001thank you for joining us tonight Pastor Edmonds thank you thank you very much let's pray well father I thank you so much for the ability to gather here tonight father I thank you for the dedication of these school board members to our community God I just pray tonight for courage for strength for wisdom and guidance I pray Lord as decisions are made or and conversations are had tonight God that they would just be blessed by you so we thank you we give you glory in Jesus name amen amen yeah please remain standing introducing the cadet who is presenting the national colors for our Pledge of Allegiance tonight is Sergeant First Class Michael L Walker Army instructor from Ida S Baker High School Sergeant First Class Walker served 24 years in the Army in numerous assignments
002and retired as a Sergeant First Class in Louisiana Army National Guard recruit recruiting battalion this is Sergeant First Class Walkers third years at JROTC instructor welcome Sergeant First Class and thank you for your service to our country thank you sir presenting the colors tonight is Cadet Brianna Priebe the cadet S1 of the Ida S Baker High School JROTC Cadet preview is the second lieutenant and is on the cadet staff as a junior she is actively involved in all JROTC special teams and is the commander of the Color Guard team please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign thank you police receive it
003this evening student representative is Gabriel ulick a member of the student advisory committee Gabriel is a senior student from Riverdale High School he participated in the senator four-day program during his time living in Pennsylvania in which he along with other members of his school and other schools voted on bills regarding many subjects that would later be sent to the state capitol for further voting Gabriel attended the young entrepreneurs Academy during his time in Pennsylvania Gabriel is an avid learner he is uncompromising in his efforts to be fair and reasonable in all situations especially those that come before him in things such as the District student committee After High School he would either immigrate to Europe to further his education and provide future opportunities for his young niece that he never had or he will remain
004in America and pursue a career in politics to serve his local Community State or even aspects of the federal government please welcome Gabrielle ulick Gabriel will you please introduce this evening's recognitions yeah okay this evening's recognitions are 2021 to 2022 outstanding School volunteer 2022 to 2023 teacher of the year 2022-2023 school related employee of the year 2022 2023 level 1 certification baranzo High reliably reliability schools honorable members of the board please come with me to the pit for today's recognitions all right foreign I would like to invite Dean sedeno and Miss Maria Rose to the lectern are they here the school district of Lee County is proud to announce that Edison Park creative and expressive arts school volunteer Miss Sherry Sammons is the Florida Educators Commissioners 2022 outstanding School volunteer the goal of the commissioner's
005recognitions Awards is to recognize Florida school districts and business partners who have shown an endless amount of commitment to our students by bringing positive change and implementing bold and Innovative approaches to improve the academic performance of students in Florida's education system and communities this program serves to highlight educational connections that Forge strong community and family involvement in Florida school districts and promote Student Success Sherry Salmons helps students with their math and reading skills five hours a day and five days a week in Miss Maria Rose's first grade class she started volunteering two and a half years ago by hosting Zoom sessions three times a day the class average percentile rank in Star reading increased from 69 to 85 percent during the first semester now she is able to volunteer on campus is known as Miss
006Sherry and holds small group and individual work sessions with students this recognition celebrates the volunteer work Emissary has done with Edison Park Elementary and the passion she has for students of all backgrounds and abilities the school board and superintendent are very pleased to recognize Ms Sherry Simmons for her volunteer efforts congratulations thank you thank you thank you very much foreign I would like to invite Dean cedino and Miss Maria Rose to the lectern oh sorry that was the last one I would like to invite just kidding Mrs Lynn Harrell executive director of leadership and professional development please join me at the lectern the school district of Lee County is proud to announce the formal recognition of teacher of the year school leadership and employees were invited to nominate exemplary teachers for their contributions to the
007school and the community through a collaborative effort community members as well as district and school administrators reviewed the nomination forms written tasks and overall impact of the nominee to select the finalists to be recognized the school board and the superintendent are pleased to recognize the 2023 Teacher of the Year Mr Stephen McGinley peer collaborative teacher at Hans Marsh Middle School congratulations we congratulate this deserving individual for his commitment to increase student performance and support developing Educators and to help everyone reach his or her Highest Potential congratulations okay thank you friends there thank you the school district of Lee County is proud to announce the formal recognition of the school-related employee of the year school administrators were invited to nominate exemplary school-related employees for their contributions to the school and Community through a collaborative effort district
008and school administrators reviewed the nomination forms to select the finalists to be recognized the school board and superintendent are pleased to recognize the 2023 school-related employee of the year Mr James Busker buildings thank you Mr Busker is the building supervisor at Franklin Park Elementary we congratulate you sir you're very deserving your teamwork and dedication to increase student performance and promote safe environments does not go unnoticed congratulations sir thank you wake up me congratulations thank you the school district of Lee County is proud to recognize 11 schools for achieving level one certification in Marzano High reliability schools level one certification means that the schools have created a safe supportive and collaborative culture a safe supported and collaborative culture is foundational for improved student achievement and effective day-to-day School operations created by marzona resources and grounded in
009educational research the five level hierarchy and framework transforms schools into organizations where teachers and leaders take proactive steps to ensure Student Success schools must collect data and validate their performance to achieve a level one certification into a Six-Day High reliability schools Academy over the 2021-22 and 22 and 23 school years to collect data analyze it and develop an action plan to fulfill each indicator for level one the level one certified schools join a cohort of only 479 level one certified schools across the United States it's 11 out of 479 across the U.S the school board and superintendent are proud to recognize the following schools for achieving level one certification because there are 11 schools I will call so several of you together when I please come up to be recognized when I call your school
010first up Bayshore Elementary Cape Coral Elementary and Challenger Middle School that's great you've got to come in all right y'all come back for a picture please thank you there we go next up Cypress Lake Middle Diplomat Middle and Edgewood Academy please come forward congratulations come on here okay Cypress Lake Middle School congratulations foreign next up Hancock Creek Elementary Lexington middle and Orangewood Elementary thank you congratulations oh that's great congratulations thank you foreign and finally San Carlos Park Elementary and Trafalgar Elementary congratulations hi thank you so much thank you thank you one more time congratulations to all the recipients the next item on our agenda is the hurricane Ian recovery Community update Dr veneer would you provide us the update please Mr chair and members of the board Community this is the hurricane update for 222
