Baxter Pitman, Army instructor from Riverdale High School. Sergeant Firstclass Pitman served 22 years in the army in numerous assignments and retired as a station commander for the plant city recruiting center. This is Sergeant Firstclass Pitman's ninth year as a JROTC instructor in the district. Thank you. Presenting the national colors tonight is Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Ever Lobo. Cadet Lobo is an IB

006student at Riverdale High School and is a part of the Spanish Honor Society serving as a vice president for the IB Spanish club and is a Florida boy state alumnist. Cadet Lobo recognizes the importance of his academics and has consistently maintained an unweighted GPA of 3.5 and a weighted GPA of 4.77. Cadet Lobo is a battalion commander for the Raider battalion and has participated in multitudes of events such as parades, service learning activities, and other JRTC focused after school activities such as radar team, exhibition team, and Jab. Please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Next on

007our agenda is the character word for February, which is honesty. Being truthful, trustworthy, and free from deception. The design displayed on the screen was created by Gabrielle Dos Santos, a 10th grade student at Asterero High School. Next, board members and superintendent is time for recognitions. Y'all will Each year, the Florida Music Educators Association hosts statewide auditions to select students for its 24 allstate performing groups. Students accepted into these ensembles are considered the best of the best at their respective level and instrument. Auditions are conducted through blind video submissions and evaluated alongside those of hundreds of students from across the state. This year, 47 Lee County students were selected as all state musicians for more from more than 10,000 entries statewide. These outstanding students represented our district at the Florida Music Education Educators Association Allstate Music

008Conference this past January in Tampa. The school board and superintendent are proud to recognize these students and teachers for their commitment, determination, and hard work. When your name is called, please line up at the ramp on my left side. Dr. Thomas Heski, assistant director of arts, athletics, activities, and administration, will present your certificates. Tonight, we recognize the following all state music students. And I apologize if I missed some of these names here. Bonita Springs High School, Jaden Taus, Cape Coral High School, Philip Munos, Cypress Lake High School, Center of the Arts, Lorian Moore, Mary Holden. There you go. If you'll line up, if your name's called, those that are here, Crystalin Korn, Mark Pierre Lewis, Denilo Zacharovich, Zachari, Meline Martinez, Sa Cypress Lake Middle, is say no doris Leu Reesei or Reese Sims diplomat middle

009Alice Vgas Travis Opski Dumbar High Maya Zang Nashini Fernando Fort Myers High Jillian Taylor Randon Surere Golf Middle Connor Evans Lehi Senior Stephanie Fluentis, North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts, Zo Molina, Jacob Kubson, Kersonen, David Perigoria Goosman, Jane Peek, Emily Scotchic, North Fort Myers High, Veronica Derso, Roxy Derso, Aya Colerson, Luciana Valencia, Emma Bram, Ethan Moring, Evan Barrero, Maya Catherman, Benjamin Hughes, Isaiah Pasternneck, Samantha Oliver, Justin Wang, Ethan Nan, Oak Hammock Middle, Nathan Hawworth, Ruby Santos Sales Solace, Patriot Elementary, Angelina Brister, Spring Creek Elementary, McKenzie Baker, Juliet Jump, Amber, Amber Ortega, The Santael School, Alexander Flint, Ava Wajeski, Three Oaks Middle, Andrea Bonetes Gomez, Leila Young. Congratulations. Let's give them all a round of applause. Thanks for being here. Great accomplishment. You're welcome. Congratulations. Again, you're always here. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you.

010Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. Great work. Congratulations. You're welcome. Thank you. Hello. Nice to see you again. There he is. Thank you. If you stand too far away, they give you always. Give a teacher those names. Give a teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Give the teacher the names. You do. You have four. about your camera. Did you get your photo? I miss you. I love you. Wow. Hallelujah. So many talented music recognitions tonight. So give them a minute. good evening. The School District of Lee County Teacher of the Year program recognizes excellence in teaching, supports continuous professional growth, and celebrates the profound impact educators have on schools, students, and our community. Each year, this program honors the thousands of dedicated professionals who serve students across our district. District administrators submitted nominations for teacher of the

011year and selected nominees completed a written application packet. A first round selection committee composed of community members and district administrative staff reviewed the submissions to identify regional finalists. A separate committee, also made up of community representatives and district staff, then conducted interviews with the finalists to determine the 2026 teacher of the year. The school board and superintendent proudly recognize and congratulate the regional finalists for 2026 teacher of the year. Their dedication, professionalism, and commitment to students exemplify the very best of the Lee County School District. When your name is called, please line up at the ramp on my left side of the boardroom. Dr. Johnston, chief human resource officer, will present you your certificates. From our north region, the finalist was is Mr. Joseph Campicharo, literacy coach at Manatee Elementary. Our South Region finalist, Miss

012Barbara Scarnato, middle school math teacher, the Santael School. East region finalists, Miss Bianca McGinley, middle school math teacher, Lemil Teal, and our West Region finalist, Miss Nicole Miselli, Science Coach, Diplomat Elementary. Congratulations, Good evening. The school district of Lee County is proud to honor outstanding educators and leaders through its annual recognition program. These awards celebrate individuals whose commitment to student achievement, safe and supporting learning environments, and meaningful community engagement makes a lasting impact across our schools and district. Nominations for these honors were submitted by district leadership and reviewed through a comprehensive selection process involving district staff, school-based educators, and community representatives. Winners were announced through surprise visits to their schools recognizing excellence where it happens every day. The school board and superintendent proudly recognized each recipient who will represent the school district of Lee County

013in statewide competitions. We ex we extend our sincere congratulations and best wishes as they advance to the state level showcasing the exceptional talent leadership and dedication found throughout our district. The year's honores include principal of the year, Miss Linda Buckley, Tanglewood Elementary School. Assistant Principal of the Year, Miss Samantha Howard, Barnes Marsh Middle School. School related employee of the year, Miss Rebecca Rudd, instructional support specialist, Manity Elementary. And teacher of the year, Miss Laurel Blackburn, district math coach, curriculum and instructional innovation. Congratulations. Oh, really? Congratulations. You have great support here, too, tonight. Yep. Congratulations again. Awesome job. Thank you. I remember you. Is your dad here? Your mom. Congratulations. Congratulations again. Twice in one week. I love it. Thank you so much. for a minute there. How have any music kids? Yeah. 30 minutes. Watch

014out. gentleman right here in the lady. Those were some of my dad's best friends grabbed on the bell there walking out right here. Isn't that crazy? All right. for public comment. We're going to have a statement by our superintendent, Dr. Carlin. Thank you very much, Chair Persons. So, I'd like to read a statement about our student protests that occurred, last week in the school district of Lee County. Last week, approximately 3,400 of our district's 100,000 students at 14 of our 84 schools participated in protests related to our nation's immigration policies. That's fewer than 4% of our students and 17% of the district schools that were involved. While we recognize students constitutional rights to free expression, our schools exist for one primary purpose, education. The school district of Lee County remains focused on students and staff

015members safety, teaching, and learning. Our responsibility is to ensure that every single student can attend school in an environment that is orderly, respectful, and free from distraction and disruption. Behaviors that interfere with instruction or the safety of others will not be tolerated. Any student who violates district standards has been or will be disciplined in accordance with the students code of conduct. Thank you. Next on our agenda is public comment. Mr. Dodig, would you please address the item of public comment? Yes, sir. Thank you. Schoolboard policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district. Please complete a public comment card and put it in the basket provided. If you need a public

016comment card, they are provided by our by our staff. The rules concerning public comments are posted in the back will be made from the podium in the front center aisle. Please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment or remarks made by speakers. The purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on district issues such as duties, responsibilities, decisions, and the general operation of the district. The school board is viewpoint neutral during public comment. We ask that the quorum be kept and respect be shown, which is what is expected when a government agency conducts official business. As a result, abuse of language defined as swearing, use of profanity, or name calling is prohibited. In addition, clapping, hissing, booing, or a display of temper during public comment is prohibited. Speakers who fail to

017follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order by the board chair or the B board attorney. Any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 0169.1 and may be removed from the chambers by the sergeant-at-arms. Per board policy 0169.1. The time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 speakers, 2 minutes if there are 30 speakers, and 1 minute if there are 31 speakers or more. The maximum time allotted for public comment is 1 hour 60 speakers. You will find a countdown on the big screens in the front of the room. Once your time has elapsed, the microphone will automatically shut off. Please state your name when you approach the microphone. I will call your names, five speakers at a time. Please follow

018staff's direction when lining up. Mr. Chair, there are 10 speakers that wish to address the board this evening. So that will be three minutes. The first five speakers are Bill Dogman, Megan Daly, Virana, Heidi Fel, and Chelsea Bole. Please line up. Yep. Is there anyone else first in the audience that would wish to fill out a card? Okay, please proceed. Thank you. Sorry, chair. Mr. Dogman, come on forward. You can raise that mic. Thank you. You're welcome. Does that sound all right? Right. Well, good evening. And for those of you that don't know me, my name is Bill Doman. I'm here with my wife, Donna, and we're here on behalf of our company's My Shower Door, D3 Glass, and My Architectural Glass. And we're here because we want to tell you about the initiatives that

019been we've been working on at Astero High School this year. Back in September of 25, a very interesting teacher named Kevin Shell transferred from South Fort Meyers High School to Asterero with an ambition of growing the best entrepreneurship school in the county. He brought along Don and I have been friends of Kevin for over 20 years since he was at GF Coast High School in Naples. And since then, I'd just like to fill you in on some of the initiatives that we've been doing because it's been remarkable. To start off the year, my shower has taken the leading role by setting an example and sponsoring the entrepreneurship academy for $5,000 at Asterero High School. But th that funding allows the academy to purchase student shirts, classroom materials, program initiatives, and eliminating the need for the

020teachers to pay out of pocket. I was asked to take on the leadership of the entrepreneurship advisory board. So I spearheaded the very first meeting. The board now has 42 area top business leaders committed to supporting the student projects and mentorship. This has become so successful that we continue to recruit high impact community partners such as Pavage Real Estate and Lake Michigan Credit Union. I've personally recruited business leaders such as Alfie Townen from the Advantage Retirement Group whose involvement has brought significant value to the district, including supported connected to the Elite 8 initiative. Alfie and his son Devon bring hands-on business expertise directly to the students by exposing them to the financial world and other opportunities. We kicked off the school year as a guest speaker where students could ask questions concerning startup advice, where

021to find advice for legal compliance, how to get credit and funding, how to write a business plan, and how to execute it. The guest speaker series has become so successful that you can actually see the students getting more and more engaged every week as each new speaker presents new opportunities and career sites for them. To bring a sense of reality to class, we created Project Innovation, where students design and produce glass figurines sold at a local market. This class was provided by our sister company, D3 Glass, at no cost. This project culminates in February with a competition teaching students about pricing, production, marketing, and sales. My wife and I have invested directly in student access and equity. That's it, sir. But I just want to let you know how good this initiative has been and

022love to invite you to high school and see what's happening there. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Miss Daly. Hello, I'm Megan Daly and I'm an HR workforce development specialist with Lee Health. I've been asked here today to talk to you about the amazing things that the school district of Lee County is doing in partnership with Lee Health. So, with that said, we're trying our very best to pro to provide as many career exploration opportunities for the students. We have a huge community and these students not every student knows what they want to do. So, of course, we have a heavy presence with the medicalies and that leads to direct employment. How however outside of that you still have your students that might need a lending hand in figuring out what their next steps are. So

023we share the message that we're not just doctors and nurses and there's a lot of careers that you will never touch a patient. With that said, we have opened our doors for shadowing opportunities right alongside a working professional. We've allowed for one-on-one informational calls with leaders in their areas of interest. We arranged tours with students of amongst 40 at a time on site with us in our units. and with each of these experiences, the students are allowed to actually get into spaces they normally wouldn't. They're right in their lab. They're with cadaavvers. They're with blood. They're seeing our nursing staff in action. They're seeing our critical care teams in action and seeing what the business side of the organization does as well. So, with that said, I'm really here, you know, to spread the word

024about the amazing things that your district is doing. we just had a fantastic meeting with all of your principles. And in addition to that, your career counselors at every school are fantastic. they are a direct connection and they are the ones that share the information with the students so they're afforded these opportunities. with that said, we also encourage other businesses to do the same. We've seen great things come about just from opening the doors. Students don't know what they don't know if they're not seeing it and touching it. When industries or organizations are providing that opportunity, it just leads to a whole new world for a student that might have never thought of that particular career. So with that said, I'm here simply to highlight the amazing partnership that we have through Lee Health and

025the Lee County School District and encourage other businesses locally to, you know, do the same. It leads to great things and it's, you know, the beginning of meeting the your future workforce. The inadvertent effect is that you are actually interviewing these students kind of while they're with you on site. So you get a good sense of the students that the district is producing, what their skill sets are, what their qualifications are. A lot of your students come out certified and ready to go right into employment and we have a lot of local industries that can absolutely, you know, open their doors and allow for that next step and, you know, learning what that career can lead to and the amazing things through the county. We'll keep talent here. Thank you. Thank you, Virana. Good evening.

026I am a parent at Ida Baker High School. I want to begin by saying I respect the rights of individ individuals to express their views. My concern tonight is not about the subject of protest. My concern is about parental notification, student supervision, and compliance with Florida law and the safety for our children. Last week, students left classrooms, administrators redeployed staff. Gathering an area that was well established and instructional time was interrupted during this. Whether the event was authorized is not the issue. These are operational changes when supervision and normal school functions change in a foreseeable way. Parents have the right to be informed. Florida parents bill of rights provide the parents provide that parents are entitled to timely information when there is a material change affecting school's ability to provide a safe environment and adequately

027supervise students. Notification after the event concludes is not timely because it removes parents ability to make decisions while events are unfolding. I also want to address safety. When large unplanned gatherings occur during school hours, risk increases. Movement of students shifting supervi supervision and potential involvement of outside individuals create conditions where accidents or harm can happen. Even if no one intends it across the country, similar situations have escalated unexpectedly. We are grateful that no child was injured. Truly grateful. But the absence of injury does not mean the absence of risk. The responsibility of adults in charge of the campus is to anticipate foreseeable hazards and minimize them and communication with parents is part of that sup or prevention model. In addition, there are ongoing safety procedures that I believe deserve review, controlled entry and screening. I've

028observed the metal detection equipment that's positioned at Ida Baker High School that's only six feet from the door and at times without personnel clearing directly clearing directing individuals to pass through the screening. Greater clarity and consistency in this process would strengthen campus security. Arrival and dismissal of traffic flow, parent pickup, and drop off can be congested and difficult to manage, creating preventable risk for students, drivers, and staff. I welcome the opportunity to discuss practical improvements that could make this safer for everyone. If there was an awareness that an organized activity might occur, especially in light of statewide guidance regarding walkouts, then families should have received advanced and real-time notification from the school. Again, this is not about limiting speech. It's about transparency, partnership with families, and ensuring parents are not the last to know when

029supervision and instruction are disrupted. Tonight, I'm asking three things. When did the school or district become aware of a walk out that might occur? Who decided that parents would not be notified? And what authority supports withholding that information from us? Parents trust you with our children every day. We deserve communication when conditions are changing. Thank you. Thank you. No clapping, please. Chair, can I ask if she can give her name for re public record, please? We have state. I think we have her first name. We just need your last name. Can I give you my last name? Yes, please. Columbia. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Heidi Fel. They have to state your name. Good evening. My name is Heidi Fosle. Sorry, Fosel. I have come before you honorable members of the school board because

030I'm surprised. I was very surprised this afternoon when I found out that we have a contract with Ballard, which is the firm of Pat Bondies. I was surprised to find out that we're paying $180,000 for lobbying and then using them to wave the FWC local protections. Now Alva, the Alva school project can go ahead and the school board can also fund infrastructure, the developers dream. We are protecting the big money instead of our kids, instead of our students interests. I am not impressed with the school board's double speak. make the students count and the parents who spoke out against the Alva school project. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Chelsea Bole. And with the following individuals, please line up. Gail Zack Racelk, Lisa Cohen, Daniel Beckia, Joyce Campana, Michael Anlesia, and Michael Leva. Please proceed.

