001good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting the school board meeting of may 11 is now called to order the time is 607 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 in the district mission to be a world-class school system this evening's agenda includes the invocation the pledge of allegiance two acknowledgments three recognitions public comments consent action items which include nine items under academic services four items under business services one item under human services one item under information systems five items under operations three items under attorney recommendation which is good cause mr preet bruno and mr quick please provide an explanation for these three items
002thank you madam chair one of the good cause items under attorney recommendation is the approval of the agreement with scott cashman who will be the consultant to the board during the interim superintendent process to assist the board for may and june of 2021 thank you as provide presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these three items to the agenda and four items under other business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda madam chair mr quick is not here so i will just add his good cause item which was the recommendation for the agreement with h r and beyond thank you and i'm sorry i may ask did you mention the webpage as a good cause as a pers as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add
003these three items to the agenda two items madam chair and the website will come under good of the order thank you thank you or members hold on if i may i heard two good cause items aren't 33. there are three in my agenda online month the first was the approval of the agreement with h.r and beyond and the other is the approval for referral of approval of referral of specific complaints for investigation that was also a good cause item mr pre-bruno so i'm going to defer that to mr quick because those will be his good cause items thank you oh thank you mr quick you're here thank you yep there i understand you did the first one with regards to the hr and beyond i apologize the second one is a good cause item for
004the approval of referral of specific complaints for investigation to that investigator with the specific complaints listed in the item okay thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this item to the agenda as well so i'm sorry madam chair can you tell me how many there are all together total of three and four items under other business four members is there a motion to adopt the agenda miss vaughn i move to adopt the agenda as published thank you second miss morgan thank you please record your vote and it's taking time i can do it oh here it is motion passes 7-0 thank you miss thomas okay miss patricka will introduce her guests for the invocation after which miss kittens will lead us in the pledge of allegiance miss patricka please
005introduce your guest pastor kevin bussey is the student pastor at next level church located at 12400 plantation road in fort myers florida he is originally from lakeland florida he has been leading in ministry for 12 years pastor kevin is married and has four daughters he is expecting his first grandchild soon congratulations please welcome pastor kevin bussey everybody stand please if you please just close your eyes and bow your heads for me father we love you and lord we just come to you tonight lord and i just pray lord that it's heavy on my heart tonight lord i pray for wisdom and i pray for peace lord i pray for wisdom for the board members lord as they sort through the things that are on the agenda lord i pray for wisdom from those that are
006here in the audience lord i pray for wisdom for our schools and for our school principles and father i just pray that tonight lord that there would just be peace i pray father that you would just be in the center of everything that takes place tonight everything that is said and everything that is done but father there's so many decisions and so much weight that is on each and every person i'm on this board and that leads this county and so father i just pray for wisdom for them tonight and so father we thank you for tonight we thank you for who you are and we thank you for your son jesus and it's in jesus name we pray amen amen amen amen please lead us in the pledge of allegiance oh there it is
007all right i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all please be seated okay the character word for me is patience the quote patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting joyce meyers the design you will see displayed on this screen was created by graciana goal a 11th grade student at estero high school and before we move on to the acknowledgments i was wondering if mari kamur was here made it in yet or emily tanner okay these were two of our student advisory committees that were supposed to come and help us out today and i just wanted to say too i know that people
008were looking we were allowing students in the students that were i was bringing in are students who are going to be receiving awards today for their accomplishments and then we will have a short break so that they may leave with their families and then we will continue on with the meeting thank you so sedona thank you for helping me out with this today let's see on this evening's student one of the evenings the you are the now the student representative from the school board student advisory committee is sedona stewart an 11th grader at bonita springs high school where she takes an active role in the bonita springs high tabletop gaming club party participate in various clubs and activities sedona serves on the bonita springs high environmental club sedona currently has a gpa of 3.74 sedona
009is most proud of running for turn the page a spot as a teaching assistant on the fgcu class news literacy welcome sedona also i want to say she is one of our you're the sec you made the secretary so she's the secretary for the student advisory committee for us and thank you so much she is going to read three resolutions this evenings for one that she was supposed to read for us and then two for her fellow board members please thank you whereas there are approximately 5 800 instructional employees in the lee county school district who are strongly committed to a quality education for our students and whereas the contributions of teachers and substitute teachers are immeasurable helping form the framework for lifelong learning in all students and whereas these educators fill the roles of
010listeners explorers motivators role models and mentors to our youth as they strive to keep american democracy alive by laying the basic foundation for good citizenship and whereas teachers impact the lives of their students throughout their school years and continue to influence them when those school days become memories and whereas all students parents and community members are encouraged to recognize the value of teachers and are urged to pay special tribute to them every day now therefore be it resolved that the school board of lee county florida hereby proclaims the week of may 3rd through 7th and tuesday may 4th 2021 as national teacher appreciation week and national teacher day adopted at a regular meeting of the school board of lee county florida this 27th day of april 2021. thank you and your next one whereas in
0112006 president george w bush proclaimed the 31 day period of the month of may as national jewish american heritage month originally known as jewish heritage week under public law 96-237 passed by the united states congress in 1980 and whereas we recognize the more than 360-year history of jewish contributions to america and the american culture and whereas we celebrate the contributions jewish americans have made to america since they first arrived in new amsterdam in 1654 and whereas the jewish americans played an active part in the war of independence in the settlement of the west and in the dynamic expansion of american technology and whereas their diverse communities made significant contributions in the areas of medicine education trade the law politics the labor movement religion motion pictures athletics literature and whereas jewish americans heritage of struggle for
012freedom knowledge and human dignity are a part of the inheritance of all americans and whereas the i the values and ideals brought to these shores by people of many races and religions are woven deep deeply into the fabric of america now therefore be it resolved that the school board of lee county florida hereby proclaims the 31-day period of may 1st through may 31st as jewish american heritage month adopted at a regular meeting of the school board of lee county florida this 27th day of april 2021. thank you sedona you have one more whereas the united states congress passed public law 102-450 in 1992 which designated the 31-day period of the month of may as national asian american and pacific islander heritage month whereas we celebrate the culture traditions and history of asian americans and pacific
013islanders and their contributions made in completing the transcontinental railroad and whereas we recall the challenges faced by asian americans and pacific islanders and celebrate their great and significant gifts given to our society and whereas the asian american and pacific islander immigrants contributed significantly to the cul the history of american nation building and westward expansion of our country and whereas their diverse communities built strong roots in the united states and retained cultural heritages that stretch across the globe and whereas asian americans and pacific islanders have played a significant role in the creation of a dynamic and pluralistic america with their enormous contributions to our science art industry government and commerce and whereas their successful integration into american society and their positive and active participation in our national life demonstrates the soundness of america's policy of continued
014openness and growth now therefore be it resolved that the school board of lee county florida hereby proclaims the 31-day period of may 1st through may 31st as national asian and amer american and pacific islander heritage month adopted at a regular meeting of the school board of lee county florida this 27th day of april 2021 sedona i just want to say i thank you for representing our students and student advisory and here today so thank you for that moving right along acknowledgement for the month we have national school nurse day may 12th 2021 national mission children's day may 25th national military appreciation month may 1st through 31st 2021 and today we also have the opportunity to bring back our recognitions that we have not done for a year so this is a good day for having
015everyone here at the board meeting so thank you i am going to have mr lee hughes if you please take the podium at this time for the 2020 invention convention invention convention u.s national winners and i'm reading it vaughn we'll be reading that thank you five southwest florida students that competed in the 2020 thomas alva edison regional science and inventors fair were finalists in the invention convention u.s nationals 2020 last july including and i am really sorry i had i don't have a phonetic pronunciation say it deruva deruva okay thank you i got the shama daruva daruva sharma an eighth grader at paul lawrence dunbar middle school during the awards ceremony 63 outstanding students were honored for their ingenuity at the national invention convention presented by raytheon technologies our region's invention convention finalists were among
016nearly 500 award-winning k-12 inventors from across the nation who were celebrated during the virtual awards ceremony in total 120 000 k-8 inventors from across the united states competed at local affiliate events last year while all five students from southwest florida represented our region well on this national stage one student was recognized for his outstanding stem achievements with two two national awards dharava was recognized twice during the invention convention u.s nationals 2020 awards ceremony for his energy generating shoes invention he received the innovation in energy award presented by chevron corporation a specialty award that included a 500 scholarship trophy and personalized certificate deruva also received the young visioneers award presented by coke industries a best of show award that included a mentorship experience trophy personalized certificate personalized virtual experience to advance invention i'm sorry invention and
017young visioneer lab coat deruva's best of show award was one of only six best of show awards presented during the competition the board members and superintendents are pleased to recognize daruva sharma on his truly world-class stem accomplishments and thank him for representing the school district of lee county so well at this national competition please welcome daruva sharma hey miss morgan dr atkins mr vanelli will you please christy vannelli will you please go down front mr vanello everybody smile you can say if you want okay we have the 2021 sunshine state scholars that's miss jivanelli the sunshine state scholars recognition program for high school students began in 1997 to recognize excellence in in mathematics and in science it has come has since evolved into a program designed to recognize florida's top high school science technology engineering
018and math stem students and recruit them to pursue their post-second secondary education in florida throughout september and october each year every school district selects their top stem 11th grade students based on established criteria recently the lee county school district was pleased to announce the fort myers high school student amy ming north fort myers high school student cassandra katya and their this year's lee county sunshine state scholars david lowe and dunbar high school's zo xing for fort myers high school were named as this year's alternates in june our lee county sunshine state scholars along with their parents will travel to orlando for a two-day program there they will receive recognition for their achievements talk with stem industry leaders about careers and in internships and meet with representatives from florida's colleges and universities to learn about programs
019of study and available scholarships the school board and superintendent are pleased to recognize amy cassandra and this year's lee county sunshine state scholars as well as david and zoe as the this year's alternates we are proud of the accomplishments these students and wish them the best in all their future endeavors please welcome and excuse me for saying if i say the name wrong so i want to make sure i say that amy mang cassandra machia david lau and zoe zhang for fort myers high school and then i didn't name the schools but dumbbells good job next we have the 66th annual florida state science and engineering fair winners and i believe that's ms fisher yes ma'am the 66th annual state science and engineering fair of florida was held virtually from march 30th to april 7
0202021. of the 19 students from southwest florida that participated three students from the school district of lee county received high honors kurakula surya fernando a seventh grader at paul lawrence dunbar middle school received a first place category award for her junior division earth and environmental sciences project titled hold on guys microplastic interaction in aquatic primary consumers potential for bio magnification in addition to her first place recognition kurokula surya also received two special awards and a nomination for the 2021 broadcom masters the premier science and engineering competition for middle school students deruva sharma an 8th grader at paul lawrence dunbar middle school he's coming back again received a first place category award for his junior division microbiology project titled protective efficacy of masks in preventing the spread of covid 19. addition to his first place recognition
021deruva also received the nomination for the 2021 broadcom masters next is mason huffman a seventh grader at trafalgar middle school who received a first place category award and was named one of the four junior division best of fair grand award winners for his biomedical and health sciences project titled assessing mass efficacy with laser and sound trip transmission in addition to his first place and best affair recognitions mason also received dr nelson ying scholarship and nomination for the 2021 broadcom masters the board members and superintendent are pleased and proud to recognize and congratulate kurakura surya fernando daruva sharma and mason huffman on their truly world-class stem accomplishments and thank these students for representing the school district of lee county so well in this state competition please welcome mason huffman travalga middle school good job buddy i
