001okay good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting this school board meeting of march 23rd is now called to order the time is 6 pm we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district vision to be a world-class school system this evening agenda includes the invocation the pledge of allegiance public comments consent items which include for items under board office one of which is a good cause dr atkins please provide an exam an explanation for this one item yeah this item is approvaled appointments for the to the independent sales surtax oversight committee in my understanding it's in a late edition of a name
002that wasn't a part of the agenda and we need to make sure that person is appointed in order to have a quorum on thursday so that's why we're asking it perfect thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this one item to the agenda five items under academic services six items under business services two items under human services one item under information systems 11 items under operations two under two items under public hearings and four items under other business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda i'll move to adjust the agenda as printed thank you miss fisher may i have a second thank you miss morgan please record your vote i'll join them sorry did you say you could not or no no i got it i
003had joined the wrong meeting okay 7-0 motion passes miss kittens will introduce her guests for the invocation after which miss patricka will lead us in the pledge of allegiance miss kittens please introduce your guests for the invocation sorry you're fine okay our guest to do our invocation this evening is pastor juan i'm sorry the reverend juan a gonzalez and he is the president and ceo of the hive community development corporation and he is the lead pastor of beautiful savior lutheran church on richmond avenue and in lehigh acres florida and if you want to say anything else you may and thank you for coming and leading us in vacation will everyone please stand please stand please thank you for this opportunity let us bow our heads as we invoke the presence of the lord in this
004meeting heavenly father we come to you today or this evening at scheme for your guidance wisdom and support as we begin this meeting the meeting of the board of education help us engage in meaningful discussion allow us to grow closer as a group and as a community to nurture the bond of community we ask you to bless us and bless us with your spirit of wisdom as the board discuss our preferred future and shared vision help our school board members and their stewardship illuminate them their work in cooperation for the greater good of our community be with all the parents and teachers and the students and the administration as they continue to deal with this pandemic season father god protecting each of us keeping us all safe and help us as we truly find good
005in all things celebrating our diversity despite our differences and broly steward towards a bright and healthy future we pray all this in the name of the god who created us who redeemed us and who sanctifies us we make our beginning and our thanks in jesus name amen miss patricka please lead us in the pledge of allegiance thank you please be seated okay the next item on the agenda is public comment mrs dupree bruno please address the item of public comment 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 at the back of
006the room if you need a blue card they are located in the hallway outside of the board room the rules concerning public comment are posted at the back public comment will be made from the central microphone in the back please be advised that the board does not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers at the end of the public comment period the board chair ms jordan will address concerns or the assignment of any concerns or requests to the superintendent board policy 1.181 is in effect and requires everyone to wear a mask when on school board property unless you have a medical reason to substantiate reasonable accommodations in addition for the benefit of other speakers we ask that you use the sanitization supplies which are provided near the microphone after you speak for the
007benefit of the next speaker speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on school district issues personal attacks on individuals or abusive language are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing unreasonably loud or and or offensive language swearing cursing or display of temper are prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone for board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers for board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 2 minutes if there are 30 and one if there are 31 or more for board policy 1.11 the maximum time allowed for
008public comment is one hour you will find a countdown of the big screen 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 body please state your name prior to making your comment madam chair there are 11 speakers for this evening thank you before calling on the blue cards is there anyone who wishes to address the board who has not filled out a blue card yet on my left side is there anyone on the right side who wishes to speak who has not filled that one is there anyone back in amb that has not filled out thank you mr free bruno will you please proceed with public comments
009thank you ma'am annette tross back good evening my name is annette trosbach i'm here to speak about lgbtq protections at lee county school district lgbtq protections are a human rights issue statistically speaking every one of us in this room is lgbtq or has someone in their family who is and if they are not out we must ask ourselves why if we refuse to validate their existence and protect them during the school day for many of them the safest place in their lives they will not feel safe and we must not be part of feeding that fear knowing that some students and you will hear from other speakers to provide statistics today about the unstable and supportive and dangerous home environments that some lee county lgbtq students are facing would you would any of us wish
010to be responsible for outing them it's a human rights issue indeed the national education association and the aclu are very clear on this issue they say that students have the right not to be compelled to provide personal information to school officials and school officials may not disclose personal information about a transgender student without the student's consent including information about the students sex assigned at birth medical history gender identity or gender transition students should not and must not be outed by their school again often the safest place in our students lives thank you arlene goldberg my name is arlene goldberg and i'm also here to talk about lgbt rights all young people have the right to a safe and affirming environment at school for trans youth who are often in fear of bullying and the challenges
011of being outed a safe environment in school is needed students have a right to have their affirmed name and pronouns used in school parents have the right to review their child's record that lists their firm name and pronoun if they are at school this could out the student to their parents though the student's right is protected by the title ix in the education amendments act of 1972 and this is a federal law confidentiality young people understand their families best and know when it is the right time to share information regarding their identity there is research that shows high levels of lgbtq family rejection equals extremely high rates of depression suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide for many kids it may be that their parents and families serve as good safe ways to share their personal information
012but for some and even many sharing that information with their family could result in abuse it is important that the district work with the youth and parents if the parent is involved to determine whether the youth is private or public about their identity it's also essential to know that too many children may not be out to their parent because they know that if they were it would cause risk and possibly even being picked out of their home so every care must be taken to allow the youth to lead safe stickers all students deserve a safe classroom or safe office space with adults often the only way to signal this to lgbtq youth and youth of all genders and orientations is a visual poster or sticker if a child is not out at school and many