031good afternoon or good evening. My name is Chelsea Bole. I want to be really clear about something really important. I support students right to freedom of expression. My daughter is literally the poster child for free speech for America. If any of you know who I am, my concern here is not what students were expressing. It's how the adults in this district handled it. Education and safety must always be the priority. Your website promises safe and secure schools and student achievement. Those promises were not kept last week. These walkouts were not spontaneous. On February 3rd, the Florida Department of Ed warned districts of anticipated walkouts. This was foreseeable. This district failed to notify parents in advance or as they were occurring. Under Florida Parents Bill of Rights, also on your website, parents have the right to

032be informed when conditions affecting student safety and supervision materially change. The district had two days advanced notice. Yet, parents were denied the right to make informed decisions regarding their children and their safety. I get alerts for lightning, but not a planned walk out. I mean, 67 apples and oranges. Come on, guys. Parents reasonably rely on real time communication. And that did not happen here. Why? Why? This is not about improving communication next time. It's about accountability for what already occurred. Who made the decision to not inform parents? This is the school district of Lee County. People from all over the country come to Florida, come to this county, come to this school district for a better education and for safety for their children. I did. Us parents deserve a lot better, guys. So, I look

033forward to hearing from you. Have a good night. Thank you. Gail, is that Grace Elk is next? Is that person here? No. Gail. Yes. Oh, thank you. Okay. Good evening. I'm here as a taxpayer. I don't have children in the school district. My children are grown, but I did not like what I saw coming from the schools. You lost control of your students. Stop moment. We'll start your time over. would you please state your name first? Please state your name first. Gail Srac. Thank you. For the record. Thank you. I'm here as a taxpayer. I don't have any children in the school district. My children are grown. I have college age grandchildren. I observed on Facebook multiple schools, high schools in chaos. You lost control of your students this week. This past week, I also

034received multiple calls from people that I'm working with that are planning on moving here because they sell real estate. Two of those people were appalled at what they saw on Facebook. You made the national news. While I recognize the students have a right to protest, they have rights, parents have rights, and taxpayers have rights. That was done on school time. They created chaos in the hallways. I don't know how the students were able to concentrate or the teachers that remained in their classrooms were able to continue to teach a lesson. You have to do better with this. It's a waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Thank you, Lisa Cohen. Lisa Cohen. I haven't been here in about It's been about six years since I've been here. I used to be I used to live at

035these meetings. I was here every single Tuesday, 10 years before I had children because I was preparing for that time period. I am so disappointed in our community today. I want a full investigation into how this happened. I want the board to really look into how this happened in our community of all the communities. How did this happen here? Mariner High School used to be known for their music division for their music department and they've got superiors. I didn't even see their I didn't see anybody from Mariner High School up on that board today, but I did see them hopping fences. This is this is it's shameful. It's sad. It needs to change. I need more from the board. I understand that we are blessed to have a very conservative board up here today. So,

036I'm depending on every single one of you to do something about this. I want heads to roll. This is unacceptable. I think about this even from a I'm not My kids aren't even in the public school system. I took them out because of this kind of craziness. They're in a great school. But as a taxpayer, a third of my taxes go to this pro go to this school district. And as a taxpayer, I'm not going to allow it. I'm not going to allow it. And you need to not allow it. Also, we got re-elections coming up. Make sure you get reelected. So, make sure you do the right things here. I think about what happened outside of Mariner and outside of what happened at Ida Baker High School. That could have been an extremely dangerous

037situation. Had somebody with these evil, malicious mentality that put this together, had they done this just to do driveby shootings at the schools, could you imagine the liability that would be on Lee County schools right now? This is I'm not upset with the students. They were just looking for an excuse to leave school. I would have done the same thing. As a matter of fact, I did the same thing when I went to Mariner High School back in n in the '9s when they did the block scheduling train transition. We all walked out. We never left the school. We stayed in the courtyard. You didn't leave the school. That's insane. What is going on with leadership? That's who I'm fur furious with. What happened? I want to know what happened. How did the principles allow

038this to happen? I want to know about the teachers that encourage this. I want answers and I want you to get me the answers. I want you to get the taxpayers the answers. We are insisting, we are demanding that you do something about this. I want answers. Thank you, Daniel Beckia. Good evening. my name is Daniel Becker. I'm a resident of Lee County in school district 2. I am here today to address this board's actions related to students protesting against the occupation of the country's major cities by paramililitary forces. Stop forcing students to accept the sanitized gated Englishonly version of reality that this board tries to force upon them. except the real world that is messy, beautiful, multilingual, multicolored, and courageous. The one that has always been built by hands that speak every language and

039pray in every tongue and come from every corner of this hemisphere. Censorship and authoritarianism do not belong in education. Instead of punishing young adults for expressing themselves, use it as a learning opportunity. Instead of creating schools where you think it is an accomplishment to have security roaming the halls and monitoring students every move, create a place that emphasizes dialogue, creativity, and a larger view of the world. As Roger Wers of Pink Floyd famously wrote in 1979, "Teachers, leave those kids alone." Thank you. Thank you, Joyce Campana. Good evening. My name is Joyce Campana and I'm a resident of school district 2. I'm here this evening to express my support for the students in protesting ICE. Maybe it wasn't executed the way it should have been, but maybe the school and its principles and its board

040should have supported the students more. I'm a product of growing up during the Vietnam War. I remember how many protests we had, how many times we left class, and I encourage students to participate in current events instead of punishing and suspending the students. I think you should commend their efforts and work it into civics classes and debate the pros and the cons. If you didn't like the way it was implemented, work with the students and train them and teach them how to respectfully demonstrate and argue both sides of the point. Please spare the rod, so to speak, and allow for free speech and participation in public policy issues. You want the best education for children. This is what it's about. when they go out to the real world, they're going to need to know how

041to handle these issues and debate them. Thank you, Michaelia. Apologize if I pronounced that wrong. My name is Mike Landosa and I am a former teacher, 30 years experience, Lee County resident. And for the record, it was pretty deceptive statistics at the beginning of this commentary where we lump elementary school students, middle school students, and high school students together to deflate the percentages. But that's neither here nor there. there's two ways of dealing with student protest or protest in general. You can do it the authoritarian way. You can stifle it. You can punish. You can discipline. You can make it go away by force. That's the authoritarian way of doing it. That is not the American way of doing it. You can do it that way and it'll feel good. You'll probably win, but the

042underlying issues will still remain. Or we can do it the democratic way and actually pay attention to what the protesters are saying. Why are they out there protesting? It's not like protests happen all the time. They're telling you something. They're not okay. They're telling you they're not okay. And we talk about student safety and we talk about putting the students first. You got a bunch of students going out there saying they are scared and that they do not have faith in this board, in this district to keep them safe. So, how what are we going to do to reach out to these students and make sure that their basic needs are being met? Safety is a basic need. It's not just an important way of avoiding lawsuits. Safety is a fundamental need for our students.