022think your teacher wants it you're trying to get a picture of him and next kirk curacilia fernando paul lawrence dunbar middle school okay and finally welcome back jeruva sharma paul lawrence dunbar thank you these kids are amazing you know let's give a round of applause at this time we're gonna take a brief recess so that those who wish to leave may do so again thank you parents for bringing them and doing what you do yes way to go great job good okay we will go ahead and continue the next item on the agenda is public comment mr pre 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
023other 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 card they are located in the hallway outside of the boardroom 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 during public comment to remarks made by speakers at the end of the public comment period the board chair miss jordan will 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
024hissing and booing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing or a display of temper are prohibited speakers who fail to follow prophet decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone for board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers there will only be one warning for board policy 1.11 the time per speaker will be one minute the maximum time allowed for public comment is one hour you will find a countdown on the big screen in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off 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 making
025your comment i will call your names five speakers at a time please follow the staff's direction when lining up madam chair we have 42 speakers that wish to address the board this evening thank you is there anyone here on the left side my left that has not that wishes to speak that has not filled out a card is there anyone on the right and i don't believe we have anybody in any rooms this evening is that correct beautiful that's beautiful okay miss mr juvenelli yeah okay so there's 42 speakers okay in the past and i just and i've thought about this a few times 42 that's 42 that's only 42 minutes if at one minute before our other board attorney dr mr martin would give two minutes when it so how does that doesn't equate
026right i mean really they should have more than a minute at the 42 maybe a minute and a half or something i don't see why that can't be accomplished with with 42 speakers mr pre bruno board policy 1.11 i'm going to pull it up now board policy 1.11 subsection a state specifically if there are more than 30 individuals desiring to speak the maximum amount of time each individual is allowed to speak shall be one minute okay try guys thank you thank you i just want to make sure that everyone does have an opportunity to speak so i don't want to run out of time for that is there someone else mr priebeno can we continue or at this time with the following individuals please line up rachel dwyer robert roper annie felkowski rin alajaji crystal
027saison i want to make sure that miss rachel can start speaking without interference so it's thank you go ahead ms dwyer you may start rachel dwyer lee county resident mother of two to the lgbtq community opposition does not equal hate bullying is never okay we should come together to ask the school board to evaluate funding for mental health resources actions have unintended consequences as human beings your voices are important but if we allow policies to undermine parents it will have negative consequences long term it's hard enough raising kids in this day and age our tax-funded school should not go against parents wishes robert roper just since this current student code of conduct was approved that has emboldened the lgbtq plus students and faculty while at the same time have intimidated staff and students who do
028not agree with those life choices i personally know to be a fact the student fearful to speak up faculty along for a terrifying ride don't believe me this is actual photographic evidence from within a class of four and five-year-old students in lee county public district schools the pitcher depicts what looks to be a class project families two moms two dads holding an infant another two moms this is not education it is indoctrination at best some would consider it child abuse education in lee county takes place in an atmosphere where sexual preference is king the short and long-term results of this social experiment may have devastating effects on the students of lee county four and five-year-olds this is not right first time oh okay hi members my name is annie fielkowski and i use she her
029pronouns i'm a proud alumni of the lee county school district i'm here to ask you to do your job protect our most vulnerable youth keep the one pager create an lgbtq student-led advisory council since school board members here have shown an unwillingness to do their homework on the on this issue call me crazy but if you are elected to the school board you should be required to do your homework especially when it comes to our most vulnerable youth it was frightening to hear remember patricka she asked what are the ramifications of not following a federally mandated guideline why are you doing mental gymnastics to not be inclusive i know you're a lawyer but i really recommend taking a refresher class or two with one of the amazing government teachers at fort myers high school who
030taught me the basic foundations of law government and inclusivity at a very young age lee county is legally required to protect and meet the unique needs of lgbtq youth including transgender young people removing these guys thank you thank you will the following individuals please line up christine divijelli kale kopeck nancy torreira denise nystrom christina mays members my name is rin i use she her hers pronouns and i'm here in support of my wife and my chosen family who are alumni of the lee county school district found a safe space between the walls of those classrooms and fostered a community for themselves and those spaces why is it so controversial to equip students with basic understanding of their federally protected civil rights why is the school board gatekeeping educational material the equality one pager does not
031take away anyone's liberty it simply affirms and gives lgbtq youth affairs i'm here to ask you to keep it in the code of conduct and also create a student-led lgbtq advisory committee that supports our quick youth instead of bullying them back into fear and the closet thank you from crystal system i'm a member of the equity and diversity advisory committee i'm here today to speak to the allies on this board it's time for you to use your voice it's time for you to get loud we do not hear you it's time to speak up for the lgbtq plus community to not cave to fear it's fear of tomorrow it's fear of not being re-elected i want to remind you that you're an elected official on the diocese today it's a time to use your powers
032now do not allow outside influencers in fear of the potential of losing this power one day stop you from using what power you have today this is why you were elected to fight for equality and stand up for those children who need you were not elected to dance for the whim of a mob and you certainly were not elected to allow collier county to dictate whether or not the student code of conduct in lee county needs to be changed from the most progressive in florida to outright discrimination thank you ma'am next speaker please reset that for me please i'm going to need every second thank you all right my name is christine divajilli i'd like to start by saying that i don't agree with item g6 and i'd like to know what the name of
033the washington state based company is that lee county school district has entered into an eos agreement with i'd also like to thank ms kittens for the superintendent search web page that she worked on for the community it was super easy to navigate and i really appreciate seeing all the links i need in one place what took place in the special meeting the other day was the most embarrassing display i have seen from the seven of you to date board members spoke out of turn interrupted others interrupted the chair and the only time that we heard that anyone was out of order was when the attorney corrected a member of the public you all need to do better i would however like to thank the only two honest board members up there you at least tried
034to do the right thing on friday i'd only ask that in the future when you have to vote for something that you don't agree with please vote no even if you're the only one i'd like to end by saying once again that the selection and hiring of an interim superintendent falls within the job description of the lee county school board and the hiring of a consultant to help facilitate conversations is ludicrous and a waste of money thank you okay my name is kale kopeck and i am in eighth grade it has been 505 days since i was last in a classroom with other children because of a mask policy i have been attending virtual school for over a year i am tired of staying at a screen all day while my friends can attend school
035but wear a mask if people like to wear masks they feel like they and they feel like they should be protected they can but that doesn't mean we should all be held by a standard where we have to wear a mask because people around us are this needs to change you guys want us to feel protected when we step on the school campus but we feel like we need to worry if we are six feet apart or a fair mask is over our nose this policy singles out the kids who either can't wear a mask or the ones who just don't want to there shouldn't be a policy where i have to wear a mask in order to attend school you guys need to take this into consideration and end this policy now denise nystrom
036lee county resident the school board will vote tonight on entering into an agreement called equal opportunity schools an organization that is supported by bill and melinda gates and the bazo family to name a few it is an agreement between lee county and a washington state based organization that is costing the school district 255 000 the concept is that it's supposed to assist low income and students of color with high advanced placement and international baccalaureate classes i know people of color who are offended by this i would expect that the school district should already have in place programs that support all students i know that we are already have ap and i and ib classes in place and i question why those programs and if we don't i question why those programs do not already exist
037so if we don't already have those programs take the 255 000 and if our students need more help then set up programs that they can be helped by instead of entering into a critical race theory curriculum well the following individuals absolutely supposed to be quiet and we have been excuse me you're out of order ma'am you're out of order you're out of order at this time will the following individuals please line up chris quackenbush tara jenner greg monk francis haas lisa cohen i'm nancy torreira i'm here again tonight on behalf of myself and lee county now i'm here to encourage the school board once again to keep policies that protect the our lgbtq community and our children that these policies should be widely shared and respected that means that having these policies available readily available
038and best practices as represented currently in the code of conduct if there's going to be any change we should not be taking away what is in the code of conduct without replacing it with something that very clearly states what these rights and protections are i would also encourage you to create a student-led lgbtq advisory committee everyone deserves to be treated fairly and i think the board in the school has tried i think that they have to continue to do so and work at this thank you ma'am next speaker please hi my name is christina mays and i'm the mother of a transgender child in riverdale high school i come here to speak today on behalf of all the children who are bullied by adults sorry i didn't mean to cry tonight i have an 18
039year old child that is afraid to use the bathroom even though there is a stated policy that she's allowed to have any of you or who are against this ever laid your eyes on seen or sat down and spoken to a transgender child if i was to put a picture of 20 children on the wall could you tell me who was transgender who was gay who was straight no you cannot most of these transgender boys as you call them are afraid to have short haircuts are afraid to wear pants are afraid to wear t-shirts like you do because you would think they were a boy you see me i'm cis do you know i get questioned for using a girl's rescue because i'm probably do you know what it feels like stan could you please
040address us please thank you that's all i ask thank you ma'am thank you next speaker please tara jenner the justification given yesterday for the continued mandatory masking through july 1st was based on a talk bargaining agreement that mou and board policy 1.181 entitled emergency requirement for protected gear are in direct conflict with one another the board the board policy states the purpose for the ppe is medical and safety reasons only further it states that the procedures or guidelines regarding ppe shall expire as soon as the state department advises among others that ppe is no longer recommended and or required the florida surgeon general did just that in a public health advisory dated april 29th and he rescinded the four previous covet 19 public health advisories as well your policy dictates automatic expiration of mandatory mass
041usage without the need of board or superintendent action recommendation or vote you can't hold lee county school district hostage because of a problem of your own creation with talc for which we are not even a party thank you next speaker please i'm chris quackenbush and i have a mass freedom resolution i can only read half but it is based on what you heard from tara yesterday superintendent atkins revealed that the only reason we still have a mass mandate is that mrs pruitt made an agreement with the unions to maintain mass mandates until july 1 2021 this is on the video of the board workshop dated yesterday monday at hour 2 minute 58 whereas the board policy 1.181 specifically states the only purpose for mass is medical and safety we find the side agreement of the
042unions is not an acceptable reason for extending the potential adverse consequences to our children of wearing masks especially in the summer heat of florida whereas school board policies must be followed and people treated fairly without exception and without arbitrary bias whereas the board policy 1.181 declares the policy and thank you next speaker please lisa cohen lee county no parent should have to cry because of their children being bullied no parent should have to be upset because of a bathroom that is used no parent these are just human things they have to use the restroom just like they have to breathe and i shouldn't have to deal with my crying child because he doesn't want to wear a mask it is 90 degrees outside and it is may it is going to get warmer the governor
043told you to close the schools and you did the governor told you to open the schools and you did the governor told you to put masks on the children and you did now the governor has told you to take the masks off the children effective immediately in an executive order and order your boss i'm your boss he's your boss listen to your boss i pray the blood of jesus over this board thank you ma'am thank you well the following individuals please line up heather newbert emma newbert kathy stout daniela dye corey dye hello board my name is francis haas and i've been a 20-year resident of lee county i have two current and one former students going to the lee county school district schools i'm here to support transgender children you are all educators or