013many are not seeing visual support is a critical component for lgbtq kids increasing their safety and ability to learn thank you frank guerino frank guerino representing a an organization called college bound it's a group that has coaching with regards to basketball to showcase these young people from third grade on up it's been in operation for a number of years here especially in the cape area this particular group that i'm representing i have had for three years and due to the core operation of lee county schools we had a venue of where we prepared and got ready for tournaments to showcase these young men however when the pandemic arrived we like everybody else was shut down at that time as a coach i chose to just hold it and maybe just wait and carry on like
014nothing happened when the pandemic started to ease and a number of businesses individuals and so forth were getting back to operation we were waiting to get our gym back a coach one time had reached out for us and on february 13th he gave us a gin by the 15th we were thrown out again and the reason was because of the virus i am now coaching 15 young men who were at one time 20 fold and they're on a cement slab in a public park having to deal with the elements that are going to happen now i understand that we've had the cooperation of lead county schools it wasn't something that we just initiated we were already in operation i'm not asking for anything more but to be equal is the rest of the beaches the
015pubs the restaurants and that maybe make a concession and give us a venue so that i don't get phone calls from parents who invested time and money like last night and pulled his kid because he's not going to pay so much money to have him go on a cement slab safety factors heat lightning now i am just asking you that if we can have our gym back and be fair it was applied to businesses individuals apply it to us i appreciate you giving me this opportunity thank you misty bruckner hi my name is misty bruckner and i come for you today basically to thank you for the workshop that was held yesterday for the lgbtq community my daughter is transgender and last year going through the school system and some of the advocacy that i
016had to do for her it was very confusing everybody was not on the same page and i actually got to meet with mr bradley to kind of advocate for my child within the school district and to make some changes and i it makes me very happy that this workshop was done yesterday the one thing that i still am struggling with is the fact that my daughter has a gender marker of female on her driver's license and she also is considered female with the social security office however when i come down to the district office to try to change her gender marker i was denied and said that on her birth certificate it would need to say female which is very disappointing because we come from wisconsin and unfortunately you know a lot of the laws
017have not caught up with today's society and in the state of wisconsin you need to have gender reassignment surgery in order to change your gender marker on the birth certificate so here we are it's one step in the right direction and i just wanted to say thank you for addressing the population and helping to make the school a better and safe place for our kids stephanie brooks hi my name is stephanie brooks i apologize for not having to prepare remarks but i'm also in agreeance with misty so we're very excited to see if you guys are having that workshop the more information that's out there and things that are reviewed the education is there i think that our teachers will be feeling better equipped and feel that the district is supportive i didn't have a
018chance to completely review it so i apologize for that too but i know that the stickers of safe places was something that was being discussed as far as i understand now that is not currently allowed by teachers but i'm not really sure on that i do hope that that will be allowed currently allowed i personally when i work with teams specifically wear a lanyard that has the pride flag on there because i want to make sure that no matter what they're dealing with in the mental health field that i'm working in that i'm somebody that is safe for them to talk to and i feel like that sign of visibility is very important especially to young people to know who is supportive and who they can talk to because their world is still not an
019entirely safe place we are getting better but it's not all the way there yet so they may not feel safe at home or even to come out to their friends but being in an environment where they can feel that they're teachers and their staff members and there's offices where they feel that they can talk to them having that visibility i think is very important so i'm not sure what training that people have to undergo to be able to do that i think that's also important that they you know they just they have some sort of credibility that we know that if they have a sticker that they're gonna be able to handle those students that come in but i do feel that at a basic level that we do want some sort of visibility so
020they know that they who they can go to to feel safe because that's not always available to them so i hope that everybody takes the training seriously and utilizes it to the best for their students so thank you mercedes price harry hello hello long time no see i got a full-time job so i'm a little busy i wanted to start by saying thank you to miss patricka and miss kittens i find that every time i watch you guys are just rolling out the questions wanting to know what wanting to know more wanting to dig and so i appreciate it even when it doesn't make you popular that's when we need to stand the most firm and just know that while it may seem that everyone is against you at different times this goes for each
021of you stand on principle and just stand for what you believe in and thank you for being advocates for those of us that have maybe opinions that others don't like or don't want to hear i just wanted a side note point out that i had tuned into the construction advisory committee and i got a kick out of the gentleman that brought up so they were the construction advisory committee was being lectured about not having enough women as a woman i can tell you and as a mom i'd much rather have a construction advisory committee that a hired lee county companies and b wanted to hire people that knew what they were doing and were really good at what they were doing no matter what type of gender they were born with or chose identified with
022anyhow i just wanted to commend that person for pointing out that 39 of all small businesses are owned by women so we don't necessarily need a construction advisory board that has 50 50 women especially when you're advocating for reaching outside of lee county to fill a box to literally check a box all right thank you for parental feedback you guys are always asking us for information and we appreciate you coming out to the community i was going to suggest maybe an online survey to help so that you don't have to drag your employees out in the middle of the night for the nine of us that show up to the different zoning committees and all the different community events that you guys host i do want to say to everyone here the board and everyone
023in the room and anyone that's listening that if you are lgbtq you are so blessed to live in lee county and to have this school board because when i spent the seven hours yesterday while working and running kids and doing laundry trying to understand what you guys do as a district for the lgbt community i was blown away spend the first 45 minutes of yesterday morning's workshop listening and understanding what this district has done for the lgbt community it is unbelievable we're talking about lawyers committees forms posters stickers laws from local and county all the way up to the state and federal i mean my goodness we love our lgbt community and i appreciate all that you do for them i do want to say that when it comes to validation and feeling welcome it's