043And they do not feel safe. They do not feel that they are safe. They do not feel that their peers are safe when their peers are in school. Some of them are worried about whether or not their parents will be there when when they leave school. They're telling you they're not okay. So, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to drop the hammer and discipline and punish and force conformity or are you actually going to engage in dialogue? Another thing I would suggest too is I've I've been a party working with administrators during previous protests and talking to pro administrators about it and administrators are your school site administrators are perfectly capable of handling these things. I've never seen a protest happen when I was in working in the schools where

044the administrators did not provide adequate supervision, where they did not have people out there making sure that students were safe and making sure that the rights of all students were being protected. they know how to do that. They can manage that. so I would strongly recommend that you have a little bit more faith in your administrators. I have my own soundtrack. All right. Thank you anyway. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And that's a wrap. Yeah. Electronic devices, please silence them if you could. Thanks, Lord. If I would like as chair to make We have one more speaker, sir. Oh, we do. Yeah, we actually I'm sorry, I didn't see you back there. No, we actually ended up with 11. So, come on up. Yes. My apologies. Board members, parents, thank you very much for

045having me this evening. it's quite ironic. This is my second time back here now. The last time I was here was over a flag in one of the high schools locally over some symbolism that was on it. And I came here to talk about the mediation that was offered and how they tried to appease by removing a single symbol from the flag. You had the gay pride, you had the trans, you had black lives matter, you had the arm and sickle. Out of all of those symbols, we were offered then to remove Black Lives Matter symbol. And I was in shock then as I am today because the conversation then was about honesty and that was not an honest conversation. We didn't appreciate it and I doubt Black Lives Matter appreciate it anymore. Just as

046today we are discussing about the ramifications to the students. As disappointed as I am in these students, we are seeing this simultaneously occur across the country, not just here in Lee County. the same exact time we talk about safety about students. Well, me as a community outreach chairman of this county, I keep my pulse on what's going on with the younger generation. And I've been watching what evidently nobody else has. And that's the other students on the side of this coin that have been attacked across this country physically by mobs, 10, 15, 20 of them simply for not agreeing with these other students. This is out of control. As I've just seen at the art festival this past weekend with the arm and sickle chucked on the sidewalk. Today, yesterday it was a flag. Today

047is supposed students being used as pawns and now psies for the adults that allegedly organized this across the country. This is not honesty. This is not truth. The children are not toys to be used. I will not stand by it. And for the next few days, you're going to see American flags risen up across this county. If we're going to fight for this culture, then it's going to be two sides to that conversation. We're going to raise our American flag just as proud as any other flag. Thank you, USA. Thank you. All right, board. Would you mind if I made a statement as chair? The protests, the first thing you have to remember is back, as the one lady said, 1969, there were protests for the Vietnam War. There was also a court ruling from

048the Supreme Court. It was Tinker versus De Moine and it said students may protest during school hours. That's the law. That's the ruling. So, we didn't have any choice there. But it also gave us the ability to put some guard rails on there time and place when they could do it. We said they had to either be in the court yard away from the school or on a football field. That was the ruling that was put down and it had to be during non-instructional time. Now we had 17 schools, not all hundred like someone said with all the elementary kids. I understand that. But we had 17 schools participate in it. Four gave us a problem. The students did not follow those guidelines. The Supreme Court said we are able to discipline students who don't

049do that. But we have to go by the exact code that we have in our student code. So if you were shouting vulgarities, then you will be disciplined for what the code says when you shout vulgarities because that's in our code. We can't let students break the stu student code of conduct. If you're going down the hallways and blocking everything and you're not in the right place, that's another disruptive code of conduct. If you don't listen to the administrators, these students know what they can do and not do. They do it every day. They know what the student code student code of conduct is. They will again be disciplined. If they leave, jump the fence or leave the school without permission. That's a very serious thing. If they did that any time during the school

050year, they would be disciplined. We cannot overlook these kind of things just because it's a protest. They will be punished exactly as if they did them on any other day. Punish is probably not the best word. It's discipline is probably the best word. And it's a learning experience. Like someone said, you are allowed to protest. That's the law, but you have to stay within the parameters. So that's my statement. And we're trying to do that. We're looking at all the videos. We're getting statements from the teachers. If you went and protested like they did at 13 of the 17 schools, you went out, you did what you were supposed to do, you came back to class, there's no repercussions in those four schools. There were a lot of kids that went out and came back

051at the right time. But it's the ones who didn't. They're the ones who knew they were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. So that's just my particular statement here of what I saw and what we are doing and that's where we're at. Thank you. It didn't come on. I'm sorry. The documentation for action items is listed under consent. It is made available to board members seven business days prior to the board meeting. We are expected to review all the material and we have the opportunity to speak with the superintendent with any questions we may have regarding the recommendations. Some of the items have also been briefed or workshopped with the board in advance of appearing on the action agenda. Board members, are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under

052unfinished business? Mr. Fiser. Mr. Chair, I'd like to pull H1, the renewal of the Ballard contract. Thank you, Miss Mrs. Giovenelli. I have none. Thank you, Mr. Ribble. I have none. Thank you, Miss Jordan. Well, I was going to pull H1, but it's already been pulled. in M2, please. In M2. Thank you, Miss Langford Fleming. I have none. Miss Chaviano, I have none. And I have none. Is there a motion to approve the agenda's consent action items minus the ones that have been pulled? I move. Miss Langford Fleming. A second. Seconded by Mrs. Shaviano. Mr. Chair, if you could just state there are H1 and M. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, except for I said the ones pulled. Except for H1 and M2. Thank you. Second by Mrs. Shio. Shave. Sorry, I'm looking ahead here. Please

053record your vote. This is true. Motion carries 70. Thank you. Let me see. Dr. Carlin, please introduce any administrators in attendance. Thank you, Chairpersons. It's my pleasure to introduce the following administrators that have just been approved via our consent item. So, Ashley Nelson Estrada, the new assistant principal at Green Meadow Elementary. Barbara Morland, assistant principal, Tortuga Preserve Elementary School. Brandon Foster, assistant principal, Lebanon Middle. Mara Vest, assistant principal, Pinewoods Elementary. And finally, but not last and least, Matthew Aosta, assistant director, budget. Congratulations to all of our newest administrators. We appreciate your work and look forward to seeing you at your school in your new location. If those that were just approved would like to go celebrate for five minutes so you can be at school on time tomorrow. But congratulations. You may leave. We will

054address the two pulled items in just a moment. It's a lot of illustrators. Yeah. All right. H It's like now it's cooler in here. Yeah. Okay. All right. And under unfinished business, which is our tabled items, we have two items to address. Dr. Carlin, would you read H1, your recommendation? Yes, sir. Approval to renew the contract for professional services with Ballard Partners, Inc. to provide federal legislative service to the board, including legislative and governmental relations activities assistance for the school district of Lee County during the period of March 5th, 2026 to March 5th, 2027. The estimated expenditure of $180,000 is for the one-year contract renewal period. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt Dr. Carlin's recommendation? Mr. Fischer, second. I'd like to make it'll be

055a series depending on how this goes of two motions. The first motion I'd like to make is to amend the Ballard federal contract whereby Mr. Mr. Dane Eagle is not excluded from any part of federal our federal lobbying team. Okay. So, we're going to address the amendment to the recommendation or motion to amend the recommendation. We will do that first. And is there a second to that? Okay. Seconded. Yes. Let me let me intervene. I Yeah, we first need a motion and a second to the original motion. Okay. Which I know you intervene. So, let's go back to the original motion that Dr. Carlin read and ask if there's a motion. Okay. For that. All right. The original motion. Yes. Is there a motion to adopt? to adopt. I like the motion to adopt. All

056right. That's by Mr. Ribble. A second. Mr. Fischer. Second. Now during discussion, is there any discussion? Mr. Fischer, I'd like to make my motion to amend the motion on the table and that motion would state that we amend the Ballard federal contract whereby Mr. Dane Eagle is not excluded from any part of our lobbying team. Is there a second to that amendment motion to the motion? A second. Mrs. Janelli, I'll second that. The item has been moved by Mr. Fischer and seconded by Miss Gia Vanelli. Is there any discussion? Mr. Fischer. Thank you. First off, my apologies. Vice Chair Ribble and Mr. Dodig. When we did the prep, I jumped the gun a little too much. So, my apologies, gentlemen. So, this is something that, we passed last year and it's bothered me since last

057year. I think it's held our hand behind our back. And I've had numerous discussions throughout this year of because this term has been interpreted by our past attorney as well as it seems the board that this because of the Fort Meyers office that excludes Mr. Eagle. Mr. Eagle works out of the Tallahassee office. However, as I said, it's been interpreted by that. I get that. But for the past couple months, especially in the last month, this term, I think needs to be changed. So, this will not cost any additional dollars if we allow Mr. Eagle to be able to be part of this. I mean, he's had the thing I looked at and I did just a rough estimate. Mr. Eagle has served with, I believe, around 11 of the Florida congressional delegation, including with

058the two senators. So, he has relationships, you know, throughout this state that can only be beneficial. I think it's part of an integration. At the time, I understand because we had a different federal and state firm at the time. Now, I think we need to align that and align that vision. And I mean, it's he's from the same company, so I still don't understand why we would have it segregated like that. I think this should be, in my opinion, an easy fix. especially Mr. Eagle. We know he is a son of Lee County and how much he has helped us throughout this process. I think it can only be, you know, more beneficial if we add him. So, I I think we're hampered by not having that true level of integration. So, that's my ask.