01120 22 23. again a reminder those of you may be new to this process this is the provide an update regarding the district's recovery and efforts following hurricane Ian our agenda's law is continuing to include Fort Myers Beach Elementary School Hector a caparetta the Sanibel school and long-term projects update Fort Myers Beach Elementary School we've had been working with an ad hoc committee as well as representatives from the community parents as well as members of the Town Council who belong to the ad hoc committee talking about enrollment considerations engagement models and we developed three options that were presented today in a board briefing their final decision forthcoming in March I do want to thank the board the Fort Myers Beach Community the ad hoc committee as well as Michael Ramirez Adam Malloy and Jeff Wagner
012for their representative work that brought us to a successful work session today sorry board briefing today Victory cavaretta we had a board brief briefing presentation on March 7th we plan to bring forward to you to Workshop sorry a briefing a final proposal for final decisions tentatively scheduled for March 28th between that March 7th briefing presentation and the 28th we would go out and do a town hall with the hector cafaretta community so that they could be aware of what the plans are for a permanent facility for them and removing them from the backyard of the Cape Coral Technical College One update there we did receive information related for the community to know we did receive a expedited gestaldi process to be able to tear down Hector a cafaretta elementary school as it currently stands we
013had to get approval from the state in order to be able to do that the state has helped us to make the determination that Hector a caparetta elementary school where it stood is no longer viable and needs to be removed so I want the community to be aware of that good news on the Sanibel site for the K-8 the school reopened on Feb 8th this is the Legion of Superheroes that returned on the 8th there's this big old guy that's still in the first grade or second grade but it was a great opportunity to see young people return and for those of you who have been living with the long-term effects especially some of the schools recognized this evening you'll notice that there are no floor tiles in the Sanibel school that has a lot
014to do with water damage but we will begin those long-term repairs I think the other thing to mention and I know it came up today during the briefing on the same same day Sanibel opened we had a transportation issue with Fort Myers Beach Elementary I think it begs at least public comment to that community that we apologize both for the morning and the afternoon dismissal time and the lack of appropriate Transportation there are a lot of reasons for it but they would all sound like excuses what the community deserves and what those kids deserve at Fort Myers Beach Elementary is an apology and knowing that it's been prioritized moving forward so it will not happen again long-term project updates these are the meetings that are occurring with FEMA Representatives they're ongoing we have another meeting
015again tomorrow with our representatives and your representatives the Imperium group we are continuing to work with FEMA FEMA is going through some reorganization work currently there are some individuals who were responsible for the State of Florida that are no longer working for FEMA and a few members of our team from the FEMA side have turned over as well so we are reoriented reorienting ourselves to new team members we have conducted some walkthroughs at both Lexington middle and at Diplomat working with them so that they can see and actually assess firsthand the damage it's why things have had to wait for the community to understand why things have had to wait it's not just enough to have all the documentation all the photographs all the pictures but it does take a physical walkthrough of our buildings
016as well before FEMA will begin the process of signing off on them but those are underway in terms of Maine and requests that our maintenance department can handle 64 percent of those maintenance service requests related to the sustained damage of Ian have been completed but again there's a lot of work ahead of us again I remind you of the online scorecard that is available online for every school building for instance in this example we're looking at Calusa Middle School you'll see that the scoping of the roofing the drywall the paint and the flooring has been completed there have been quotes received on Roofing drywall paint and flooring and now we'll move to projected purchase orders and then we'll begin the MTP work authorization and then we'll actually start we'll start moving forward on start dates
017these dates are need to be updated specifically from the time this was pulled and we will ensure that in future presentations we have a more more recent scorecard for you to see really those are all of my comments at this time it continues to be a work in progress for two of our remaining most heavily hit schools and I was nice to see that Lexington and Diplomat which probably are two schools that were very heavily damaged by the storm one by wind and flood that are have been open functioning they are really and their communities are looking for our movement of staff to begin to make those permanent repairs as we get closer to April we have a lot of roofs so I remind all of you that we're going to seal envelopes first we're
018going to start with roofs and we'll make sure that walls and windows are completely completed because we want to prevent any additional water intrusion so our Roofing has been our top priority and you'll see an item on board agendas regarding our Roofing projects as well so just want to give that information to the board and stand it you're ready to answer any questions or provide any additional information thank you Dr Vernier the next item on the agenda is public comment attorney dupay Bruno please address the item of public comment thank you Mr chairman and good evening School Board policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district please complete a public
019comment card and put it in the basket provided if you need a public common card they are provided by our staff the rules concerning public comment are posted in the back and we'll meet be made from the podium in the front center aisle please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers concerns will be addressed by the superintendent or staff as necessary and the chair May comment as deemed appropriate at the conclusion of public comment 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 be asked that dick corn be kept in respect affected by restrict be shown which is what is expected when
020a government agency conducts official business therefore abusive language such as cursing insults derogatory language levied against an individual or a class of people are prohibited further personal attacks such as name calling are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing or a display of temper during public comment is prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order by board by the board chair of the parliamentarian any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone for board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers by the sergeant-at-arms for board policy 1.11 the time for speakers three minutes if there are 20 two minutes if there are 30 in one minute if there are 31 speakers or more the maximum time allotted for public comment
021is one hour 60 speakers you will find a countdown on the big screen 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 and please follow staff's Direction when lining up Mr chairman there are eight speakers who would like to address the board this evening three minutes per speaker thank you please make sure you have completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comment the car is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information for our staff to follow up the cards are located with the staff in the hallway is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the board but did
