School Board Action Meeting: February 8, 2022

001good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting the school board meeting of february 8th 2022 is now called to order the time is 601. to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district's mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district vision to be a world-class school system this evening's agenda includes invocation presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance acknowledgements public comments two items under consent action items which include two items under board office which one is good cause and i find there is good cause to move this forward 10 items under academic services which one is good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for this one item yes madam chair this item was

002added to have the agreement approved so that the teacher impacted could receive the required training next week for the program thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this to the agenda three items under business services one item under human services 12 items under operations which one is good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for this one item yes madam chair this item is needed to amend and reflect the actual fees and deposit amounts received for the final closing on february 10th 2022 it will increase the total purchase cost including all the fees and deposits by twenty four thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this item to the agenda two items under public hearings which two

003are good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for these two items yes madam chair these two items had the first reading and pre briefing and were advertised to go to public hearing today thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these items to the agenda and four items under other business or members is there a motion to adopt the agenda i move we accept the agenda as stated thank you miss kittens oh second thank you miss fisher please record your vote mine is not oh there it is sorry mine's coming up coming up jordan is this coping or cupping doing that's all right thank you six zero motion carries ms patricka will lead us in invocation after which miss kittens will lead us in the presentation of colors and

004pledge of allegiance miss patricka introduce your guest please stand ken burns mr ken burns a native of louisiana moved to fort myers in 1991 to accept a teaching position with the lee county school district while employed with the district he served as a teacher basketball coach assistant principal and retired in july 2019 as the principal of the dunbar community school one of the most notable accomplishments of mr burns was to quote write the vision for the sos enrichment program he's married to his wife of 49 years and he has two daughters three grand grandchildren and another on the way he's a member of the kappa alpha psi fraternity and he currently serves as the assistant pastor of the friendship baptist church in fort myers pastor burns would you mind providing the invocation for tonight's meeting

005and thank you for being here thank you appreciate this opportunity let us pray gracious lord our father we come now with humble hearts about heads the first to say thank you lord for all that you've done for us we actually now god that you allow your spirit to be with us to guide this board import wisdom upon them give them discerning spirits give them love and togetherness that they may serve this community we ask that you guide us and all that takes place and that things are done decent and in order and we be careful to give you all the praise and glory for it this we ask in jesus name amen amen introducing the cadet who is presenting the national colors for our pledge of allegiance tonight is major thomas and i hope i

006say it copen or coppin coppin okay i had two choices senior army instructor from ida bank ida s baker major coppin served over 24 years in both the marine corps and the army he retired out of the united states military academy west point this is major kaufman's seventh year as the jrotc instructor in the district major and moves to i'm sorry don't read that part okay now you know what you have to do okay thank you presenting oh i'm sorry is this your part i'm reading yes ma'am okay fine well i'm done stop her now hello and thank you for your service thank you ma'am thank you presenting the national colors tonight is cadet giovanna gonzalez the cadet command sergeant major of the ida s baker high school jrotc cadet gonzalez is the school's top

007enlisted cadet out of over 850 cadets in the program she is actively involved in numerous jrotc teams and is the commander of the drill team having competed at both the district and the state level cadet gonzalez plans to continue with college upon graduating this may 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 indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay please be seated okay this evening students representative is presley mcgirt a senior at cypress lake high school presley is actively involved in her school serving as vice president of the national honor society captain of the cheerleading squad and she played in her first lacrosse game last night did you win yes there

008you go presley volunteers in the community for the national junior league of coalitions one of her passions is ballroom dancing and she is a three times fred astaire national junior champion congratulations thank you presley has taken ap courses for all four years at her at her school and maintains a weighted 4.46 gpa congratulations on that after high school presley will be attending the university of south florida with plans to become a physician's assistant welcome presley thank you now is presley's turn it's your turn and i hope you i hope she reads better than me at this time our student representative presley will present the character award and desi i'm sorry and designed for february the character education word for february is honesty quote honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into

009a failure james ultra the design you see displayed on the screen was created by stephanie negron a 10th grade student at mariner high school great thank you and if you will the recognitions acknowledgements for the month of february 2022. the school board of lee county acknowledges the following for the month of february 2022. national school counseling week february 7th through 11th 2022 national career and technical education month and national black history month thank you okay and later you will have an opportunity to comment the next item on the agenda is public comments mr prairie bruno will you please address the public thank you very much madam chair 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

010to the operation of the school district if you completed a public comment card please put it in the basket provided at the back of the room if you need a public comment card they are provided by our staff located in the hallway outside of the boardroom the rules concerning public comment are posted and will be made from the microphone in the back please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on school district issues abusive language is prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing our display of temper during the public comment time is prohibited speakers who

011fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order 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 there will be one warning and we ask that you govern yourself accordingly we will take recesses as necessary if there is not decorum in the chambers please remember that it is unlawful in a second-degree misdemeanor to knowingly disrupt or interfere with the school board meeting for board policy one point eleven the time per speaker is three minutes if there are twenty speakers two minutes if there are thirty speakers and one minute if there are thirty one speakers or more the maximum time allowed for public comment is one hour 60 speakers you will find a countdown on the

012big screens in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the microphone i will call your names five speakers at a time please follow staff's direction when lining up madam speaker we have 17 individuals who wish to address the board this evening that is three minutes per speaker please make sure you have completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comment the card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information to the staff or follow-up the cards are located with staff in the hallway in addition if there is not decorum during this meeting i will call for a five-minute recess we will continue the recess this meeting as needed increasing five minutes each

013time members of the diocese when a recess is called i ask that you leave the chamber of course it goes without saying that during the recess board members will not discuss any matters that is pending on the agenda or will come before this body to avoid any sunshine violation we would also appreciate it if you would state your name prior to making your comments is there anyone in the audience who has not filled out a card that wished wishes to speak okay mr pre dupree bruno please proceed thank you madam chair for the following individuals please line up karsten branch der vahanian karen g sharon mcgill juliet dell mr branch come on up to the mic good evening you can go ahead and start hello y'all i would just i really want to thank you

014all all i came up here a couple few months ago talking about cypress lake bathrooms and i really want to thank you all for approving the money be frankly honest with you know it means a lot to me and my family and the students that go that go to cypress state high school i've talked to the building supervisor and he said that they're only doing the inside bathrooms and to be frankly honest with you the outside bathrooms that are next to the baseball field and next to the tennis courts and then next to the football field they're very terrible too and i have videos of it and i would love for y'all to take a look at those also and i would love to know when the start date is this summer so i could

015be there to thank the gentlemen and the women who are going to be building it and re-renovating it so i can hand some donuts out to them and thank them and i also since i have this time left i really want to thank the bus drivers and this and this and the teachers administrators everybody i mean that works for the lee county school district and for this community even the sheriff officers and the nurses i really want to thank y'all y'all mean a lot to us and y'all do a lot you know for our students and for everybody in the community and most of all i mean y'all get a lot of negativity up there but i really want to thank you all y'all have a very difficult job day in and day out you