044you work for the board of education here i am a health care provider and i know that we use what's called best evidence practice and i urge you to do your research to determine to discover what is best for our trans children safe attendance in school is vital for their development as children i'm very honored that i was here to see our scholars receive these awards today and one day you're going to have a transgender student up here to receive an award like that if you don't want to thank you sir thank you next speaker please my name is greg monk and i am a lee county resident i want to thank you for your policy supporting lgbtq students and for parents on both sides of the aisle i can really appreciate the desire to
045protect your children i really can i can tell you that as a gay man 40 years ago when i was 14 it was a terrorizing place to be a student it was really a horrible situation and i'm so grateful that we are doing what we can to support our students now for those who prefer the word preference over orientation when it comes to behind the word sexual i will tell you that i would have preferred at that age to be straight but that wasn't biologically in the in the works for me and for those who understand the concept of of terror let me tell you there's absolutely nothing worse than being dismissed by your teachers your parents and all because you can't be who they tell you're supposed to be so thank you hi my
046name is kathy stout the county resident also children in lee county school district i want to thank everybody here to come out this evening voicing all of your opinions but if you don't mind i'm a happy person and being that i am doing something you are part of my 22 000 pictures and why because i love seeing smiles and i like to do events and i also am a realtor as well i love people and i love florida and most of all i love our governor especially the fact that we live in this freedom and besides that i don't know i'm happy i hope all of you can be happy because we live in florida and we should be in the sunshine state and be happy so again have a blessed night hi my name
047is emma newber and i am seven years old and and in first grade i like to ask that you take away the mask policy it is hard for me to breathe and it gives me headaches i miss seeing my friend's sizes and smiles it makes me sad a lot wearing the mask makes it hard for me to learn and it makes me not want to go to school to school it used to lie i used to like p.e and recess but it is too hot outside and i can't breathe when i play and run please let me breathe freely and take away the mask thank you please even though she's really cute thank you my name's heather neubert that is one of our children crying she can't breathe in her mask this is what you
048are doing to our children they're crying they're depressed they're exhausted they hate school is that video what you want is that audio what you want i interviewed a nurse at a local private school yesterday that has been mass free since the beginning of the school year they have almost 650 students staff and faculty and share buildings and other meeting spaces with a large church and guess what no major outbreak not once ever the whole year it was a fourth grader here and a 10th grader there no super spreader situation there's no class quarantining maths are optional and sports are in full swing how can you possibly look at that and think they got it wrong and you got it right i hope tonight when you guys are sitting by yourselves you hear that audio you
049hear our kids crying you hear our kids tell you they can't breathe and think about what you're doing in the decisions you're making will the following individuals please line up daryl slack kathy horn tim dews dr joseph weiss willie fifowski corey dye active citizens i think it's so great to see all these successful lee county lgbtq people through your life prior to identity politics everybody has a rough childhood there's parts in every individual's life where we hate ourselves everybody has that it's not synonymous to you right people have hated me because of color in my skin on that i don't support your g6 my children are not white people's charity case no one if you want to do a program do it for a community if dunbar needs something if an area of low-income people
050but specifically targeting african-american children is excuse me cut it out don't do it in the dictionary thank you mr dye thank you mr dye you're out of order as i share the children i share the concern g6 does not provide a realistic solution for our children and it's a political based program that we don't want to have in our school programs at all for any of the children the head start kobed grant or we have funds that are being approved today for the head start program out of covid policy again and it is not a coveted program we don't need to use covent funds for the program stop misappropriating funds consensus should be done at the board it should not be done as was recognized by a speaker yesterday that said that she would gather
051consensus from individual conversations with school board members and that's not what the consensus is supposed to be for or how it's supposed to be used i don't understand how the adult code of conduct that we're approving is 16 pages and we need over 90 pages for students that's ridiculous that's too many words keep it simple we can sit there and simplify things go back to having three levels of punishment instead of the five would be great i want to know where the grants gifts and next speaker please hi my name is kathy horn i'm from estero is this the one working where is it this one this one i'm from estero please could you start my time again please because i had the wrong microphone i have thank you my name is kathy horn i'm
052from estero and i'm speaking specifically to the school board members tonight and the administration and i want to thank you all for understanding that we don't choose to be gay transgender and non-binary any more than others choose to be straight the process to accept how god made us can be eased with support and love from family and friends and schools on the other hand anger and religious condemnation from those we love especially our parents destroys us that becomes the largest reason we have a higher rate of depression and suicide thank you for recognizing that those who have spoken angrily against us are a primary reason we struggle angry words hurt and they hurt children the most schools must support all children but they must offer more support to those who need more especially those that
053aren't supported at home and i ask you to notice who comes to these meetings in love and kindness and who comes here in anger and condemnation and let that be your guide for what is best for children in lee county thank you for all your work good evening school board members my name is tim dues i'm a lifelong gay man and i've lived in lee county for up to 25 years i'm here to support the school's best practices action steps in the student code of conduct it's being challenged by groups even though it's covered by existing law title ix being lgbt is difficult at best and tragic in many situations absolutely all students no matter their sexual orientation deserve a quality education without bullying and harassment or discrimination so if you don't like the colors
054on the logo or or the logo itself eliminate that it's important not to let yourself be bullied by these groups never give in never give up please protect the children and give them a rewarding education with dignity and respect stand up and stand out thank you hello my name is willy fulkowski and my pronouns are he him his i attended gateway elementary school dunbar middle school and cypress lake high school center for the arts shocker i'm here today to speak in support of my lgbtq siblings especially my trans siblings who are currently being targeted by so many anti-trans efforts all over the country to the members of the school board please keep the lgbtq guidance in the code of conduct and please form a student-led lgbtq advisory committee while i was at cypress lake high
055school our motto was you will learn here you will grow here you will amaze yourself here today i direct that message to the adults in the room please listen to the queer youth who bravely dare to be themselves it is your job to educate them and keep them safe and if you listen to them you will learn here you will grow here you will amaze yourself here and to the queer youth who can hear my voice please tune out the haters you are perfect and beautiful and the haters have small hearts bad motives and unbelievably ugly thank you sir thank you thank you well the following individuals please line up william jane minorite william burke ariel hoover wait for the timer so you don't get slighted in any way we restarted it yeah we're going
056to start it other mic there it is my name is daryl slack i'm a parent of students in the lee county school district i think my shoes look fine i won't be insulting anybody else i want to ask you to take out the part in the code of conduct we're all here to talk about the change was passed in secret under parent's nose i don't think it was done above the water as it should have been it's inarguable the lgbtq rights are very important they matter they matter to everybody and if you're that's not in your heart then you're not on my side but silver assist children's rights it matters this is being turned into a civil rights movement this is not selma this is not the little rock nine this is not what this
057is this is just another example of political correctness being disguised as inclusiveness and tolerance and common sense and a sense of fair play being cast as hate and that's not what's going on here caitlyn jenner she's a trans woman and she's an athlete and she has come out flat out and said it's not fair it's not fair to girls that have worked their whole lives to compete in these sports to be taken out by what is biologically obligated thank you next speaker please hi my name is joseph wise i'm a florida retired school superintendent and florida resident and i'm here tonight to talk about something that's of supreme importance in terms of timing i'm fully dedicated to a company called acceleration academies we work in four states to recruit high school dropouts and other disengaged
058children back to get their regular high school diploma i applaud you all by the way all of this hard work unless you've sat in one of these seats dr adkins or members of the board it's thankless work and especially in those unprecedented times and we appreciate you spending now in our third year vetting us as a potential partner to help you recruit at present more than 16 000 young people who are disengaged and dropped out you completed i think due diligence today we hit a curveball last week where someone said well maybe this should be a charter we think that's the wrong way to go time is of the essence and we're hoping that this can that matter can get to the board for action up or down so that we can have you next
059speaker please next speaker hi my name is jan mannerite i'm a longtime award-winning advocate i'm a winner of pbs makers award in 2015. i'm executive vice president of a non-profit i'm a christian and i'm a mom with a fort myers high school graduate i'm asking you will you stand up for one more year for three things number one kids at high risk for suicide two best practice policies already in place three the truth kids at high risk for suicide the largest survey of transgender non-binary use says that more than half seriously consider suicide yet support and acceptance is associated with a dramatically lower risk of attempted suicide dr amy green two best practice policies have you ever written any if so you know they involve data research expert advice and peer review if you're going
060to drop this best practice policy which other ones will you drop three is the truth we know that the world is full of lies and misinformation now next speaker hi my name is arielle hoover i am a resident of lee county and i'm here to tell you that my family and i support keeping this policy as it is i think we need to support and have all students help all students regardless of their sexual orientation feel safe and supported in our school system when i was a teacher in dallas texas the kids used to wear a bracelet what would jesus do and jesus loves everyone and i think it's up to us to practice that too thank you very much good evening my name is willie burke i'm a resident of lee county and i
061was born here in lee county right down the way in lee memorial on 41. and we are born how we are gay straight bisexual transgender hispanic white black but we are not born with prejudice that is taught to us whether we wish to admit it or not it is our responsibility everyone in this room to stand up to prejudice in whatever form it may take transgender children exist and they wish to be accommodated thusly are we in favor of liberty and privacy or are we not if you're against the board's policy consider how much these kids these kids these children feel with all these grown adults making such a big deal about again a child using a restroom they handle accommodations are handled on a case-by-case basis the parent the child and the site's principal
062that's all thank you free time well the following individuals please line up joey r laurie fahey deanna walker joe rowa lou navera good evening my name is deito res i'm a mom i'm here today to ask you to please allow in-person 5th grade graduations according to my son's principal the district pandemic team decided against this we have missed so many precious moments of our child's last year of elementary school high schools with 1 000 graduates were approved for in-dirt graduations at large venues with limited guests why can't we impose those same conditions for the smaller fifth grade class or even hold the graduation outdoors impose conditions such as social distancing maximum amount of gas ultimately i believe this decision should be the boards not a pandemic team the majority of elementary school teachers have worked
063so hard to maintain safety and follow all protocols for teaching class graduation is a time for these teachers to showcase all their hard work this year has been very trying on the mental health of our kiddos and for many of the financial well-being in their homes give them a light at the end of a long dark tunnel i ask you to please give the kids a real fifth grade graduation thank you hello my name is julian r and i am a fifth grader i would like a face-to-face graduation because me and my whole class have worked so hard getting our grades up majorly and i would also like to have my parents there to see all my achievements that i earned this year and my teacher is a really great teacher and i know my
064teacher would be really happy to see our faces when we graduate thank you for letting me speak next speaker hi my name is deanna walker and first i'd like to say that i do not approve of the hiring of consultant to do your job that's what we hired you for that shouldn't have been done also during the day when we were all at work i know you guys like to place blame on others so i wanted to let you know that on april 29th the florida department of health the surgeon general rescinded all previous coven 19 health advisories including the recommendation for social distancing and mass wearing stating continuing coping 19 restrictions on individuals with no end in sight including long-term use of face coverings and withdrawal from social and recreational gatherings pose a risk
065of adverse and unintended consequences this is what we're doing to our kids it is a unattended consequence you didn't know what to do in the beginning and now we know it doesn't work also the florida department of education next speaker please hi i'm lori fahey on the briefing meeting today i was pleased to see that you were talking about some of the audits ms patricka said she's protecting the taxpayer but it's the tax tax-paying volunteers who blew the whistle on the booster club the audience the audit evidence was clear rsm agreed what needs investigating is how the investigation was done and what the process was or is it a matter of fraud my son wanted to come and speak tonight and he was not able to but he has been working his own campaign at
066cypress lake high school to get rid of the mask wearing and make it optional and he says our students should have the choice to wear a mask or not in schools we're no longer an atheist next speaker please thank you next speaker good evening board members my name is joey i'm a high school student with a little brother in fifth grade when i heard that he would not have an in-person graduation but rather a zoom graduation i knew i had to say something these fifth graders have not been allowed to fully experience their final year of elementary school i remember when i went we got to go on field trips and it was just an enjoyable time as it was our last year of elementary school he has not been able to experience any of