024an awkward time to be in middle school in high school i tell you that as someone with a big nose a big afro and a very awkward teen time where i got bullied but this district clearly supports its lgbt community look to your family and look to yourselves thank you danny thank you daniela dye hey everybody i wanted to talk to you about a few things today one of the things is that the website still doesn't have the meetings posted i know i spoke with miss stillwell and she was going to work on that they have to jump through hoops to actually get to where the meetings are listed the word of the month is definitely courage and i've seen a lot of it over the last few days just like miss mercedes i have
025a full-time job and it is exhausting to keep up with the meetings and go through all of the information that's posted i have to say that i could call myself a principal thankful for you guys for letting me take my kids out of the school district because it's an embarrassment to watch and be a part of what it is that you guys still have a part of you guys are still supposed to be the designated office that takes care of if my school for my children what i educate my children as is qualified and meets the state standards and you can't manage it very well so i'm glad i pulled them out i'm glad i'm principal and i'm speaking to you today as a principal of three children i'm calling on you guys to get
026it together to stop bickering to actually set an example because you want to be examples and leaders for the state but you're not doing a good job in your district itself the bickering is ridiculous it seems like at this point i don't know if you've heard the saying with all due respect actually is kind of like a not so much it seems like at this point for the children is coming up as a word that basically means my personal agenda i'm gonna say for the children and you guys all have to back down because that's our safe word i can't do anything without saying for the children it actually just means that when you want to say something for your own personal agenda and what it is that your committee subcommittee and your leading is
027for so let's stop doing that let's have the courage to stop doing that and actually do what we're supposed to do here other people are not being represented i would have to say that it was discussed during the meetings that 18 of students in the state of florida are lgbtq what percentage of the students are black brown migrant workers all the people that we're supposed to be sitting here getting the representation for that we've struggled in a minority majority school district miss kittens we have sat here for the last i don't know six years i'm in the school district working on a majority of not our minority that we need to actually represent so let's focus on the bigger percentage no not one person should be left behind but we do have federal state local
028and school district policies guidances and things in place the funny thing is the same things that were brought up for our lgbtq community in the meeting are the same laws regulations that were brought up in our school district lawsuit that were deemed ineffective they were deemed to not be representative of what it is that we needed for everybody to get a education so i don't understand how people can choose their identity their gender their name their personal pronoun but not choose their medical freedom to actually speak with a medical professional and wear a mask also i would like to say that the property that we're working on selling is to love thank you jeremy brown hello my name is jeremy brown and i'm the owner and founder of flick mode athletics flip mode athletics is
029a local minority-owned cheer and dance company that specializes in sidelining game day training camps choreography and year-round consulting we are currently partnering with the city of fort myers at the stars complex to run their tumbling and recreational cheer programs i personally have 15 years experience both as an athlete and industry professional i am safety and skill certified through usa chair usasf which is united states all-star federation to which i sit on the regional board in waikato which most of us may be familiar with local popcorn my goal is to bring a competitive name for the cheer programs in lee county this past season we hosted several summer training camps and routine choreographies excuse me and routine choreographies resulting in top three finishes at the state cheerleading championships i'm coming to you guys to speak today
030about being the sole provider it was brought to my knowledge by several of the high school coaches and their dissatisfaction with uca doing the mandatory district-wide camps by doing so you guys will be not only hiring high school students that i've trained myself but also bringing in a business to lee county i've also which i'll bring down put together a pamphlet and a packet which outlines my services versus uca also has some client testimonials in our current summer camp packet lori fahey good evening i'm lori fahey if the board spent their own money the way they're spending our tax dollars they'd all be living in tents the board has completely gone rogue ignoring your responsibility for our children and the community while ignoring your own risk board policies board policy 1.11 states that formal action
031shall be taken by the board only at regular and special meetings and public hearings spending 75 million to build a pre-k 8 on 3 oaks parkway which was a new location was never voted on or approved at an action meeting that might be why the public was unaware spending forty thousand to investigate this board was not either this was brought up at public comment or i'm sorry good cause during a workshop your consensus votes don't count the votes need to be during an action meeting where the discussion is and i have to say that meeting also violated all sunshine and by the cryptic manner that you were discussing the investigation you need to follow your rules and your policy all aboard can do is self-investigate and audit to try to improve themselves once enough information
032is found that an infraction has occurred board members are bound by statute to self-report to the state the governor's office will then investigate the board this is free no charge to the taxpayers this board and district must get to the business of educating and protecting our children now tonight is the time for you to vote to have the governor's office investigate this board's waste fraud and abuse thank you please do so melissa hatter hi i'm melissa hatter when the superintendent and board ignored all solid evidence we provided of a falsified audit employee involvement in ein fraud mr probation booster funds district employee misconduct and retaliation against multiple families and their children illegal raffles and three fabricated retaliation investigations that resulted in the superintendent's wrongful dismissal of the claims which promulgated the continuation of retaliation and
033created a hostile learning environment for several children i quoted statute and policy during the external investigation requiring the external investigation of complaints involving the superintendent or internal auditor which the board denied and then had the audacity to cite the same yesterday to justify spending twenty to forty thousand dollars for an external investigation of an unsecured text you cannot pick and choose which laws to abide by and when you can't choose who to advocate for based on your personal feelings or agendas please explain how investigating if a text was shared is more important than claims involving retaliation and several illegal activities yesterday mrs jordan stated that you could choose to do nothing or spend the money and put the matter to rest you voted to spend money investigating a claim that lacks the vast amount of