016know to connect with the community and you know make sure you're doing well you know i really want to thank y'all and i hope you'll have a wonderful night good evening yep i'm dear behind lehigh acres florida i love my country but i fear my government i'm speaking about our school board we're having elections coming up the school board hasn't been very good time to clean house basically you've lost money for us taxpayers on this oak farm deal he says black lives matter there's a hoax and you find this guy and he finds you and everything you spend money you've lost the lawsuit to him you know we have free speech in this country if you can't say certain things it's amazing just amazing you know i believe black light matters at tiva naacp are

017terrorist groups they're against our country they do everything to terrorize our country next thing i got an agenda here is you know come to school to learn reading writing and arithmetic they don't come to school to learn agendas what's male what's female we know what's female what's male this is crazy and you people up there don't have the guts to know what's a male what's a female you got these gay people coming in here with their agendas where's the rest of the people with their agenda you don't give a damn about them let's get down to the real facts we know what's right what's a male what's a female last thing i got is we had a nice christian scene at the beginning of the scene of this meeting protect our school members our politicians

018our people and then i come to meetings where you have some a school board that say let's stand for silence are you crazy you know the federal government the congress our state government they all stand up and say a prayer now they don't stand up and say stand for silence i don't stand for silence i stand for my lord my god from this country that i serve so let's get it straight you people are really off the wall shape up we need new people on this board thank you god bless hi my name is sharon mcgill and i'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to make comments here tonight and from the last meeting i'd like to thank miss bruno for her clarification of some questions that had come up regarding the sunshine

019law and then also thanks from the last meeting to ms vaughn for reinforcing and restating the district policy number 2.18 regarding curriculum materials any individual in the district who chooses to challenge materials in the schools has that opportunity that being said there is concern that certain individuals and or organized groups are attempting to circumvent the policy number 2.18 with public displays challenging district personnel and deploying public pressure if the district allows the policy to be circumvented precedent will be set and the integrity of all district policies could be jeopardized all parents and guardians have the right to challenge materials by going through proper channels there's no question about that however public displays of bullying do not set a good example our teachers are being challenged in so many ways physically mentally emotionally and financially it

020is no wonder then that when individuals or groups start attacking their integrity and professionalism they finally say enough is enough our teachers are highly educated professionals they're compassionate individuals who chose this pres profession because they were passionate about education and children educators take seriously their responsibility to provide a wide range of information in our schools to meet the needs of all students not just a few they are facilitators and motivators of learning children today are intelligent capable and independent with so much information being thrown at them through a variety of platforms it should be our focus to help them navigate that and make sense of that information education should empower kids if you as a parent or guardian do not want your child to experience a piece of literature i.e information that's your prerogative however

021making that choice for everyone else is not your right good evening hello thank you again for everything you guys do and i agree with the speaker who said that the board has been under a lot of stress and i have heard from reputable sources that you've received threats off and on for a very long time so i hope that's improved and we want you to be in a place where you can do your best job not in just survival mode so i want to request that if swearing isn't allowed at public comment that we enforce that please i think it's important to follow through and on those we've got to set these standards in this public forum for a public school i want to address the statement i also want to thank you i know

022you guys make comments at the end of public comment and you respond at the end of public comment not during public comment so i would urge people to watch the video till the end of public comment when you make some responses which i think are really important and valuable i want to make a comment about black lives matter i just heard again someone mention it as a terrorist organization this should not be allowed in this room it is not up to citizens to designate terrorist organizations that is up to the fbi and the department of homeland security when we speak that untruth in this room with 95 000 students in our lee county school system 13 300 of them are black or african american we allow that to be spoken to them we have to

023take a stand that's not okay i don't know how you do it but it's not the truth and the truth matters i might want to make a quick reference to there's a lot of news right now because we're in legislative session in tallahassee and there's some discussion about laws that might be passed but while that happens we do have florida statute 1006.147 which is the jeffrey johnston stand up for all students act it's the anti-bullying act that came from lee county florida when we unfortunately we lost a 15-year-old kate coral high honors student who was gay because of bullying he took his own life so we have a whole list of anti-bullying statements in that law i want to also suggest a possible solution for the controversy over books again you don't need me to

024make the state the problem more clearly but the parents are asking for opt-in and they're asking for parental rights which they've always had i think all parents have parental rights but what if we had an opt-in system by which their children could not check out a school library book without parental approval or consent and they could do that either in real time or issue a list ahead of time for the student it would be an opt-in and they'd have well the following individuals please line up jerry ware joe phillips denise nystrom jen alvarez eli good evening george good evening i am jerry ware and i want to thank the school board for the opportunity to have participated in the selection of our next superintendent however i was a little bit dismayed because dr savage was

025not among the finalists but needless to say we must carry on and i'm sure that he will continue to be an asset to the children here in lee county i pray my second concern is the edac committee i'm not sure who represents the area in which i reside i am in district four particularly in the dunbar community i would like to know who that person is and when and how do they interact with those of us in the community with our concerns and last but not least i was in a committee today discussing how are we going to go about getting teachers retaining teachers and what will we do about that situation about affordable housing i made a call to mr jarrod heaty to see if he could help us meet with the edac representative

026and share with us what are we going to do about getting affordable houses to keep teachers here in the county once we get them so those are my concerns and once again i thank you for the opportunity and i look forward to continuing to assist you here in making education feasible to all kids thank you denise nystrom i again want to express my support for the bus drivers in lee county the bus drivers have attended school meetings for months to tell you that they deserve a raise they're not here right now i wish that they would continue to come i hope that their pleas are not falling on deaf ears i read the transportation contract and i realized that they do not have a defined work day yes they get paid for eight hours but

027the workday is not defined in terms of the number of runs they do since they are down 150 bus drivers the school district has saved a lot of money by not hiring school bus drivers this year so let's just say for the past five years that they've done four runs a day and now they're doing six or eight they are looking for compensation and i can see why they're upset the workday needs to be defined in terms of the number of runs they do or they need to be given a raise to compensate them in a way that helps them have an economic difference in their lives as a former special ed teacher i want to express my support for all teachers and counselors in the district i attended your workshop meeting yesterday mr dodeck

028did a very good presentation on teacher retention and i would like to share with you some of the things that teachers and parents often share with me about their concerns about retention staff feels a lot of pressure because they have no job security and they're afraid that if they speak out there will be reprisal in addition to poor salary increases on a year-to-year basis they talk about toxic oppressive work environments where they walk around on eggshells their words not mine parents talk about not wanting to make waves because they don't want to put their children in a difficult situation when they're in school we all know that a healthy morale is based on a culture of respect communication and positive relationships politics has made its way into the schools and the politics need to be

029left outside of the door i'm not saying that this is happening in every building but in some buildings teachers feel like they have to go along to get along i hope you give what i'm saying some serious consideration thank you my name's smoking joe my family and i are products of the lee county school system as a business owner father and floridian it shames me to see what we have allowed to occur in our schools i've seen many others speak to this board about their concerns with inappropriate and pornographic literature our children are being exposed to yet you continue to ignore the pleas from our concerned tax-paying citizens i reflect back to my time in the lee county school system the most pornographic literature we were exposed to was national geographic's plight of the bush