067those things do not rob them of this monumental stepping stone in their academic lives do not rob the parents of watching their child walk across the stage for the final time as an elementary school student board members if there's a will there's a way thank you will the following individuals please line up brenda burnell root perez amanda nagy crystal varvat pedro arans my name is jose rue i'm a lifelong hispanic a resident of lee county i studied here and graduated here i have an issue with the policy that you guys have passed i have no issues with lgbtq team i think everybody deserves respect i teach my kids to defend and stop bullying from anybody my favorite aunt is gay actively and she's married and she's my favorite aunt that being said it's not the
068board's responsibility to pass policies that are going to infringe upon parents's convictions you know that's what we have our homes for hispanics make up 22 percent of the population in lee county there's a growing muslim population here as well we have to make sure that if you guys want to be voted in and stay in power that you represent what parents want for their children thank you i'm sorry sir did you have a card or yes my name was joe rowa joe okay thank you sir they put heronymol or something on there thanks i'm cooperating i don't start my time i want to wipe the mics closing 19 folks you know you think it's over lunavara retired teacher congratulations dr atkins on your impending retirement i'd like to see the half a cent sales tax
069meeting like duvall county i sent the board that i think the crappy rule of one minute is crummy you should stay here five minutes for everybody even if you meet till midnight we pay your salaries board and see everybody comes out for all this but not for the 4.8 billion dollar budget use my half a cent tax to redo the bathrooms for everybody lgtb the works kova 19 i'm sorry folks the cdc said wear masks today apparently you don't read aol news you just shoot from the hips and that's a shame marvelous marvin said you're missing 2 000 hours a week board you don't tell them about the subs and you didn't budget the money for him thank you mr navarro next speaker please next speaker hi my name is brenda bernal i have two
070boys in public school i would like to suggest to the board that is necessary for parents to be involved in the next election for the next superintendent it is necessary that the parents who have children in this county make the best decision for this generation that's why we need to know the candidates and their proposals to make the wisest decision in whose hands we are going to leave our children for more than five hours a day please involve the parents in this decision hi my name is ruth perez and i'm a current educator in the county i just wanted to voice my opinion that we should be included just as she stated all of us residents in lee county to be a part of the voting for our next superintendent i know i personally will
071be affected by it just take that into consideration my job runs on what the superintendent decides for the schools and i just think that with that since all of us have our opinions we should be allowed to share with you guys in making that decision thank you hi my name is amanda nagy and i have two children currently in the lee county school system i have one who will be entering next year she is five years old and it terrifies me to know that she may have to wear a mask if we don't drop the mask mandate now please as elected officials someone that i voted for please consider at least making it a recommended or something that we're able to choose for our children as of the school year next year i just wanted
072to also say that only seven percent of communication is verbal of communication happens with your mouth with your mouth seeing your mouth what are we doing to these kids when we can't see each other's facial expressions their social emotional intelligence has been hampered and we sit here and continue to require children who are in a population thank you will the following individuals please line up dan severson angeli vasquez victor constanzo and erica hold gehrig my apologies just wiping this down real fast my name is pedro i was junior i lived here 27 years of for close to 27 years i'm pansexual and hispanic so let me tell you i'm just gonna cut straight to the point it is terrible to be told that you look funny you sound funny you have curly hair and you
073can't love who you want to love that leads to very difficult psychological treatments and also just to the point of the parents try to dictate policy last time this happened i would assume little rock six wouldn't happen you know if the parents were weren't allowed to weren't a dictating policy to the school board and the federal government didn't step in i believe we still would have segregation in this place at the same time we if the if the parents had their way in in wyoming well matthew shepard will still be six feet underground right now there's a lot of people that get hurt whether it be their scout color your skin or who they look either way it's upon me thank you thank you next speaker hi christopher ray here again i almost decided not
074to come because i'm speaking to you at a disadvantage i am just a parent i am not part of any special special interest groups and most importantly i am not part of the teachers union and that puts me at a big disadvantage because that seems those groups are the only people that you listen to the cdc has or the teachers union has influence over the cdc more so than science does i've spoken about the masks i've spoken about the policies but the one thing i'm here to ask is why is there such a lack of transparency why are you spending 250 an hour to hire a consultant to narrow down a pool of three people for an interim superintendent can't those tax dollars be used for better purposes so i'm just asking just think about
075how you spend the money spend it wisely and let's do something about transparency thank you i'm dan severson citizen in the county part of my goal of getting inculcated in the county here is to kind of come to functions like this and find out what's on the heart of people and there are a couple things that are very poignant that came out tonight one of them is the pastor that talked about the four and five-year-olds being indoctrinated into a different lifestyle than the parents were even aware of that's a huge problem it's a problem for our school board the other problem i believe is for the school board is the whole mass mandate issue that we're hearing a lot about tonight and deals have been made and those are not based on science the way
076they quote him to be okay so when you've got when i'm watching these young brilliant kids coming up here getting their awards with the mask on and everybody up front has a mask on there's no there's no chance that everybody's going to get covered from this incident and when they look at in the past they're going to go i was robbed i was robbed and young kids in our schools are being robbed now because of this illegitimate mass mandate thank you next speaker hi my name is angeli vasquez i'm an alumni of the school district i also have a third grader in the school system as well last time i was here it was a lot more wild and rambunctious pretty much every time that somebody came to speak and talked about the rates of
077suicide that occurs in lgbtq youth there were people cheering scoffing like enough already like we know which kind of serves as an indication as to who is at risk here and who is the antagonizer here no kid is gonna put themselves in a position to receive the kind of vitriol that adults are willing to supply simply to cause a disruption we have the ability to ease a suffering of children and i don't understand what kind of mother would say no to that there is nothing wrong with a fifth grade understanding of faith and religion as long as you're in fifth grade or a fifth grade understanding of biology and science as long as you're in the fifth grade you next speaker please hello hello my name is victor constanta i'm in the sixth grade i
078enjoy my school but the community in the bathroom is not enjoyable i would like more attention into the bathroom as it is not sanitary thank you hi my name is erica gehring i live in lake county i have two children in your school district and i also want to talk about these bathrooms my daughters are not able to use the bathroom during the day and they don't care which bathroom they just want to go to the bathroom while the mass mandates are being in place in the social distancing the teachers are limiting the ability for children to use the restroom so my children don't want to drink water during the day because their bladders get full and then they can't get a bathroom pass to this is really unhealthy on a few levels we can
079argue about the science with the mask and the bacteria and the moisture and does it even take you know get the viruses out of there no it doesn't we can talk about that we can talk about the scientific studies that you know communities that had masks have no difference in their coded transmission rates but can we please let our children use the restroom of their choice thank you madam chair that concludes public comments okay thank you well i think i'm going to start with victor thank you for coming and speaking regarding the bathrooms i really appreciate that and perhaps we can find out what school you're at and we'll see what we can do with that okay thank you brenda and miss perez there was a couple others i'm try i was trying to pay
080attention and raise the same time regarding the superintendent we definitely will be putting that information out there we want the involvement of the community and we will be definitely be discussing that everybody is important even the mother who said i'm just a parent you're just a parent you're important as well so we definitely want the feedback of the community and of the different associations so we will be going out there getting a lot of information from you and having conversations let's see again everybody who comes here we really appreciate all of you who walk in the door who come with your concerns your comments we do hear what you say as far as the student code of conduct we are looking at the student code of conduct we will make sure that every child is
081protected regardless of who those children are because we need to make sure that no child should ever have to go to school and wonder what is going to happen to them that's not going to happen we need to make sure that has taken place always the mask a lot of people came and spoke about the mask i appreciate that i personally hate wearing the mask myself i'm always getting sinus infection so i get it my grandkids are the same way they don't care to wear them either but i'm gonna ask dr atkins to speak on that and actually and miss dupree bruno to speak on the mask policies so if you can shed some light on that i would really appreciate it okay madam chair as you know i did send a memo yesterday regarding
082mass the first thing i think is important we did have a parent that mentioned making decisions about next year i did make the recommendation that next year mass would be voluntary in in that is in alignment with i think what has come down from the state they have been good partners with us this year so i appreciate that guidance but that is i do believe that gets us out in front of that so parents can make decisions about whether or not they're going to send their student to school next year in a face-to-face model knowing that that is voluntary unless there's some dramatic change over the summer that would cause the board and the interim superintendent to make a change as a result of an increase in the pandemic the other the other issue in
083terms of what we are doing right now there's a couple different things that are germane to to the issue one is health and safety of our students i think we've done a very good job our students have done an outstanding job as as our teachers and our administrators in making sure our kids are safe and following our protocols including masking and as a result we have been able to be one of the few schools districts in the nation that has been able to open face to face from the very first day of school we've been able to work with our partners and department of health to make sure that we do contact tracing and everything to keep our as many kids in school as possible despite some of the quarantining that we have to do
084i think we've been very successful at that we're coming up on on graduations we are in the middle of testing and i just think for health and safety reasons we should stay the course however it was also mentioned the memorandum of understanding with our associations they were a big part of this decision making as were many many partners within our community including parents including medical professionals that have made these recommendations and as a result of that we did enter into a memorandum of understanding that is a binding matter that is not just something that i can unilaterally change that is a agreement between the board and the associations and as i did mention yesterday there have been ongoing discussions but at this point one party or the other can't unilaterally change that agreement so it's
085the for those reasons why in this memo we're recommending staying the course but again i think focusing on the future and looking at ho i don't like wearing masks either anybody who knows me well knows that about me and i think that applies to probably just about everybody but at this point i just think it's prudent we've been successful we've got graduations coming up testing a lot of important things that we don't want to to have an issue with and then of course the memorandum that i mentioned thank you dr atkins and then also mr preet bruno could you please regarding the mermaranda could you please share what exactly that is and how that affects us so it really is exactly what dr atkins says the memorandum of understanding is a contractual agreement between the
086two parties the unions and the board and basically they negotiated an agreement so that teachers would come back to work at the height of the pandemic so we can open up schools and these were part of the terms that was negotiated so teachers can come back we do understand that there's been some changes and we continue to evaluate those changes but we do have a contract in place at this point that will expire june 30th so that's exactly what dr atkins said okay and then i'm just going to ask you one more thing if we were to violate the memoranda well it's not a good ever a good idea to violate any contract because there's always all kinds of consequences from you know teachers deciding that they don't want to go to school to teach
087to all kinds of other types of damages so we do have to be very careful and honor all of the contracts especially when you're dealing with the union you do have to respect the terms of your agreement that you have with the particular parties there are two speakers that did not have an opportunity to speak they were here on time they did fill a blue card out but for some reason those cards were put in with the blanks so i would like to have an opportunity for those two speakers to speak i think that's a great idea yes thank you want me to go ahead and call them yes please okay will kathy michaels and jason jones please come to the microphone i came from illinois and i have three children my oldest is 47
088and he's gay he was born gay and the other two were not i have a niece that's married a doctor and she's gay it's 20 21 for crying out loud you know it's not 1950 it's not 1970 it's 20 21. everybody deserves the right to freedom they deserve the right to be respected and i'm sorry listening to some of the people that you know i've been around gay people who have been married with children it is not child abuse to have other children around those families for crying out loud and i'm sorry about the mass but my two-year-old granddaughter wears one and does not cry jones doesn't that appear he's here madam chair okay not coming in okay and then also and i think that dr pruitt maybe was i just seen her walk out