059Thank you. Thank you. M Miss Jordan. Well, I was just this afternoon I was a bit surprised when Mr. Fischer brought this up because I had a conversation yes yesterday afternoon with two of our administrators regarding this exact conversation and this individual. So when I heard that today, I was like, "Okay, wait a second. I just had this conversation yesterday and now that this is being brought, where did where did the where did the ties come into play where now Mr. Fischer is bringing this up when I already had sent out that I was pulling this yesterday?" And then my question was it wasn't whether or not Mr. Eagle should be part of it. It was on the contract. His name was on there. So signing if you all were going to sign the new

060contract, should his name be on there as the person of contact because he was already our state legislator, I mean our state lobbyists versus our federal. So that was my question that I had. Should there be another person on there as our contact, not if they should work together because of course they would be working together. But in the in the end of all of this, it just was to me it's like it was kind of how did my conversation come out of your mouth today. So I was I had to question how that took place today and I will not be I will not be voting on this. Okay. U I'm going to let Mr. Fischer respond and then Miss Giovenelli, anyone down here? I don't know what you're referring to, Miss Jordan. I've

061had these conversations, including Mr. Eagle back in December. So, I've had this with staff. This is not something new. So, whatever you're talking about, I don't know. This is what I want to put the table and those that's what I believe. So, whatever your conversation is separate, ma'am. So, thank you, Miss Ganelli. Okay. So, I have a couple questions. First of all, as I was sitting here today, I completely feel that and this just came to me because I have a I have a great relationship and a great have had great conversations with Mr. Eagle and I would see him in Tallahassee and I would be more comfortable to pick up the phone and speak to him directly or on the street or whatever and that I would bump into him in Tallahassee every time

062I was there. But I have to ask you, Miss Dordan, you said you had a conversation. Was your conversation to yesterday to have our negotiations to be able to deal with Mr. Eagle directly or opposite of that because that's really what he's bringing up is just to So I'm just curious what your conversation was yesterday or whatever, Miss Jordan. Okay. Thank you. My conversation was the question that I had asked was in regards to because I was reading the contract and Mr. Eagle's name was on there. Nothing nothing against him at all, but his name was on there. So I because of the fact that he is our state lobbyist. Now I asked the question, should he be the person that's on there? Because he already is on our state legislator. I mean our state

063I keep saying legislator. He is on our state lobbyist. He already is on a contract with us. So, should his name really be on it? Because when we did that contract, he was not a he was not our lobbyist, our state lobbyist. So, that's why I asked that question when I looked at it. It was just a question. Should he be that point of contact because of the fact that he is our state lobbyist? That was my question. Okay. And then today it was like let's throw him on there as and that's why it was like what what happened. I would like to make a comment here that first off who they get to sign their contract is up to them. We don't pick who signs it. Okay. He's a employee of Ballard. So it

064does the contract doesn't say he's the contact person. He's just the one that's going to site it to my knowledge. Right. No. They say he's our federal contact person. I don't The motion just says he's not excluded. I believe he's listed as the individual that would receive notices under the contract, which is over the contract. Right. Right. And this contract's been in place since last year. Right. And every dealing I've had with the federal ones have not included him. You know, we've we've all been called by them. and he wasn't on that call. So I don't have a problem with that. Mr. Fiser. I was going to say it's been interpreted that he's been excluded from a lot of this stuff. That was an argument that was made last year in fact about the Fort

065Meyers office. In fact, him being part of that Fort Meyers office. So that has actually been the case. Well, Ballard is like the number one from what I've asked around for the federal and pretty much for the state also lobbyist group. And I'm excited to have them. And to be honest with you, if I owned a company and someone said one of my employees couldn't do something, I'd just say go find somebody else. Okay. So I think that's totally their decision, not our decision. did we have someone down here? Melli. Okay. Miss Janelli. I just want to make sure I wasn't excluding anyone. I just wanted to add that actually when I had my one- on-one with Mr. Eagle. I did talk to him about the federal stuff because that's what I felt comfortable in

066doing. I So that for me just makes it easier and if I was doing something wrong, my bad. But I just I was more comfortable in talking with him and I brought up my concerns regarding DC because I didn't have that rapport and I don't have that rapport but I do with him and that's I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Ribble. Then maybe we can Yeah, Mr. Chair, I'd like to address our council on this one. Sure. Okay. Since we're going ring around the rosie with hearsay and the private conversations, I think everybody's getting confused. Why don't you just tell us exactly what we're voting on? What's the contract say? What are we voting for? You're voting on an amendment to the contract that would allow Mr. Eagle to represent the

067district in federal lobbying, even though from what I understand, he works out of the Tallahassee office. Okay. M Mr. Fischer just want to add one thing in. He is listed as part of the primary on the Fort Meyers office. So yes, it wasn't Ballard that was preventing it. It was us. That's the interpretation. That's what our former board attorney said. I want to make this clear. Ballard can choose who they want. I get that. But I don't think we should have a limitation on our side and that's how it's been interpreted. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. I'd like to call the question. Yes. Thank you. Our vote. Yes, it has to be Roll call vote. Yes, Mr. Hi, Mrs. Janelli. Yes, Mr. Ribble. Hi, Mr. Jordan. I have a question. Is it are we

068is this a vote on the amendment or is it on them their contract period? Just the amendment only. Just the amendment. Yes. And then we're going Mr. Jordan, you have you have to vote. the question was called. So, okay. no further discussion. I'll say no. Okay. Mr. Langford Fleming I. Miss Shaviano I and I am an I. Motion carries 61. Now we have a mot. Is there a motion to approve the contract with Ballard as amended? Official I mean Mr. Ribble. I'll second it. Was there a second? Second. Shaviano. Yeah. The item has been moved by Mr. Ribble and seconded by Mrs. Shavaniano. Is there any discussion? Now we're into the main one. Okay. Miss Jordan. Thank you. And the reason that I was going to pull this was again going back to bringing money,

069leaving money in the district, and I did hear Miss Bullan speak on how they helped with the negotiations for NN. However, when I look at that amount of money, to me, I still have to say I cannot vote for that because I'm still looking at money that could be going into the classrooms. And yes, I heard about the grants and everything, but I've not yet seen that happen, so I cannot vote on that type of money right now. Thank you. Any further discussion? I'll just make a comment. Okay, go ahead there, Miss Langford Fleming. I just I wanted to comment on this earlier. the ROI on what has happened with our partnership with Ballard is has superseded my expectations and my conversation with Mr. Eagle whenever we were you know he was sort of you

070know just really took his time I felt like with what our each individual priorities were. I don't know what your conversation was with him but I there's seven people up here. There's a good chance we all had seven completely different priorities. He really took the time on that. I've already had people contact me from from the from the state and beyond about what my priorities were. And I just like you had stated this afternoon in our workshop, you made an analogy about I don't know somebody at so and so and so and so. Yes, I don't know somebody at X Y and Z. But because of his connections, I just feel like the return on the investment has been so good. And you know who's winning? our students, our students are winning because that money

071is being coming back to this district, those grants that we're getting. I mean, and then the partnership with our government relations, Chrissy and Luke, I mean, I just feel like it's been such a seamless transition, and I have seen nothing but success. And I have been on here, you know, almost four years. And this is this is the best I've seen it with with our connections with working with state legislators all the way up to Washington. It sound like you all had a great visit up in DC. And I I feel like Ballard is in a testament to that. So I just needed to make that comment. Thank you. Right. And I would like to say that I look at 180,000 output and just by what they did at that school by moving it forward

072saved us probably $10 million. So to me 180,000 out saved $10 million. That to me is a very wise fiscal choice. because it would have been actually we asked them we knew we didn't need a permit. We went to Fish and Wildlife US and asked them and they said sure all we got to do is come out and walk. We'll be there in a year. That's literally what they said. We're we're booked that solid because they moved all of that kind of stuff from each state all into one agency under the US Fish and Wildlife and Army Corps of Engineers. So that's where we had to get the okay from and through their connections we it sounds crazy. We had someone out there the next week walking it and doing the survey just to verify