022not fill out a comment card we have two up here three it looks like we can get them cards they're coming why'd they fill those out then we go ahead and proceed with the first five yes we can I believe now we have 11 speakers the time is still three minutes per speaker well the following individuals please line up call Burnside Gwen gittins Tracy McMillan Sharon McGill Dr Anthony Jewett good evening board my name is Carl Burnside and I'm coming to you today as a past student of the school district of Lee County esteemed Rider William Arthur Ward said the following the mediocre teacher tells the good teacher explains the superior teacher demonstrates but the great teacher inspires there are pivotal moments in one's life and over 45 years ago I had what became a
023life-defining moment due to a teacher assigned to Mr Lemuel Till's Algebra 1 class at Fort Myers Middle School in the 8th grade little did I know that assignment would lay the groundwork for what would become my professional life it was in Mr Till's classroom that I was initially inspired to become a math teacher I was always good at math but Mr till inspired me to truly love math and more importantly to inspire others he was a true role model he was an inspiration I recall seeing in his classroom and saying to myself that's what I want to do when I grow up I want to be a math teacher like Mr till and make a difference in the lives of young people Mr Tail truly possessed the gift of teaching and impacted thousands of students
024he was the most charismatic and motivating math teacher that I had ever had and after 37 years as a teacher and educator that I've ever seen to this day when he would call on students in class he made you feel like a superstar he had such passion about teaching math and those who had to remember some of his catch phrases such as cooking with Crisco till it's for real modeling myself out to him I later was fortunate to become a golden apple teacher the State of Florida presidential math teacher of the year and coached my high school math team and members to win a numerous State national championships and eventually becoming a principal however make no mistake Mr till was the master teacher and what I will say is that he will always be that
025I want to give my support for Mr till to be have the privilege and honor to be to have a school named after him and ironically I was my initial teaching assignment was that Lambs thank you so just a reminder folks please with regards to the clapping Gwen Gittens I'm waiting for the clock there we go okay first of all well I'd like to say thank you to Franklin Park for inviting the community members to come in and read to their students today in celebration of black history month thank you for that and then I would like to say the word impact impact means a lasting memory Mr Lemuel teal left a lasting memory or an impact in the hearts and minds of students he taught and the community he served he left an impact
026and was named Golden Apple teacher he left an impact when he taught students how to learn math I wish I was one of his students then and when they got it right he said they were cooking with Crisco some folks out there I'll talk to you about it later but it's the best biscuits and pie crust you've ever had with Chris cup so when you did it with Crisco you know you did something really well a school named a name should be inspiring and impactful for all students across the district Mr teal was and still is inspiring and impactful the only proven educator on the whole list of the names for schools the only one so let's get together let's get it right and let's name QQ after Mr Lemuel teal thank you good evening
027board Sharon Mcgill and I don't know this teacher I'd never heard about him until today but I certainly want the school named after him after everything that I've heard and I will do some research into him after I get home now the last time a removal of items from property records was submitted to the board I had requested if at all possible the acquisition date could be listed on that form along with the acquisition cost and I noticed that on tonight's list that isn't there and it's just a matter of transparency I think for the public as well as for the board to be able to see that information so I would request that Beyond possibly the next one if at all now a request and I know you aren't going to answer questions now
028but what is the situation with the property tax revenue based on post-hurricane Ian how has it impacted the budget for the district it would be good to know with the continuing projects that we have going on and I would like to thank the board based on tonight on the agenda is a request for a permanent post to Ian group to monitor repairs now that's a substantial commitment I think it looks like it's three million dollars but in the long run that will probably save the district so much money it'll look be a coordination of all efforts which couldn't be done by the regular day-to-day activities of the maintenance people to stay on top of that and last but not least just a couple comments about Fort Myers Beach you know the enrollment at Fort Myers
029Beach has been going down has been flat or going down for many years and they mentioned today well you can't look at it pre-ann well yes you can because there was school choice pre-anne so if parents had wanted to send their kids to Fort Myers Beach they could have sent their kids to Fort Myers Beach so that's a consideration you know it's it's not that they didn't have the choice they did and they just weren't doing it so it's a consideration going forward to think about that if it's been flat for that many years and granted there's Resorts coming in and there could be additional people keep that in mind when you're looking at the financial operating cost aspect of this thank you well the following individuals please line up Robert Daniels Lou Navarro Joe
030Phillips Stephanie house Uma Smith foreign yes you can come on down and I think Mr McMillan we also called you so you can come on down next as well good evening Mr chairman and members of the board it is an incredible privilege to be here with you in front of you I am speaking to you as an alumnus of the school district of Lee County proud alumnus of J Cole English Elementary School and Trafalgar Middle School and an equally proud alumnus of Bishopville High School I have the honor of sharing with you my family's sentiments regarding the naming of the new Middle School which we hope will be Lemuel Arias teal Middle School one of the most impactful memories that I have over the course of my life is the morning that I graduated from
031Harvard University I finished a doctoral program in 2014. it was the first cohort of Harvard's new doctor of Education leadership program and it was a collaboration between the Harvard Business School the Kennedy School of government and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and probably one of the greatest Honors that anyone ever did for me during that entire week of Celebration was at my uncle made sure that he was there in attendance he was the first person in our family to pursue a college education but he made sure that he was not the last and although he and his lovely wife Susie spent a lot of time traveling post their retirement after 30 years of service in the school district of Lee County they made sure that my graduation was going to be one of the
032events that they blessed with their presence that year I know that I have been incredibly blessed over the course of my life and I also know that I stand on the shoulders of giants Mr teal is the older brother of my grandmother Geneva Jewett who also worked in the school district of Lee County for nearly 30 years you would do us a tremendous honor as a family a family of Educators who have been committed to the students families teachers and Community served by the school district of Lee County to strongly strongly strongly consider and endorse naming this new Middle School I want to close by just reminding us all that names speak over our lives and I have a hard time thinking of a local hero who would inspire faculty members students teachers administrators and