089with miss erica regarding the bathrooms because i want to make sure that's taken care of as well whatever she was speaking about for her kids i definitely want to make sure that to find that solution for the child if those kids cannot go to the bathroom they need to be able to go to the bathroom so i but i did see her walk out with them so if you could just maybe follow up with that would be great yeah well madame chair i don't know if you want to make this clarification i think there's also been some confusion about the governor's order as it impacts local municipalities and i think we have to to make it clear as to why that order doesn't apply to to our policy i'm not an attorney so i wouldn't
090turn away that's what that's what i had that was that's an important distinction so the governor's order that came out the executive order that came out does not apply to school districts it only applies to municipalities the surgeon general's order is something different but the governor's order itself is not applicable to school districts and school districts can continue on with their policies until the june 30th date and just also for clarification the commissioner's letter commissioner cochran's letter applies for next school year not this school year so next school year the advisement from the department of education is that mask be voluntary not mandated and as dr atkins indicated the lee county school district will be doing the same thing where mask will be voluntary and not mandated pursuant to the department of education thank you
091mr free bruno and then miss erica i see you're back here did they get your information regarding okay thank you just want to make sure that's okay so again i thank everybody again for coming in here and please you know continue to come in let us know your thoughts we get hundreds of emails a day we do read them sometimes we don't we're not able to get right back to you but we are looking at i know i personally read all of them regardless of what day it is i'm reading them so continue to to share that information with us moving on to the next is the approval of the consent action items the documentation for action items listed under consent is made available to board members seven business days prior to board meeting we
092are 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 agenda on the action agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business table items portion of the agenda ms giaminelli i have won g6 the approval of the collaboration agreement with equal opportunity schools thank you ms patricka no thank you miss fisher i have none at this time kittens yes i have one h3 h3 okay miss vaughn i have none miss morgan i have none and i have none is there a motion to approve the agenda consent action items with the exception
093of pooled items g6 and h3 i'll move to approve the action the consent agenda with the exception of g6 and h3 thank you miss fisher i have a second miss morgan thank you and please record your vote i miss thomas i still can't see that motion passes 7-0 thank you okay we have two polls to address dr atkins please read your recommendation for the pulled item g6 yes madam chair approval of the collaboration agreement with equal opportunity schools to provide support and assistance school leadership at the district's 15 high schools agreement provides continuation of the work that was started for 2122 school year thank you is there a motion to adopt dr atkins recommendation miss morgan we approve the collaboration agreement with equal opportunity schools thank you a second you have a second second thank
094you mr fisher okay it's been moved by miss morgan seconded by miss fisher any discussion mr david elling if you will thank you i actually did some research on this and after receiving numerous calls on this today in some emails this is first of all and looking at the i asked for a civil syllabus and i did not receive it on outline i received some information but the information really pertains to high school and i believe by the time high school gets around if we haven't if kids aren't achieving we're already in big trouble it's already too late for them this we need to be helping our elementary students and our students in middle school before it becomes a crisis in high school it's it's just too late and they wind up dropping out or
095the not graduating or getting a special diploma so i think that considering this kind of agreement and what it actually involves is another issue i think i think it's it's got a political agenda behind it and reading it and i don't want it to end up like the lgbtq poster that had happened when parents didn't have stakeholder input i think this is we weren't really briefed on this we were just it was kind of just a little bit workshopped and there was no real information substantive to i want to see the data and how successful this program is and it just it's a little bit fly by night for me and i don't think it's enough information for me to support it at this point in time i think if we can get some more
096information i might i might be more in agreement to this but considering everything that i read today on some information that was sent to me causes me to have pause thank you okay are there any other questions please or comments ms vaughn yeah i feel like i need to comment on this because i initially was going to pull this item i did have a actually mr simmons and mr kennedy sought me out to talk to me about many many many concerns that i had about this and actually my concerns were more what we weren't doing as as a school district just to recap things like something that miss juvenelli already mentioned as a 38-year teacher i know that what she says is true you need to we let me say this let me back up
097a minute and say that we absolutely need to get more of our low-income students our minority students in our advanced classes i have a lot of experience with this i'm going to go back to when i was teaching at estera high school my ap classes and the one year that i taught ace very white not a whole lot of minority students in that class when i was teaching at the other end of the spectrum same years reading that's where i saw the black the hispanic the low income students so it is an issue that we need to deal with i don't doubt that i have some misgivings about this particular program because the way it operates first of all it seems like it's kind of cherry picking courses that students may be interested in to
098pull in more of our kids that are not not enrolled in more rigorous again as i said i think it should start i think a program needs to start in middle school one thing that i talked with mr simmons and miss kennedy at length about is teacher training now this is why i i'm still not a hundred percent on this particular program however they assured me so here it is out there on on on tape that teachers were being trained and that we were starting this summer is it enough i'm a little wavering on on that our middle schools were beginning finally to have some advanced coursework to have a successful program that vertical planning with rigorous courses starting in middle school is just absolutely necessary we talked about some of the ways that in
099middle school for instance do talent search and there are other ways other tests that can be given to a whole grade level to find students that might be overlooked because often and this is this is a very sad fact but there is a if you if you have a teacher in a room and i really hate to to put this out there but it's but it's true it's in the research and you have different students from different ethnic backgrounds have different looks have different kinds of clothes on and this would also include if they're dressed in a grunge style or if they're dressed i don't know none of the kids wear ties or anything but you know what i'm saying that teachers do make judgments so the unfortunate fact of life is we do have
100some students because of their ethnic racial background or their socio economic background may be overlooked there's a lot of other things that we discussed i told them and i'm not going to go back on my word since well because i don't do that i told them all right i'm going to hold you to this and i am going to hold them to what they told me about the additional training and saying yes we want to build rigor for our best and brightest kids we want all our kids to succeed and it's not right to some of our kids that their their talents their intellectual talents are not being nurtured they're not being discovered in time and so to wrap up what i'm saying i will support this but it's it's one of those supports that
101i'm counting on what i heard today to be true so i don't want to be disappointed and learn that what i heard is not being enacted so that's how i feel about this thank you dr atkins i want this board really to be comfortable around this issue i since there is some concern this is a very very important matter for the school district the we do as many school districts across the nation have have difficulty making sure that our students that have the ability to do high-level rigorous work are identified and allowed that opportunity that's an issue and this is a an endeavor i think to try to improve that within this district but i also believe that we have efforts that are ongoing in elementary and middle school that it may be a good
102educational opportunity for this board as we move this issue to the forefront and try to get you a little bit more comfortable with this particular agenda item to also have the opportunity to talk about what are things that are happening at the elementary in the middle school level so that we do have more of our students identified and prepared to do academic work of great rigor way beyond what they are sometimes enrolled in i think this is an issue i have said it in the past particularly at the middle school level but our team has taken steps there that i think again would be good for the public and for this board to hear a little bit more about and in the meantime i think make you hopefully make you a little bit more comfortable
103with this issue i hear miss vaughn and miss giovanelli and so i since there is some concern and rather than just pushing forward we do have the time to step back and provide you with a little bit more information so i'm perfectly willing to do that because i'd hate for us to you know continue to get into a lengthy discussion when we can bring this back at a time and have a more focused discussion on on this whole issue thank you miss kittens thank you for that dr atkins but what i wanted to say was it's my understanding that the staff has been meeting with the company and there has been training going on and planning and all of that going on for a couple of years and my question is why haven't we been
104briefed on it previously unless i missed something i also received many comments and concerns and all from the community i personally am not against the program itself but it gives me a bit of angst and thinking is this we have access to so much data and so much information about our students and maybe i'm looking at it too simplistically but can we not pull that data and find out which students are within this range and take care of their needs we're data driven data every day and data pulled from here and there i don't understand unless it's a systemic problem that is not being recognized by certain administrators counselors or whatever then that's our problem to educate them about what they should be doing for all children whether we're you know paying amount for it
105255 000 for it or not to me it's just something that should be done for all children and if we i talked to some administrators and the interesting thing was a couple of them said yes it should be done kind of automatically as something we do but they were concerned that it wouldn't be done and that's that's a frightening thing for our culture to to admit that so i'm just thinking we haven't had a briefing we should either table it or something and i know what you said dr atkinson i appreciate that because i think we don't have enough information and it also boils up in me that you know what are we doing without the aid of a outside company thank you miss morgan so did i hear you say you're withdrawing your recommendation
106yes okay oh okay i just wanted to make my comment so officially miss morgan are you withdrawing your motion obviously since he's you're withdrawing your motion you made the motion to adopt the recommendation you're withdrawing the motion i withdraw the motion thank you thank you dr adkins thank you okay so the next item the next pulled item dr atkins could you please read your recommendations for pool item h3 and yeah just let me get there i hit the wrong button on the start h3 yes please approve the monthly budget report for the period ending march 31st 2021 okay and do i have a motion to adopt dr atkin's recommendation i'll move to adopt dr atkins recommendation thank you mr fisher and we have a second respond thank you okay and is there any discussion so
107miss kittens believe that was your poll yes i am not against the budgets basically as presented my concern is the section on portables purchase leased and constructed i have asked several times for information and thank you staff i have received some and each time we get information about the portables or relocatables it's a different format and we have to decipher what's what i still do not have the information about individually what is the individual cost to lease or to rent a portable per month and some other questions that i have had when we get a budget that just has the total budget numbers i'm a little leery about it because if i vote for this tonight and something else comes up about this i'll just be told that you already voted for it so for
108that reason until i get all the information that i feel i need in the public needs to see then that is why i'm pulling this item because i will not be supporting it without documented information is there any other discussion no okay so there's no no other discussion i will then call for call for the vote then and this is a hand vote for us to move forward with dr atkins recommendation so can i have a hand vote for those who approve h3 h3 aye sorry is given ellie i'm trying to decide i support it thank you six zero thank you and i'm chaired six one one six one ocean carries six one okay we have no administrators attorneys recommendations so mr prairie bruno thank you madam chair the first one is the approval of
109the agreement with scott cashman as a consultant to the school board of lee county and facilitating the interim superintendent hiring process effective may 12 through june 30 2021 for a cost not to exceed five thousand dollars thank you have heard the attorney's recommendation that the board approved the agreement with scott cashman mha fache dba healthy team healthy business llc as consultant to the school board of lee county florida and facilitating the interim superintendent hiring process effective may 12 2021 to june 30th 2021 for total cost not to exceed 5 000 is there a motion to approve miss patricka that we approve attorney depre bruno's recommendation regarding a consultant thank you may have a second miss morgan and discussion miss kittens yes i will like drone on i still nothing against what mr cashman or the
110process that you all have decided i still maintain that i feel this could have been handled differently so i will not be supporting this okay is there any other miss javanelli i'm not gonna support this at this night it has nothing to do with mr cashman i just don't think we needed a consultant to make a decision so at this time i won't support that either thank you okay any other comments okay and again i just want to say that this was something that we all agreed upon at the board table together so it wasn't us or them it was all of us so i just wanted to clarify that as well so if i please please thank you i have to be very honest i find it offensive when someone changes their mind on
111the board gathers more information and decides that perhaps that is not the best way to go and to always be reminded that and that's what i meant when i pull the other because i will be told well you voted on it and i just don't think that's necessary a lot of my colleagues continue to say well it's something we all voted on perhaps so i have changed my mind because of further information no everyone has i just and i want to clarify that as well we all all of us have the opportunity to change our mind it's just when it's stated that we have you all have decided we need to make sure that we can change our mind but we have to own the fact that we at one point it was a collective
