School Board Action Meeting: July 27, 2021

001is good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting the school board meeting of july 27 2021 is now called to order the time is 606. we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district mission which is to ensure each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district mission to be a world-class system this evening's agenda includes moment of silence pledge of allegiance acknowledgements public comments consent action items which include three items under board office which one is good cause as the chair the one good cause items is approval of the agreement with ray and associates inc as a consultant to the school board of lee county florida effective july 28 2021 in facilitating the superintendent search and hiring

002practi hiring process for total cost not to exceed 33 as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this one item to the agenda one item under executive services which is good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for this good for this one item dr savage i'm sorry that's okay i just missed the question i'm sorry i missed okay one item under executive services which is good cause oh yes thank you it's the approval of the memorandum of understanding with the florida department of health the lee county health department again this was added just because the mou that's in place before the start of the school so that we have the ability to work with the florida department of health the lee county health department for voluntary covid19 testing and vaccination that's

003include including but not limited to the covet 19 vaccine for our students and employees prior to and throughout the 21-22 school year thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this one item to the agenda 49 items under academic services which two is good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for these two items yes the approval of the h-48 of the e-dynamic learning agreement this item was added because if it is delayed the elective and certification courses for the virtual school students would not be set up and teachers will not be able to train on this new program during preschool week age 49 was the approval to renew the annual contract with the pace center for girls incorporated this item was added to have in place guidelines for pace

004and for the district's responsibilities thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these two items to the agenda eight items under business services seven items under human resources which three are good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for these three items yes items j5 was the approval of the administrative recommendations this item was added in order to have a key staff in place prior to school starting this was the last available board meeting before that time period and a number of moving pieces according to that j6 of the approval to revise and adopt the job descriptions as part of fiscal year 22 the budget there are a substantial amount of those as well including some additional pieces that were added and j7 the approval of the administrative recommendations this

005item was specifically added in response to the earlier briefing presentation related to the suggested personnel moves in the reorganization work thank you so much as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these three items to the agenda one item under information system 29 items under operations which two are good cause dr savage please provide an explanation for these two items spam chair the l26 the approval for the final payment of a gt 2006 james stevens international academy pre-k remodel this item was added so that the vendor can be paid in a timely manner due to unforeseen delays l29 was the approval of the agreement of the city of fort myers to support our school resource officer program this item was in shirt was added to ensure the safety of the schools and

006that all esro contracts are approved at the same time perfect thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these two items to the agenda one item under attorney's recommendation and four items under other business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda i'm i move to adopt the agenda thank you miss vaughn may i have a second please i'll second thank you miss fisher and would you please record your vote ms thomas i'm going to ask for your assistance again please six zero motion carries miss bond will lead us in a moment of silence after which miss morgan will lead us in the pledge of allegiance miss vaughn please lead us in a moment of silence please stand for a moment of silence thank you miss morgan i

007pledge 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 thank you please be seated the character word for july is self-control quotes self-control is knowing you can but deciding you won't the design you see display on the screen was created by and i apologize if i mispronounce your name natalie gunt a 12th grader from student at estero high in the self-control we all have to have that trust me on that one sorry madame chair it's the wrong name it's julie garcia from riverdale oh my goodness well thank you because am i thank you for catching that julie i apologize i had the wrong name on my paperwork so i do apologize and your name i

008would have definitely been able to pronounce so i do definitely apologize and it is a great quote our next item on the agenda is public comment and mr pre bruno could you please address the public regarding this thank you 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 to the operation of the school district if you completed a blue card please put it in the basket provided if you need a blue card they are located in the hallway outside of the board room the rules concerning public comment are posted in the back and public comment will be made from the central microphone in the back please be advised that the board does not respond

009during public comment to remarks made by the speakers at the end of the public comment period the board chair miss jordan may address concerns or the assignment of any concerns or requests to the superintendent speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback personal attacks on individuals or abusive language are prohibited in addition clapping hissing booing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing or display of temper are prohibited speakers who failed to follow public speakers who failed 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 per board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers there will only be one warning board

010policy 1.11 the time per speaker will be 3 minutes if there are 22 minutes if there are 30 and 1 minute if there are 31 or more per the policy the maximum time allowed for public comment is one hour you will find a countdown on the big screens in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off we encourage you to address the board as a whole versus individual board members as they act as a collective board please state your name prior to your comment and i will call you five speakers at a time madam chair we have 14 speakers thank you mr prieberno is there anyone out in the audience who wish to address the board who has not filled out a blue card okay mr preet

011bruno could you please go ahead and start thank you madam chair at this time will the following individuals please line up ali lock marvin goetz denise nystrom robert roper christine divijelli i can't kelly as soon as they put the start the clock you go ahead and start okay okay and who's doing the clock oh over there what's up there i'm looking i'm looking right here looking where are you okay look i need my time back no you're gonna get it back because i'm looking the same direction you are says three you start you start talking okay i'm marvin guest president of lee county association of professional substitute teachers and i'm here as i have been for the last 25 years meeting with boards of education who do who say a lot that they all support

012substitute teachers and yet the results don't prove it i have been coming to these board meetings as i said for over 25 years i've heard every board excuse for not providing and supporting your substitute teachers and i want to bring it to your attention that there will be a meeting on august the 4th at 10 o'clock at the cape coral yacht club where the substitutes will make a decision whether they're going to work at all because we are the minions of the education field nobody talks to us nobody puts us on committees they don't listen to us so i'm here to tell you today that i'm personally quitting i've done enough 61 years i've put in and i think i know a lot about education but nobody thinks so i'd like to remind the public

013today that 1953 the korean war ended and today is the anniversary of the end of the war an armistice was signed between the 17 nations of the united nations and the u.s included and north and south korea so as officially today i'm quitting thank you denise nystrom there are a lot of people here tonight but in general there's a bunch of us that show up and spend probably 12 14 hours a day here and i just want everybody to know that dr savage who was hired as the interim superintendent would have the opportunity to become the permanent superintendent if that was what the board decided and he so far he's done a great job and i don't want anybody being confused about that the second thing is that i'd like to thank the board of

014education yesterday when we were here you took a consensus once you found out that there were 40 community members that did a textbook reading of the english language arts textbooks k-12 with regard to critical race theory and you took a consensus to hold off on or i guess i should say allowing more time to delve into it once we submit that report to you and we will be working on that very very quickly you will have it with regard to the code of conduct i noticed that they are now available but i have not seen any kind of opt out letter in there there were a lot of laws passed as you know that protect parents rights and so we took it upon ourselves to create an opt-out letter that we have been actively giving

015out to community members and we're sharing that with you now perhaps that will be the letter that you want to use we respect everybody's rights but we also have rights so we are sharing the opt-out letter with you and it is available for anybody that would like it have a good night thank you good evening my name is ali lock i'm a teacher in the district and have been this is my 11th year i come to you tonight to ask you to revisit what you just went over yesterday the health and safety protocols when you require that unvaccinated individuals have to quarantine for 10 days i see two issues with that one that i know that you are not asking teachers yourselves their vaccination status that you are getting that information from the doh but

016that does serve as a hipaa violation because you guys i don't know if you were in schools at all this year when someone got quarantined by process of elimination everybody found out who was quarantined who was doing what it's going to be the same this year and it's going to be a nightmare for people who have chosen not to get the vaccine because everybody is going to know their stance on it because they're going to get quarantined for 10 days but also there was a major problem with substitute teachers this year but this man said i feel because we had major issues trying to cover for teachers for for 10 days when they were out and in some schools there were problems where teachers were quarantining themselves for several days at a time because the

017district policy was 10 days so i really think you need to revisit that and think about how that can impact our schools we don't have the money to pay teachers to cover classes because you get paid your hourly rate when you cover a class and there were those of us that were covering classes all day every day for months on end because we didn't have enough substitute teachers so i ask that you guys review that and take into consideration the segregation that you would be promoting by asking unvaccinated teachers to quarantine for 10 days thank you will the following individuals please line up don armstrong lou navarro corey dye daniela dye tara jenner robert roper also known as ward cleaver in october of this year you have on your agenda to adopt a resolution to

018recognize the month of october as lgbtq plus history month can i ask you a question why do we need a resolution for such a divisive topic is it because the majority of the students need or even want it maybe it's because the vast majority of teachers believe that approving such a resolution on lgbtq plus will result in a better education you know science math english or maybe it's the parents sure the parents across lee county have come out in large numbers to petition the board to adopt a month to recognize the accomplishments of people based on a sexual preference it's got to be their parents the reality is it's not driven by the majority of students faculty or parents it comes from a small but vocal number of students that have your ear and the

019lgbtq plus political pacts from outside of our conservative county you might say mr cleaver what is your objection what or who is it going to hurt who would possibly object to promoting and affirming young transgender children i'm so glad you asked it hurts people of faith it hurts parents that desire to be the ones to discuss these sensitive topics with their own children it hurts students ask the family of the very real student that was affirmed as a transgender by your school at a very tender age and kept it a secret from the parents you know you actually know the student that i'm talking about the student was radicalized by your policy resulting in the near destruction of that family ultimately resulting in the student attempting to commit suicide if you are of the efficient

020position that this actual real life account is not serious enough for you as an elected school board member to warrant putting a stop to all this madness then you have no business occupying the position you're in step aside and allow a person with the courage to actually advocate for the children and especially propagate policy that will protect and not harm the very children you have been entrusted with 95 000 children are relying on you one almost died christine divajilli what i have to say feels you know inconsequential compared to that but i digress i only have a few things and i like to say that and then i say a lot but number one there are now over 100 action items in tonight's meeting it's unreasonable to think that community members have enough time to