073what we have already done. We'd already done everything but just needed to have someone with the authority come out there and do that. So it was great and for that reason I'm sure I think it's a good deal. Miss Shaviano would like to say something. Okay. Miss Shabiano, I know we touched that in our workshop too and it was outside of those pieces as well. There was an educational impact with our teachers and staffing and I want to say it's approximately 50 to 60 headcount that we were able to keep and not have to change with the 4.4 4 million that we were able to receive right before there was an impact with the, you know, new future learning and kind of that beginning, but we were able to give security to those 50 to

07460 people to let them know that we were going to take care of them. They were going to have a position. We were working it out and we didn't have to do anything on the 11th hour right before school started. And again, fresh on this board for a year now, my first time starting school and having that come through saying, "Hey, this might happen. We might have to figure out what to do with these 60 teachers because we do not have the grant funds to make that happen because it's held up." All I could do was like, what are we going to do? We were already behind so many positions to begin with at that point. And then knowing we're going to have another 60 that we already had in house that we possibly were

075going to have to move again. So again with it's all relationships and partnerships and everyone has had conversations with Dean and the Ballard team like I mentioned you know during the workshop those relationships are important it and it's hard to put a dollar sign we can put a dollar sign to a lot of these different pieces but there's so many things that are still happening behind the scenes that we haven't even seen the fruit of that labor just yet. So there we have to give that credit and we have to kind of acknowledge those pieces that without those relationships a lot of doors would not be opened and conversations would not even be started. Thank you because of prior pieces. Any other discussion and then Jordan? I'll be quick because I mentioned this earlier today,

076but the DC seat at the table in DC is really important, especially right now with the dismantling of of education department, the department of ed, whatever you want to call it. But and I think it's important and I have been on the all the zoom meetings with maja and regarding all the changes from the vaccinations to food to food dyes to water fluoride. I mean with Dr. Raz and all these people and it's it's amazing but there's going to be a lot of more things happening in DC and if we do not have a presence there I believe we're going to we're going to be going what happened and I do think and I do find the value in having that presence in DC and I personally would rather be able to pick up the

077phone and talk to to Dane Eagle than I the lady in DC. Thank you Miss Jordan. I was just going to say this has nothing and everybody keeps bringing up his name. This has nothing to do with Mr. Eagle. So I just want to make sure that is perfectly understood. Has nothing at all to do with him. And that's why I asked for that last motion. So I just want to make sure that is understood. Has nothing to do with him. But for 180,000, yes, we maybe we do need a presence up there, but do we have to spend 180,000? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. She wants to rebut. Miss Jibanelli, what were we spending with the with Kim McDougall? What was that amount? Does anybody know that? Well, we did have we had no

078presence in and there was no presence in DC, right? So, you can't really compare. Oh, that's true. So, there you go. Thank you. My point. All right. We're ready for a vote, it looks like. Okay. This will be a roll call vote on the motion as amended. No. the contract as amended as contract. Thank you. Gosh. Okay. Mr. Fischer, Miss Giovenelli. Yes. Mr. Rebel. I. Miss Jordan. Nay. Miss Langford Fleming. I. Miss Shaviano. I. And I am an I. Motion carries 61. Next on our agenda is a public hearing. Dr. Carlin, please. Actually, we have the other poll, sir. Oh, which is M2. Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. That took too long. We don't have time for M2 now. Just kidding. Okay. Oh, my There it is. Dr. Carlin, will you read your recommendation for

079M2? Yes, sir. Approval to adopt and revise job descriptions for the executive services division and operations division. Is there a motion to approve Dr. Carlin's recommendation? Mr. Fischer. Motion to approve Dr. Carlin's recommendation. Second, Miss Shaviano. Is there any discussion? Miss Jordan? Yeah, it's it's all about me today. actually I pulled this I the job descriptions that are on here. I am pulling this because that's the only way that I can vote no on these job descriptions and the job descriptions with the exception of the assistant staff attorney and the chief staff attorney. So I would ask I guess would you like to make a motion to separate to divide is what divide I would love to make a motion to divide the job descriptions with the assistant staff attorney and chief staff attorney separate

080from the other five job descriptions. Okay. Is there a second so we can move forward? If there's no second adopt no second fails. So in that case then I will have to vote no for all of it then fine. Okay. Is there any even though I'm okay with the others? Fine. Thank you. Is there any other discussion On the original motion. Right. Because the other one failed to divide. I see none. We'll have a roll call vote. Mr. Fiser. Hi. Mrs. Giovenelli. Yes. Mr. Ribble. I Miss Jordan. Nay. Miss Langford Fleming. I. Miss Shaviano. I. And I'm an I. Motion carries 61. All right. Now back to public hearings. Dr. Mr. Carl, you please present your recommendation for this e evening's public hearing. Thank you, sir. approval to adopt revised board policies in compliance with

081changes and related rules, regulations, and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability. The effective date of this adoption shall be February 11, 2026. We will now recess the regular school board meeting and open a public hearing. The time is 7:41 p.m. As indicated, the public hearing this evening is to consider Dr. Carlin's recommendation as previously stated. At this time, the public will invited to speak on this one item. The time allowed for public comment is three minutes. There's anyone in the audience that would like to address the board regarding the approval to adopt revised board policies in compliance with changes and related rules, regulations, and statutes to adopt best practices, promote transparency and accountability at with the effective date of February 11th, 2026. Seeing none, we will address the policies by chapter

082policy. Chapter 0000 bylaws policy 0100 definitions any speakers none chapter 1000 administration policy 1430.01 01 family FMLA leaf any speakers I see none chapter 4000 support staff policy 4430.01 again. Family leave number of speakers. I see none. Sir, you skipped 30,000. Oh, 34301. Oh, I'm sorry. Poor instructional staff policy 3430.01 family leave. Any speakers? Okay, now we're on chapter 5,000 students. Policy 5,136 technology resources other electronic equipment. Any speakers? Chapter 7,000 property policies 7250 commemoration of school facilities. Any speakers? Seeing none, chapter 8000, operations policy 8606, use of wireless communication devices by district school bus operators. And policy 8625, ban on taxing while driving. Number of speakers. I see none. I will now close the public hearing and reconvene the public the regular school board meeting of February 10th, 2026. The time is 7:43 p.m.

083Dr. Carlin, please restate your recommendation for this evening's public hearing item. Approval to adopt revised board policies and compliance with changes in related rules, regulations, and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability. The effective date of this adoption shall be February 11, 2026. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approve the adoption of revised board policies to comply with changes and related rules, regulations, and statutes, and to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability. The effective date of this operation adoption shall be February 11th, 2026. Board members, is there a motion to approve? I move to approve. M Langford Fleming. second, Mr. Fiser. Is there any discussion? I just have one thing. Mr. Langford Fleming. This will be very quick. I just want the general public to we I talked

084about the use of wireless communication back when the previous readings were brought to our attention. And I just I would like to give the superintendent a moment to discuss those because I know we have some students that do have to use certain things for hearing impaired that and just to reassure the public that those students that need those services even though they're inside this policy they are not and it quote unquote says limited but not or the these they list those devices but not limited to. Would you mind just addressing that to reassure the public that students that need those services will get them? Sure. Absolutely. So I believe the intention of the board policy has to do with the wireless communication in general and to include smart glasses, smartwatches, etc. as always when we

085have students with disabilities for which special devices have been provided as part of their individualized educational plan, we want to make sure that those are available to the students in need. So thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, please record your vote. This is an electronic vote. Motion carries 70. Now we're going to move on to the good of the order and other business. Board members, comments and reports. Mr. Fiser, you may go. Thank you, Chair Persons. I'll try to make this quick. So, had a great time actually with board member Chabiano at the career advisory board at Dumbar High School recently. So, great job by Bethany Lloyd, Ed Matthews, and Principal Burnside over there. Really got to the business partners really got to see all the amazing things happening in Dunar. if