112thought process that we did do that and then we definitely can come back and change your mind so it's just an unnecessary comment in my opinion thank you miss vaughn yeah i'd like to clarify that although mr cashman is down as a consultant the term if you look at the proposal facilitating and i emphasize the word facilitating there were a couple speakers and there have been a few emails also that i've read that indicate that we as board members are abdicating our job because we're hiring a facilitator to tell us what to do that cannot be further from the truth and i know those of you who know me you know that the facilitator's not going to be telling me what to do i'm going to be making it my own mind and we have
113six other very independent board members up here and i feel like they will also be pity one of our discussions here on the dais had to do with two issues that involved staff fulfilling this role one was the idea that they may not be objective and the second was that was brought up that staff members might be put in awkward situations in making decisions or comments that sort of thing so i'll be honest i had my doubts about this i don't think the meet individually with board members as needed is really necessary but i think we will be helped as a board to stay on task when we have a an objective professional facilitator helping us over a few a few bumps so hopefully that clears up the misinformation that this person in any way
114shape or form is going to be telling us what to do on on this thank you miss monk mr preet bruno so board members after hearing the discussions that you've had yesterday and in my discussions with mr cashman after you instructed me to go ahead and start negotiating with him if you'll note on the exhibit a of the contract which outlines the scope of work you will see that there is some difference in the language that is used upon my discussion and negotiations with mr cashman so it's very clear at this point that is facilitating the interim superintendent hiring process and everything in the scope of work at this point also says help to facilitate the discussions to assist the board so all of that was changed in addition with regards to meeting with the
115board we changed that as needed as requested or as necessary and there's nothing here that is a project of mr cashman to do on his own everything is with regards to the facilitation of the discussions to assist the board so that language was changed thank you is there any other discussion mr evanelli and so that's just it five thousand dollars for someone to speak for us that just seems ludicrous and it shows how dysfunctional this board is because i know there's board members here that don't that thinks we need this because we can't function properly as a board and so i go back and forth because we no offense and all due respect but miss jordan you just basically we have an issue with bullying on this board and you actually just bullied miss gittins
116for changing her mind and we all need to be respected at this table and that is our problem i don't think the facilitator is gonna fix that at the tune of five thousand dollars unfortunately so i again will not be supporting this tonight and that has nothing to do with the facilitator it just has to do with this board in general thank you thank you mr vanelli and to clarify i am not bullying anyone i am just speaking when we are hearing that some of us had come up with a decision when it was all of us i just want to make it clear because when people are sitting up here and they're speaking everybody's out there hearing what we're saying so if you only hear one side that's what you're going to hear that
117is not bullying by no means so i just want to make sure that we are getting all the story out miss chivanelli it is when you actually talk bad about what someone changing their mind and they have the right everyone has the right to change their mind and that's the whole problem why everybody comes here about the lgbt they have the right to speak their mind and the others have the right to speak their mind and then we as a as a community of society we want to cancel everybody out because we want everybody to think like i should think and that's not the way it works we need to be respectful and listen to what others say and take it that with if you want so be it a grain of salt or whatever
118but we still need to listen and hear and that's all i'm saying in and that's what's going to happen with the facilitator is he thinks he's going to be able to maneuver us along and i don't think that's going to happen and i think it's going to be a waste of five thousand dollars and at the end of the day we're going to get whoever the person that set this up gets to begin begin with that they're going to get who they want it's not we're not going to have a say because it's always driven by a agenda someone else's agenda not by a board's agenda and one and seven people making that up together there's always somebody maneuvering to make it happen for their agenda and that's just the way it is but we
119do we don't need to be bullying somebody from changing their mind that's all i'm going to say and it's happened numerous times thank you mr evanelli and miss kittens if you if i offended you in any way i do apologize because i do never want you to feel that i am bullying you or anybody else so i do apologize yeah yes sir this was not the first time that's happened it happens all the time and it happened in a meeting recently and again i was chastised about changing my mind by several board members and my comment is if that's the way you feel it's an unnecessary comment to make if we have a motion that's on the table obviously we talked about it and people can see who voted for it that's public comment so
120it's just an unnecessary thing to say that's all i'm saying i accept your apology chair jordan at this point if we can go back to the emotion that's on the floor and discussions that are germane to that motion so that because i know there's two other motions that we need to do that are attorney recommendations and then there's some good of the order thank you so could we please i will call for the vote then this will be a hand vote or i'm sorry okay thank you okay madam chair motion carries five two five two thank you okay mr free bruno is this yours or mr quick attorney quick yep it's recommended action is approval of the agreement with hr and beyond to provide external investigations as directed by the school board with a not
121to exceed amount of forty thousand dollars this agreement shall terminate automatically upon completion by hrb of the services required by this agreement or one year from the effective date of this agreement whichever is sooner and i will go off script just a little bit there's one scrivener's error i wanted to point out that will be corrected in number roman numeral paragraph 13 i'm sorry 14 under venue it will indicate lee county not broward county for the venue i apologize okay thank you have heard the attorney's recommendation that the board approves agreement with hr and beyond to provide external investigation as directed by the school board with not to exceed the amount of 40 000 this agreement shall terminate automatically upon completion by hrb of the services required by this agreement or one year from the
122effective date of this agreement whichever is sooner is there a motion to approve i make the motion that we enter the agreement with hr and beyond to work with the school district league county as authorized to create focused investigations gather detailed facts and analyze the evidence and produce a final investigation rick thank you miss kittens may you have a second i'll second it fisher thank you thank you and any discussion no discussion okay say no discussion i will then ask for the vote please record your vote motion carries madam chairs 7-0 thank you ms thomas mr quick madam chair the next one is this will be a little bit longer approval to refer specific complaints for investigations as follows number one lighthouse incident number two zero zero zero zero three six two nine four full
123investigation by hrb which is human resources and beyond number two whistleblower complaint full investigation by hrb number three lighthouse report number nine zero three one three two one full investigation by hrb number four lighthouse incident number two zero zero zero zero four zero eight four nine for further investigation as discussed in the briefing meeting lighthouse incident 200-3897 also for further investigation number six lighthouse case number two zero zero zero four five five eight for further investigation as discussed number seven lighthouse case number two zero zero zero four four six one eight for full investigation by hrb number eight lighthouse case number two zero zero zero nine full investigation by hrb 9 lighthouse case number 903-142-021-4882 full investigation by hrb and finally number ten lighthouse incident number two zero zero zero four eight one two six
124directing me to refer the matter to the state attorney's office you have heard the attorney's recommendation that the board approves to refer specific complaints for investigation as follows approval to refer specific complaints for investigation as follows one late house incident number two zero zero zero zero three six two nine four full investigation by hrb number two whistleblower complaint full investigation by hrb light number three lighthouse report number nine zero three one three two zero two one four eight eight two full investigation by hrb number four lighthouse incident number two zero zero zero zero four zero eight four nine for further investigation lighthouse incident number two zero zero zero zero three eight nine seven seven for further investigation lighthouse case number two zero zero zero zero four five five zero eight for further investigation number seven
125lighthouse case number two zero zero zero zero four eight i'm sorry four four six one eight full investigation by hrb eight lighthouse case number two zero zero zero zero three nine three zero six full investigation by hrb number nine lighthouse case number nine zero three one four two zero two one four eight eight two full investigation by hrb and number ten lighthouse incident number two zero zero zero zero four eight one two six refer to state attorney's office is there a motion to approve ms patricka the move that we approve attorney quick's recommendation for referral specific complaints for investigation as listed in the agenda thank you is there a second i'll second it that's for sure okay is there any discussion any discussion seeing none i will call for the vote please record your vote
126madam chair motion carry 7-0 thank you miss thomas mission carries 7-0 very cheer yes may i ask the attorney i have a motion that i would like to make and is this the appropriate time to do that's we're going to do that in the good of the order i believe for the website no oh okay mr bruno i'm not sure what motion it is right is it fine for me to make a motion at this point is it relevant to this agenda item no it's not then i would wait till good of the order okay okay next on the agenda is board member comments miss giovanelli yeah so i think we have to this is the this is the question do we pull the motion from the table the one that was tabled regarding the
127website you do need to pull that motion from the table i have to i that's all that's all i just want to make sure that doesn't get because i think there was some confusion so i just want to make sure that was there's clarity on that i was going to ask dr atkins to check on the bathroom issue regarding the little girl because that's actually not the first time i've heard that i just really had a hard time believing it that their people couldn't go to the bathroom because i not because they have mass on i don't really understand that whole thing and whether there's limitations on teachers allowing students to go to the bathroom so now a parent came and spoke about it so i would like for you to really look into that
128and then i want to talk i want you since mr wise is here i would ne that wasn't mentioned earlier is if you could address the acceleration academy and what's and give us another update on that because obviously he maybe didn't get to hear what we talked about yesterday so maybe you can shed some light on that for us thank you mr pre bruno you had your hand up dr atkins would you like to address it or would you like me to well i can give you an update as i know and then you know just fill in beyond i'd i yesterday when when i learned of this actually on friday i did contact dr spyro at that point and had a discussion with him and asked him to to look into the matter and
129make contact and i believe he has done that my understanding is that we have a meeting with the tooth legal team set up on friday and the hopes is at that point that we can move forward so that's that's what i know at this point and maybe mr dupree bruno knows a little bit more about the legal matter that was of concern but you know from dr spyro and myself this is something that we do want to address our drop dropout situation here in lee county we felt this was a good opportunity to do so and that's why we were moving it forward so the only thing i would add is that the legal team is taking a look at this there are some concerns with regards to charter schools and whether or not there
130should be a charter school so there's some additional discussions that we're having and we should have a response by friday to determine which direction that we will advise the district to move forward on okay so then i'll finish my conversation i'll finish my go to the order okay so that being said this school this acceleration academy has i went and visited the one in sarasota and it's not a charter school there's miami st lucie and their the data is success so i know there's it's even nationwide there's one in las vegas and they're doing so well and i think it's it would be prudent for us to move forward with this so i am excited that dr atkins has done that because i think that this is a great thing and i don't think i
131don't understand where the charter school came in because this has been an ongoing ongoing work in progress for like i thought somebody said three years but i think it's been longer than that because these other schools the data is there the success rate is there and i every day that we don't do this we're losing children to whatever is going on in our community and society and the world that takes them away from being a successful person with a diploma so it's vital that we get this going and so the sooner the better because i think it does take a little bit of work to get get it going and selecting teachers and staff and so a place a facility and everything i think it's important to know that it would be part of lee
132county not a charter school therefore the funds would come through lee county and we get to keep some of that funds and educate children that are that have gone been out in the world for probably a year or so on their own and not not with a diploma so i just think that it will be a great legacy for you dr atkins because of i think that it will reach and touch many students that did not that we did not otherwise so thank you steven are you i'm good thank you thank you ms patricka i just have a couple questions dr atkins when you bring the equal opportunity schools issue back to the board for briefing could you answer the question how do we close achievement gaps unless we engage in programs like this i
133see that as you know one of our goals and i see this as a step in that direction attorney dupree bruno when dr atkins brings that back could you address paragraph 14 in that contract and opine as to whether that paragraph insulates us from any kind of relationship or influence from the organizations that support equal opportunities program you understand the question yes all right i think as i read that paragraph i think it insulates us from that but i would like confirmation of that finally i'd like to say that i have significant lack of comfort with a vendor appearing before the board at a public meeting i just i've in all my years on the board i've never seen that happen vendors relationships are supposed to be with staff not with the board dr atkins