033staff in the way that limiosteel would thank you so much for this opportunity Dr chewing if you would just speak your name for the record please my name is Dr Anthony Jewett thank you thank you like first of all say good evening to the chair and to the board and school district attorney superintendent veneer and everyone in the respective places so I have the pledge for tonight as Tracy McLean is my name and I happen to be the fire chief of the city of Fort Myers Fire Department I'm here to speak about item number six I believe on your agenda if I got that correct and I want to just thank you all and also for before that thank the staff that has worked us to get to this point that we are here today
034all those individuals from the safety department the attorneys that actually work to get this mou before you all today it is going to be huge and my favorite word is amazing it will be amazing for us to be able to train and when I say us I mean the Fort Myers fire department and the Fort Myers Police Department to be able to train in Franklin Park Elementary this is going to be a great opportunity for us to continue that relationship that we have with Franklin Park Elementary under the offices of principal Freeman and this gives us the opportunity to train in a real life facility that we typically do not have most of the time when we go out to train as firefighters we have to train with simulated fire we have to train with
035simulated water and simulated buildings now before you guys you know start you know wondering there will be no fire in Franklin Park Elementary I want to put that out there okay so there'll be no real fire that'll still be simulated but what we do have is a real structure that was created by Engineers with a real platform that allows us police and fire to actually go out and train in that particular environment to be able to gain those needed experiences many of our firefighters whether you know be from you know Ida Baker or whether it be from eastleigh or whether it be from South Fort Myers which are high school programs from Lee County School District that we are making sure we hire each and every day to put into our roles need that experience
036the city of Fort Myers Fire Department over the last two years has actually hired over 60 new firefighters many of them coming from Lee County School District even some of them actually went to Franklin Park even better so to be able to have that little icing on the cake to be able to go out there and train we appreciate you all for considering that tonight we appreciate all your thoughts and efforts once again to the staff that got it to this point and I will actually close I think I have a couple more times on how meetings go let me be short I just want to say yes to teal for the middle school all right I'll just throw that out there we good I appreciate you all thanks for your time I'm gonna go
037take my place thank you so much everything thank you hello again my name is Robert Daniels I am a teacher with the district second Miss Daniels let's get your clock up there so you can get your full time okay okay so I'm gonna time you and I'm going to put my timer on when you hear the timer that means your time's up well there we go okay perfect I've been a teacher at the district for 10 years and I came here last time and brought to your attention that effectively Justified inflation I haven't received a raise over the course of 10 years that's the only increase in my pay had been the longevity bonus that had been offered for teachers 10 to 14 years I have a question for that had come up during bargaining
038about some missing money that had been in the instruction Appropriations for the budget and I said at the time that it was through the tunes of tens of millions of dollars the exact number for last year alone was 86 million I have those two budgets right here for the comparison that's enough to give every member of the bargaining team or unit that our teachers fifteen thousand dollars in a one-time bonus we're not asking for that what we would like to see is more recurring raises not just single bonuses the cost of living has gone up very far and I don't have to tell anyone in the county that they all see it every day what I can offer is a case study of Hawaii a place not too unlike us very tropical very tourist oriented
039for the economy and you should consider this will sound familiar about 10 years ago all the cost of living things are going up in Hawaii and they start by increasing new teacher pay trying to draw and more new teachers because they were having a shortage they did not increase veteran teacher pay five years ago they started adding bonuses for new hires to incentivize people to move to Hawaii they still didn't know how to increase veteran teacher pay they did however offer incentive money for high need fields and certain schools this should sound familiar I believe it's 4 000 for our high need schools this year trying to draw teachers to those locations as of today 15 of the long-term Subs sorry 15 of the classrooms in Hawaii are being operated by long-term Subs they also
040have the case where hundreds of students can be held at any given time in their cafeterias by one long-term substitute with the janitorial staff supporting them because all available teachers have been transferred to core subjects infield or out of field to try to provide classroom coverage and I don't have to tell you that we're starting to stretch as far as we can we've changed the bell schedule there was Amendment put out for people working in the district building to cover bus duty at Fort Myers Middle School we are stretched and it's only going to get worse the supply and demand curves have shifted in the supply of teachers and the demand has just gone up as our student members have increased that means the price for the teachers has to go up 150 for 10
041years even going up to the 450 for 10 years that the new bargaining agreement would settle on that's 45 a month for each year of my service you're not going to keep teachers around for that thank you good after good evening superintendent board Lou Navarre 38-year retired teacher 30-year top member I'd like to start tonight I met with Dr Bernier a few months ago on nine issues I wanted to have to follow up I want to follow-up meeting but he's still working on it so let's start with item one that we spoke that day raising teacher salaries to sixty thousand now I read an article The News Press Tom Roberts and he said the Gap is getting worse and we knew that I've been telling you sixty thousand from the previous superintendent you have high
042absences every day and you've got unqualified people babysitting and you know that's true Beyond pay there's a lack of respect for teachers remember when I told you parents come up here you take the chalk or tell your surgeon how to do the heart surgery because you tell teachers how to teach so the next thing you know listen to this Nelson Mandela education is the most powerful weapon which can be used to change the world that's very prophetic okay so what do we got News Press articles yep here we go teacher pay campaign to raise pay has bipartisan support in Congress and they're talking about sixty thousand dollars to start even Bernie Sanders is in here talking about that and the Republican whip the governor so I would like a resolution tonight to empower Dr B
043to immediately raise salaries to starting 60 000 and I know Dr B he'll find the money it's there folks you know it is it's very sad situation what we're doing to our students and they can't even pass the FSA well I got a few seconds here here's my gift that's for Melissa here's my gift of the superintendent when I had to go to St John's County and this is for Mr persons the new chair it's the Constitution I buy them from the Trump shop in Miami and that's your gift for tonight I want to read tomorrow morning that you've all made the rest oh smoking Joe this is going to sound shocking even to myself Mr Phillips let's wait till your clock oh give me the clock baby let's talk all right here we go