021go over that many items and their attachments in a matter of just a few days with items being added on this even the same day that the meeting takes place if the lee county school district really wants community involvement maybe you could stagger the number of items discussed or provide the agenda and attachments a few days earlier than you are currently obviously not for every single meeting but maybe just for meetings that are this top heavy number two lee county school district is currently actively seeking committee advisory members and has encouraged the public to apply it is my understanding that in order to get a seat on one of these committees one would need the support or vote of a board member i submitted my application for the edac committee more than a month before

022the district began advertising for members and i have yet to hear a single word i'm very cognizant of the fact that i may not have many fans on the dais however i would ask that when taking my application into consideration that you take the high road rather than the retaliatory one i will end with this and because now i'm speaking on behalf of the organization that i represent which is power to parent florida's first parents union i've spoken to several parents and teachers and they're scared they're scared because the district they're scared that the district is going to go back on their word and reinstitute masks or worse in the upcoming school year i was in yesterday's meeting so i don't need to hear the district's position again however this last minute mou with fldoh

023is very troublesome sec on in number especially number one section a scope of services section one number three it says testing will only be performed upon receipt of consent of each patient or their parent or their guardian i urge the board to pull this item and change that language immediately thank you for the record my name is don armstrong proud parent of three kids that go to north fort myers high school this past sunday my son texts me he's out of town right now said dad we've got one of my friends who he's ill and he has lymphoid cancer i'd like to donate 100 bucks for his treatments because his mom just passed away recently too he said go ahead son that's fine i like the fact he's got a big heart so i said

024let me reach out to a bunch of people and see if i can get people to help out because he doesn't have insurance and it costs a lot of money and he's living with a disabled aunt i think this board this email sunday only one board member replied do you guys remember what you're here for the students no you don't what you remember is you want to attack each other up there constantly you want to attack the superintendent that's what you remember you don't remember that we have cafeteria workers in our school district who need your help no you forget that instead you remember to send false accusations to the ethics committee about other board members and fight with each other you want to talk about going to board training to learn to get along

025and work together we teach that in elementary school to play nice in the sandbox with each other why do you have to go out there remember you work for these kids they depend on you do you remember that we have our substitute teachers right now who are struggling no you don't remember that you what you remember is having to increase taxes again for an out-of-control budget why don't you take a good hard look at yourselves and each other and remember we're here for the kids not the egos gorgeous good evening board members lou navarra 38-year teacher lee school district 48 year resident the i'm asking you tonight i've taught 38 years i know none of you have been in the classroom and only gwen gittins wanted to sub for a day the superintendent the acting

026fellow over there mr dr savage i don't know what his experience is and dr atkins had been in the classroom a long time ago i'm asking you to mandate masks in school for the school year the cdc said even if you're vaccinated they're going to come out with warnings and dr fanchi whether you like the guy or not he's a good scientist he said we're moving in the wrong direction so i'm asking you to take a stance because if one child one teacher dies it's going to be on your conscience and i texted you that is if you all have a conscience shame on you you don't care about children do you mandate the masks if not give them virtual school you're not going to know who's wearing a man who's vaccinated and who's not

027it's discriminatory too and kids will cough believe me i taught i know how sick they get with with the old flu half a cent sales tax cape coral is asking you for some of the money and i agree with them for the oasis and the charter schools now i was in favor of that half cent tax you've been very opaque about what you've done with the money i got the budget and it just says this school that school and even i heard that they took some money out for pay raises when we first got the tax you need to share that with kate coral and i did like i said i didn't care for your budget either and in december i want an open meeting when you meet just like duval county did and by

028the way duvall and sarasota have given the charter schools some money without the rig of moreover we've got a vote we got this that's all you ever all do is gotta vote finally subs i've been marvelous marvin's lieutenant for a long time that man's worked tirelessly i told him that they don't want to help their subs i wouldn't take the chance in there so you know what i said marvin d.a.p don't answer the phone that's what we're all the sub should do forget it isn't worth a hundred thousand dollar hospital bill for for you pay the bus drivers better fifteen dollars an hour and i heard you're going to give me benefits because you're short a hundred bucks next speaker please thank you mr navarro corey guy i want to first start off by saying

029you guys don't have the authority to mandate anything let's be clear on that one to start out the comprehensive health that you guys keep trying to push starting with family life and discussing all these dynamics of sex anything outside of reproduction you don't have the authority to do stop trying to push it in parental bill of rights already come forward and that empowers parents so on that note parents get plugged in i'm not a member of the parent union that just got talked about but i think that's a pretty amazing idea the blanket opt-out form i think you guys should offer that to parents if you really cared about transparency and everything like that you would inform parents hey you guys can you know look at curriculum you can opt out of whatever you don't

030want your kids learned about it's ironic that parents have to find that out indirectly to move forward other than that savage i want to thank you again that you aren't here when i wanted to give you a thanks you're doing an amazing job things are getting organized and moving forward and that would be the one time i would hope they go back on their word most likely it won't happen because nobody's going to get paid off doing it thank you will the following individuals please line up jerry ware iris ramirez heather boyle amy moore kelly stedman hello everybody daniella die i do not envy you man everybody has a different idea of what it is that is for the children and it can be used as a weapon and it could be used to actually

031bring some people to progress and i have brought it to your attention before that using as or for the children is the same as with all due respect with how you use it so i've challenged you before to actually look at the for the children and use it appropriately and i think that for the children in a lot of situations actually means for the parents parents have the ability to make the best decisions for their children so i'm going to ask you to keep giving the parents the rights for that corey touched on transparency meeting minutes for 2021 are still not online that's not transparent nothing about that is transparent no accountability for that there's nothing that says any kind of record without having to go through youtube which hopefully it's up and running and

032hopefully it's not lagging or there's any kind of problem with it so transparency put your information out there and please get it done it's already almost august at this point we have talked about the mask mandate i'm not sure if somebody else is going to touch on it because i know they have a lot of information on it but policy 1.181 i'm going to request again for it to be removed lee health has a overreaching hand in the school district if you look at the agenda for this evening lee health is mentioned 14 times there are not any other entities for the medical field that are regarded while they might i don't even know that they're consulted in the way that they've been brought to the attention of the health officials there's been many speakers

033that have come and put their reputation on the line to speak against what it is that you guys are requiring and requesting at times but there is only one organization that you guys use and are dictated by so i'm going to ask you guys to continue to spread out your reach for that and ask other medical professionals with degrees and specialties to give you the information that's being dictated for an entire district there is a lot of are a lot of items on the agenda this evening so i again mimic what christie had said i don't know how you guys can all get to it some of the items that were added today you were in meetings i don't know how like if you got a bathroom break and were able to like review all

034that information from your phone or what the case may be but it's not appropriate for all that to be brought to your attention at the last minute and for you to make a judgment call on it's not fair to you it's not fair to us or anybody else so i'd ask you to in good faith and good heart to be able to vote appropriately and if you don't have enough information to make that decision state that and don't vote for it with the good of the order or the good of the group because you feel like you're obligated to you're obligated to everybody else and you're conscious you're obligated to the people and for the good of the children so thank you guys for what you do and keep striving forward without the bickering because

035it's been pretty good lately thank you tara jenner i'm calling on the board to repeal board policy 1.181 it is too broad arbitrary and capricious while the district may have authority over employees to dictate their protective gear usage mandating protective gear on students parents in the community based on quote guidelines directives and or advice issued by the federal cdc the state florida department of health and or local officials is violative of the natural rights and liberties protected by the united states constitution the florida state constitution and many recently enacted state laws as none of the aforementioned agencies have legislative authority to abridge rights without due process of law failure to repeal 1.181 leads me to a recommendation dr savage that in the alternative you use your authority under 1.181 and recognize the rights of the

036parents to do what they believe is in the best interest of their children in concert with their individual health care providers and health care situations medical issues and forced actions based on an ostensibly political or financially motivated entity flies in the face of individual needs and the abilities of parents in the community to address on a case-by-case basis the needs of their own health care with their own providers board policy 1.18 entitled emergency still affords the superintendent the option of closing schools in case of an emergency in the event welfare and safety of the students and employees is required to safeguard the individuals so it's not without an option available to you 1.181 is an overreach let's see in an earlier meeting i was curious as to why attorney deprivino did not call out one

037of the board members who in my estimation violated borth decorum by speaking in a manner that was extremely disruptive and inappropriate to another board member a policy which we are chided on on a regular basis when we make public comment and finally i'd like to again remind the board that we have a superintendent not an interim superintendent so please remember that back in september 2015 the prior superintendent was sworn in as an acting superintendent and in july of 2016 the board actually gave him the authority to do a reorganization plan while he was still in that acting superintendent position so please vote to re move forward on phase one as proposed by dr savage on the understanding that this plan is a work in progress and geared to move towards a more functional and open

038district thank you please hi iris ramirez first time speaking before the board i've been attending the board meetings in the other room during the masked mandate phase you can hear i don't know yes you're good thank you thank you okay so i just wanted to say that i and many other members of the community stand opposed to our taxpayer dollars school supplies resources such as teachers time etc for the purpose of promoting sexual behaviors by having a special month or any other activity to promote slash celebrate various sexual activities under the guise of promoting the people who practice them this is not what our school resources should be spent on we do not send children to school to promote various social or political agendas i speak for many when i say that people who are

039still fascinated by the taste of crayons should not be exposed to sexuality of any type in the school setting put the children first not political or social crusades school is not a rather a rally or a forum for promoting social change please stick to the long-held traditions of educating children not indoctrinating them i would also like to add that there is a parents union forming you can hook up with them at on the web at parent power sorry power to the number two parent dot org power to parent dot org because as it turns out many of the policies that we rail against all year long are made behind closed doors between the school board and the various unions that are affiliated with the school district and we need a union for the people who