134could you provide us with the correct number of students that we're dealing with here not now just in a in a board update the number that was provided by the vendor i've i've been told is inaccurate so i'd like some accurate information surrounding that those are my comments thank you thank you wait a minute i'm sorry last thing i understand that some counties have had success but other counties in florida are also terminating their relationship at the end of the agreement so just in terms of balance and understanding on this i think that was an important piece of information for us to consider those my comments i'm really done now thank you thank you miss fisher yes i'm just going to piggyback on that before i begin my comments what i would like to have
135part of the information that we get when you come back to us with this is a little bit more data about the impact of the equal opportunity school involvement and some success rates i tried to search it online but couldn't find too much information although i do see that they operate in many districts around the country so that being said may is also mental health awareness month from may 1st to the 31st it's observed in the united states by media local events and film screenings mental health awareness month began in the united states in 1949 and was started by the mental health america organization coincidentally it is also national prevention week which is an annual health observance dedicated to increasing public awareness and action around substance use prevention and the promotion of positive mental health
136this year this national health initiative sponsored by the substance abuse and mental health services administration samhsa takes place this week may 9th to 15th and you can take the national prevention week 2021 prevention challenge by texting prevention happens here i really appreciate the speakers who take the time out of their evenings and away from their families to come and share with us their opinions and feelings i respect and appreciate all the different opinions and i think it's very important for us to hear that balance i wanted to share a letter that i received from a retired educator as a retired educator i urge you to support youth in our schools by upholding and supporting best practices guide and that is what the poster is it's a guide not a policy included in that in that
137guide is our non-discrimination policy which defines our responsibilities under the law why is it that some feel that rights only pertain to themselves and their beliefs disinformation fear misunderstandings and loud voices should not rule the day nor your decision lee county is legally required to protect and meet the unique needs needs of lgbtq as well as other marginalized and minority people this guide provides clear procedures for schools so that faculty and staff can follow existing policies and current laws and i just wanted to share that monday night we had our curriculum advisory meeting and the curriculum advisory committee works hard to advise the board and continues to work on a strong academic curriculum leading to both career and technical nature majors we had on monday night no quorum so we had an informal meeting however
138they did continue on and reviewed our best standards and the plans for next school year and also opportunities for expanded learning i wanted to piggyback again on the family initiative award that was awarded to our consultative teacher donna jerf i think it was probably about 27 years ago that she and i attended a training at the center for all his autism-related diseases in tampa and she has been a champion all through the years and has designed assessments for children who couldn't handle the regular assessment and she has helped families through many many many difficult times so she certainly definitely deserves that award i want to thank again all of our superintendent his executive staff our all of our staff for their efforts in working with our parents and students and parents you are our partners
139in your child's education so i wouldn't want for any any one of you to think you're just a parent you're a very important part of this business and finally i want to appreciate my colleagues on the school board and i've enjoyed hearing about your visits and attending events as i have been not quite up to par and haven't been able to physically get out to a lot of that but i am working diligently to get back on track and with that i am blessed to serve with you and thank you thank you miss fisher miss kittens okay i'll leave that until later the good stuff the happy stuff first of all thank you all who take the time to get dressed and get in your car and drive here even when we're hearing of impending
140gas shortage it's not happening don't go out to the gas station yet but thank you for coming and you know i thought about how many in the last several meetings how many people have spoken before us and sometimes unfortunate situations have good outcomes because we have more people participating in the education of our students in lee county than we've had in quite some time my ask of you is that this participation continues not for a single element or something that you feel very strongly about but i would hope you would take that effort and energy and feel strongly about educating all children all the time in every way that is necessary so thank you for coming please continue to come even if you don't have a card already laid out with what you have to
141say the students the children the board we need to see that you're a part of what we're doing we can't do this alone we shouldn't do this alone and two happy things i went to ms patricka was invited as well we went to the estero high school senior awards night and just to give you a couple of the claims to fame for them is they i think there was one they received almost a million dollars in certain scholarships the community sponsorships and i think mr patrick i mentioned earlier the estero council and i can't remember all the other chamber and a few other groups that contributed to the tune of 1.2 million dollars seniors earned over 2.8 million dollars in scholarships and the total estero high school class of has banked drumroll 4 million dollars
142so we've got students that are really on their way to do big things the best times of this job are with children and even in the time of covet and not being able to be there and you know see their little faces and all so i did read reading a book by zoom to a class at mirror lakes and miss pew i think it's pronounced pc sent the thank you letters from the kids and i just want everyone to smile so i'll read them dear ms kittens thank you so much for the fun read aloud we love participating in this event miss schuler's second grade class and the other one dear miss kittens thank you for reading a book to us on zoom during the read across america we enjoyed hearing i am enough we
143liked when you stopped and asked us questions it was fun waving our arms and pretending to fly with you we hope you can read to us again sincerely miss circe's second grade so hi to all of you and thank you for listening and i will be back and read again that's it until i have another thing this is the good of the this is your this is when i can do the good of the order or my motion no this is for yeah the website okay i'll do the website first i'm going to move over to the other side so you can see it but we're bringing forth first of all i need to do hold on okay i need to make a motion to take from the table the motion to approve the website
144we had made a motion previously about the this is about the superintendent the interim superintendent website and it was an idea way to include the community to take you along with us on this journey to allow you the opportunity to give some input as well so i will show it to you in a second but i first need to move to repeat remove the table on the motion for the website okay so we're just to clarify miss again just to clarify you want to move to take from the table the motion yes okay yes i do i need to repeat it are we okay thomas have it you need a second a second second mrs patricka no discussion just go to the vote no discussion go to the vote okay can we have a hand
145vote on removing it perfect okay and now i would just oh sorry i was just saying 7-0 and now i'd like to make a motion to move forward with the regular motion that we had originally to provide the web page for the superintendent interim superintendent search so a motion for the approval of the website for the interim superintendent the webpage make sure it's clearly the web page second bye miss cheap why do we need another motion when we already have a motion on the table i was it's the it's the same motion that's on the table she's repeating the motion which is to approve the website great it was tabled so we had to we took it off but that's the motion that's the motion that's on the floor right now right so now we
146have discussion do we get a second oh you're going to do that yes okay okay yeah we have discussion yes and i can go over there very quickly point of order i don't i don't know who i don't have it in in front of me who had seconded it the first time basically the motion was taken off the table it's the motion that's there and now we're just going into discussion she wants to be able to show the website but i mean when we do superintendent attorney recommendations we don't have shows i mean we've already talked about this and looked at the website and provided input it's a matter of discussion and vote at this point we saw it today if the board is inclined to move forward without you know seeing the website we
147can move forward with any other discussion and the vote it's up to the board yes please miss kittens okay part of just showing it was to have on record what's there to inform the public that it's out there and some of the just a couple of the aspects i'm not going to take 30 minutes okay when when else do we show them what we are going to do because i think that cannot can we please take consensus on just go let her yeah i think that please yes please show us all right just very quickly what the purpose of it basically is to allow the public to know what we're doing as we go through the process i'm not going to go through each and every page but you will see interactive pieces here that
148talk about seeking the interim superintendent and all of the process that's involved with that and just tells a little bit about the second thing is the process that we will select a consultant which we've already done advertise the position and i believe ms vaughn that's already happened correct correct the advertisement has already been done to set up individual interviews select finalists conduct the finalist interviews and appoint the interim and having this web page will allow everyone an opportunity to follow that process in the important dates you will see when we have meetings and we placed the pc means public comment so that you would know beforehand that these are the meetings that you can attend and have an opportunity to speak and how to get involved this is the important part for the public and
149you can click on these it will take you to watch whatever meetings we're having view the agendas and email the office well before i get to that one the keep track of dates if you click on that and it has instructions how you can connect this to your cell phone a lot of people don't use the computer they use their cell phone a lot so you can connect this and be kept up to date on your cell phone on the emailing the board office and this is the part that we agreed upon today the public will be able to make their comments this is not like facebook or some of the other applications where you'll see what everyone is saying it will go directly to the board portal and we'll be able to see your
150comments and once you submit this right down here it will come to us and this is what you will receive it will say thank you for taking the time to send us your thoughts and comments regarding our interim superintendent search your message will be shared with each board member and you may receive individual responses from them we appreciate your participation in this process so it's not an automatic that one of us is going to comment or re respond to you and this page is the precursor to when we start with the full superintendent search we will be able to move forward and adjust it and add different things so that you can follow along i do want to say a very very large thank you to laura howard from our i.t department who took our
151ideas and put it all together and laura thank you so much and we will be updating it as we go and changing things like dates etc as necessary are there any questions from the board members about anything is there any other discussion other than the one would be this will be ready to go first thing right we are planning i spoke with ms stillwell and our plan is to go live tomorrow morning perfect thank you we'll be out there and it will be a part of the web the eliteschools.net you will see it on there and then thank you is there any other questions thank you thank you very good we have questions from the audience public comments mr daley three brief things one i really do like the website option i just wanted to
152have clarification that the comments that are posted by the public are those going to be available for the public to view are those just going to go into some file that we then later have to spend a lot of money and effort requesting records to be able to see those at our expense and the time and energy of the staff at the school board and i also wanted to thank you guys for at least considering our request initially to be able to stay in the back of the room we appreciate that and i will be making an opportunity to speak with each of you because i think you're wrong about the executive order thank you thank you okay is there any other comments oh i'm sorry that's okay i took my time okay i just
153wanted to come up today to say thank you i believe it is three minutes though what can you put my time back it should be three minutes not one minute yeah so you're speaking on this particular issue you're talking about the website thank you i got seven seconds last time i wanted to say thank you very much for taking the time to go through that and to put all of your effort into it i've built four different websites and they are time staking so to actually go through and take the input and to take the constructive criticism critique and the suggestions from your teammates and make that happen in such a quick amount of time and to take your time to show it to the public we appreciate that i think that this is going
154to be a great tool and i am under a minute but i just thank you for my time as well thank you may i make a statement real quick two things i made an error laura howard is not in it she is in communications i was told to make sure that i changed that and then we had a question about this afternoon we were talking about whether it would go to the board office to what i can't remember the three things the board would you like to share that who are you speaking to thank you we're just in communications wanting clarification on where you would like the comments to go i know there were several options discussed whether it would go to all of your inboxes whether it would go to the board office email
155and then from there sent to all of you or whether we would just create a google form that you would have access to that you can peruse at your convenience so may i ask is that an addition to the motion now because are we changing well the motion is to approve the website and to have it go live i think this is a technical question in terms of that comment section as to do you want it to go to the board office go to the board members or you want in a google drive i think this afternoon i'm not a google driver document i think this afternoon that's what you were talking about was a document yes i do believe that's what the board had said this afternoon with the doctor ms stillwell had come
156up and spoke with us regarding that document okay just as for your information the document won't be in real time so as the comments come in we actually have to manually update the form because it comes in through an excel sheet so as long as you're aware that it's not coming immediately to that form then we can do it that way so yes yes go ahead so which version would let us see as things come in would it be better to go to the board office because the subject line will say superintendent search web page would that make it easier and can we still get the spreadsheet if it's done that way yes we can still keep all the information in a spreadsheet but the way it comes in through the website is via an