044this is going to sound shocking even to myself but I have called to thank you today armor I want to thank you for replying to my email which was as unlikely as seeing the skunk ape also I want to thank Irma Lancaster for her reply my producer will be contacting her shortly now that's out the way let's go back on the discussion where you turn off your common sense not to rationalize your actions first I have to ask does the board ever do cost analysis when reviewing Bender's contract it seems unlikely it has come to my attention that one board member took the initiative and requested a comparison between the districts only to be accused of harassment by another board member and a vendor's rep yet you continue to renew the contracts even for vendors
045who are still under investigation it seems you already know the outcome will be and I believe that you probably do know the future especially when a contractor goes on social media site and has is a quorum of school board members who support the district gifting him the property of the Fort Myers Beach school for a dollar well that's just beautiful beautiful now he said he had a quorum if this is true at least four of you members are guilty of violating sunshine okay now we know that board member Jordan is on an island of herself so she's not part of the Quorum and also board member Melissa giovanelli y'all have absconded her to her own Island so she's not part of the Quorum so here's the real question that leaves five of you so which
046one of you did not violate sunshine or all of you all guilty of breaking the law this should be in more than enough to demand a forensic audit and review from the governor if you haven't seen the video of the Quorum video I will be highlighting on my show this week thank you again armor for replying Dr Bernier you got any property for sale for a buck you call me I'll make you a good deal thank you foreign my name is Stephanie house and my question issue comment complaint but however you term it is similar but not quite as Direct I have questions about the contracts that have been issued for cleanup correction replacement after the hurricane I also have been contacted or give information about the way those contracts have been issued or implemented
047it's nice to hear that the schools have been remodeled replaced and cleaned up but I also know that the subcontractors that have been used that have already been in contact on have been in the past working with the schools have not been issued or allowed to come have those contracts particularly small businesses and those are local subcontractors that means small contractors are not keeping their businesses operational that means people in Lee County are not feeding their families jobs are not being kept open businesses are being defaulted a lot of these contracts are going to businesses outside of the county outside of the State of Florida a lot of those contractors are going to big businesses to business in particular have not allowed small contractors to get on those contracts yes you need to check or
048investigate and you've been given the opportunity to do it yourself before the SBE is contract contacted I beg your pardon contacted and they will be contacted if you don't do it yourself I promise you SBE and federal contract federal law will come into place now because you're using federal funds to do these cleanups to do these Remodeling and do these Replacements Ian was devastating for everybody but you were using small businesses to do these repairs before Ian happened and you're not giving them the opportunity to do the work now you need to clean up your own backyard your own backyard is right here in Lee County and minority is not what we're talking about we're talking about small business small business is inclusive that means anybody that's under that 200 000 Mark and you already
049know what the policy was you look it up policy number for Community County School Board 6-072 someone have been not allowed because of that bonding and that bonding is no longer in effect and that went out of effect December of 2021. check it read it capitalize it and make sure it's in effect now foreign good evening my name is Velma blacksmith I want to take your minds back to an unincorporated piece of property in Buckingham over a hundred years ago where there was a sharecropper in his family the Wilcox they had 10 children and unfortunately the economy did not allow them to sustain themselves and the older ones had to quit school in order to work the farm as time progressed they moved to the big city of Fort Myers they had a wonderful time
050wonderful experience and then someone whispered in their ear Mr till he has something called adult education they said we don't really know what it is but he said we'll we're going to get our high school diploma if we dedicate ourselves and come diligently do our work and we will obtain what we couldn't because our family was not financially able to as time progressed in 1976 the bicentennial year two of those children graduated with the great honor of Mr teal giving them their diploma he also allowed them to wear robes if they so had one well I graduated in 1976 and I had the honor of wearing my cap and gown and then giving it to my mother so she could graduate under the leadership of Mr teal unfortunately my mother passed away but her sister
051Doris Wilcox is now the oldest living adult education graduate under Mr teal she is 97 years old and she is ready to take the golden shovel and unearth the first bit of ground in order to name the school after Mr teal Mr chairman that concludes public comment I want to thank everybody tonight for your comments next is the approval of action items in the agenda under consent the documentation for Action items listed under consent is made available to board members seven business days prior to the board meeting we are expected 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 with the board in advance of appearing on the action agenda board members
052are there any items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business or table items portion of the agenda Mr Fisher no items Mrs giovannelli I have none Mrs Patrica no thank you Miss Jordan I have none thank you it's Langford Fleming I have none thank you Miss Morgan I have none thank you and I have none is there a motion to approve the agenda's consent items tonight Mr Fisher motion to approve the consent consent agendas listed is there a second this is Jordan I'll second it please seconded by Mrs Jordan it was moved by Mr Fisher and seconded by Miss Jordan please record your vote foreign carries 7-0 Dr Bernier would you please introduce any administrators in attendance with a new assignment that was approved under the consent agenda Mr chair would be my
053honor but the change of assignment tonight Joanna for Sosa ersley Human Resources will be joining and moving her position within human resources to coordinator of projects foreign we'll be moving into the Safety and Security role of coordinator for threat assessment a moment to acknowledge these individuals their families and their fellow employees that are here in support of them they are two individuals that make a great deal of our work a lot easier because of their efforts and their hard work and dedication to this community thank you we'll move on to the good of the order board members or you have any comments Mr Fisher yes chair thank you so okay last week I was able to attend at Mariner High School character education recognition award that was really cool cool there was actually two students
054that had two pictures and one of them was actually a surprise and that's my first time attending anything like that it was a really neat experience and I'd encourage everyone if they haven't to check out the pictures that went with that I also was able to take a tour of golf Elementary I had a really good time over there they're doing a great job over there also was able to take a tour of Hector cafaretta so and you know I'm just so impressed with what they have what they're able to accomplish so and I mean just the Smiling Faces and you know the kids especially there have gone through a lot of different transitions you know between buildings and things like that so the spirit was really good over there and I was excited to