040are actually paying the bills parents and all interested parties to sit at the collective bargaining table and actually have a voice in the policies that are made so power2parent.org is a way to get hooked up thank you heather boyle i just wanted to start first with the mou with the florida department of health and lee county i just want to express my not support of this it's concerning that it states that for both the cova testing and vaccinations they are performed after the receipt of consent from the patient or parent this should not be an or situation ever as very few of your student population are over the age of 18. when it comes to testing or vaccinations how can the parents be assured that they're going to be contacted or that their child will

041be allowed to make a decision that is not theirs to make also the mou with salis care i don't think we should be making any agreements with sales care regarding children they are quick to prescribe medicine and it's always not the best what's involved in the threat assessment that's listed in the mou and based on a lot of the different stuff we've been hearing between the district and what they're allowing the students to make decisions with on their own how can the parents again be assured they'll be contacted prior to any assessments taking place also you have an mou with the lee memorial called kids minds matter it's very unclear what this program is about because there is no description really in the mou it also talks it meant about a mental health navigator in

042the mou and it states the job description shall be developed with input from the board later why are we approving something when there's not even a clear detail about what this position entails related to students it also states that they're going to be reporting monthly to a child advocacy supervisor what steps get families to this point and when are the parents involved in that process and that's it hello my name is amy moore i just wanted to say that i feel it's absolutely necessary that we need to keep medical procedures away from our schools it is not the place of educators to do medical or have medical procedures or vaccinations or any sort of masking or anything it's really not it's not your job anyways i also feel it's necessary to state because yesterday in

043reviewing or being here for the entire meeting that the cdc has removed pcr testing as a means for testing from being a reliable source of testing so i know that part of the one of the rules or one of the things that you're supposed to load on included pcr testing i think you should eliminate that also i would like the board to take the board to understand that morality should not be taught in schools i think that is a job that should be taught at home and not it's not any part of of the schools to teach that what is ethical as far as families and all of those items they don't need to be in in the hands of educators they should be taught at home also i don't feel that any vaccination van

044should be at schools i personally went out and protested last year i stood out in the pouring rain to try to help people because i don't feel it's it's necessary to have those things at schools so that's all i want to say good evening my name is kelly stephan i'm the principal at james stevens international academy this is a proposal for the name edit of james stevens international academy to james stevens elementary jsia is submitting the proposal to build awareness while continuing to honor the community we serve recently our school was awarded the msap grant totaling over 9 million split between jsia and south fort myers high over the course of the next five years this grant allocates seventy six thousand dollars in year one for marketing materials and signage this will cover all costs

045related to a name edit due to the fact that we no longer offer secondary education or provide a narrow curriculum towards specific vocation we no longer meet the policy requirements to be called in academy therefore we reached out to seek input from our stakeholders some of which are in attendance tonight and the feedback received supports the name edit this includes community pillar jerry ware who has always shown tremendous support for jsia although this proposal addresses the edit of international academy we would like to adhere to section 5b of school board policy 9.10 and maintain our civic pride to the dunbar community by keeping the name of james stevens good evening madam chair ward and dr savage standing with me is my niece and i'm speaking on behalf of my nephew i refuse to allow him

046to be one of the prisoners to the prison pipeline he requested to attend south fort myers high school because he has an interest in carpentry you said that you would like him to develop to his fullest potential but he's being denied the attendance there and we want to know why you know how i am when i advocate for kids i'm very adamant about what i do so i'm asking you this afternoon to find out why my nephew cannot attend fort myers high school no southport my high school to participate in carpentry thank you very much for your support because i know someone is going to answer me thank you oh i'm sorry kelly i want to congratulate james stevens mr savage and i made that school madame chair i believe that is the conclusion of

047public comment okay thank you well first of all i'd like to thank everyone for coming and we definitely are here to listen to what you have to say so i do appreciate you coming in and sharing with the board miss ware i think dr savage if we could have somebody reach out to her and get that one that seems pretty get that one done that'd be great miss steadman good seeing you thank you for coming and speaking on your school definitely appreciate seeing you and i know you're getting ready for a good year miss getting said brought that before us and so we're excited that you came in to to share and let's see mr goats we all of our substitute teachers we do i'm gonna say i because i can speak for myself personally

048do care about the substitute teachers i do appreciate what you all do and thank you for sharing that meeting will take place and that's something that i believe that dr savage will be definitely looking into we cannot do without the substitute teachers they're very vital to our system and our children so i will and i know mr liu he was here and he spoke on that as well on your behalf good seeing him i haven't seen him for a minute mr armstrong i've not had an opportunity to even read your email but i thank you for bringing that before us about that child i will definitely look at that and we did have a lot of things on these the agenda and it has been a we had a lot of things added we had

049a long break so trying to get everything in that had to be done prior to school made us well i know it made me read a whole entire day that i had to look at what was coming before so we do take the time to look at this a lot of the stuff that did come before us were items that we had already seen and that had been presented to us prior and this was just coming back again so it definitely has been a lot so i appreciate your comments and i know you have groups of people that look at it we're one individual looking at each one of these but we i think we do try to make sure that we do our due diligence on on reading this and then dr savage the

050or part and i know when we spoke about the parents being involved it was parents would be involved notify we would not be doing an or it's not with the health that they brought up so i can address that so it's informed consent informed consent cannot be given by a child the reason it says patient wars because this is also for staff staff being patient and then of course the parents and guardians will give consent for their children there's no way that a child can give consent for medical testing or for a vaccination it must be informed consent which is from a parent thank you thank you for sharing that okay and now madam chair before we go in may i ask just one quick indulgence i think we would be remiss not to at

051least congratulate someone that has given 61 years to the school district and i say that we give a clock to mr garrett thank you for that thank you for that and thank you mr marvin we really do appreciate you and enjoy seeing you when you're here moving on to the next agenda item the next is the approval of the action items in 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 meeting we are expected to review all of the materials 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

052agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business tabled items portion of the agenda mr you're not going giavinelli ask her she wasn't first on my list but okay miss fisher yes i'd like to pull j6 thank you l22 miss patricka j7 miss kittens l4 ms vaughn i have none thank you miss morgan my polls have already been called oh thank you and i have none okay is there a motion to approve the agenda's consent action with the exception of pulled items l2 l4 j6 and j7 is l22 and 22. oh i'm sorry you were 2 or 22. 22. i apologize so let me let me restate that is there a motion to approve the agenda consent action items with the exception of the pulled items l22

053j7 j6 and l4 yes i move that we adopt a consent agenda with the exception of l22 l4 j6 and j7 thank you miss fisher in a second i'll second thank you miss juvenelli okay and please record your vote motion carries madame chair 7-0 thank you okay we have four pulled items oh can i ask that we recognize those who received yeah i got it before we do the pulse could you please say that i was asking that we please recognize those in the audience that received promotions or transfers before we go through the polls in the event they want to leave i'd like to celebrate them immediately i think that's great and i yeah maybe we need to look at that moving that forward on our agenda yes thank you please dr savage yes

054at this time and i really appreciate that suggestion at this time i'd like to recognize the following staff who are in attendance who have received a new either promotion or change of assignment first i'd like to start with lindsay thorstad from heights elementary from a school intervention support specialist to assistant principal like to recognize jacqueline kustra from veterans park academy of the arts who was a dean of student discipline is now promoted to assistant principal matthew k from curriculum instruction innovation secondary coordinator to teaching and learning to accountability of assessment research director of accountability assessment and research george from the department of esau a specialist english for speakers of other languages to cypress lake middle assistant principal milagros sours from the department of esau district teacher and assignment to success academy assistant principal april weich

055from harness marsh middle learning and leadership teacher to spring creek elementary assistant principal from spring creek elementary teacher to manatee elementary assistant principal misty smyrnos from bonita springs middle center for the arts teacher to veterans park academy for the arts assistant principal adam tweet from mirror lakes elementary dean of student discipline to river hall elementary assistant principal donna williamson from tropic isles elementary teacher to trafalgar elementary assistant principal stacia winfrey from title 1 program administrator to challenger middle principal congratulations to each and every one of you i know you're going to have a fabulous year and we appreciate you so much and at this time we're going to take a five-minute break so that way if you all want to leave you have the opportunity to leave otherwise you can surely you know spend the

056rest of the night with us i think it should be their first duty right congratulations oh my god i'm excited congratulations thank you we're going to go ahead and resume our meeting if everybody would please take their seats okay and we are going we have full four pulls to address and dr savage we're going to do these one at a time so if you would please begin with your recommendation on pooled item l4 please absolutely thank you chair chair jordan recommended action l4 approval of department of education spot survey 5.6 remodel of doe approved schools k and nn now quadruple a and unification of lehigh acres middle school with veterans park academy for the arts approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all necessary documents which one are you doing thank you and i'm sorry i'm

057not i did not break down here it was miss kittens right l4 yes please oh okay yes it was me oh i'm sorry i'm sorry is there a motion to adopt dr savage's recommendation for l4 i'll move to adopt l4 thank you miss fisher and may i have a second a second miss morgan okay so it's been moved by mrs fisher seconded by ms morgan now we have discussion miss kittens please okay like i mentioned earlier i'm still just a little confused about information that we get about what is actually happening with veterans park and on one document i will see veterans park expansion another one i will see veterans park in the old lands or whatever it's going to be called i just i'm i'm very leery of voting on anything to move forward