086you haven't checked it out, I would check it out. Next one's going to be in spring at Mariner High School. So, looking forward to that. a couple of us talked about we had the annual Horizon Council meeting. Really good to see the impact that Horizon Council and the part that the school district contributes to that. So had the as I think every one of you we've all hit up had a great lunch with Dr. Restino and his students at success academy. So, give another shout out to, Principal Restino with the things he's doing over there and, interesting conversations. Kind of brought me back to my days as, being a public defender. So, visited with, Principal Pearson at Kousa Middle. Great to welcome her there and see all the great things happening. and the last thing

087I will leave you with is, a great job, by, our superintendent at the state of education. she really did a great presentation. All the good things happen in this district. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss G. Vanelli. Okay. I just wanted to say how fantastic North Myers High what was it called? Night singers. The night singer. They were fabulous today. I just want to say how wonderful that was and I it really touched me actually. So, they were so good. I got to hear them practice before that. So, it was I got to hear more than more than what y'all got to hear unless you were here with me. I don't think anybody was at that moment. second Saturday stemastics 10 to 2 at the downtown Kusa Kusa sound and then the junior parade is

088on Sunday and most of our students of Lee County will be in that parade and then Saturday night the 21st is the grand parade and we're hoping to have great weather with Sammy Sirriani being the grand marshall. Second, I did want something I want to bring up. we had a Florida audit recently and I would like to ask the board if we can share that with the audit committee. I know that staff is working on that, but I do believe that the audit committee should see the a the Florida audit. I don't we don't have actually have a meeting come anytime that I'm aware of scheduled coming up, but I do think that is something they should see. okay. Superintendent says okay. So, if that could be shared with them with the committee and then

089I am going to just read my newsletter that I just recently sent out that will be published. I want to acknowledge that recent events involving student walkouts and protests concerning issues related to ICE and immigration policies have been brought significant attention and emotion to our schools. We understand that these topics are deeply personal and can evoke strong feelings among students and families. In line with directives from Florida Department of Ed and our district leadership, we emphasize the importance of maintaining a safe, respectful, and focused learning environment. Our primary goal is to ensure the safety and well-being of all students and staff while fostering an atmosphere of understanding and open dialogue. The superintendent and the state commi state commissioner of ed have advised schools to carefully monitor situations, promote pre peaceful expression, and enforce clear policies

090against disruptions or activities that compromise safety. We encourage students to engage in constructive conversations and to express their views through appropriate and respectful channels outside of a dis of of a disruptive activity during school hours. We followed the commissioner's guidance throughout this situation which allows students to gather in safe environments if it occurs during a non-instructional time only. If it appeared that teachers were participating in protest, they were they were supervising to ensure safety student safety and the guiding and then guiding students back into the class. Teachers found to particip to be participating are subject to discipline. Students are were only permitted to gather as peacefully during non-instructional time in supervised safe locations where we could ensure their safety. Anyone who protested during instructional time or engaged in any behavior that risks the safety of

091themselves or others is being disciplined or in accordance with our code of conduct. Our school exists for one primary purpose which is education. So we must protect instructional time while recognizing students constitutional rights to free expression. We will not tolerate behaviors that interfere with instruction or safety of others. And our responsibility is to ensure every student can attend school in an environment that is orderly, respectful, and free of disruption. We remain committed to supporting our students rights to free speech and participate in civic matters while also prioritizing and prior, excuse me, a prioritizing a positive and secure school educational environment. I'm sorry, my throat's very dry. As we work together to maintain a safe and positive school environment, we kindly ask for your support to in guiding our students outside of school hours as well.

092[cough] Open conversations at home about the importance of responsibility, freedom of speech, and respecting others and understanding the role of law and order are vital and fostering a respectful, thoughtful community members. This was a teaching moment. I think that there are op opportunity for improvement at the schools where things got out of control. I would encourage our children to express their opinions constructively and to appreciate the value of education and learning. We cannot do this without parents and our community partnering with us to create a safe and respectful and nurturing learning environment for all students. I wanted to say that because I think it's important that we respect each other even if our ideologies are different. And I embrace differences personally. I will speak from from Melissa and I learned from differences and I believe

093that all our school our high schools and schools was encouraging the expression some of it got out of control but that is not my job to control or how that goes down. That is the job of the superintendent and I trust that she will be engaging and looking into what went wrong and how we can improve and learn from our mistakes of the four schools that did get out of control. I you can you can know from me personally that I will be asking the questions. I have asked the questions and I am expecting her to give me answers. Right now, it's too preliminary to even dissect what exactly happened last week. I will tell you that I found out about the protests literally while they were happening on Thursday afternoon at about 1:45 from

094a teacher who was personally scared for her students and her her colleagues. So, we have to have a safe environment for all. And I look forward to figuring out what we did wrong and what we did right and learn from that and go from there. And luckily, as someone said earlier, no students were harmed in that or teachers, but it could have been it could have happened. So, I'm excited that we're going to learn from our mistakes and move forward. We do have some mistakes and I'll be the first to say that. But I know that and I'm confident in the administration that the next protest will be very controlled. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ribble. Yeah. I just want to make a comment for 15 seconds and then I'm going to give you my

095followup. I have all the confidence in the world in our superintendent. I know she's investigating and I'm glad she's taking her time so we don't jump to conclusions and make statements that we can't take back. She's doing it the right way, the right timing, and getting all the details. And I'm sure we'll hear back from her when her investigation is completed. And I'm not going to second guess what she did. Okay. Now, moving right along. We talked about reading being a problem in all school districts, including this one. As you know, nine months ago, we addressed this through our partnership with FGCU. We worked nine months. Dr. Dr. Cuban McCoy did an outstanding job written representing Lee County Schools working with FGCU's professor of literacy, Dr. Michelle Burn. And believe it or not, after a

096long period of putting this together, we kicked off our workshop. We had one at 9 in the morning on January the 21st and one at 6:00 in the evening. We had a large group of parents come there. Some brought their kids. the principal, Mrs. Alvareto did a great job. She had a lot of folks there running a child care room so the kids weren't the children weren't disruptive to the workshop. The workshop ran for an hour. One thing I got out of it as a grandparent is if you're going to try and teach your kid word sounds and phonics. You only can spend five minutes a day at a time with this otherwise they get frustrated. So without further ado, I just wanted to give the kudos to those folks that did a wonderful job.

097for information purposes, moving along reading of the Lee County Library Systems, hosting a an open house from 10 to 4 on March the 7th. take your children down there. There'll be book signings. There'll be free books handed out and it'll be a day worthwhile for your child. That's all I have. Mr. Jordan, thank you. I spoke about some of the things earlier. I just wanted to give a shout out again to Northport Myers High School. U the chorus that was just they were just out of this world. And also coming up at Northport Meyers, if you really want to see somebody something great, you want to go to to watch their shows, the newsies will be being performed this weekend and that is something that you really want to see because they always do outstanding

098jobs there. I just and we did the Golden Apple finalist. We went were able to go and see who those who the our teachers were. All of them are winners. But I just wanted to this been a rough day for me, I think. But I earlier today there was something was brought up about the HR reorg and the reason that I voted for that when that came before us was because every bit of that was supposed to be for the schools, for the principles to go back into the schools to make sure that they did not have to worry about anything. everything that they needed was going to be right there in their hands and it was going to make their life easier. That is why I went ahead and I voted for that. And

099with the word honesty, I'm being honest. That is why I did that and that's why I'm bringing that up. And then also, you know, I don't just speak just to speak because I've heard people say that. I study the topics and I ask the questions because in order for me to make a vote, I have to know what the answers are. whether it's different. More than likely, I probably am thinking different, but any anytime I make a vote, it's always about our children, our staff, and our schools. And that's all I have to say. Thank you, Miss Lford Fleming. yes, thank you. sorry. Thank you. Yes. I just wanted to start off with some really positive, what I thought was incredibly positive with our public comment. our first two speakers today came to the took

100the time to come to the deis to talk about how to partner with the district and I want to commend them. Thank you first of all for giving up their evening time to because it was they were here a while before they could get to speak. but thank you so much for your partnership. And these are the I talk about this quite a bit, not just from up here, but when I'm in the community, and I just recently stated that people in our we have such a generous community. We really do. They want to help us. We have to make sure we are getting the message out to our community of what we need because they just don't know what it is we need. But we have some really amazing helping hands here in Lee