034documented proof that we provided which has been ignored please provide us with resolution hold the responsible parties accountable and report the misconduct fraud faulty falsified reports and conduct an external investigation audit report the superintendent's negligence to do so himself after he's had nine months to do what is morally ethically and legally right the newspaper quoted him as saying what sticks with him from psalms 121 is that god is watching over you amen he is dr atkins yesterday your constituents heard that discrediting a fellow board member is more important than several children and their families confirmation of this fear priorities came two weeks ago when a board member stated public records requests allow incriminating information to be omitted yet supported spending tax dollars in defense of these allegations that the board member just publicly admitted the
035district as guilty of two weeks ago dr edmund stated members of his staff will be calling me since mr brown and mr simmons repeatedly refused to respond i haven't heard it from anybody and it's been two weeks this is the continuing retaliation and stonewalling that i'm talking about that none of you will do your jobs and do something about please courtney mcgirt so i would really like to get to a place where i could have dinner with my family on every other tuesday night just wanted to point that out a former member of the cypress lake high school athletic booster club i'd like to start by saying that attorney bruno has been a truth seeker in this process and has been helpful in the limited capacity that she could be but at the end of
036the day this leads me back to the board and this process we've been respectfully following since the district has failed us at last public comments ms jordan mentioned that the doe and the oig had reviews reviewed our case and closed it actually they sent both cases back to district and i will say even miss bruno's review saw the many flaws of the district's investigations so at yesterday's meeting it included discussions around whistleblowing hearsay law enforcement external investigations retaliation and concluded with a path towards a forty thousand dollar investigation of an incident just to be clear on what happened we have been coming to you for over eight months regarding misappropriation of community donated funds for student athletes provided evidence of several fraudulent activities and policy violations and district investigations tax fraud four children and their
037parents involved in retaliation and slander and really nothing has changed no answers about the money in fact the situation's worse right no accountability for the employees or the volunteers involved and no resolutions for a path forward why i'm having a difficult time understanding how the district or the school board has resolved the ongoing booster club issues throughout lee county by fixing a handbook that already existed let me be clear we knew about the handbook the handbook is good the accused knew about the handbook administration knew about the handbook it was all disregarded that's why we came to the district and that's why we're here in front of the board governance issues are what led to the principle informing the booster club that they could no longer fundraise in the name of the school is what
038attorney bruno's letter states actually the reason given to the booster club members in a letter for dissolution was covet so it didn't mention misappropriation tax fraud governance issues whatever you want to wrap this up to be i encourage you find out what happened at cypress lake high school and you will know what to look for in other schools and how to save other booster clubs show this community that you want transparency and trust with them thank you kelly faire hello my name is kelly feyer and i'm here to speak about the lgbtq population i am so proud to to be here at this at this meeting and i want to first say that i am looking forward to a time under your leadership where maybe i'm not coming here to talk about weather we assist
039these very special students to feel safe and secure and valued when they go to school i look forward to the time though that we talk only about how how will we make them feel safe how will we make sure that their education is not impacted based on their treatment make sure that their mental health is suffering and make sure that they never have a suicidal thought because of how things are going in school the one thing that i would like to ask you is that before making any concrete decisions about whether to change policies regarding pronouns or or safe safety stickers or confidentiality that you speak to the folks that know these consequences that have lived these consequences and the people who have run organizations responsible for picking up the pieces year after year of
040children who feel broken i said earlier that it is such a privilege for me to be here while i feel that the law is pretty clear that you know we are required to treat these students equally and with value it just is wonderful that we have this opportunity to come forward and share our thoughts i don't know i don't know if there is any member of the lgbtq community who is a student who might hear this but what i want to say to you if you can is that every single person that i have spoken with about these issues they want to see all of our students treated with respect thank you ma'am thank you very much madam chair there are no more public comments thank you okay first of all i want to say
041that we want to make sure that every child whether they are lgbtq plus minorities majorities we want to make sure that every child and teacher is treated with respect and dignity that's the main thing regardless of who we are i want to thank you know miss annette mr lee miss misty this stephanie and ms kelly for being here and speaking we did have the training yesterday it was for information so that we would be apprised of what is actually going on we also have a diversity department who is continuously doing training with our teachers with us and we have people who come in and speak so this it is a continuous effort for all of us to to learn to grow and i just want to i thank you for for being here today mr
042guarano i believe that mr dr savage spoke with you already regarding college bound i seen him back there with you miss mercedes it's always a pleasure having you here thank you for your comments and miss die i hear you we all we hear what you say and thank you mr brown there is maybe dr atkins could we have somebody share with mr brown the way that we go through procurement doctors working with the district dr pruitt has his information okay perfect so we'll make sure you understand how that all works and thank you for being here miss fahey i hear you i appreciate you coming and sharing miss hatter and miss mcgurk the reason that i s stated what i stated regarding the department of education and the it's based on a letter and the
043oig and i received a copy regarding that and it said that this matter is considered closed by the florida department of education and if you need any further assistance to please let them know i was basing my comments on what i received from them on this matter so i know rsm still has the other information that we had sent to them but i just want you to know that's what i was basing my words off of the email that was sent from the state gordon it's my understanding that staff also has been working on a follow-up communication with her and it's currently under legal review she should get communicated with probably no later than tomorrow staff has responded to on the 26th of february and on march 5th and then this one will come out
044tomorrow thank you that was for miss hatter or mr hatter miss hatter okay thank you and we want to make sure that your kids are safe and that you're we don't want anybody being harassed by anything so please know that but that's what that's the information that i had so that's why i stayed at what i stated and then as soon as rsm gives us more information i'll be more than happy to share that with you with the two of you okay so thank you so much our next item will be on the agenda is the approval of the action items the document and 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