058with this until we actually sit down and talk about the project what it is and i know that there was a discussion about having a super school i'm just not in agreement with that and so i have spoken to people including some builders that gave me some information that if we and i can share this with you at another time but the cost there's several options to the old lands and i don't think we've even looked at doing the cost of that and the numbers that i was giving given for example option one building a new middle school on the site would cost anywhere from 46 to 48 million kind of conservative with the seven percent a gmp the fact is the chiller system is already on site that was recently redone so that would

059not be a cost that's included in the new building we would need to cl include demolition of the old school but both items are calculated into this 46 to 48 million option two would be to leave the existing school and completely renovate it with an exterior facelift adding of a black box theater between the two schools and keeping the existing building would save the structure on concrete and steel and site work and less windows no elevator would be needed no stairs and there's other things and that would cost anywhere between 35 and 40 million i look at this project and our need for schools in the in that area and i also look at the cost where we're looking at of the k through eight on three oaks at we i think the last amount

060i heard was like 90 million with the cost of materials etc and for 40 some million 50 million we could take care of an absolute need and i just don't understand why we can't re-prioritize what it is we're doing so until we have further discussion there have been times in the past and you all know that things have come up for vote and we're told oh no this is only this and six months later i get an email when i have a question about it but you voted for it on such and such dated such and such time so in order to make sure i am comfortable with it i am pulling it and i will not be voting for it at this time thank you this is regarding the spot survey is there anyone

061is there any other discussion regarding this miss mr jamnelli well my concern it really was what was the plan here we really don't even know what the plan is because that's why they want to kind of do a spot survey and i think we need to be informed more on the plan and looking at the long-term plan if i remember correctly this is yeah veterans park is the one that they decided to move it and we didn't even plan that all of a sudden we found out we're not gonna name a school we're gonna it's gonna be just move they're gonna move behind each other you know behind in the backyard and there wasn't a real plan for that and then we didn't discuss it as a board because it was during coveted time and

062when that school the new school was being built we actually went there and did the groundbreaking after the ground broke i mean it was it was our the walls were up so we christened some beams so i'm gonna i'm gonna reserve and not support this evening until i see a better plan because i feel like that there was one there wasn't one at least it wasn't been it has was not conveyed and as a board i think that's that's something that we should be doing is looking at the at the whole plan and i think this is not that so i won't support it either tonight okay and i think i'm not sure dr savage i know the spot survey is something that we need to have it's just regarding the land and the property

063is just it is not dictating anything to us it is just the next step in order for us to move forward to even begin to process or build or even come up with any plans this has to come first we're in that stage correct madam chair it's it would be accurate to to convey that this is really a procedural step right you know kind of the analogy that i used during the workshop yesterday was it's it's essentially trying to create an opportunity for a canvas with which to work this is simply communicating to the state the change of purpose of the students did in fact the student stations that have moved that it was used to be identified as lambs now is in a brand new building that is not in the same location and

064that the building that was left behind will have a new purpose because it will no longer be associated with that lamb site this is simply communicating that to the state and all the doing it in the format of numbers that are equated to rooms and so forth however there's absolutely an anticipation of that changing again each time that information changes specifically after design work after the purposes are configured through the design work it absolutely will come back again and reflect whatever new purposes and that would of course preceding that would be more board work in terms of design work recommendations accordingly mr rickenbacker i think is there anything that i omitted can i say something before he speaks real quick one of my concerns is the fact of how it's titled i get the spot

065survey on reallocating the property and the school where the old lambs was i have an issue with calling that spot survey veterans park because to me it denotes that it is all one project and i would feel more comfortable it wasn't now the other thing is i understand what you're saying about with the new lambs does not have room for all the sixth graders so they have to go somewhere and rather than using portables you want to use part of the property in that old lands building is it that we need to state that in the spot survey so they can use that facility in a different way is that why you need the spot survey it's that is part partially correct in order for us to utilize that facility we have to be accurate

066in what we are conveying to the state so your abs you're going in the exact right place for this knowing that we are going to be utilizing that facility we have to account for how that facility is being used and communicate that to the state even in a temporary if we were to change it and then six months from now change it again we would have to convey that accurate information to the state and why can't it just say that we are reallocating this space that was the old lambs and call it you know jvj or whatever it is we need to do so did you did you not state that it had to be unified to become one so it has that one number and then at any other time at any given time

067we could go back and unify that just as why would we make it into two numbers in the beginning is what i'm so this is a number that has to do with the students being served so the students that will actually be entering that campus would be otherwise students who are part of the veterans park that four-digit msid it's re it's recorded as such so in order for them to utilize that space and have those students be there we have to record the master schedule as well as all of our fte reporting all of those documents have to line up so that we know where those kids disappearing to if a teacher is on that site and working in a particular building we have an obligation to report that to the state accurately this allows

068us to do that in addition to the secondary purpose which scott can kind of speak to from a construction standpoint scott so we have to do the spot survey again if it changes again that's right okay that i didn't okay that wasn't cool they said that earlier that's the old lambs quadruple create pre-k-8 estero quadruple a is pre-k v-p-a-a okay mr okay this was a planning agenda and if you look at item four there's actually two spot surveys that have been submitted to the state yeah so i'm only asking you is your discussions if you don't have a problem with quadruple a and estero then go ahead and segregate that out and do what you want and then if you want further discussions or you want to post this i would caution you on the

069reason we wanted to use the existing building is the kids were programmed to go into the portables right no i don't get that part atrocious and i wouldn't absolutely and we're preparing to fix those as well so the school sitting when we engage with the contractor and the architect it's going to take six to eight months for design so the school isn't being touched i want people in there for electrical water leaks lighting utilize the facility utilize the bathrooms have a janitor there staff there so use it why we're not just demolishing it and at a point in time edit the principal ed carter is aware that i will have to tell them when i'm ready to start construction that they'll have to go into the updated portables in the back and they're fully aware

070of that and that helped him save he had a lot of teachers that were preparing to leave i would caution you though everything is in a time crunch everything has been pushed and in order for me to get design documents created for the renovation of that school let's say we go in there and we get a new facelift a new new color scheme redo all the science labs that are definitely there you need that school open for august of next year you're going to go through another school year with 800 kid a population you're going to have to make up for in the zone okay so time is of the essence i think you've got a commitment from the superintendent that he will continue this discussion so even though you're approving the spot survey for

071the planning request that those discussions as to how you develop that campus what you call it is still fluid and can be changed in the future and i don't want to speak for the supervisor thank you thank you madam chair can i ask our attorney mr p bruno if i can amend this motion can i rest i don't know can i state it differently so you can always amend the motion but you need to advise the board of what the amendment will be and then follow that process okay so the motion on the floor right now is the superintendent having to vote on this as is i would like to make an amendment to that motion that's okay and my amendment is i will agree to the k the n and the veterans park part

072of the spot survey without the quadruplet mr pre bruno is that emotion when she's saying what she is going to do she's not being she's saying if if i'm happy to make a vote on this hold on one second please just so i can understand the motion on the floor is to adopt the superintendent's recommendation on l4 right so what are you trying to accomplish you want to do what to remove one portion of that his recommendation was to remove so you can do a motion it's not recommending that in lieu of a motion to amend you can do a motion to divide and you can suggest that you vote on the three parts that and then the other part it's up it's up to you are within your purview so into robert's rules too

073okay to ask the board to take that into consideration i can make to make a motion to divide to follow the superintendent's recommendation for knn and veterans park academy and divide out quadruple estera second that motion okay is there discussion yes for for the many years that i've sat on the board and we have had different issues come before us mr rickerbacher and his team have always come through for us and held their promises and did not ask us to approve things that weren't absolutely necessary and in this time crunch and having the increase in prices of materials i think we need to approve this so i don't see the purpose to divide it out i mean okay well i do thank you please just a second please yeah i just don't understand exactly what

074what would be accomplished by dividing it out like dividing the two sides okay that's that's the motion that she has on the floor and then he's actually asking to do it madam chairman i call for the vote we've we've discussed this earlier we discussed miss vaughn excuse me dr savage go ahead and please i just want to ensure that all repercussions are understood of any decision we make here today just knowing about the time issues and knowing that we're planning to occupy these areas with students i would hate to disrupt any of those things knowing that all the things we want to record correctly the recommendations as they are absolutely are you know what i'm supporting these recommendations moving forward not just for the construction side but for the accurate reporting to the state for

075the full intention that we would love to use that what was the lamb's campus for students at veterans park i'm not sure that we could use that campus without reporting it correctly to the state that it would no longer it would be we might find ourselves in fte related issues i would hate to not have the opportunity to just impress upon everyone and i and i did put on the record and during the gender review and i'll again put it on the record now to try to alleviate any concern you have about the remodeling of that facility i am strongly strongly supportive of a re-conceptualization of whatever work is to occur on that site i was the principal at veterans park one of the very first things i even suggested when the school was 1600

076students was potentially even considered as an elementary in the middle those things happened those are genuine conversations i am wide open to all that reconceptualization work i would hate to throw off a procedural element that we communicate to the state that may have other consequences from an fte reporting standpoint from all the aforementioned issues with design and construction all those elements as well madame chamber please so we have emotion on the for the amendment using what i'm saying that's not what i'm saying miss getting this i am not saying not to do n n and veterans party i am agreeing to that what i'm taking out is triple a and estero i am agreeing with going ahead with the site thing for veterans park in the old lambs that's all i'm saying thank you i

077am asking to remove a sparrow okay so we have i think i'm a little confused because just a second please we have an amended motion on the table right now and miss kittens has stated what her change was so i am going to go ahead and call for the vote as miss vaughn had asked are we in favor of dividing this as amended by miss gins when the warner was it seconded it was seconded by miss giovannelli thank you yes so now we are calling for the vote those in favor of separating it please raise your hand and all we're separating is to quadruple that's correct those who are in favor of separating please raise your hand those who are opposed please raise your hand okay so the motion does not carry so we're back