030tribe coy coy i remember the first time i seen a nude woman in the flesh i thought she was defective because her navel wasn't resting between her bosom i'm sure some of you can relate for whatever reason you allow our children to be polluted with things we as parents shelter them from just because one of your sons kissed a boy and liked it doesn't give you the right to expose our children to the lgbqt propaganda i have spoke to many people who feel the same way i do sadly unlike me they don't speak up out of fear of from retaliation tactics i have seen with my own eyes school board candidates being harassed by the beignet moomoo battalion of swine she has unpinned this is your voter base and trust me there's not enough of

031them to secure the seats you currently hold floridians had enough and it's time for a change do us all a favor join the great resignation you have felt our teachers and staff you have allowed your corruption to be your undoing not only have you felt our teachers and staff your acceptance of unmoral ideologies have felt our children and most of all you become an embarrassment to all floridians now i normally don't script anything i write but i'm a pretty good speaker i'm good old boyfriend right here in lee county y'all have shamed us i've got two children one's in the lee county school system and one's supposed to start next year i'm appalled at what y'all are doing i do ask which is all reflect on yourselves because a couple of you need to go

032now dr savage i wish you success in getting out of this mess i don't i don't i don't know what we're going to do with the new school board intent we don't clean our house here thank you smoking joe hi good evening jennifer alvarez yeah and i still have two children in high school and i am a lee county activist i'm here to speak to the public as usual okay recently i am involved in a post i just want to read out the initial post it's about is anyone else having problems getting their kids from into to school in lee county yeah this is the original post okay because there was no buses available for them to take this has happened to us multiple times in just the last month okay so now it kind

033of gets worse right because people are now getting involved so some of the comments here i want to read first one would be that we lost our third grader in september because they are constantly changing kids buses third grader guys okay sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't they call transportation to get a voicemail i'm a witness of this has happened to me personally multiple times thank god i'm retired and i'm able to take my child to and from the school because these poor working child people are starting to lose their jobs because they have to take their children to school okay so now let's just go on and read a couple of more comments but really i just want to reiterate that was a third grader okay which makes my heart break that kids are

034even being lost in our system like this okay our child spent two hours lost the other day because his bus didn't show up and come to three pm to the school's phone we called the school 3 pm to know that it went out right to voicemail we were freaking out we would they never called us they never they never did anything this was an elementary school we are livid we are so mad okay just another comment on here this is what's going on people okay again i am so happy this is an election year we've got four seats up we have a chance to change this people and it's all due to wasteful spending wasteful spending people you know what's going on with oak's farm that money could have been used for these bus drivers

035these bus drivers are using but guess what i am spreading the word i am telling them to show up at these meetings so they can tell you how they feel and trust me they are coming they are going to come in car loads because people are living and that's just a couple of comments i've got plenty more but i can see that i'm out of time just try to do something and remember it's election year and all eyes are on you and do the right thing thank you well the following individuals please line up taylor sheen christy divijelli jessica brown lou navarra and tara jenner good evening i'm i'm sam stewart and thank you for first of all for teaching and looking after all of the children god has given us watching the school board

036meeting earlier this week i was alarmed about the drastic consequences that an elected superintendent of schools would have for the role of the board the functioning of this district and the teaching and learning of our students as you know some of you that i was an executive county superintendent in new jersey overseeing 70 school districts and superintendents and a district superintendent for 35 years from my experience i can predict the following consequences number one this district's focus will change from teaching and learning to elections and fundraising and elections go on all the time when a politician is elected the first thing he learns is how much money he has to raise each day now i'm told that and the elected superintendent will have tremendous power to fundraise i'm told that the lee county commissioners get

037a lot of money legally from developers and construction companies just imagine with the millions of dollars of construction this district is going to do how it's going to benefit a superintendent the other thing i remember years ago over in polk county they had an elected superintendent i happened to be visiting my parents in lakeland and he said in the paper that he was running for reelection but he would not take more than 50 dollars from any employee i said to my father who's no union man that's the cost of the union dues if you want to be hired or promoted or get tenure in this district guess what you better be contributing now with twelve thousand employees not everybody's gonna contribute but really two or three hundred thousand dollars would be a nice sum and

038the politician once he gets that money can help other politicians so you're going to have the strongest politician in lee county right here the school board of course will lose its power i mean why would an elected superintendent listen to you he's responsible he or she's responsible to the community you may become members of his cabinet i don't know school achievement will suffer you ought to do some research about what elected superintendents contribute to a district of teaching and learning and what they don't now furthermore let me just finish thank you mr stewart hello hello my name is eli i'll be reading different parts from killing mr griffin they have 21 copies two in elementary schools elementary this is a book about students who are upset with their teacher for grades who plot the kidnap

039and kill him that girlfriend's the sort of guy you'd like to kill well why not we then plan to kill him you'll have to admit it would solve some problems we kidnap him we take him in the mountains and we really put the screws to him it will be fun she said like a game we ought to have something fun to remember from high school you tell your kids about it mark said griffin flashing and crawling begging us not to hurt him that will be something to remember like the time that mark had set fire to the cat after school like they're on the ground before her tight and blindfolded laid way for mr griffin we can't pretend it never happened that we're not responsible we killed him there's no sense bearing burying a wallet

040full of cash along with him this book shows children it's okay to respect teachers shows a plot to hurt a teacher because they didn't like him talks about being cruel to animals they gave one of their grandmother mothers drugs to cover for them i want to know why is this book available to students what is your name honey what's your name elijah thank you my name is taylor sheen and i'll be reading sloppy first by by megan mccafferty and this book is in lexington middle school and riverdale high school page 131 i felt his mouth on mine we were kissing kissing him didn't make my skin crawl i liked it to be honest i really liked it i could taste the whiskey on his tongue and feel the heat of his breath on my face

041as our mouth got warmer and wetter he rolled my body on top of his his hands and my hair against the nape of my neck over the my shoulders and on the small of my back page 106. here i've always admired your ability to fill out a pair of tidy whities and i'll never forget the night i found the night i found your way around a clitoris see you in my wettest wildest dreams page 16 and he says i can think of one way to make it even better and then he slowly walks over to me cups my face and his hands and ever so gently kisses me on the lips we break away for a brief moment look each other in the eyes and smile we start kissing again but with more passion then

042we rumble onto the gymnastics mat that is conveniently lying on the floor and have the sweetest sexual experience to ever to occur within the hollowed halls of pineville high page 15. rob's recent claim to fame is that he celebrated an away game victory by persuading a freshman cheerleader to hide under his seagulls varsity jacket and suck him off on the backseat of the bus page 12. scotty is the most self-censoring foul mouth i know like every other jock he worships opie and anthony the afternoon talk radio duo and misogynistic masterminds behind whip him out wednesdays and guess what's in my pants a female caller rubs a phone against her most of private areas and male contestants try to guess whether she's sporting a brillo a triangle a hitler or a wood floor hi my name's