055attend that's all I have for tonight thank you this is giovannelli thank you I just have a couple things real quick I wanted to bring up the Edison Festival light just ended at two weeks of fun and festivities but in it we actually did something new this year we had battle of the bands and I just wanted to bring the just to actually announce the winners tonight because no one even knows it except for me and so I thought I would do that real quick the actual so we had actually judging throughout the parade and those actual winners received money and that money is going to go towards they've asked the Ashley band directors have asked for it to go towards their Florida band Masters Association district 18 fund for their fall marching band music
056performance assessment and showcase so we are going to do that the first for the large bands the first place winner for was Fort Myers High School the medium-sized band winner was Cypress lake and the small band winner was Dunbar High School so I wanted to say say how great they all all the bands are really wonderful and it was exciting to watch them they were performing and they were judged on performance and their musicianship and just been illuminated so because they're in the night parade but anyways also we had a People's Choice Award and that goes to the large van for North Fort Myers High School and this is a People's Choice Award they actually voted for these each band and had opportunity to do that on our website and Facebook and the medium band
057that won was East Lee High School and also for the small band again was Dunbar High School and so I just wanted to say that I also am in judging right now the Edison fairs Regional inventors contest and that's exciting that's all online this year but next year it's going to be in person again so we always are looking for judges so even closing including board members so I think Ms patrika's judged before and so I would encourage anybody that would like to judge to talk to Gary Nelson and I just wanted to say that stimtastics was a great event packed if anybody was unable to go to it was really fun but next year I would encourage you to go if you weren't able to attend this year and it was a great success
058and I think that is it I just wanted to also touch base on the mou for Franklin Park in the training for the the fire training because I think that's going to be exciting like I said it's a one-on-time opportunity and I know that our local fire firefighters are all excited to knock some doors down thank you foreign thank you Mrs Patrica if I'm a chairperson's director question to Dr Bernier do you know and if you don't know if you could maybe get somebody to text you before the meeting's over when will the public voting take place for a QQ naming you got that from the presentation the survey was scheduled based upon the work session this evening as we'll start the survey we'll go out starting tomorrow oh so tomorrow that was what Mr
059Speaker shared with us in his okay his presentation today rain card I forgot thank you so I just in response to the people who came out to talk about that I wanted it to be very clear to everybody who's listening that voting starts tomorrow and I'm I'm grateful for the number of people that came out to show support for Mr teal and those are my comments for this evening thank you thank you Mrs Jordan Miss Jordan sorry thank you I wanted to thank everyone too that came out to speak on Mr teal it was quite a lot to take in and I just really appreciate everybody's words I also wanted to share I did go to the character Ed at North Fort Myers height to present our student for the April award we do them
060months in advance so that way we can keep them ready for what's coming up tonight we voted for phase two for Franklin Park so that's exciting as well so we will be moving on that and I can't wait for all of that to take place I did attend this some tastic that was a group as Miss juvenile said that was really a great event downtown for all of our students East Lehigh was out there actually they came and they were doing they had the culinary team out there selling tacos and what else did they have quesadillas and the line was just wrapped they were really very very busy but they did a great job I was actually out there at eastleigh yesterday The Culinary we're Taco Tuesday was giovannelli so we went out there to
061have the taco Tuesday again the way that they have that set up is just phenomenal have the teachers pre-order those kids are ready to deliver their food it's just awesome to see that but we were out there to learn about the their AG program they have criminal justice out there and we were out able to go to the Garden so for food to Farm the table and all the lettuce and the produce that they're growing out there is really nice because they can use that in the in their kitchens and The Culinary programs using it as well and then I just real quick on Community Partnership schools there we have three schools right now so we have Colonial Elementary School which they actually had the they had over 200 families show up for the family
062night and proximity to make sure that they signed all the kids up so that was a really good job for them we have Franklin Park they started a panther media team so the kids are going out there getting information and making sure that every morning they are delivering the messages of the stories they were supposed to come tonight but they thought it was tomorrow so they'll be here next week to to check us out to see what we're doing so they can report back on on us they actually started a this is all Franklin Park started a young ladies Club they have the hand-to-hand reading programs they have a new student leadership program and I was invited to go out there this morning to read but unfortunately I had meetings so I could not go
063out there and also I want to congratulate Mariner High School the r JROTC are the state champions and the markmanship and one last thing I want to thank the bus drivers today is National school bus driver day and I just really want to thank I know a lot of the schools did little bags for them or thank yous but I just want to make sure that they know that we really appreciate them and thank and thank them for what they do every day and that's it thank you thank you Gabrielle do you have anything you would like to share and beforehand I'd like to say just excuse my nervous posture is it online yeah excuse my nervous posture I'm a nervous person in nature it's and especially in front of big crowds full of people
064who you know have very real consequences if answered incorrectly so I would like to bring I would like to sort of start a dialogue as I feel other although their Avenues have been thoroughly exhausted more particularly on the fact of Wellness Wednesday I feel it is for lack of better terms executed terribly it has no connection whatsoever to people at all and as someone who has had personal troubles within the last two years as have many it is just terribly executed because there's no connection essentially a summary of my mind that I could say is that it's just a screen that's played to you for 30 minutes told telling you not to feel sad or not to do drugs no feeling whatsoever just cold almost bureaucratically so it was as it's illness as if it's
065a ticking of a box on some sort of arbitrary chart and I've been very moved of some of the testimonies that have been said today especially the teachers who haven't been paid as much as they should have because these teachers they said they spend their days trying to educate us with every hour they possibly can my teachers specifically are fantastic people and I cannot ask for better teachers but they are thanked with terrible pay no terrible benefits they could be let go as soon as what someone says the word and frankly I think that is a tragedy and I don't I don't and I don't mean to be accusatory or to be inflammatory no I'm just trying to open a dialogue because this is terrible this is blatantly terrible and it couldn't be done better