078to dr savage will you please state your recommendation again yes ma'am chair thank you for l4 approval of department of education spot survey 5.6 remodel of doe approved schools k and nn quadruple a and unification of lehigh acres middle school with veterans park academy for the arts thank you so we've already had discussion on that so i would go ahead and then please call for the vote miss thomas is it hand vote thank you those in favor of dr savage's recommendation as stated please raise your hand those oppose thank you motion carries dr savage could you please read your recommendation for pulled item l22 yes madam chair for l22 the approval for the ratification of the agreement to sell 20 acres of the 40 plus minus acre district owned property at tower road bonita springs

079florida zip code 34135 approval authorizes superintendent to execute all related documents thank you dr savage do we have a motion to adopt dr savage's recommendation regarding l22 miss morgan i move we approve dr savage's recommendation to approve the ratification of the agreement to tell to sell 20 acres of the 40 plus acre district owned property at 12 691 tower road thank you and do i have a second i'll second that thank you mrs fisher and discussion miss giovannelli yes i did not support this when it came through a couple months ago and i'm not going to support it now i don't think we should be splitting up this acreage land is very valuable these days god's not creating any more and i think we need to keep the 40 acres together and not split it

080up to 20 and 20. we were gonna put a high school on this it was great good enough then and then they chose not to but they you know i'm just not gonna support it at this time thank you thank you and is there any other discussion regarding this and dr savage i believe that when this came before us it was mentioned that the 20 acres was big enough to put the schools that we needed to to do what we had to do going forward correct that is correct okay thank you and go ahead mr you know and i would agree with that except that look at how many schools now that we're campuses that we are changing to a k through eight after the you know after was elementary school and we've done that

081with several schools so now we're limiting our ability to increase that and make it a k through 8 if we wanted to let's say 10 years from now so i'm just thinking of the future and i think like i said god's not making any more land so i would say keep it at that price because we're giving it away thank you thank you is there any other discussion please see no discussion we have a hand vote for all those in favor of dr savage's recommendation regarding l22 and those oppose four to three motion carries thank you dr savage could you please read your recommendation on pulled item j6 yes madam chair thank you j6 approval of the revision and adoption of job descriptions for the fiscal year 22 2021 2022 school year budget cycle thank

082you do i have is there a motion to adopt dr savage's recommendation on j6 i'll move to adopt j6 that's fisher do i have a second a second thank you miss vaughn and discussion ms fisher yes so i just wanted to mention that there are 21 job descriptions here and i have not had an opportunity today to review them so i would not be able to vote on this evening thank you is there any other discussion miss morgan i would like to find a superintendent in this state who has given the board one hour notice on job descriptions i would like to find a board that has voted without an opportunity to read job descriptions to support those job descriptions i think it's unfortunate that some job modifications revisions have been attached to these newly

083proposed positions because i would have liked to have been in a position to read those descriptions being revised earlier and had an opportunity to vote on them so i will not be supporting this at all thank you miss morgan miss patricka for all of the reasons discussed at earlier today at the briefing both during the presentation and during board member comments in addition to the fact that i mean you know a lot of the good cause items had already been discussed at briefing yesterday i was able to review for instance the contract with fort myers pd and the doh was simply an update so a lot of it i have been able to review but this is i mean this is i mean this will take a day of reading so no i don't support

084it either okay is there miss vaughn i would like to table this until the next meeting rather than take a vote on something that we haven't had a chance to read i think it i i don't know what can be you know i know we can separate things there's one job here that really jumps out and that's the job of paralegal and the reason i think that at least that one and there there may be others and of course we've we haven't had much time to to look the or no time to look these over but i am especially concerned on on that since we are very short staffed in our legal department and i know that help is needed there but still that said i would rather see this tabled to the next meeting

085rather than vote it down and so that's my mr prix bruno with with miss spawns asking that's that's mine comments before we do it yes please go ahead and skittles okay let's see if there's a second to the motion table i second the motion to table so at this point you have a motion to table this item it's been properly seconded any discussion on that motion any just miss kittens please yes thank you and it's a first of all a question to the superintendent did i hear you correctly today say that approving these positions would allow you in conjunction with those positions solidify the rest of the org chart and the process and what people would be doing did you not say something of that sort or no make sure i understand just to clarify

086in this particular item the majority of these items were prepared through the job description review as part of the budget process the vast majority only the four at the bottom of the item were added as part of the reorganizational consideration so the rest of them were all developed through that budget process and came in due as as they would through any other hr item so these were just added so can we then i'm sorry i have to call point of order emotion to table is not debatable or amendable the point of order so there's only certain people that can stop them i'm sorry mr pray bruno could you please there's a point of order that has been called with regards to the motion and table okay can you just miss getting can you just ask

087your question please at this point it's just comments on the motion the table okay so but it was con i was commenting on the motion to table okay so are you hearing ms patricka's point of order has had been addressed mr priebuta may i go ahead or do we have to address her point of order so madam chair it is to you to address the point of order the only thing i will add to that is that there is a motion to table on on the on so that's what the comment is on and then you take your vote it's not debatable thank you emotion okay so doctor savage just a sec go ahead miss kittens not not as a matter of debate just as a point of understanding i'm out of the understanding that

088at least one of these positions would have a potential negative issue if a start date were to have occurred as part of the budget consideration and the job descriptions and they were not approved that would be an issue so i would just offer that up for the ones that came through the hr piece as well just as a point of note if any of those positions were to have a start date within the adopted budget that you know required one of those job descriptions that might be an issue i could certainly have some from human resources clarify that piece if that's the case we're just we're tabling until the next meeting go may i speak please thank you based on what he said five minutes ago what the superintendent said then perhaps rather than tabling

089at all and that was my question if there are only four items that are in question perhaps we should divide it out rather than holding up the whole list of jobs that could potentially affect starting school and doing what's best for our students in the next month so that is my question should we not look at going ahead with the positions that our schools are waiting for might i just offer that if the concern with the item is the new additions at the bottom if that's really the prevailing concern that would have been an issue then you know i certainly think that would be a fair recommendation to extricate those for to separate in something along those lines just so that there wouldn't be any negative repercussions on any of the other positions if that

090is the concern if that's not the only concern okay and then my cons my one comment will be that you know we have stated in our opening and we say that we have looked at all this information we know the information we have read this information we've received it as well as the public comments that you know come before us and say that i hope you're not going to vote on something without you reading it and that's what we're being asked to do right now we've not had the opportunity to look at those and that would be that would just not be right for us to look to go ahead and vote on those that have not been looked at can i ask you okay attorney dupri i know there's emotion on the floor but

091if we go ahead and table the whole thing there are repercussions can we divide like you mentioned before within robert's rules of order if you want to do a motion to divide then you need to just basically state your motion to divide and state what you're trying to divide okay i make a motion to divide out the new positions that everyone has said they haven't had an opportunity to read and to go ahead with passing the ones that have been vetted and have been on the agenda previously okay just so i'm clear miss kittens could you please restate your motion what exactly are you trying to do okay my motion is to go ahead with the original superintendent's recommendation for these positions except dividing out the new positions that are in question and to table

092those until our next meeting correctly you made the original motion to table correct that was miss vaughn betsy dick all right seconded by you're out of order i just want to understand from okay let me explain real quick hold on a second hold on a second miss gidens miss vaughn you made a motion to table this until the okay and the speaker in the audience is correct i did not initially say that and then you said something about you actually said emotion and i believe that i said yes that's correct at that point so i apologize that i wasn't more clear in the beginning saying i moved to but when you mentioned are you making a motion i said i believe that i actually said yes yes and so juvenile seconded and to add to

093what the reason is again i think i've made it very clear today that i am very very much in favor of the proposed of the proposed reorganizational suggestions however i don't feel comfortable moving along without having seen now okay so we've had some of these like revision of but i want to see what those revisions are if you look down below we have however many every single one there's there's going to be some kind of a change okay i don't want to see this go down in flames and i think perhaps if the board has the opportunity to read these and consider them in a rational way and myself include it that we may be more successful i don't see that any of these that are going to all of the ones at the top

094exist okay so let's let's make sure this is clear i did not realize that it was miss fun that made the motion i thought it was miss kittens okay so miss von you made a motion to table the whole thing i'm not dividing the table it was seconded by miss giovanelli and then you've had discussion at this point you can go ahead and move forward with the vote on the motion to table and then we can go back to miss kittens motion to divide it's still necessary okay well that's what i thought we had to do but then i'm sorry it's my fault i thought it was miss kittens that had made that motion okay so can we please take a vote on the motion two table everything table this j oh now i'm confused

095j6 can we take him a vote on hand vote on table and j6 in order to be able to read everything hand vote please on this table in it three one two three four and against table in it three okay four to three motion carries now does it does the motion of the table require a super majority dupree bruno just the majority just the majority yes so thank you so no because at this point it's been tabled because you thought that it was her okay yeah so now we move to the next okay dr savage please read your recommendation for the pulled item j7 miss jordan before i read that just in in j7 it was mentioned that the item is contingent upon the approval of j6 and so if j6 has been tabled j7

096i would have to pull j7 as a matter of process i can't we i could not recommend j7 because it would require as noted in the item that it would require j6 to have been approved so i would i would have to withdraw j7 so may i ask if we could possibly have to solidify all of this have a action a special meeting i know we have august 16th is our next meeting which is too far too far away is that something that you all would be acceptable to do that way we can take care of what the business at hand i would like to make a motion to table this and to have a special meeting for those two items the emotion has been put on the table so you can't table that hasn't