043christy divajilli i'm going to read from a book called tricks is in five high schools including my children's and one middle school page 291 i totally wanted to pop your cherry you were my first virgin and you're probably but you'll probably be my last because sorry but virgin sex isn't very good page 268 so i'll go find a sponsor some old viagra stiff queen hopefully that buying a drink means buying a lay they were thick as flies page 120 but paige wants even more did you use your mouth her eyes lit up is she waiting for blow by blow by blow by below description page 97 i pretend he is and let his hands explore the rounds of breasts moving in tighter and tighter orbits and now fingers circle the hard center nubs raised like

044it's cold in here page 300 down my shorts in a single swift motion he is on me in me humiliating me in every way page 23 bible says god made adam and eve not adam and steve and no damn bleeding heart liberal gonna tell me different most definitely not this bleeding liberal heart bleeding heart liberal of course dad has no clue that's what i am or what i have become because of who i am all the way inside the biggest part of me the part i need to hide wonder what he'd say if i told him the first person to recognize what i am was a priest father howard knew took advantage too maybe i'll confess it all to dad someday but not while he's still grieving over mom i am too and if i

045lost my dad because of any of this i don't know what i would do page was hooking up with a creep a pervert looking to spread some incurable disease some poor horny idiot i met more than one pervert but i never let them do me nope horny or not i wasn't an idiot no homosexual yokel anxious enough to get laid to any guy who swung the correct direction into my genes i wanted my first real sex to be with the right guy someone experienced enough to teach me but not humiliate me someone good looking young educated a good talker yes but a good listener too someone maybe even hoping to fall in love is this what you're trying to teach my children or give them access to hi my name is jessica brown it's my

046first time speaking so if i do do or say anything unknowingly not acceptable just let me know so i'm just going to follow up my phone here something that i wrote okay so earlier you heard my 14 year old daughter taylor she read from an explicit book called sloppy first when an 8th graders moral compass is more correct than a grown adults there is a serious problem as a mother of three a nurse and a citizen of society i understand my responsibilities in all three of those roles today i'm asking that you each recognize the responsibility you have in your current role and the opportunity you have to make a positive impact on all children in the lee county public school system it is no secret that some of the children that are in lee

047county school system just like in every school system come from broken homes and the only place they feel loved and safe is at school i extend grace to you all because like you i once was lost i saw vulgarness and inappropriateness these things as harmless i too have fallen into being deceived the problem with deception is that you do not know you are deceived until someone shows you the right way i give you grace that you've been deceived up into this point however from this moment forward you have no excuse you are without excuse because i am telling you via public comment now that these books are inappropriate they're unsafe and should not be in lee county school libraries or any school libraries for that matter and comment to a previous speaker that said information

048empowers children it is not the information given it is the bias that behind that information it's pointing a picture that believing the bible that christians are wrong we just heard it in the book what was it tricks it is painting this picture that you know bible believing parents you know they're they're outdated those traditional ways have no place they're bigots this is causing division how much time do i have left okay also in regards to cussing not being allowed and that being enforced you're an adult yet somehow in your mind you've convinced yourself that mocking the bible and god is okay and that these explicit books are okay for children to read can we really get our moral compasses correct please i'm sorry i know you've been lied to and i know it hurts that

049you're deceived please stop being so afraid of offending others to the point that you offend our lord and savior teach our children what is right god is right the bible is right and you are wrong will the following individuals please line up marcia ellis jacqueline perez lorena preston crystal johnson james line linum you don't need a new one good evening superintendent school board lunavir 38-year lee county teacher retired i do resented the metal detectors out there when i asked you two years ago to put them in the high schools you said you couldn't afford it i'm going to talk about the great school resignation which we saw about in the news press i will show you the cure including where the money's going to come from starting teacher salary sixty thousand dollars a year governor

050desantis he was magnanimous if he's reelected he'll give a thousand dollar bonus bonuses are illegal to public employees substitutes 200 bucks a day with increments support bus custodians start at 30 bucks an hour all right where's the money going to come from first an average of 250 absences a day are unfilled in this district we need to fix substitutes gwen's the only person that said she was ready to sub none of you others want to you're making forty five thousand five hundred now other examples two security guards mr newland and mr parfit and these are all my friends they need to suck dr spiro my friend roger lloyd all the sros need the sub all i do is sit around and wait for an event as captain dana costa into the ccpd a good friend

051of mine mr andy brown needs to substitute professional standards the top president mr daley and his executive director let's see them all in there and he makes handsome money and i was a member i'll tell you what he makes too sometime all right i'm not gonna go on on that it'll go on and on but we need all of you to sub now where's the money gonna come from okay firstly none of these people want to go in the classroom and i know why i talked they wouldn't be caught dead there and most administrators have only five years of experience we're going to take the half percent regressive sales tax stop building buildings because there's going to be no one in them lots of the money has improved because of inflation they got a windfall

052there so we're going to pay for it that way in addition to everybody subbing now i have a gift mr patricka was not here at my christmas time i haven't been here and some man had the ghostness to say she's a liar no she might be misinformed dr adams though was murdered at not here at the school board meeting how to stop lying miss patricka this is your christmas present i've autographed it thank you tara jenner i had an occasion to go back through several years of public comments and focus also on just board meetings in general it took hours and it sometimes it was excruciatingly painful and other times it was very rewarding two events i'd like to point out august 27 2014 when this room was packed with individuals from the community pushing

053for opting out of standardized testing and then the debacle of september 2nd 2014 when miss fisher recanted and in the early hours of that morning when none of the teachers and many of the parents were unable to attend they flipped back and they opted back into the standardized testing under the auspices that it couldn't be done because there was a requirement of the constitution for a fair free quality uniform education notice it didn't say testing so i'd like you to keep that in mind if miss fisher decides to throw her name back into the hat and into the ring as school board and i'd also like you to take into consideration the comments of miss patricka that were made at both of those meetings as well i did find it interesting as i was reviewing

054all these board meetings that the number and length and time of the board meetings has dramatically increased and the length has significantly increased and it seems to coincide primarily with the arrival of miss patrick on the board i'm wondering if this is coincidental or not i have been attending board meetings for over 10 years and i do recall that there was relative civility and grace afforded speakers the interaction of the board members with the public though not extensive then was notably greater than it is since then and since the appointment of attorney dupree bruno the length of the public comment warning has significantly become lengthier and keeps going on and on when will the public comments return from this particular podium stuck way in the back of the room where we feel like we're a

055pariah and move back to the two speaking platforms on either side of the dais why a disparity in the speaker location depending upon whether or not you're a guest of the public or member of the public or a guest of the school board we know it's not coveted protection since the other podiums on the side are being used by other individuals and they're well away from those that are on the dais and in the side panels we also know that it's not a safety concern because we're searched before we enter the boardroom pretty soon the public will be speaking from the parking lot we already feel like we have to beg to be heard from you and nobody ever comments or says anything to us is there a legitimate reason for this ongoing disparity and

056treatment also at this afternoon's briefing that i was listening to there was some comments about costs for attorney expenses and breakdown on the boon next speaker good evening marcia ellis namaste first of all i would like to start out by discussing what's been happening with selecting excerpts from books and having children present them in this meeting first of all i want to talk a little teacher talk right so when your child goes to school one of the things that happens is a lexile level is determined and that lexile level it says what books that your child should be reading in order to improve their reading and that is a built-in safeguard that would prevent a student by a student like the age of elijah from reading material that may not be appropriate to him or