045have 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 this action agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business one item k11 the approval to pursue the sale of acres 10.43 acres of ben c pratt six mile cypress parkway fort myers florida 339 112. thank you miss patricka no thank you miss fisher no i have none this evening thank you thank you miss kittens none thank you thank you miss vaughn i have none thank you miss morgan i have none and i have none is there a motion to approve the agenda consent action items with the exception of the k11 i
046move that we approve the action agenda items under consent except for k11 thank you second miss miss fisher second please record your vote okay 7-0 motion carries okay okay so we have k11 to address which is the approval to pursue the sale of 10.43 plus at 14701 ben c pratt six mile cypress parkway fort myers florida three three nine one two dr atkins please read your recommendations for the poll item the recommended action is approval to pursue the sale of 10.43 plus or minus acres of the 34.85 plus or minus acre parcel the school board property located at one four seven zero one ben c pratt six mile cypress parkway fort myers also known as strap number 25-45-24-0 to seagate development group llc and gross amount of 2 million 271 653 subject to final actual
047property conveyance calculated via certified survey at five dollars per square foot approval authorizes superintendent execute all documents thank you is there a motion to adopt dr atkin's recommendation i move that we adopt dr atkins recommendation for k-11 thank you mrs fisher can i have a second thank you miss morgan okay the item has been moved in second is there any discussion miss giovanelli thank you i actually sent you two sale items of the aldi's which is across the street and also pop golf that's across the street from this property and both of those sold for fourteen dollars one sold for all they sold for fourteen dollars twelve dollar fourteen dollars and twelve cents per square foot versus ours that we're selling for five dollars and in 2019 and pop golf sold in 2018 for 14.48
048under that this is five dollars is not the current market this is actually it's actually worth about 22 a square foot but i would be more acceptable to something that's in this range and i know that the listing realtor sent us comps but they sent us comps that were down the road on sync on elico and that are not even a comparison these are exactly across the street and i can't support selling something for five dollars a square foot when it clearly the same kind of property sold actually smaller sold for way more that the property is too valuable and i think we need to be very frugal and we need to be capitalizing on the real estate market right now it's very strong and i don't think it's in our best interest to even
049sell it i would rather see them go back to the drawing board and get a letter of intent that is in this price range and i would be more minimal to approve that something like that more like that on the agenda at this time and i've sent it to everybody so everybody has the same information it's actually sold comps what we were sent were actually listings that are not even sold yet so these are actual sold cops and i think it's important that we be the oversight that we're elected to do thank you madam chair yes please dr atkins it's my understanding that the what we're talking about two different things we have developed land versus undeveloped land so the developed land being quoted on the one and undeveloped on the other but regardless i
050think that you know i have zero problems with getting questions answered that we're providing that email if it's if it's more comfortable for the board for me to pull this item and then come back after those questions are answered i'm absolutely fine to do that as a as our staff thank you dr arkins miss miss vaughn i'm agreeing with mrs giuvenelli on this actually i brought this up yesterday it wasn't my original question but i contributed to the discussion on this yesterday because i live very close to this area and passed by it for years and i have seen an incredible amount of development in this area i mean it just it went from there's nothing on this road a couple years ago to all kinds of building and i believe if if you look
051at the trends of building you'll see you know if one person one housing unit or commercial property goes in and all of a sudden everything is picking up in reaction so i'm not going to be supporting this because i really do feel i felt this way yesterday but i didn't have the expertise to know how to go about finding square footage with all due respect to the presenter i feel like when we have these kinds of things brought to us as a board we should have some solid information and that goes beyond oh well we can't do appraisals and and again i'm not an expert miss givenelli that's her career and hadn't sold a house in a long time but yeah the it's the comps are the seller they're they're not you know what somebody
052has for a list price and i think if i had that kind of money i'd put it down on on on this and hold on to it so i really like dr atkins offer to table it and then come back with really good solid information because right now i do not feel comfortable voting on something for five dollars a square foot and then finding out that the person or the company that bought it from us or maybe the realtor who's going to invest in it a year from now is selling it for 15 dollars a square foot we so i would love to take dr atkins up on his offer to table it for this meeting okay do we have any other discussion if not oh miss kittens well just i agree with first of
053all the pull and accepting dr atkins proposal to wait and get more information thank you so if i may then could we please take a hand vote on who would like to have the item pulled from miss dupree bruno you have a motion on the floor so you have to address the motion so the motion is on the floor for us to adapt so who is for for us to move forward with it miss morgan yeah i'm just offering to table the item for let's say 30 days or so that's fine yeah no second if we need a second so do we have a second for the table i just said huge second i'm sorry miss kittens okay all in favor of tabling for 30 days 7-0 thank you both and thank you miss kittens
054i didn't hear you over here okay next is public hearings dr atkins please present your recommendations for this evening's public hearing items sheriff okay i'd like to recognize someone first from the consent agenda thank you i'm so sorry did i miss that i believe we have melissa zimmer here curriculum and instructional innovation secondary from district content specialist to coordinator teaching and learning and melissa i apologize i have all these color codes i am so sorry i do i definitely don't want to overlook you now dr atkins all right first item approval to revise policy 5.29 managerial discipline guidelines for transportation employees in compliance with changes in related rules regulations statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of the adoption shall be march 24th 2021. the next hearing approval to
055adopt the 2021 2022 2023 exceptional student education policies and procedures sp and p in compliance with the changes in related rules regulation statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be march 24 2021 thank you we will now recess the regular school board meeting and open the public hearing as indicated the public hearing this evening is to consider approval to revise policy 5.29 mandatory discipline guidelines for transportation employees and compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of the adoption shall be march 24th 2021 approval to adopt oh that's the first one oh and the second one would be approval to adopt 2020 2020 and 2021 through 2022 2023 exceptional student education
056policies and procedures in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be march 24 2021 at this time the public will be invited to speak on these two items the time allowed for comments is three minutes is there anyone on my left side that wishes to speak on any of these two items is there anyone on their right side that wishes to speak on either of these items is there anyone in the background thank you okay i will now close the public hearing and reconvene the regular school board meeting of march 23rd 2020. dr atkins please reinstate your recommendations for this evening's public hearing items a first item approval to revise policy 5.29 managerial discipline guidelines for