097been made i'm sorry so dr savage has pulled item g7 because it correlates with item g6 correct so at this point item g i'm sorry j6 has been tabled to the next meeting okay but then he wouldn't be able to put that on the agenda if we had a special meeting not be able to add j7 to the special meeting am i correct so if dr savage wants to add that to the agenda j6 and j7 he'll be able to do that okay i just want to make sure okay cool and that way it gives a lots people to read and get all their information yeah miss kittens i would like dr savage to just inform us of all the other positions on there that were not those four how are they going to be

098impacted with the start of school i would have to research that and get back to you the within the budget document it does state any positions and effective start dates in the budget if any of them were starting prior to the adoption of the formal budget those dates are in there i'd have to reconcile the two of those versus any of these i'm not sure that there are any conflicts i just understand that there there may have been so we'll get to the bottom of that and determine if there's any negative impact i'm not convinced that there is i think there is one that there is a possibility but i think that one is not necessarily an issue we may we may be able to with a table of this and being able to get

099it in by the next meeting or potentially special meeting to try to resolve any issue relative to employee being negatively impacted by this well our next meeting is not until the 17th which is after this but if we have a special meeting that takes i believe it's four days if i'm correct miss schaefer thank you for being here am i correct in what i'm saying it takes four days for the special meeting so if we come up with a date we could within four days we can have that special meeting discuss this that gives people four days to to go over all of this and we can come back and have that conversation i know today has been extremely crazy with everything else that we've been going on but i just think that we have

100to we have to move forward i would support a special meeting so we're talking about employees and this is very important thank you j7 has has been pulled because of that so that's the last of our so the next one on that will be our attorney's recommendation thank you madam chair that is the approval of reimbursement for legal fees incurred by board member melisa giovannelli as a result of the defense of an ethics complaint that she was successful in in the amount of eight thousand four hundred and two dollars and fifty cents thank you board members is there a motion to approve miss fund i moved to approve the request for reimbursement for melissa's g g vanilli's legal fees a second thank you thank you miss kittens and please record your vote no discussion oh

101discussion i am so sorry i read this word for word so i do apologize i would like attorney michael going please i would like attorney dupree bruno to provide her recommendation for this request miss morgan just to be clear when you say provide the recommendation are you referring to the yeah i'd like you to go through the law that led you to this conclusion thank you give me one opportunity and i'll pull up my cheat sheet madam chair and you know not to be funny or anything but we did hear that definitively in our other workshop but as a member she has the right to ask mr prieberno to bring that back to us okay so this is coming from a common law doctrine that basically says that public officials have the right to legal

102representation at taxpayer expense and defending themselves against litigation arising out of their public duties and serving public purposes in this particular case it's an ethics commission and there is a case that specifically says that under this term of litigation ethics complaints are considered part of that the right the right arises independent of any policy that the board may have it is not subject to the discretion of the board but florida statute 10 12.26 although it talks about civil and criminal but we know that litigation encompasses ethical complaints specifically says that the expenditure of the board for reimbursement of legal services in this context shall be made in a properly noticed public meeting thank you thank you is there any other discussion see a nun could i please have a hand vote for the motion oh

103it's up there thank you oh it is it serious now motion carries madame chair 6-1 thank you okay other business board member comments miss gia benelli actually miss jaminelli if you don't mind i'm gonna go to miss kittens first thank you that's okay that's good for that i do have someone that needed to i have a couple of things but the first thing i would like to address is i brought before the board the other day the request from james stevens international academy to edit their name for the purposes i sent you the information in an email and i also send it sent the update and we do have the principal here tonight that when we call for public comment will give us the most update there were questions yesterday such as has the community

104been informed yes they have and she will speak to that as well and then in her comments earlier she spoke to the cost and how it all would be handled so at this point i would like to turn it over to the superintendent to give your recommendation on this yes i am fully supportive of the recommendation that emerged from the school and that you were giving voice to now miss gittins to modify the name to edit the name without changing the substantive meaning behind the name still honoring james stevens elementary but doing so for all the reasons that we already went through about the academy and the functionality of that piece i am absolutely wholeheartedly supporting that recommendation today so i would like to make the motion that we support james stevens international academy added

105of their name to james stevens elementary school i second that motion thank you madam chair before we move forward i just want to advise the board of a couple of things the first thing is that the policy 9.10 which talks about name of schools does indicate that there is a process for the public to be involved however it also indicates under subsection 5f that only high schools are to be called academy and this is obviously an elementary school so pursuant to board policy 1.10 subsection 1f and 7e indicates that the board can take exception to its policy and go ahead and vote but it will require a super majority which means five votes and public comment and public comment because this was not on the agenda i have that on here yes so it was

106thank you mr prieberno so miss kittens brought this forward seconded by miss giovanelli and now we are in discussion please is there any other discussion that we need to have from the board is miss fisher well i heard ms stedman say before that they no longer meet the requirement for the title of international academy and it sounds like the timing is perfect so i will be supporting this yes thank you anyone else now i will support it as well i agree i'm excited for them it's obvious i will do it as well but right now so if there's no other comments from the board we will open it up to public comments if there's any public comments anyone that would like to address the board regarding this one motion please come up to the mic

107if if there's anyone that would like to speak on the name change name edit the name edit to elementary this is your opportunity to speak on that one thank you some of the board members had questions about community stakeholders having input in in this decision so there's a couple things that i'd like to address in section 4a as we know the naming of the school is an important event in the history of our community and choosing the best one requires careful thought and consideration we did reach out to seek input from stakeholders some of which again were in attendance tonight and really the feedback was overwhelming a staff survey revealed 100 of staff members support the name added to james stevens elementary school 100 of our parent focus group also reflected support for a name

108at it including and i got a couple quotes from parents they agreed to let me share their information ashley duncan stating quote i never knew what international academy was but i would love to see it as james stevens elementary also grandma pat who is a community member and also works for the piper center says that james stevens elementary is a community thing and we are a community school and susan pecor pointing out by having international academy you are saying you are something you are not as well as community pillar jerry ware she has always shown tremendous support for us and she's also here to continue her support social media reflected over a 90 response to support a name edit besides his feedback our school also has been consulting with a marketing firm who is familiar

109with our circumstances and has relevant experience working with other schools in the district who have been awarded the same msap grant also with the funding to address 3d recently our school has been awarded this grant over nine million dollars split between these two schools the grant i mentioned before allocate seventy six thousand dollars in year one for marketing materials and signage this will cover all the costs for a related edit with this grant also comes an establishment of a new program for james stevens that we're very excited about to become a stem magnet school this new program we would like our name to reflect that of an elementary school serving grades pre-k through fifth grade but we also want to you know have our civic duty of supporting james stevens who has been an influential

110community member a mentor in the school district we work with his family quite often so we want to honor his contributions to the dunbar community this name change would conform the style of the school name to that of other schools in the district while finally removing a long outdated reference to a school theme since past i'm here to answer any questions if there are any questions about the items specific to the school board policy mr steadman i think we really appreciate you being here but i don't think there's any questions thank you so oh we got somebody else please corey died you're a rock star continue doing what you do i support the name change even though it's not my community and i hope we have more principals like you guys thank you thank you

111board is there anyone else that would like to speak see a nun i will go ahead and do the hand vote please on this all in favor please raise your hand thank you miss kittens and thank you again for being here thank you very much all of you for that oh and congratulations james stevens elementary just a couple things i wanted to mention miss jordan mentioned us going to the closing out of the summer program the sos program and one of the things that was talked about was how do we keep it going and prepare for the next year so i had suggested that they have clubs in the school so it was accepted and in fact mr edie and i spoke about it already this week so they have students from the program during

112the summer that can be the ambassadors in the schools that they're in and have clubs like after school or during their club meeting times and kind of influence other students to learn about how to be and then turn the next summer speaking skills job application skills all the things that they learn so the following summer we should have a good number of students that are willing to get into the program and if you're a business we need you as well yesterday when i mentioned about being at the textbook reading exercise that was done by the community i did not receive a formal invitation i just wanted to clear that up i had spoken to like i said many people about crt because i am very curious to know why and what people believe about it

113and if i have the opportunity to help dispel some things that i feel are not correct that's what i feel i need to do as gwen gideon's not as a school board member anyone that i spoke to when i was there i said i am not here as a board member representing the board i am here as gwen gittins because i am curious and i want to find out what is going on and what it is that you need i so i just want to make sure and the other thing too there were emails that went to the board members about this particular event and i believe miss patricka was the only one that had responded and my participation one of the people i was talking to just said well maybe you know we're going

114to have this if you want to stop by it's not a formal invitation and finally with that if there had been a formal invitation for all of us there would have been a sunshine lost situation the opt-out form was mentioned earlier and i brought that up in one of our workshops yesterday and the answer that we were given it was explained that the opt-out form is already on the website but you have to go here there and everywhere to get to it so my suggestion was that we move it closer to the curriculum piece or easier to find and i really think that finding some of the things on our website not that it's not a good website but sometimes finding items can be very tricky and difficult something as important as the opt-out form

115i think it should be front and center so people can easily easily find it again thank you congratulations to mr getz and one second you know someone brought up too about the minutes being behind i know that our staff is like drinking from the fire hose sometimes trying to catch up and we also have been you know affected by illnesses with family members and our staff so i would like to propose someone had mentioned that previously the board staff was able to get help from other parts of the of the district and other divisions that may be a little bit difficult right now because everybody is drinking from the fire hose so i would like to suggest that we even look at hiring a temp or someone just to help us get caught up to