057having to listen to material in this room presented by someone else that would clearly not be at his reading level and we heard him stumble with some of that text so i just want to say that you know teaching is a profession and teachers go to school to earn degrees in their profession and to disrespect what's happening what's what's their job it's not okay i want to now just take a moment because i'm feeling a little flustered to say thank you to the board for conducting a workshop that is looking into it has looked into some of the reasons why that staff both non-instructional staff and instructional staff have been stepping away and i think that's really important it's also important that we place that within the context of our country because this shortage of

058teachers and this resignation is not specific to fort myers and so there is history of this kind of thing taking place in the past in there was a let me see it was called the i'm going to look it up here it was the un-american activities committee and that committee enlisted the help of the daughters of the american revolution much like moms of liberty and power to parent today to spy and be vaginates on teachers and so this effort that's being mounted by these groups are its history is repeating unfortunately what ended up happening is teachers left the profession at that time just like they're leaving it today so please continue to defend my profession many of my colleagues have invested their education their money and we're counting on you good evening my name is

059crystal johnson i'm a community advocate and a concerned parent i'm here tonight just to ask the board a couple of questions concerning transportation i find it interesting that transportation is providing transport to children at pace center for girls and you have a driver shortage where children that actually attend lee county public schools are not getting transported so that's a question that i'm just really would like to answer to soon hopefully i also wanted to know what are the plans of the board to accommodate these parents who have met the challenge of transporting their children to and from school children are arriving to school late because there's so much traffic and once they get to the once they finally arrive they're getting disciplined they're receiving detentions and write-ups and being detained into internal school suspension and

060different things like that i just think that there should be something else taking place or at least consider those students just we're all facing some challenges right now teachers are not here drivers are not here you know accom accommodate us somewhat at least let us feel some type of support from our district and our board i had some things i was gonna read but it's just i don't know just having a conversation with you all tonight i'm just really concerned that you don't seem to be concerned we have students that are really struggling virtual school and things like that is not the best option for our students but that's that's the way we're going you're not going to have schools you're not going to have students in seats so i just really am hoping that

061you can come up with some better ideas even take a suggestion box and let us make some suggestions and you actually consider them and put them in place thank you good evening i am lorena preston and i am a bus driver but tonight i am speaking as a parent and i would feel remiss not to bring to this panel's attention the critical staff shortage with bus drivers and school staff especially teachers and paraprofessionals as a working parent who has a young child who depends on school transportation to get to school it concerns me to have to face the possibility of my child not having a ride to school due to their not being a driver to pick him up kids need to be at school i'm sorry kids need to be in school and the

062more economically disadvantaged kids will not make it if there is no school bus to pick them up i'm also concerned about the reality of teachers and paraprofessionals having to cover overcrowded classrooms which can lead to kids not getting adequate education and upon researching the app researching ideas that were explored for the use of essa funds i saw items like installing new carpet changing windows and building new schools the question i have for the board is what good are new schools is there if there isn't enough adequate staff to teach the kids and no drivers to get to them to these schools i feel it's more appropriate to use a portion of the essa funds to supplement salary and wages to our overworked school staff and bus drivers in order to obtain and retain staff needed

063to provide the services to the children's needs thank you good evening thank you board for the opportunity to speak my name is james lynum and i'm a school bus driver for the school district and i would like to start by saying i love my job i really love my job and when students are on my bus whether it's the route that i bid it on or not they're listened to they're heard and they take something positive away and i love my students i love what i do we all know inflation is up and the cost of living is up but every paycheck is getting harder to do what i love and i really would not want to stop doing what i love because that i couldn't do what i love if that makes sense but

064i just wanted to remind everyone of that and again thank you for the opportunity thank you good evening good evening board i'm here this evening to speak about two employee issues bus drivers and teachers and a group of teachers asked me to read this we have reached out numerous times to talc with no help or support on numerous issues over the over the years we have also tried to contact current board members with no response either now this monday hr will be in meetings to address the great resignation issues over 900 teachers have quit this is not because of covet please try to speak on the issue and get some feedback for us this is our toughest year yet we are being abused the culture is toxic and student behavior is the worst we've ever

065seen our principals need leadership training and many simply need to be removed people refuse to speak honestly because most have annual contracts we need real transparent data starting with extra in exit interviews and surveys that address the real issues a 5156 employees only 1400 had filled out the survey sent out by the district it should be conducted by an outside source not the district just like the bus drivers we need serious help we are being micromanaged like never before and the administration teams answer to no one we need a voice i hope you are listening to the pleas of your employees you have bus drivers who are killing themselves taking extra shifts and trying to get children to school while you have board members speaking harshly and being annoyed that their kids are late being

066taken to school some consideration needs to be given to these employees that are killing themselves to get our children and our grandchildren to the schools you have the funding to do it the funding doesn't come from capital it comes from operations operations which you've mismanaged over the years with misspending malfeasance thievery and gifting contracts of 11.9 million to a locksmith that would have helped the bus drivers obtain their raise so please look at your budget the numbers are there you have esser funding i believe the government gave you 189 million or 169 million that's a lot of money that can help these bus drivers and these teachers who are suffering they are at your mercy you have to do something to help them and on another issue i also had an email today that came

067from a 35 year retired employee of the school district which i believe miss fisher is familiar with who is stating that again miss bruno has violated sunshine violations and the email came in at 431 with taking a polling vote where you don't even know which board members voted on on on superintendent how could you not identify that's a sunshine violation do you not know the law please smarten up do the right thing take care of your employees they are the primary interest and concern of our community of our children of our parents and this district that concludes public comment thank you well first i'd like to thank everyone for being here thank you for your comments we do really listen to what you all say mr carson thank you for shedding the light that the

068bathrooms were fixed we appreciate you letting us know that did take place i also i wanted to read something that regarding the books and this was just as a follow-up to the concerns regarding the books challenges to objective material please know that per board policy the review committee is meeting regular to review the materials those have forwarded objectable materials forms are provided with the results of the review parents may also exercise their parental rights within the parents bill of rights and submit an individual request to their children's school for an alert to be placed on the child's destiny library account identifying books that they do not want them to check out as an update the following books are not in any of our district media centers and this was on the list that we had

069received fifty shades of grey this day in june a day in the life of marlin bundo sex is a funny word i am jazz girl to girl home at last beautiful bastard excuse my french the vincent boyce the premier superhero a peacock among pit good lord pigeons a peacock among pigeons two dads daddy's roommates mommy mama and me dream things true dream land burning if you could be mine you ask for perfect further after ongoing the review process is perfectly normal has been removed from our media centers some books such as blueish eyes appear on the college board's list of advanced placement assessment materials ap courses require school board approval of teachers sibilis parents reserve the right to request alternative assignments if they choose the last time lewis eyes was checked out was in 2018.