101County. And I just want to say thank you to My Shower Door and that company partnering with our schools. I mean, that is a direct impact on our kids. So, thank you for that. And thank you to Lee Health and I do believe like she made a great point that there are multiple jobs in the healthcare industry without you feeling like my gift may not be to work with an actual patient or or or something. But there are so many opportunities and we have those two partnerships. So, I would just I would just encourage anybody in the in the community that's listening and beyond that, you know, if you have the passion to make an impact that we I know that this superintendent welcomes our community into our district on how to help children. I

102guess it wouldn't be I'll just touch briefly on the situation last week. you know, I can speak from both sides because I'm a parent and I was a teacher for 20 plus years. I was there to teach kids. I did not like disruptions in my room because I needed to take care of the business that was handed to me. Those kids were my responsibility, all 20 plus of them. And my job was to make sure that they they got something every day out of what was happening in that classroom. So, the frustration of the parents that came today to talk about the interruption of these students in the classrooms that were there to learn, I understand that. I'm a parent. I would understand. My son would be upset if his class was interrupted by something

103that was causing him not to finish a project, take a test, meet a meet a requirement or a deadline because that was classroom time. I also believe that students do have the right of the first amendment, but they but we've got to come we've got to figure out a way to make sure that we are not we're not crisscrossing the two and neither party is hurt. Now, for any educators that were involved, I am very confident that this superintendent and her staff are on top of it. They are going to make sure that they investigate the situation before they jump the gun like you had said before and make statements that just may or may not be true. And that might be why the public probably wants something really fast, but I know that she

104and her team are doing a due diligence there. so I am so thankful to God that nobody was hurt and I understand that this is a learning experience for for the district and I can guarantee you it'll it'll be better if there were ever a next time. I can't leave the night without thanking our amazing SRO's and our safety and security in the room. I'm so grateful for you all every single time you come with a little with a smile on your face and thank you for what you do for our community. I had an amazing discussion with the sheriff's department and future deputies this p on Friday and they had great questions about how to be a part of our community and it was such an uplifting experience and actually one of the students

105in the room was one of my former students and I was just it just made my week. So, I just needed to share with all of you that, you know, when you see a student that comes full circle and they are now succeeding and thriving in life and they're giving back, I'm getting chills talking about they're about to give back to our community, that's what it's all about. Thank you, Miss Shaviano. Yeah. So, apparently I mirrored everything that Sam did for the last month and we were everywhere at the same spot. So, there's that. doing all those things. but I was with you and you and you. So I mean we're everywhere. but yeah, we're doing all the things and so yes, excited to see I was actually visiting Diplomat Middle two weeks ago. I

106feel like the six seven thing happened, but I'm sorry. two weeks ago and the Golden Apple team was coming in to interview the teachers. So I was like, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm your way." Like go do what you have to do. Like I felt awful. but they had three teachers at their school. until they were being interviewed. So I was like that is tremendous. That is amazing. And the same time that I was there in the morning, they were doing their Awards or A recognitions and it was like a breakfast for and all the parents were there kind of recognizing all the students that had A's from the quarter and there was a ton of kids in that auditorium. I was like good job like this school is doing it. So, just thank you

107to to all of our educators, like I said earlier, and our teachers that are just in the classroom doing the work every single day. I coach 30 kids at it is not easy. It I mean there are good days and there are bad days, but these kids are amazing and they have so much potential. And as Miss Langford Fleming said, you know, you see your kids from when you've co you know, you've taught them or you coach them and you see them grow into an adult and then you're like, "Wow, time flies." you know, all these things are happening and I've coached my own kids and I'm now coaching their kids and I'm like, "I'm not that old." so it's it's it's amazing to see what our community is capable of and the amazingness that

108we have in our community. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know, yes, last week was a lot. again on on so many levels and as it's been stated, I think now in a time where everyone wants the answer now and everything has to be instant and you're on social media and you see videos and you see all these things, but you're seeing snapshots from one point of view. And that's what we have to remember. You have to step back and you have to ask questions because there's always more to the story. There's always so much more to the story and there's his, hers, and the truth, right? And we have to get to the truth and then answer those questions and make sure that we are doing our job to the fullest extent,

109their administration is doing their job to the fullest extent. To go through all of that video and that information and for everyone to have an expectation of like, I need that in 5 minutes. That's not fair to our staff. that is not fair to our administration and that's not process. There's no due diligence there. You want to make sure it's done right because you don't want to have to go back and say I'm sorry. Okay. So, please allow grace and patience cuz as much as a parent it was hard to to kind of be a part of that and see what's happening. We have to step back and see and understand there is a process and there are rules and there are rules in school and there are rules outside of school and ignorance of

110the law does not excuse you from it and those are lessons every day inside of this building or out. So I thank you. I thank this board. There's a lot of questions and things that happen behind the scenes that I don't think everyone understands. There's a lot of assumptions. There's a lot of media spins. I work in marketing. I get it. Right? They want you to click. They're getting paid. Pay attention, but ask the question. Talk to your kids. A lot of them were there. Talk to your kids, but trust the process. So, for that, again, thank you to our teachers and everything that you do. You're you were so much appreciated. our SRO's as well. I mean, you guys were in the thick of it as well. So, fun times. but thank you. again,

111grace and patience throughout all of this. people make mistakes. There there are errors, but it'll get worked through. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Well, everything has pretty well been covered, but nobody went on a bus ride at 4:30 in the morning like like I got to go. But the exciting part about that was I got to see all the different bus stops. And the bus stops, some people said they were unsafe, but they really weren't. It was kids standing out in the road when they shouldn't been out in the road. And I'm sure there's some that could use work. I would love to put lights, benches, solid things for the kids to get in every bus stop, but you're talking about millions and millions of dollars if you can even get

112permission to do that because a lot of the stops are too close to property owners and then there's all the setbacks that are demanded by the Department of Transportation. So, we do the best we can and they change. So, you build one here, then all of a sudden next year there's no one at that bus stop. What are you going to do? They're not easy to move. But the one thing that happened while I was on my bus was someone while we were stopped went right on by the stoplight. I mean the stop sign on the bus. to the superintendent. How much money have we taken in so far? Sir, I know there have been over 10,000 violations. so I think we're looking at at least a million dollars. Yep. So they say the people

113that do that 90% of them don't do it again. So you said 10,000. So that means 9,000 hopefully won't be running a bus again. They'll pay their fine and stop. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there. And that's going to make our schools so much safer once the people realize you can't do that. And just like the cameras in the school zones, which we don't have right around here at all in the county or the city, but people don't speed through those zones anymore. I know when I'm in Cape Coral, I slow way down just to make sure because it look really bad for a school board member to be speeding through a school zone. So, all right. That's all really I had tonight. Hardly tell anybody. Yeah. Now, you know me, I'd blurt

114it out. That's what this idiot did. attorney Dodie, do you have any comments? That's hard to follow. No, I do not. All right, Superintendent. Thank you very Thank you very much. so just to re reiterate what the rest of our board colleagues have talked about regarding those the student protests, just want to make sure that everybody clearly understands we are respectful of students free right to free expression. And yes, there is a Supreme Court ruling that protects their first amendment rights. However, the time and place for these activities is not during class time and it does not allow students or anybody to put people in harm's way. I was driving around town on Saturday and Sunday looking for the protests and I didn't see any. There is a time and a place. Having said that,

115we do have afteraction activities that are occurring. We will be reviewing what worked, what didn't, and what we can do to remedy the matters in the future. The last thing I want to do is compliment our board. there are a lot of distractions that can come our way and I want to thank you for your unwavering support and your focus on our school priorities, our school district of Lee County priorities, including today safety and security and the focus, relentless focus on improved student achievement. We are on our way to being an a school district. We are not going to be deterred by that and I thank you for your support. Thank you. Our next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, March 10th, a schoolboard workshop at 1 p.m. followed by the schoolboard action meeting at 6 PM.

116At this point, having no other business to come for this body and seeing no objection, Miss Shaviano makes a motion. We adjourn. We thanks Vanessa for doing that.