057transportation employees and compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes thank you so you've heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approves to revise policy 2.9 manager discipline guidelines to for transportation employees in compliance with changes in related rules regulation and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be march 24th 2021. is there a motion to approve miss vaughn thank you i'm moved to approve the superintendent's recommendation thank you miss vaughn may i have a second please you have a question from i just wanted to make sure that it's noted that it's board policy 5.29 5.29 yes that's correct thank you miss kittens any discussion no okay cnn please record your vote okay and it's six two one motion carries the second is
058you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board adopts the 2020 2020 2021 through 2022 the 2023 exceptional student education policy and procedures and compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be march 24th 2021. is there a motion to approve i'll move that we approve dr atkins recommendation to adopt the 2020 2021 22 23 exceptional student education policies and procedures thank you mr fisher may i have a second miss morgan thank you any discussion please see a nun would you please record your vote okay 7-0 motion carries next on the agenda is our board member comments and i am going to start off with miss giovannelli please i really don't have anything other than what i
059brought up earlier this evening or yes today regarding and i thank you for pulling this dr atkins the property and getting going back to the drawing board hopefully on that but i just want to talk a little bit about what happened yesterday and i think that as a board we really are going to have to work hard and doing better it really should be about the kids whether some people think that because it really is so i'm just going to leave it with that this evening i the it's been a rough couple days so thank you miss steven ellie miss morgan all right so i'm playing i'm changing changing it up okay so just wanted to mention that item g2 transio is we're we're signing a contract with transio that will allow us to manage
060a database of business partners and advisors for the purpose of connecting them with students interested in work based learning experiences so i think this is a big step in creating a better cooperation between the business community the school district in terms of providing good opportunity good working opportunities for students and then in the same similar vein g5 amendment three is for the re-allocation of funds for summer and extended learning opportunities for a grant we will be able to recoup the costs for face-to-face extended day tutoring again we're doing our best as a district to put resources where they're needed in order to address some of the gaps and learning delays as a result of the code situation i am going to make a number of comments tonight so you're going to have to indulge me
061please we have a policy 1.11 that does not tolerate improper conduct at school board meetings disrespectful comments etc it's a shame we can't reject correspondence from members of the public who address and or refer to staff and board members in the same fashion if you believe that relentlessly lying vitriolic comments or the harassing and bullying staff and board members will change district leadership you are sadly mistaken yes you impact the morale of a group of people who work tirelessly to deliver the best possible i said it ms ms gittin sent out an her powerpoint from our last meeting and i said in my i said that i would respond to her in kind with my reflections on her comments and so i'm going to offer that at this time two weeks ago board member gittins
062made another plea for members of the board to share her concern about the number of portables located in the east zone she underscored the gravity of the situation by sharing data supporting her belief that the inequity is being perpetuated against that community it has become her jeremiah i have listened carefully and respectfully at length but the data presented then was in service to a belief that a grave inequity has been and continues to be perpetuated on members of the east zone community and it speaks to intent by past governance teams ms gitton suggests that the board members and staff are not responsive to her pleas she insinuates that we do not do our job on behalf of district students and staff as a court board and governance team prior to her arrival and that we
063continue to ignore their need the picture she paints is black and white without the nuance and color that context provides other facts and data all placed in the context of external threats economic and legislative are required to tell the full story so i for one regret but do not apologize that from boom to bust the population growth in lehigh continued to time when we had to make when we had to significantly reduce capital investment and when we were required to make essential capital investments in health and safety to meet the needs of all so here's some context for those members of the public that we're trying to educate about this situation after 2009 difficult recommendations to use portable seats were made by staff and superintendents and approved by previous boards in response to a dramatically
064declining capital revenues as the need for new student seats continued to climb decisions were made with the expectation that while new students were provided seats and portables during the great recession portable seats eventually would be replaced by brick and mortar when funds became available and portable replacement construction was authorized by the state just fyi purchased portable seats by state definition or student seats seats that cannot be replaced by brick and mortar until the life end of that particular portable three people sitting at this board table miss fisher miss patricka and me in 2017-18 worked extremely hard to prove to the public that we could act cohesively decisively and responsibly and execute executing our fiduciary responsibilities to the community we placed the sales tax referendum on the ballot worked extremely hard with staff and business partners
065to explain the need for additional capital dollars at the head of our list our new our needs list was new schools primarily in lehigh our hard work and that of district leadership was rewarded with passage of the november 18 sales tax referendum a referendum that ms kittens did not support i repeat ms kittens campaigned against the referendum and against the interests of the east zone in so doing immediately work began on developing internal capacity for planning and management of the promised projects essentially reconfiguring the entire capital plan and our five-year capital budget the 2018 board the board at this table oversaw this work in 2019 and supported the recommendations of the superintendent and his staff in the past three years over 150 million in sales tax funding has been spent across the three zones on
066maintenance technology and on safety and security and new construction has taken place in lehigh lehigh senior gateway lambs expansion at varsity lakes we are committed the staff is committed to expediting the use of sales tax dollars as promised to the community and is overseen by isak we are told the community is not being engaged in the process for school development board members have received information and education about historic and revised policy and process for site selection and community engagement changes have been made and yet the process continues to be misrepresented and challenged for lack of transparency we have staff working extremely hard and multiple divisions to best meet the needs of students and staff as capital dollars are allocated they are demoralized by expressions of distrust and lack of respect for their work i hope