066and I've cut and once again not trying to be inflammatory but I noticed that nobody has any immediate comments for the people who've told very tragic stories them not being able to pay and for example for Florida one of the most expensive states to live in now especially after the hurricane people don't have places to live it's troubled they're trying having trouble paying for a place to stay let alone for like a week let alone months as well as those people who have children who have to go to these schools that are now destroyed or flooded or they have to be relocated to other schools because their schools no longer exist they've been wiped off of the earth basically and sorry I'm sorry I've lost her comment but as the sole representative tonight anyway of
067every student in this District I feel it is very much important that this dialogue happens as soon as possible later than never better better now than ever I should say because once again these are these are real people with real consequences them not being able to eat not being able to stay warm or in this case in Florida being able to cool themselves in very blistering SARS as you know Florida typically a hot place but sorry I'm lost or where it's I guess for now I'll that's okay we thank you I mean dialogue is always good the student's perception and sharing it is I want to thank you for that so thanks again how would you like to follow that shade former teacher yes thank you for your comments dialogue is good that's how we
068solve problems first of all I wanted to say what a wonderful start to the meeting with Cape Coral high school choir they did such a fabulous job outstanding and it is always you know when there's so many things up in the air and balls being tossed around and huge decisions to make and like you stated affecting lives not just ours but the students and the families of Lee County it's nice to see all of the wonderful things our administrators and our educators are doing by just by all the awards we passed out this evening such a positive you know that the future does look bright and it's so great to see things like that and people be rewarded for their hard work I wanted to say congratulations I can't let a meeting go without congratulating
069all of the sports that made it to States I'm looking forward to seeing all of those athletes and in their next Endeavors I do know that we had the Fort Myers Beach people here I'm going to save my comments about the Fort Myers Beach for a later date I believe that correct me if I'm wrong we're looking at March 7th for a possible vote forward can I ask that through the chair to the super I don't believe that we have scheduled anything specifically for March 7th for Fort Myers Beach okay we have work to do between now and March 7th March 7th is a briefing regarding Hector cafaretta okay and thank you for crying Thomas today and it's such a moving it's so moving to see that many people come from a community to speak
070up just like we did this evening about Middle School QQ it's so nice to see that many people that care enough to show up in an evening and explain some somebody inspiring that I didn't even know existed so I feel honored just to have heard all the stories of of an of an educator that touched so many lives here in in Lee County and as far as the beach it's clear that they are incredibly passionate about their Community they are a model community and I would inspire all communities too to come together the way that they have throughout the last couple of months all in all the these children they need a school they need stability in a world that hasn't been stable in a in a few years and it's our responsibility and mind
071for certain as a school board member to be fiscally conservative with tax dollars but in the same respect and almost more so it is important for us to make sure that our children are safe every day and when I say safe I don't mean that just physically but also mentally these children have not just had their homes taken but in the last several years they've missed so much school because of a pandemic and all kinds of other things thrown at them these children this community the community of Fort Myers Beach the surrounding communities of Fort Myers Beach that will go out there and vacation will make memories like I did when I was a child they deserve an educational institution so not making I'm not I've not made any decisions on on a plan but
072I just wanted to put that out there and I'm grateful those people came this afternoon and spent their afternoon sharing their ideas and I'm so grateful to hear about such a wonderful educator that touched the lives of Lee County students that's all I have thank you Miss Morgan I have to say I feel the same way that so many other people do listening to the stories about Mr teal that was wonderful thank you for coming out and introducing him to to us just I just really enjoyed listening to you speak about him and his impact on on your lives I also want to thank Gabrielle he's what I have taken away from your comments is there are two things that students have a common concern about one is Wellness Wednesday what is the intent how
073are we delivering on that and are we asking students whether it really has an impact and meaning as it as intended and the second is that students are concerned about how teachers are recognized and supported in the school district so that's why we have student advisory and I really appreciate your comments thank you I do want to ask the superintendent if he or the board attorney would follow up on just that one comment made about the some of the large contractors we work with and whether or not there are the limitations in their contracts once we have signed contracts once the district has signed contracts whether they have limitations within their contracts on the qualifications or suitability of local Subs so I would like clarification on that and those are my comments this evening thank
074you thank you I went to Fort Myers Junior High which was just before Mr teal probably got there since he was at Fort Myers Middle but it made me think of a teacher that I had and they named a school after her Ida Baker so I see no reason a great educator could not have another school named after them so that is definitely a good consideration about everything else has been mentioned here so I will move on to our board attorney this is dupe Bruno thank you Mr chairman I have a kind of weird that I have a lot but I do have a couple things this evening to share board policy 1.28 subsection 2f ethics and education requires that we provide notice of the policy to community members at an annual school board meeting
075and my comments this evening will serve as that annual notice the policy aims to forward the board's desire to achieve overall public trust in the school district to that end the board establishes its expectations of ethical conduct and compliance with laws and policies by covered individuals as defined in the policy covered individuals include all doing business with or on behalf of the school districts such as board members superintendent the board attorney and legal Team all employees vendors contractors parents volunteers and visitors all are expected to act within the confines of their ethical obligations per their professional code of ethics as is fine statutorily by board policy and just do what is right and just to include honesty and fair dealing for example parents when enrolling your student please tell us if there is a custody
076order as requested by student enrollment we just had a situation where a student was enrolled by parent a who noted that the student lived with both parents shortly thereafter we received a frantic phone call and an angry phone call from parent B asking how we let parent a enrolled the child especially given the custody orders that they had in their hand the school district of Lee County is a very large organization there will be mishaps missteps compliance issues areas for growth and enhancement the desire is that when those things happen we'll deal with them and resolve them quickly community members should note that board policy 1.28 subsection 6f states that community members are encouraged to report suspected violation of the school or a policy or law to the school or site-based administrator if it is