070the last time it was on the ap exam was in 2019 based on the committee's reviews teachers of advanced courses are required to obtain parental permission prior to utilizing this book for instructional and may only circulate in 9th to 12th grade please know that in our ab ap and ace classes it is common practice for parents to be included in communication at open houses that discuss curriculum of the courses via curriculum updates in google classrooms teacher syllabus are often kept on file at the school and uploaded into google classroom so that's in regards to the all the book comments also if dr savage will you please address i mean we today we've been speaking and we do care about our paras our bus drivers our teachers our district staff everyone and we actually had that

071conversation we're trying to think outside the box how do we make it everything feasible for all of you know we want to make sure that you keep loving your job and you keep being there because we need you the kids need you dr savage could you please just shed some light on what we kind of spoke about regarding that well some of the things that are being requested are actually the things that are being bargained about right now you know the additional funds with esser we've talked about that's absolutely looking at those pieces the reason why we can't discuss in more detail is simply because we're in the bargaining process but but those are absolutely things that are being suggested both for teachers as well as for bus drivers one of the things we even

072talked about is just foundationally how to improve the recurring compensation not just the esser funds but the longer term funds to raise the dollar figures and so some things i mentioned before is the way we schedule the current choice plan that we use those are all things that contribute to the underlying need the amount of positions that we need and if you change those numbers then you have more more money to bring to that a recurring compensation conversation which is so vital so those are just some of the examples both the short term as well as the long term that are very much in line with some of the comments that were made today that are being bargained as we speak and then also the conversation that we were all having here regarding flexible hours

073for teachers bus drivers trying to figure out how how does that work so that way we're trying to cover every aspect that we possibly can looking at the possibility i know ms gittins had spoke about buses daycare and picking up at schools and also we spoke about the possibility of looking into child care for our different zones for our bus drivers looking at the hours that they have to go in but all that has just we've just spoke about that in this last two days absolutely yeah there's no stone unturned in terms of all the different things that we have to be able to think of to be competitive in this marketplace not just here locally but really across the country we have to look what other employers are doing and then one of the

074things among others like you said child care there's a conversation around attainable housing that's something our community is even looking at i don't have great progress to to report on that other than to say we're in the midst of the short-term bargaining aspect of it but we have to address these very concerns on a longer term basis to address it not just for now but for the future as well okay and then also i know i'm going along a long way now the discipline i really think that needs to be looked into because we want to make sure that our students are not being penalized because of the fact that they are late when it has nothing to do with them yes this is the first i've heard of a student receiving discipline for a

075late bus typically the buses they know when the late buses are arriving they come they're issued bus passes if there's any individual school i know there was a speaker who referenced that if there's any individual school that we've had this i actually was checking with dr spar if he'd heard anything and he said exactly the same no they had not heard a single instance of that occurring yet so if there is a specific school where this is allegedly occurring we would love the opportunity to look into that and take care of that if that is happening because obviously students would not be disciplined for a late bus that would certainly not be something that we would be supportive of but i want to make sure too not necessarily would it be a late bus but

076if for some reason somebody has to grab their kids or neighborhoods take or whatever that looks like to take that child to school whether it's on a bus or not we need to make sure that they are not going to be the same treatment and we'll certainly if there's a specific school instance we'll get with school development as well just to see if they've heard any pieces but i was checking while we were hearing that comment because i had not heard that comment made before and a suggestion box would be great as far as thank you for that miss johnson if you all have the opportunity to send us emails with your suggestions and we can't there's nothing wrong with a village is what does it say it takes a village so all of us

077collectively if you all have ideas of of solutions we are always open to hearing any of that because who knows who has the right answer so collectively you know we're able to to work together so please feel free to send anything that you can think outside the box we're willing to hear it so please do that miss ware i'll definitely get with you on on that and we'll figure all that out regarding the representative and edac and everything and mr stewart thank you for sharing your thoughts and i don't know if you're still here but i appreciate you coming here and sharing from your expertise let's see what else i think that is it for now but again we do really appreciate all of your comments okay next is the approval of the action items

078in the agenda under consent the documentation for action items listed under consent is made available to the board members seven business days prior to the board meetings we are expected to review all the materials and we have an opportunity to speak with the superintendent with questions we may have regarding the recommendations some of these items have also been briefed or workshopped with the board in advance of appearing on the action agenda board members are there any action are there any items on the agenda you wish to pull for discussion miss fisher i have no polls this evening thank you miss patricka no thank you miss kittens none thank you thank you miss vaughan i have none thank you and miss morgan i have none i have none okay is there a motion to approve the

079agenda's consent action i'll move to approve the agendas consent action items thank you mrs fisher and do i have a second i'll second it thank you miss vaughn motioned by miss fisher second in by miss vaughn please record your vote hmm this roman i can't see it oh i'm sorry it's up there i see it now okay six zero motion carries okay the next is a public hearings dr savage will you please please present your recommendations for this evening's public hearings yes madam chair the following two items item p1 approval to adopt policy 4.221 suicide prevention in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of the items mentioned above is february 9th 2022 as well as item p2

080approval to adopt policy 4.223 allergy management and compliance with changes and related rules regulations and statutes to adopt the best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of the items mentioned above is february 9 2022. okay thank you we will now recess the regular school board meeting and open the public hearing as indicated the public hearings this evening is to consider approval to adopt policy 4.221 suicide prevention in compliance with changes in related rules regulation and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of the items mentioned above is february 9th 2022 number two is approval to adopt policy 4.223 allergy management in compliance with changes in related rules regulation and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of

081the items mentioned above is february 9th 2022 at this time the public will be invited to speak on these two items and only these two items the time allowed for comment is three minutes is there anyone in the boardroom that would like to speak on these either of these issues please go to the back is there any one in the audience that would like to speak on these two issues and for the third time is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak on either of these two issues okay i will now close this public hearing and reconvene the regular school board meeting of february the 8th 2022. dr savage please re state your recommendation for this evening's public hearing yes madam chair a first approval to adopt policy 4.221 suicide prevention thank you

082have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approves to adopt policy 4.221 suicide prevention board members is there a motion to approve i'll move that we approve on policy 4.221 suicide prevention thank you and second i'll second morgan miss morgan thank you is there any discussion okay see a no discussion please record your vote miss fisher just came up yours did not come up no miss fishers did not come up did you get her okay six six zero motion carries dr savage would you please reinstate the recommendations for the second item yes madam chair approval to adopt policy 4.223 allergy management thank you've heard the superintendent's recommendation to adopt policy 4.223 allergy management do i board members is there a motion to approve i mean we accept the policy is stated okay ms kittens and

083second all second morris morgan okay it was moved by miss kittens and seconded by miss morgan is there any discussion and i just want to say this is our third reading so we've had multiple conversations over this cnn please record your vote okay six zero motion carries thank you we're on to board comments miss fisher i'm gonna start with you okay please thank you so i am looking forward to my csi meeting tomorrow night when we'll be having a discussion with the committee about like where should we go next and what are our next topics i'm also looking forward to saturday at the calusa sound our lee county school district stem tastic day of discovery from 10 to 2. and i wanted to mention that i want to thank all of our staff for the