067staff is preparing a thorough accounting of their work on behalf of students in rebuttal to comments made if we are going to be transparent to our constituents they are entitled to a complete set of facts and those are my comments thank you thank you miss morgan miss vaughn okay i wasn't going to offer any comments this evening but i feel like given what miss morgan just stated that i have to as she calls it a rebuttal one of the most grievous sins to me is the sin of hypocrisy i feel like hypocrisy is the root of much much of the ills of this world and certainly the ills of this school board there are a couple of members on this school board that consistently point fingers at a couple of us and i'm i'm one
068of them that's targeted that we're demoralizing staff by asking questions that we're not thankful that we're not appreciative it's bs i for one and i know at least another one of the members here i was a teacher for 38 years including eight years at estero high school and i can tell you that i worked darn hard at that school and i ran for school board not to show how clever i am not to show how much legal expertise i have not to brag about how many schools i've visited or people that i've had meetings with i ran for this school board because i saw things that could be improved and that's what i have been working for i'm so tired of hearing and one of the speakers today said this when when you say it's
069for the children and it's usually in that manner that it said with the implication that some of us because we ask questions are not for the children again it's bs because we have cleared that up on this board that everybody here is for the children but we choose to manifest it in different ways i don't bring these things up but i'll tell you what when i am pushed i'm going to respond and i'm going to say that it's very nice to pin a medal on yourself for 2018 and say well miss kittens didn't support something i didn't come out and actively support it either and yet the public saw something in each of us that they wanted to see here on the board it's it's very convenient when this could have brought been brought up
070the sales tax in 2016. oh but that was an election year and there were a couple of us a couple about a year and a half or so ago i think miss fisher was one of them that we wanted to see a way that we could through local funding that we could increase taxes so that our teachers that we wouldn't have to scrape to get our teachers more money but guess what that didn't fly and who were the major people against it oh the people who were running for election so if you want to put it down that way there are arguments on on both sides work conducively i remember some of the people who talk about the most getting along are the people that have a history of writing complaints about fellow board members
071working collegially the same people that give little digs to those of us that are that are targeted and again if i'm pushed i'm going to push back and i'm not going to sit here and take the insults and take those who think that they're holier than now to give me maybe tutorials on robert's rules now i'm probably out of line with some of the things i've said and frankly it's me and i'm talking from my heart i have a few scribbles written down here and i hadn't planted saying anything but when we've just been talking about this very topic and we have a vitriolic speech against one of the other board members how is that making things better it's not it's making things worse so y'all think before you speak because none of us sitting
072here on the board are saints and we're all going to screw up from time to time and we're all going to say things that maybe we regret but to have a prepared speech against a board member that's that's why we have the problems that we have today thank you thank you ms patricka i thought i already said no thank you no thank you thank you miss kittens you say that with trepidation wondering what i'm going to say thank you thank you very much we are living in a gotcha society and again i was not going to address this but i feel that i at least need to i my report last week was not an insinuation it was fact i used data that was given to me given to all of us from the hard-working
073staff that compiled it and i did give them credit for that i look at things differently and i honestly feel that's why i guess i have been placed in this position because i do look at things differently and in 130 years i don't know if you have seen this district from my eyes from my view and i feel that's why i'm here to help you see and understand what you've never seen because you've never experienced you've never felt you've never been accused of doing things that you haven't done to put it simply there is a certain privilege on this board that i don't have and that i have never had and i will not have but a plethora of our students don't have it either a plethora of our employees don't have it either and
074i need you in whatever way i can do it is to understand something that you have not experienced someone accused me a couple weeks ago of playing the race card and i said oh no i have it in my pocket but i have not placed it on the table yet when i need to i will the insinuations the cutting me off the insinuating that i don't know what i'm doing or whatever and how how could i take this information and do that i took information that staff gave me and i looked at it through these eyes and through this experience and through this life walk and when you look at things the way i do you may see them differently and i beg you to listen to me i'm trying to help you understand and
075i know you will continue to say if you just stay in your lane and shut up you'll be fine i have one and a half years and i have no idea if i'll be sitting here again but if i'm only sitting here during that time i will continue to say the same thing because as i look at the data you give me that's what i see you see something different we are in the business of education that's why i'm here to educate all of you and i hope you passed the test i hope you can look at those children when you go to the schools and see them smiling and come back and talk about all the wonderful things but do you really know what's in that soul do you really know why that child's
076not achieving do you really know what they see when they go home do you really know what it means when they turn on try to turn on their computer and they can't get on because they don't have enough connectivity and they want to do it they're not lazy but they can't get to it listen and learn and if in the next two years somebody sitting here doesn't look like me or doesn't look like someone that's hispanic or like the 60 percent of our majority minority district you still will have the responsibility of having been told and just like it says in the bible if you don't know something it's one thing but once you hear you are responsible you're all responsible my question about the data that i gave and trust me i had one
077board member say well how did you find all of that out i said i stayed up day and night looking at the material and saying there's something here we're not seeing and i did the figuring myself i did not have someone give it to me i did not have someone do it for me but i did pass it by some very intelligent people that don't look like me and say look go through these numbers make sure i'm seeing this right i did not want to present something that was delusional or demoralizing and maybe just maybe staff could say to me well how did you figure it that way let's sit down and talk about it maybe there is another way we can look at this but instead i was pooh-poohed how dare you do that
078how dare you question how dare you badger this hard-working staff i used facts from you i looked at it through my eyes and gave it back to you and you closed your eyes because it was me giving it to you that was not what i needed to say tonight but i had to i have a couple of things and i'm actually going to end on something happy but first of all on yesterday in that whole situation with the gotchas and the investigations and i know and i can't i can't say that there was some things and what someone said but it's not going to come out right so since i've been on the board there's certain people that are just looking for something i smell something and i know it's somewhere around her going back