077not resolved you can reach out to the superintendent's office we also have Lighthouse our whistleblower hotline which can be accessed on our website a few meetings ago chairpersons made a motion and the board approved a conscious shift to a speak up listen up work culture at the core of any speak up listen up culture is ethics compliance with laws and policies and the knowledge that it is safe to bring good faith concerns forth because you will not be retaliated against or suffer adverse consequences which is Florida law and board policy 1.28 is at the heart of that cultural shift speak up listen up on another note the board attorneys will be attending the Florida school board attorneys association's winter conference starting this Friday and last but not least I promise Mrs Calendar's kindergarten class at
078Franklin Park Elementary School a big shout out tonight I had the pleasure of reading to them this morning and they absolutely made my day so thank you for reminding me why I do what I do thank you thank you Dr benir do you have any comments Mr chair just a few first and foremost to Gabriel I appreciate the cards that it takes to speak out the way you just did especially if what you tell me which I believe just from your comments is always going to be the honest truth about a difficulty in speaking in front of groups especially when there's individuals surrounding you but to what Mr pre Bruno just said it is that unfettered realism it's that Honesty that we so desperately on a dice and as individuals who work to support your
079future and the future of others want to hear and need to hear so I will make sure members of my staff reach out so that we can engage in a deeper dialogue and we can look at Wednesday wellness and some of the other issues you raise this board is committed to supporting your teachers they really are and they have this year gone above and beyond to improve benefits in a manner it means that this board never has before salaries became a little more difficult when some of our money related to Hurricane and some of the shortfalls that we're going to have in budget related to the damage that occurred but still they found a very unique I would say very creative way to ensure that they brought something to the table and I look forward
080to being able to explain that to you and any other who would want want to have that opportunity somewhere around March 22nd we'll have the opportunity to ratify provided the teachers ratify their contract we will have the opportunity to then ratify as a board and provide them with some of what you're requesting not all I'm not going to I'm not going to say that the work is done the work's never done when it comes to attracting and then retaining really amazing teachers and I'm glad to hear that the ones you have are so amazing as well that just that warms my heart that in the midst of everything else you at least have a support system at school that's really positive for you so I appreciate your comments this evening I remind everybody that proximity
081is underway Dr Malloy every Friday is sending me numbers related to the percentage of parents who need to respond and how they've responded if you are being impacted by the proximity plan and some reason you're still tuned in the superintendent's comments please go ahead and make sure that you're contacting student enrollment going out of the website making those decisions of whether your grandfather your grandfather and your child to a school which will require you to provide transportation whether you're making an additional selection we'll start providing those in weekly updates to the board as well so you can see how we're moving forward with percentages I too would like to just briefly recognize Cape Coral high school Arts is always an amazing aspect of our community and it's amazing to see how talented our young people
082are in so many ways also to Gabriel and to members of the staff and to the members of the board we don't normally react to public comment we don't in that particular scene or setting we don't we don't react but I can tell you that with the small business Enterprise as well as with the issue of property being sell for a dollar we will have individuals respond to those individuals we'll have members of Staff respond to those individuals and begin the work in Earnest to ensure that they are getting the help and support that they need it's just part of of our board policy and I've appreciated the community for that support I too want to thank my second my first grade class at Franklin Park they're absolutely amazing it's the third time I've been
083with them and I think they don't know this yet but I think I own peanut butter fudge that's one of the books I read to them today and there's a recipe at the back and one of the young men said Dr Bernier can you do the fudge I almost volunteered a second grade teacher and I realized that might have been overstepping even a superintendent's responsibilities and Authority so I'm going to figure out my fudge first at home see whether it tastes edible and then I will go ahead and try to provide it to the students of my of my class I really enjoy them and thank the principal at Franklin Park for all her work I do want to make a note to the Franklin Park Community that the police and fire training that's going
084to go on within that facility is a Cooperative agreement between the school district of Lee County and those divisions it by no means in any way shape or form the delays the process of building that building so please understand they're going to be utilizing it while it's still there but as soon as we start to raise it with a z as soon as we start to take it down they are have agreed to vacate the premises and we will go ahead so I want the community to understand that the work going on and the Cooperative agreement in no way shape or form delays that also related to other news that's been occurring for us fairly regularly there seems to be an older article that's circulating about the Banning of books in Lee County specifically there
085was an article shared with me yesterday about 33 titles that have been banned we have not banned books within Lee County we even the individuals who are challenging or requesting a review of materials have never asked for the book to be banned so I want that to be clear that while we do have a review process for both our media materials our classroom materials and our instructional materials the Banning of books has not even been the request of those individuals who been reviewing it and finally I think I'll end on this note people sort of talked a little bit about it but I want to talk about the Fort Myers girls who won second and state they were a state runner-up and girls weightlifting we'll be at a board reception fairly soon awarding individual state
086titles while the team fell just slightly short they were the runner-up to the State title there are a lot of individual titles both in weightlifting and wrestling that will have an opportunity to congratulate those students here would like to wish best of luck this weekend to the Fort Myers boys soccer team as they move forward in the State final and our Mariner girls move forward I believe on Friday night into land they are the current state champion and they will have a chance to defend their title this upcoming weekend other than that I thought and just well to finish and say again thank you for your efforts today related to Fort Myers Beach Elementary you've given the superintendent and his staff great direction as to how to proceed forward and I'm excited about what we're
087going to bring back at the next available opportunity so that we can have that Ila we can have those other issues settled and make sure that we have something that's workable for all of you moving forward for those young people and those families out on the beach so thank you for that Mr chair thank you on Tuesday March 7th there will be a board briefing at 1 pm followed by board Action meeting at 6 pm and on Wednesday March 8th there'll be a board workshop at 1 15 P.M at this point having no other business to come before this body and seem no objection this meeting is adjourned the time is 7 37.