084work that they do every day in particular this week for school counselors because it is school counselor week as well as career and tech education month american heart month and black history month i wanted to give a shout out to island coast high school they harvested 200 pounds of produce earlier this week well no last week and they put it all to the cafeteria and gave leftovers to other schools and one of the products that they picked was a 10 pound head of lettuce wow so they're working very hard it's part of the healthy living collaboration and that committee just received a grant and they're doing great work feeding the community i have a i have a quote from baratunde thurston when we ban books in schools before we ban guns we admit we are

085more afraid of our children learning than we are of them dying safe home everyone thank you mr sure miss patricka just very quickly i forgot to mention when i talked about dak brian mangan actually at the beginning of the meeting expressed nerves over having to manage such a large group and then he went on to manage that group with a high degree of professionalism and expertise so hats off to him and you know the comments about the student code of conduct by the parents in deaf were very similar to the comments by the students in the student advisory committee concerns about the code being sexist concerns about it being punishing culture and making sure that we go through that dress code with a fine-tooth comb making sure that those things aren't being punished gender and

086culture or not being punished so i just i thought it was yet another example where we have a couple committees on the same page those are my comments for this evening thank you thank you miss kittens okay i'm trying to pull up something really quickly okay you can give me one second okay i believe they have some pictures for me in the back okay and the first one should be of carsten branch carson waving everybody because he's sitting there on the front row and i'll read what was sent to me karsten branch vice president of the senior class of cyprus lake high school student government association took his own time on his own initiative to pressure wash the athletic bathrooms at the high school himself he has been advocating for much needed renovations at cyprus

087lake high his actions exemplify the commitment of today's youth kudos to karsten okay and this is a group of the troop 176 you'll see in just a minute and these young ladies slow down one second they came and when they were sitting at the they all sat at the dais there were seven of them so each of them got to choose who they wanted to be and miss jordan was the most popular because she had the gavel at her seat but everyone had the opportunity to go by and bang the gamble but anyway the exercise that i took them through was to do a meeting and the only agenda item was to choose the superintendent so they got to watch the videos of the two finalists that we had and it just so happened that

088day that the board had decided and selected dr bernier and after the meeting well just before when they came out dr bernier had come to the office so they were so excited that the superintendent they chose was waiting for them in the back office so that's a picture of them the next picture is them with oh that's them up on the board and then also while they were in the back our attorney attorney bruno questioned them on the law and some of the things in government that they should know because they were getting their badge in government i think there should be one quick video if we have that one of the girls was that the video maybe you didn't get the video okay i guess it didn't show up but anyway there's one a

089video of that and they're all saying you know troupe 176 and pointing to the sign and saying lee county schools and the ladies up here are supposed to get a thank you card from each girl that became them for one night but it was so exciting it was interesting to me to watch the excitement in the girls faces just to be able to go through that door right there and see where we go when we go in the back so anyway that was that was that i think that's all the pictures that i have and thank you for visiting us girls next thing is there they are okay what just happened and they had a blast so one day one of them will be seated up here i told them that already okay regarding there

090were several comments about the teachers and pay and the bus drivers and i suggest that you watch the last 15 minutes let's say of our briefing this afternoon and there was a discussion about things that we can do and that what i had brought up before that i had spoken to some retired educators about subbing and there miss ware was at the group on saturday night when i said so how many educators are in the room there's about 150 people there and several raised their hands and i said how many of you would be willing to to sub just a half a day in the hands went up all over so that is the suggestion that hopefully and this afternoon we're going to hold the superintendent to it he agreed that they would be able

091to do put that into action not only for teachers but let's say for bus drivers because maybe somebody can't do a whole day of subbing but they could do a morning or they could do an afternoon and at this point the the crisis is on and any help that we can get dr spiro also talked about in the district that there is a process now where the principals or the administrators at schools can ask for people to come and help well thank you for telling us that and i think that needs to be on steroids and also marketed because maybe there's also people he mentioned helping at the bus or getting kids off the buses he mentioned in the cafeteria we need to let all of you know the things that you can do to

092help this is where that it takes a village it's going to take all of us all of us to get through this it is a crisis and we have to work together to to fix it so hopefully we will see that lastly it is black history month and no i'm not wearing african attire i was just too tired to pull it out today but the next meeting i shall because it is black history month representing my heritage and my culture and i just wanted to say black history month this year the emphasis is on mental and physical health and i cannot say enough about the crisis in mental health miss fisher is always with me on that and especially in the black community it is not it's nothing to be embarrassed about it's nothing to

093be you know bullied about it is real real real we have students that have been out of school for a whole year almost and some of our students especially some of our minority students they learn socialization in a group at school they learn how to sit they learn how to take turns they learn how to raise their hand to ask for something they learn socialization with other individuals and you take that away for a year and then you bring them back and then the classes are almost double the size they were when they left and the teachers and everybody are stressed it's a crisis and it creates mental situations we promised these kids two years ago that you get up in the morning you go to school you get your lessons you do well you

094will survive and do well in this world and then coveted and all that came and everything was flipped upside down everything we promised them has not happened right now and they are confused and they are wondering what do we do and they're looking to us for answers they're not looking to us to fight amongst ourselves to come up with the answers we have to work together to find the answers so that these kids will have a path to the future the quote that i will give for black history month is by mary mcleod bethune believe in yourself learn and never stop wanting to build a better world thank you and have a good evening thank you miss kittens mrs fisher you said you had yes i just wanted to thank presley mcgirt for being with

095us tonight as a student representative we really appreciate you coming thank you thank you thanks for having me miss vaughn i think after listening to miss kittens i have to make a comment about what our role is as a school district as a public school system and keep in mind that as a public school we take everyone in it doesn't matter race religion disabilities everybody is served in in our public school system and we exist to produce good citizens in in this country but the way the world is today we also exist to produce citizens that have a world view that's important because during my lifetime news news shows i think really i think if i remember history correctly that the vietnam war was the first war where there were actual real-time videos shown on

096the news show and now do with technology and everybody carrying around their own little movie camera so to speak with with their phone like this it's instant communication and so we need to be sure that all of our children are prepared to face this world that changes i don't even remember what the statistics statistics are anymore but it used to be you know every so many years it was totally different it seems nowadays it's almost like every other day it's it's a new world so i want all of you to keep that in mind that is so important to us as a public school district one of the ways that we do this is we teach our children to be open-minded and we teach them to use critical thinking it's not just that we teach

097the kids the abcs and reading words words have meaning documents books they have meaning the written word has meaning and we have to be sure that our children can see all the shades of meaning from books and newspaper articles and documents and everything even the spoken word and so because i feel so strongly that we are preparing them for this new world to many of us who existed before pantyhose was even invented i am dismayed when i hear people come to this room and you have every right god bless the usa every right to say what you want but when i hear racism when i hear prejudice against lgbtq individuals and we have students who are gay or transgender and their parents when i hear that and when i hear the parochial view that christianity