116the point that we are current and make it more manageable for our staff just throwing it out there finally on saturday some of our brave board members and i haven't heard from a few are going to join me at edison mall for their back to school event and between it starts i think it's 12 i think it starts at 12. but from 1 to 3 you will get to see a fashion show beyond all fashion shows and i am i have asked the superintendent to participate and there will be several he hasn't told me yes or no yet so and several other board members and some students and administrators from the school will strut their new school gear and i'll be you know talking about what they're wearing so and they're also going to just

117say what their goal is for the year for the coming school year so it'll be fun there will be other people speaking and other things happening so please come out and support the edison mall and the businesses that are doing this for our students they're also doing a pack the bus event so that they have goods and backpacks and things to give away as well and we have participated in two events outside in the last few days so i do hope the outside events are done thank you very much thank you miss giovanelli thank you thank you for voting to pay my legal fees unfortunately i'm saddened that we had to come to that it was because the whole witch hunt was done by someone on this board so i i can't apologize for their

118actions i can't apologize that i do have to fight for it and i will continue to fight for those that are in the same situation that i was put in we are a public institution and a municipality and i am an elected official who answers to the people even to those who did not vote for me i have read several messages and i have received several calls from employees and retirees from the district about the direction of the district and their desire to see a real change that is so desperately needed after meeting with the superintendent and on a couple occasions i believe he has the capacity and potential to bring this change this change needs to happen not tomorrow it needs to happen yesterday as an elected official we must stand up and promise

119to stand against those who bully and retaliate against our employees if we continue to retire to allow this retaliation against our employees and not report it the misappropriation of funds we do not deserve to sit in these seats and we should be removed remove ourselves from our office i am taking a stand and i promise today i will at every board meeting i will repeat that we need to clean up the district and i will be here for the employees and for the community we should not sit here and make believe that we care about the district and this community and yet not make any changes and do nothing we need positive changes and we are we are here to do just that i'm not going to sit back and see it happen year after

120year retaliation against employees i will be screaming it from the mountaintops in my meetings with the superintendent and after countless conversations with employees we now know that the academic numbers being given to us in the community are a farce while some board members knew this they made it part of their false campaign advertisement and lied to the public dr savage was honest enough and is competent enough to acknowledge those misleading numbers and he desires to bring real change to benefit our students it is important that we dedicate ourselves to improving and making the best district the entire of the entire state and that's my goal as i know that we cannot achieve that goal by sweeping everything under the rug many employees out there are listening to me and i am imploring you to come

121forward and that you can call me or report it to the whistleblower hotline these incidents that are occurring whether you are an educator a bus driver a mechanic a professional a paraprofessional or a secretary you have an obligation to protect the integrity of this district and i promise i will do everything to make sure that your rights are protected i am disappointed to have received a message regarding information that was requested for or an employee that requested assistance last year from board members who ignored his complaint i'm disgusted to learn that the aboard members allowed the previous administration to cover it up for over the violations of state and of our policies and state statutes i promise i'm not like that i want you all to to be heard and i want this district cleaned

122up moving people around and giving them new positions is not always the answer nor does the solution i said that earlier today and i'm going to keep saying it however prior administration has renewed contracts this is not a good solution but those are the circumstances the solution is to be forthcoming and honest to lay it all at the table and bring it the investigators to clear up all these questions doubts and accusations that take and take care of our business and pick up the pieces and move on like a strong district an organization should be doing we have dedicated employees that are not participating in these activities who are impacting negatively daily by the actions of other individuals and these employees are hard working day after day day out in a desire in an environment

123that is not conducive for them our children need the best education possible and they deserve it our community our community leaders and our advocates who come in and plead on the behalf of others and want to see positive change they all deserve to see all this happen so let's do things the way that we should be done should be done let's get down to business let's do what is right i challenge this board to do what is right and hold people accountable thank you thank you miss givenelli miss fisher yes thank you i gave you my comments this afternoon but i do want to say something about marvin getz he and i both taught our first classes in 1960 in new york i've known him for a long time and i'm sorry he's not here

124now because i want to thank him for his persistence and dedication continuously over the years to advocate for substitute teachers or guest teachers to be in our classrooms to support the children during the times that our teachers are otherwise occupied i just want to close with a quote from oprah winfrey you are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself and you're responsible for the energy that you bring to others thank you thank you miss fisher miss patricka so i will i put on the agenda for my next one-on-one with dr savage an organization called better together i'm sure many of you have heard of it is an organization that vets families and does several things one of the things it does is put children with families so that they can avoid being in

125the foster care system they also have a job preparation programs for families and the point is to keep kids out of foster care it is a tremendous i think it's a tremendous association and i was contacted recently to bring it to the superintendent so that we can make the information more widely available to our schools so that they know about the program and it's sort of a go-to thing for them so like i said i you know i got some information i'll be discussing it with the superintendent but i did tell the woman at better together that i would bring it to the table and discuss it with you guys as well or at least let you know it's out there do we have a new leo in the room law enforcement officer in the

126back there sir is this your first time joining us no you look different to me i don't oh well that must be what it is well thank you for being here regard well no mass that's what it is all right you just look different and new to me and i wanted to thank you for being here and i'll thank you even though you're not new so i would like to thank dr savage for recognizing the procedural necessities of pulling j7 i want to beg the board chair to please and i know you'll do this but i because you're very good about this but i want to just bring to your attention travel schedules i have tremendous amount of travel coming up for work and i am not going to be available evenings when i'm in

127other states because my meetings start at seven in the morning and they typically go to eight nine o'clock at night so i just want you to be aware that i've got a lot of work travel coming up and then i also wanted to say that on my agenda for the next one on one with the superintendent i have i've asked to explore why the opt out form is not a part of focus if it was in focus every parent would be required to read it and either choose to opt out or not and that would be a way of putting it in front of every parent in the district those are my comments thank you thank you so much miss vaughn please yeah i have a lot of miscellaneous things here i think i'll start

128first with saying to mrs giovannelli that i'm very glad that you were reimbursed the fees that we that we approved as a board and how very sorry i am that you had to go through that process i also had i didn't have an attorney i spent a long time sending my own responses to ethics commission a couple years ago and it was something generated by actually a staff member and it was quite easily dismissed but we've had way too much of that and i guess negations that we have i know we have spent way too much money on you know and so and some of the investigations are very legitimate but there are others that fall under the old retaliatory culture and it's it's coming from all different directions so it's not just against me

129it's against probably most people on the board from from one end to the other and i really hope that we put all of that to bed and i and i think that one of the ways that this will happen is when we retire the ongoing culture that we have had in not only in this district but the old guard lee county earlier today i referred to it as your grandpa's lee county we are 21 years into this new millennium it's not even the new millennium anymore we are not in the 50s and anymore probably ward cleaver has left the room but he may appreciate that anyway it just has to stop and the whole idea i know we've as as a board we've gone to many trainings and all of you could see how well

130it has worked sarcasm and so i don't want to waste any more money on that where i want to put my time and effort is changing this culture and one of the reasons and i mentioned this be earlier today i want to repeat it one of the reasons that i'm really loving at least preliminarily what dr savage has proposed is because of the priority the very i know we give lip service to priority the schools and the children but it's been my experience as someone who knows what it is to give priority to children having put 38 years into the classroom we're not we're paying more attention to power structure i like dr savage's term of servant leader i have seen too many people in this school district who are not servant leaders they are

131self-serving leaders that needs to stop if it takes ruffling some feathers if it takes some people that don't like it and can't live with it well then maybe the best thing is to leave and find a job elsewhere i don't want to as some of the board members have earlier said they've used the phrases we're losing we're losing human capital we're losing key talent i don't want to lose key talent but i don't want to lose but i do want to lose people that are negative and people who when they don't get their way turn against and try to submerge others that's not being a leader again that's being more self-serving the people that i am most concerned about losing are our teachers and we have lost way too many teachers this year a lot

132of it has to do with the kovit we had a speaker who spoke about the stresses and a lot of teachers that were maybe nearing retirement age i have a good friend that actually two friends that retired a year or two before they had intended to because they had health issues or someone in the family had health issues but it's more than that we've lost teachers because we continue to ignore the professionality and the expertise of our teachers until we have that and that's been something i've been advocating for since the first time i ever ran for school board which was unsuccessful back in well it started in 2015. i really haven't seen an improvement in that we need to reevaluate the training that and and the direction that we're giving to some of our

133school leaders and to make sure that they are valuing these people because as i've said many many times kids and teachers there's a school can you do without a principal yeah you need money but you know what you could sit in the field with a bunch of kids and be their teacher and so let's re-look at our priorities let's also embrace the positive change let's get rid of the retaliation i right now am in direct contact with employees from talc from spouk and even a couple of they're not high level like district administrators but a couple of administrators that have been the victims of retaliation that you know the whole idea of the whistleblower is sometimes not being used in the way that it that it should be okay a little change from from that

134i too you know marvin gatz isn't here right at the moment but maybe he'll listen to the end of this and hear how all of us appreciate him and all the years that he has dedicated to public education as a point he has an excellent point i don't know why we're not paying substitutes more i have talked to a couple friends that talked about subbing in other districts that get paid a whole lot more and the irony is when we don't have enough subs as one of the speakers pointed out how do we cover those classes we take teachers during their planning period and have them cover well the teachers that are pulled out they're paid not on a sub rate they're paid their hourly rate i know when i was a teacher at estero