079for just a moment to what i said about teaching you staff members and board members i have been looking like this for many years and it brings with it a certain discernment and understanding of people don't think that i don't see even through the masks the looks the disgust the size i wish she would just shut up i'm not going to i will go down for the fight so yesterday with all the things about investigation and i said and i will stand by it that if this board chose to go down the route of spending taxpayer money to investigate us then i would follow up and contact the governor i'm in the process of working with someone now to write that letter about the waste fraud and abuse oh can i talk about abuse and
080all of the investigations in the gotchas it may not even get any further than you know on his secretary's desk but i'll feel better about it because i would have sent it to someone else that maybe they understand maybe miss patricka as our liaison in the estero project several months ago i think you were voted into that and i really would like to hear some updates from you not from the staff and your choice to either give it to us verbally or send us something in an email miss morgan i understand and i've gotten communication from several people several people that you are working very hard and very diligently on the impact fee situation for the district and i appreciate you doing that however i would also like for you to please update the board
081on your work with the county commissioners and the lpa the lead planning agency on what is happening with the impact fees and let's see what else miss jordan you apologize to me today i would be less than gracious to say thank you for the apology i appreciate it and actions speak louder than words my final thing it has been so just overwhelming being here in the last couple of weeks and the last time i forgot to do this there are some students i don't know if you remember last year during black history month there were some art students at harness marsh elementary i mean middle that drew some paintings and did some things for us and i had most of them hanging up in my office well this year we decided to do a little
082bit different they wanted to give something to each of the board members and the superintendent so if you may indulge me to give you your pictures from students at harness marsh middle school and their names are on the pictures so please feel free and in fact i'm asking you to please contact them and say thank you and you can go on while i do this thank you very much thank you miss fisher please thank you okay well i was going to give an update on my part of the strategic plan activities but i think i'm going to postpone that until next time first i want to thank the people who took the time out of their evenings and away from their families to come and speak to us to share their opinions and their concerns
083with us and we are listening next i want to thank our students our very hard working staff the families and also our community partners who are increasing daily for really helping us through this last year last year and several months and to keep our vision and mission alive i want to congratulate our board attorney kathy dupree bruno for being nominated and voted march women of the month by the fort myers redevelopment agency mr miss dupree bruno works very hard in this community i was looking through a folder and i came upon the florida school boards association leadership framework for a student-focused governance model and the specific responsibilities of school board members to fulfill their roles of vision structure accountability and act advocacy vision first and foremost keeping students as the focus of the work of
084the schools i don't know that we've been doing that structure developing direct processes to use information and to make informed and that includes both sides of the story and effective decisions structure overseeing the development and adoption of policies and supporting them accountability keeping the community and parents informed of the status of the districts programs and students progress advocacy appreciating the achievements of our students employees and others in education and i'll 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 retrica madam chair i failed to say something that i wanted to say and you reminded me miss fisher congratulations to you on your certified board member from fsba i think i
085remember and maybe you ladies can help me recall i think that when another board member not in pandemic time got that didn't fsba come down and give a presentation so typically this would be a big deal but because of the pandemic it's not but congratulations and i saw the joy and the sense of accomplishment in you and that makes me happy and proud so thank you i appreciate that thank you mr fisher are you done i am thank you okay thank you i spoke this afternoon with or i shared everything this afternoon i do want to share again though that coming this thursday coming up the schools had received a survey that went out to the seniors that we are going to be doing the cte will be doing a online virtual job fair for
086our seniors and i think this is really important information so i hope that being as it is the first one i'm hoping that we get a lot of participation on that and i wanted to share also miss ware i see you out there franklin park it's going to be coming up we'll be discussing that come april 13th so i'm really excited about that it's going to be on the agenda and you know have the opportunity to start moving forward with that so i'm glad with that and again i just want to thank the people who did come here and speak and spent their time with us i really do appreciate that we do have a lot of work to continue to to do on this board and i'm hoping and i know that we're seven
087intelligent women women we all have our strengths and i know that if we put pull it all together we can do anything and actions are and that was my action was to start off with an apology so i'm not ashamed to apologize if i believe that i've done something to hurt somebody so i will you know going to leave it at that but i just want to thank everybody and please continue to to come and share with us because we are here to hear what you have to say and with that i'm going to move on to miss jordan can i just say one thing i forgot to thank pastor gonzalez for coming and doing the invocation we appreciate you doing that thank you pastor good seeing you as well mr dupree bruno i have
088no comments thank you thank you dr atkins you have any comments well i wasn't going to have any comments other to say that once since we received this each of us i just you know recently one of the schools i chose to visit was horns marsh middle school and alex durzansky and his team the school looks beautiful and they've done a lot of artistic updating and so if you haven't had a chance to go see it not only displays of student art but also just art on the on the walls i just was very very impressed when i came away from been a little bit since i'd seen it so i just want to pass that on other than that i don't have any further comments thank you thank you and ms kittens i want
089to thank you for bringing these on behalf of the children because these are absolutely lovely it's really beautiful thank you is there any way that we could have someone just we all hold them up and take a picture so that we can get send it to them is there anyone that would do that with their phone okay so miss kittens is wanting us to hold up the pictures and have a photo opportunity for this but i don't think we have anybody here okay would you just take a picture if we all just or miss you can take the blue tag off so we can show it to the kids great idea thank you he preaches he prays and he takes pictures thank you very much mr ma oh okay ms lancaster thank you very much
090we're smiling thank you and i think too this is something that we have to remember this is why we're here this is why that's right here so at this point having no other business to come oh i'm sorry let me back up our next schedule board meeting is on monday april the 12th there will be a school board workshop at 1pm on tuesday april 13th there will be a briefing meeting at 1 p.m an action meeting at 6 00 p.m at this point having no further business to come before this body and seeing no objections this meeting is adjourned everyone please have a safe and great evening you