098is the only religion represented in this school district it gives me pause because again you have the right to believe what you want to believe you have that right despite the dismissal of the people who think that they're doing the next generation of favor by keeping to the ideals of racism and prejudice that's not what we want at least that's not what i want for the next world it's not why i spent 38 years helping children prepare for that so that's what i have to say thank you miss vaughn miss miss morgan i'm not going to say much i just want to say that this is cte month and apropos that it is cte month we today approved the agreement with yamaha they're builders and distributors of personal watercraft and jet boats to establish a

099high school high school level yamaha marine products training program for up to 200 students at fort myers high school students will receive technical training and repair and maintenance of yamaha products at no cost to the district once again we continue to look for opportunities for children to earn certifications to be able to leave on at graduation knowing what their the first step in their future is so i congratulate the staff who have worked on that agreement and i know there will be more so thank you very much thank you and guess whose turn it is i'm too pressly so first i would like to thank miss jordan for inviting me here tonight to be a part of this and i just had something to say as far as the teacher stuff i know it's been

100in the media about teachers leaving education and so i wanted to make a short statement to the teachers from a student you are loved you are appreciated you are strong and you inspire others and you are needed every day in so many ways you do so much more than teach sometimes you're the parent figure sometimes you're our therapist our ally or even our only friend your influence may not mean the world to everyone but it means the world to someone and just your support can change someone's life yeah thank you is there any chance we can cut that and send it out to our teachers because and place it all over social media because out of the mouths of babes that was beautiful fantastic thank you yes so i have to see i should have

101went first oh goodness gracious okay i just have a few things to share i think a lot of my colleagues have already made statements and comments that i would have made so i thank you for that i so i want to just do some shout outs i attended the lee county middle and high school honor choir that was held at fort myers high school we had 80 middle schoolers and 40 high school students and they were just simply amazing just they were angels they sounded like angels i also wanted to give a shout out to trevor tran he's the music director at fort myers high for having his song published and as well as he wrote the song and the students performed it that same evening so i really want to give a shout out

102to him and then a shout out to dumbart i want to congratulate dunbar cyber patriots team for placing third in the state our students for some reason i don't think we think enough about we are here for them and then when we hear all the greatness that comes out of our districts and times are rough but they're still you know they're still outperforming there's you can see their pictures they're having a great time but they're they're really showing their their strengths and their talents regardless of what they're going through and i just i think we just have to always keep that in perspective and i also wanted to say we had gone up a few of us had gone up to tallahassee we had the opportunity to go up there and meet with some of

103our legislators those of the legislators that we could not meet with we left our materials with their aides so we did stop at every single office to make sure that they had the priorities of the district and under understood what our needs were and what our quest was and for them to help and support us on those so we did have the opportunity to do that also you all received there's 29 29 29 pages of bills in the senate appropriate right now pertaining to education so this year there's been so much up there per in tallahassee regarding education whether it's in the house or the senate but right now there's 20 i couldn't even read them all today but there's 29 pages right now on that so i would ask you all to take the

104time to look at some of those bills and of course they're the partisan one it has moved it's moving that has moved by that went into one right now into one of the house committees and we have sorry i thought i had more here the mental health that was passed house bill 899 the house bill for mental health was passed so that has been passed but please take a an opportunity to look at all those the appropriate house appropriations also they have a slew of bills coming through as well but just keep keep track of what's going on there it's because it can really affect us money wise as as well as just changes and that's and presley i thank you so much for jumping in here and i really appreciate it and i know

105sometimes it's hard for a student sometimes i feel it's hard for a student to sit here and listen to everything that's going on but i thank you for that for being here and mom thank you for bringing her to us and then i have mr pre-bruno do you have any comments oh i'm sorry i have one one that i forgot so we have the letter that was voted on to be sent out i just need to know the letter to cape carl i just need to know if that is going to be signed with all of the our signatures on it that's my question i want to make sure that before we send it out that it if everybody's in agreement please can we have consensus on that okay six zero so we'll make sure

106that's sent out then and now mr bruno i have no comments thank you thank you dr savage well thank you madam chair i will try to keep it brief but i just i am in the presence of two cypress lake high school panthers between presley who i'm just blown away by all the variety of things not just national honor society captain of cheerleading lacrosse ballroom dancing over a 4.0 gpa and carson i was a cypress lake high school grad i went to cypress i was a panther i never pressure washed any of the bathrooms and not only that but if i were a high school senior i never you could have you couldn't have paid me to come to a school board meeting and you both volunteered your time to come here and uplift the

107rest of the community thank you both now on a little bit more serious note you know just the the systemic inequality which in the south unfortunately affects communities of color far and greater proportions than what we see in other areas so the importance of black history month is such an opportunity because a democracy does not function unless there's a robust educational system and so what a great opportunity for us to highlight some of the untold history that often happens it just does not find its way into the common focus and so it's such a powerful opportunity for us to highlight that piece but i would say that really should be a year-round thing secondly just again to our school counselors you know the the pandemic has shined a bright light on the mental health struggles

108that we've had we've heard it we know it's impacting so many of us and so many of us in ways that we're not even aware of so always we're appreciative of our counselors but particularly during such a difficult time they are really just so grateful for their service thirdly the other recognition that national career tech ed month is such a it's such a great timing for that piece because i just had the opportunity to go to the greater fort myers chamber of commerce where we heard from henry mack who gave it was at the department of ed gave an incredible vision of what's happening in the future florida is really in a boom right now we are just having so many people from all over the country bringing their value to our community but as

109they're doing so what we're finding is tremendous shortfalls across so many careers not just here in the school district but really across all sectors and so there's never been a more important time in the time sensitivity so just so grateful for some of our staff members such as todd everly charlie peace john roselle who and our tech academies they are our tech centers they really are putting people into jobs right away and then rita davis and her amazing team as well as all of our high schools who really specifically the ones that have the career academies i mean just the example that you gave earlier miss jordan about the other cyber patriots these are things that allow students to see themselves in a career that they have a vision for their life when they have

110an opportunity to find meaningful experiences in high school that allow them to gain actual skills that allow them to be employable and it helps them really have a passion for their life so what a powerful opportunity to not just inspire children but also give these students a path directly into a well-paying job and we need them we actually need them yesterday i also want to thank the foundation just because they have the strives for education or take stock we're really investing in our students all the money that was raised while people were getting out in their saturday morning and had a healthy run so thank you for that and then last but not least i want to really take this opportunity to welcome dr bernier he is our new our next superintendent but he gets

111the privilege of coming to this community and i want to officially i have not had the opportunity until now to officially welcome him in this public meeting this is an amazing place to call home and he is so lucky to have the opportunity to come here to lee county call this his new home we're so excited to have to give him a chance to meet our community and we as a school system are so excited to support he's going to have a lot of challenges and it's our job as a whole community as a whole district support system as a governance team to really support him to welcome him and to support all the hard challenges that are in front of us and i'm just so great grateful had a chance to talk to him

112for the first time last week and i'm going to talk to him again tomorrow so grateful for the opportunity to help prepare him for the challenge that he has in front of him and just so excited to to welcome him to our community so with that said those are all my comments for this evening thank you dr savage the next schedule workshop and action meeting of the board will be on february 22nd at 1 00 pm and 6 pm 6 pm at this point having no further business to come before this board this meeting is adjourned and it is 7 54. you