135frankly i hated to be pulled out because i needed my time more than i needed the extra money not that extra money's not a good thing but when i thought after so many years of teaching how much they were paying me and i think they kind of started avoiding and going for the teachers that didn't have as many years but just think about that and we on the board we don't make that decision it's not something that comes out of hr okay so i think there's a huge irony when we don't have enough subs and we're paying teachers that need their planning time their hourly rate this is a really exciting time of the year i kind of miss even after it'll be my eighth year not teaching and i kind of miss all the

136excitement of searching out the all of the school supplies that are on sale and i still buy some of those i can't help myself for donation already my board colleagues have talked about the backpack events some of us were either out sweltering in the heat and a couple people actually spent two days i know miss jordan did and did you were you there packing a couple people where they're both packing and putting the backpacks into the food and the food into the cars wonderful to see the parents and the children the edison mall event i'm not going to do the fashion thing anyway i know there are other there are other events going on at the same time i am going to be volunteering and thank god it's in air conditioning this time for a

137guardian and lightum of backpacks and finally i'm very very interested in hearing about what ms patrick has said about the better together i'm i'm not familiar with that program i think miss jordan is also a guardian and leiden child advocate we work to advocate for children in the foster care system and i definitely want to know more about that program and if any of you out there going to give this a plug have any extra time in your year-round residence and want to volunteer you should look into even if you have limited time you should look into volunteering with the guardian ad litem program because it's very very rewarding and you will be the voice of the child so thank you thank you miss vaughn miss morgan please briefly open houses start next week august

138fourth middle school august 5th elementary and high schools i also want to i'm sorry marvin getz isn't here i mean he's been a constant factor since i've been on the board and he has worked incredibly hard on behalf of the substitute teachers and he has made a difference in i think in schools in terms of of how they are welcomed into the schools and into the classrooms let's see i would like to celebrate the fact that again the united way of lee county is on the agenda as partnering with us on the reading pals literacy initiative that will be in place for the coming school year using volunteers to improve leading reading and literacy skills of vpk kindergarten and first grade students and they're doing that in nine schools that's a huge lift for us

139and i they just in the past year they've just turned as i've said before they are on this agenda almost every meeting partnering with us either financially or in terms of human resources so thank you i want to thank the fort myers city council for supporting the sro program i know that it it took some doing but i appreciate them partnering with us i would also like to talk about trey davis trey has let us know he spoke to his staff i believe it was last week talking about a move that he was making and i think what is lost in some of the conversations that we've had over the last few days is that this district would not be where it is today in each department that we have without mr davis he came

140in we had talented people we had vision but that but we really needed the oversight of someone who came from the private sector someone who had worked in the business and knew how to put together take the create a vision put together a plan and march step by step financially in terms of enormous savings to the district with respect to changing how we purchase things 40 million dollars grooming his successors he came in with a plan he has executed his plan and he is ready to move on to the private sector i i cannot say and i'm sorry there's not many people here to hear it but human resources a business academics none of these departments would be where we are without the work that was done by that division in terms of technology and

141information systems that is why i have spoken so loudly about the fact that they are they are the network that underlies all of the operations in this district and i think that they are critical and i think we need to continue to recognize their critical role in this district going forward not only that i think about the school district on the east coast that had to pay a substantial sum for after it was hacked so it's not just about what we've done to promote improvements in systems and better use of resources but it's also about the risk prevention steps that he has taken so i just want to celebrate him i am so sorry that he is making this choice to go back to the private sector i am just incredibly grateful that we had

142him for the time we had so thank you mr davis thank you those are my comments thank you miss morgan and i said most of mine this afternoon but when miss morgan just mentioned united way and then we have miss vaughn speaking on the teachers on this coming thursday united way will have christmas in july for the teachers so they're the doors are gonna be open and they can go in and just pick whatever they want so it's gonna be their christmas and i'm excited i'll be there to help them with all of that as well franklin park i know i keep mentioning this franklin park has their they're welcome back august 10th first thing in the morning they are wanting the public to come there and welcome all the children back it's a mardi

143gras theme so bring an umbrella because you're gonna be turning it as the kids walk in and high fiving them or however they you know if they accept that or not but it's always a great morning to see all those kids and they're excited about going in there then they also have and franklin park was also looking for of clothing so if anybody along with guardian and light i'm volunteering for them another plug their franklin park is definitely looking for donations for their children with uniforms any sizes so i'm just going to put a plug out for that i know there's always a need in every school for all of our children that just the community has no idea what they need and maybe that's something that in the future we could have like a

144wish list of what each of the schools need for their children because the need is always so great but i really had said everything and miss gins shared the backpack event so i think you've heard enough from us this evening and i am going to ask mr preet bruno if she has any comments i have none thank you thank you and now i have dr savage thank you very much chair jordan i just want to first start by recognizing marvin getz i know he's not here but i think it bears just a very quick story i would not be sitting here today i would never have done any of the school-based leadership had it not been for the critical role that substitutes played i was in law school in jacksonville and that was what i

145did at night and during the day i worked at a failing school school it was never anything higher than an f in the most crime-ridden most industrial part of jacksonville and because we did not have subs because we could not get substitute teachers to come into the school they had to figure out what else to do there was no one there when a teacher was out and because the conditions are so difficult we were a middle school of around a faculty of 50 and at any given day maybe half the teachers would be absent and so i as a teacher would stand in my room and for a 90-minute block and about two days a week the administrator would come marching in a group of students and sit them down the floor in between my

146desks because there was no room there were no additional desks and so i would sit there and have one group who are my students as well as a whole another group of students who were sitting on the floor and about once a week usually on a monday or friday i'd have a second group of students walked into the classroom and they would sit and so there was just enough room for me to stand at the very front of the room surrounded by two classes of students many of which i didn't know and the students who were my actual students sitting in desks and for 90 minutes what to do and so i can say that i personally experienced as an educator the power of of substitutes they are unsung heroes and it's just a credit

147to marvin and to everyone like marvin who is out there going into our schools and i think on the heels of the pandemic knowing that it was such a terrifying time for so many people how many lives were lost across our entire globe just all the more appreciation for the sacrifices those folks made but i had to share that particular story and so we'll continue to look at those issues always i also want to acknowledge something is that next week our teachers come back preschool i say come back many of them are already there who are we kidding they're they're they're this is when they actually start getting paid for being back and they're there getting ready for the upcoming school year and then the following week our students come back so all of the

148talk we've had today and i just wanted to reiterate that very important moment and that's really what's at the forefront of my thinking you know i highlighted earlier today during the briefing how you know one of the most enjoyable parts for me of this job was when we got to greet all of our new teachers hundreds and hundreds of people who are now going to be joining our team some of which are brand new from other other districts across around the country some who are brand new out of school who are out there just getting ready and getting excited we had some folks who came back to the district i knew some of them because they were former teachers that i even worked with that had left the field all together and came back and

149i mentioned earlier one of them was a highly effective language arts teacher on vam and in in practice so it's an outstanding thing to be able to observe i also had former students that i saw in the line joining the team so that was exciting for me former paraprofessionals who had become teachers it was really awe inspiring for me to see that many folks in their cars getting their onboarding materials and being greeted by such enthusiastic people including a one very sweaty superintendent and just on the point of miss gins if if you have me in a fashion show i feel so bad for the outfit that has to try to carry me that is a heavy tall burden well can i just say there have been requests for the miami vice white jacket heard

150that yeah yeah the governor the governor said no on that one so but all kidding aside you know i really i wanted to take this moment to really refocus on on why we're here and i think it really speaks to why i'm here that's one of the benefits of becoming a superintendent well it's true i'm a part of this governance team and i'm the executive for this team i don't ever lose sight of who i'm here for there's a lot of motivations in being a part of this position while i didn't run for this position i certainly made my intentions known i wrote a letter i applied i was very candid in my interviews i really tried to impress upon everyone that i did not come here just to collect dust and to occupy a

151title unfortunately i would say as a district office really in my opinion the burden is on us every penny we spend for a position here whether it's a leadership position or any support position that's money that isn't in our schools so i carry that burden very seriously i know who i work for and it's really not the board i work for all of you out in the community i work for our children i work for the teachers i work for our school leaders in the thankless job that they have to try to create the conditions every single day where staff and teachers will come to work be supported in their in their unbelievable charge of trying to reach all of our children but i also want them to know that i'm here to also challenge

152just like i expect those principles to do to challenge that staff and make them help them consider how they can be better how can we can reach more children well that's my job here at the district office as well it's a very different challenge tackling it in very different ways but to try to encourage people to look beyond their self beyond whatever their ego is driving beyond whatever their power or their structure dictates and to think what did i do today to make this district better for children what did i do today to allow our schools to be better served because that's who we are here to serve and that is who i am here to serve and so i will continue to do that for every moment that i'm in this position and i

153look forward to bringing items forward using the discretion that i have and certainly operating by the will of this board because i do respect the fact that all seven members beside me were elected they were elected by our community and so they have in in their role a tremendous amount of authority and i am that executive that carries out that will of the board however as i say again i know who i work for and deep down i work for you so please hold me to account continue to challenge me help me learn how i can be better how i can better serve all of us and i encourage every staff member in our building to do it i encourage every leader out in the school whatever i can do to be better for you

154and to help our district better serve you instead of whatever it is that's been going on for quite some time we have a lot of room for improvement i want to be a part of that solution and i certainly don't want to contribute to any of it in a negative way so i'll continue to try to be better so that i can do that effectively so thank you very much for the time for the comments today thank you dr savage our next scheduled meetings of the board on monday august 16th there will be a board workshop at 1pm on tuesday august 17th there will be a board briefing at 1 00 p.m followed by an action meeting at 6 p.m at this point having no further business to come before this body and see a

155new objections this meeting is adjourned thank you and good night have a safe evening you