157excel sheet that we would then convert into a google form so we can populate it daily it won't take very long but it won't be in real time so if someone sends you something at midnight you're not going to get it until we're able to populate the form the next day is there a way to do that immediately i'm gonna have in speaking with laura this earlier today that is not that's why i was wanting to clarify that for you okay miss vaughn you have a question yeah i have a comment we need to make this as simple as possible so staff doesn't have to daily populate something remember this is our interim superintendent page we will obviously be making changes for the next phase so we're talking about two weeks here and i think
158we're getting way too complex with the spreadsheet and all of that it was my understanding when we first started talking about this and i don't understand why we have two places where the public can can email why not just have the one the logo and have it go not board office but board members and that way it goes to all of us not our board secretaries who will have more put on them and down below you know people know how to find the board by and large people know how to find the board members to individual you know email individually i just think we're getting way too complicated everything else is great about this but i think it's complicated for the public shall we email an individual or that's the part i have a problem
159with miss kittens okay and they're not going to have the choice the choices when they hit submit the question we're talking about now when they hit submit where is it going to go and we talked initially about it going directly to a different website and some of you said you didn't want that which would make it easy it would just go to this a nut website but email and we would just all be able to see it rather than having to have someone do anything to it i guess can we i think that could we be at an agreement then for for everything to go to board members and then it just it goes to everybody and that's it then it removes that person putting information having to put information in that removes the secretary
160or them from doing anything it just automatically goes to us mr givenelli i would agree that was the question i raised earlier was how much staff time would it involve and whatever's the least staff time involved is what needs to happen is my concern i agree and so whatever best for staff the miss kittens that would have been which one that would have been just going to the board members period correct well and is it just going to be board members because this is a behind the scenes piece the public is just going to hit submit and then it's going to go where the board would like so if you would like it to land in each of your individual inboxes we can do that is that difficult to set up it is not so
161if we do that then it takes away all of it has a subject line that says interim superintendent we know when we get an email that's what it is correct is that clear to everyone and we can so can we do you have another i was just going to say we can set up our own folders yeah so if if that's acceptable for everyone that it just will automatically staff doesn't have to be concerned with it just automatically comes to the members period is that okay with this if it is then did you have something else to add to that i just wanted to ask can you possibly send us the instructions on setting up a folder so it just comes in and goes out we can just it goes there automatically there's you know
162what she's talking about yeah there's just a way did you just set it up that when it comes in it goes into a folder and maybe someone in i.t can just send us those directions if we want to do it fine if we don't then finally she's right yeah okay thank you with you there so kid can we please then go ahead and take the vote on this all in favor of moving with the motion that miss kittens had put before us all in favor say aye aye all right okay seven zero okay miss games okay something else i had a motion has everyone finished yep it's 7-0 that's where no i mean with their comments do i do that now your times and then we'll move on to this oh okay to everybody else
163okay i would like to make a motion to amend to vote that a motion that we already have that talks about the search firm for the permanent superintendent and i don't know if it's an amendment or an addition to it that would say that the search firm for the permanent superintendent would be different from the super the one for the interim superintendent search and that the selection will be open to all applicants not just those selected by the board so the motion is that we add to that selection to that motion that we only that the search firm be different from the interim search firm and that the selection be open to a broader spectrum of people okay so there is a motion on the floor is this an appropriate motion just to make sure
164your emotion is that because i don't i don't know if we had a motion about the search firm yet so your can you restate your motion please well i thought we did we discussed it was it just consensus it wasn't a vote you have a workshop on friday that you're going to be talking about now you're really going to be talking about the permanent search and the national search and how what the criteria is for the firm and all of that good stuff that's going to be on friday so okay well i still would like to make that motion and are you saying that i can't do it until friday or no you what what the motion that you want to make is what specifically the specific motion is that when we begin to choose
165a consultant for the permanent superintendent search that it not be the same as the interim search consultant and that it be open to by open application to anyone not selected by the board so one thing that the board had decided by consensus was that you were going to use a national search firm so that's the that's that was decided now you haven't taken any formal votes on that because you haven't gotten to that part of the process but you did take a consensus on that whenever this first came up my recommendation ms kittens would be let's wait to see how the discussion develops on friday to see you know because you still have to talk about the criteria for your search firm i mean there's other things that you want to talk about and i
166know that it's going to be on the agenda on friday well the comment i wanted to make about it my concern arose when one of the conversations i don't know which one it was but one of our colleagues said asked when discussing the permanent superintendent the question was can we change our vote about having the interim be the other and the question was can we change that and your answer was yes i'm very concerned about this process and certain unspoken plans or or whatever that may be happening and not discussed with everyone so i will be watching very carefully to make sure the process remains fair equitable and transparent to all and i just hope that my colleagues would agree that we involve the community with the search committee and all those types of things
167as well i just don't i don't feel like we're being really transparent on some things so that's my concern if you feel that we should wait until friday i'll wait till friday to make the most friday will be a workshop so will be consensus but just like we did last time you know the matters that have to be voted on will come back to an action meeting so you can take your formal vote but you're you're just starting to talk about the national search firm and the criteria is and how you want to go through that process so i would recommend just waiting till friday and see how the board feels and which direction you want to go can i can i may i finish yes because and i miss i think miss vaughn had
168a question for you okay i am still not sure why all of these meetings can't be goodness not workshops but briefings or something of that sort we still can discuss and ask questions at briefings but it allows the public to be able to speak when we have a workshop discussing these things even though we take consensus it's not including the public and i just feel that this process should be done in briefings we still can discuss so i just want to lay that out there and i will tell you we will definitely be having briefings for this for that main reason just so that you well she said it was a workshop no friday's a workshop but going forward we have multiple meetings coming before us miss vaughn yeah i just said i guess it's
169a question comment or something miss gittins needs to think about between now and friday we don't have a search firm right now so it's all right so that's why your motion that you said is going to wait till friday is very confusing to me because why are we going to say it has to be a different person or firm when we don't have a search firm right now that's what i don't understand it makes no sense to me i answer yes because my concern is that the board will switch to say this firm is doing well they already know us let's keep this firm so i want to bring that up now that it needs to be different in my impression i just wanted to put that out the gentleman that the consultant is not
170a firm at all so he will not be in the running for that at all mr bruno yeah i was just going to clarify at this point the only thing that the board has done was set up a process for the interim superintendent and hired a facilitator to help with the discussions for the interim superintendent the board has not hired a firm yet but the board did make a decision via well the board did take a consensus that they wanted to have a national search firm so someone who had that broad breast to be able to look you know throughout the country to find a candidate but you haven't gotten to those discussions yet i think those discussions will start on friday and i understand that but i also said i want it on record
171that i know things do change and so i just want to put that out there and i know we don't have the group yet but okay as we're thinking about it please keep that in mind thank you for that miss jimmy did you have a question i'll be real quick i think what miss kittens is really trying to say is we don't have the public trust so she's trying to solidify the public trust and by making addressing this publicly and know that we are going to listen we are going to ask questions we want you to participate as a stakeholder and so we're we're going to push for that and she tried that was what she's attempting to do so i commend you for that thank you thank you thank you miss kittens no i've
172given anything else i will withdraw it on council's recommendation that it's on the record okay thank you for that did you have any other comments no that's it just again i'll say thank you miss laura howard from communications perfect thank you and thank you for assisting with this and putting this together miss vaughn yes thank you several comments first has to do with the public comment tonight as always we welcome all of you to come and speak to us there's one thing that has bothered me since the beginning of this whereas everyone has a right to his or her own view his or her own his or her own religion etc i feel that it's been extremely hurtful to our lgbtq community at large and also to our children when some of the speakers and
173it's your it's your right god bless the usa it's your right to do it but i'm just going to say that i find it very hurtful when people talk about things like dismissing the children that are that are gay or trans in saying everybody has some rough part in their childhood so get over it or this is only political correctness no it's it's human rights we're talking about people that talk that they're not even insinuating they're flat out saying that our teachers are indoctrinating our children that this is child abuse i don't understand how showing a picture of a child with two moms to a group of students who might very well because of today's society might very well have friends of their own with two moms or two dads or maybe one mom or
174maybe auntie or grandma but we don't have it is not leave it to beaver time and we don't have the 1950s mom at home wearing pearls and doing the dishes and dad the 1950s view we have all kinds of families out there our children are part of all kinds of blended families and all of these things and i'm not telling you don't have a right to say that i'm just saying you probably don't care but it really does bother me to hear things said in this auditorium that are hurtful to a large community and also our children that are part of that community secondly on a more happier note i'm going to add another may is and may is also haitian heritage month and this is an important month for me i've been involved with
175haitian american community coalition for more than five years now and the haitian heritage children make up a very large percent of our ell population and in another hopefully by the next meeting or you know by next week i have been the scholarship chair for five years we have again a group of amazing amazing haitian heritage senior students from lee county so we're going to be announcing our thousand dollar scholarship winners there'll be four of them again this year so i just wanted to point out i guess may is a very popular month for for recognitions of of different cultures finally i want to go back to something that miss giovannelli said and also one of our speakers pointed out dr wise i'm gonna kind of lump together the idea of the what was tabled this
176evening because there was you know the eos because there was really not a good board briefing on that and i thank dr atkins for pulling it back and for offering to put forth a lot more information because i think we as a board need to be able to discuss what do we have right now that does at least in part what the eos does and as a matter of fact i think we can do it way better without spending over a quarter of a million dollars so i felt on in the dark on that and i'm also very much in the dark on what happened with the acceleration academy so it's it's another issue that comes out of helping our children and helping children who have been identified as as dropouts and getting them back
177into school because we are as leak as a school district we are a prime economic driver for this community and if we can pull young people back into our schools and get them to graduate have a diploma it's it's going to be a win-win win for the kids for the school district and for the community and the interesting contrast between these two academic programs is that the acceleration academy wasn't going to cost us any money as a matter of fact it might even pull money in into the district i know about the program i learned about it actually for the first time several years ago and yes i learned about it from the vendor my understanding is that lee county school district was excused by showing just this close to coming to an agreement on
178acceleration academy when all of a sudden it was like the rug was pulled out from under all the negotiations and you know one thing that came to me was well it said that the vendor was bullying or pressuring school board members as a matter of fact i think mrs patricka referenced that and how distasteful it was to her and yet yesterday at our workshop when it was brought up four of the seven of us who know have met this vendor said i never felt pressured and i was one of them i never felt pressured i don't understand what happened to it i don't i'm not saying i'm going to vote for it or not but i want to find out more about it i want to find out how the negotiations went i want to
179know why it wasn't brought to all of us as a board and i want to know if a couple board members perhaps had more influence on this matter and why why is the legal team looking at this okay these are this acquiring mind wants to know those things i'm not going to ask for the answers right now but i want to know why a we have two academic programs that were not adequately briefed to us and secondly why it comes all of a sudden to us to our knowledge that this one program was so close to being accepted and then all of a sudden turn around on a dime and we have at least one person saying how distasteful the vendor was toward us as a school district i have no knowledge of that so
180it's late can't discuss it now but i will be following up on that tomorrow so those are my comments and thank you thank you miss vaughn did you want to were you going to say something dr atkins well just the in terms of acceleration academy we have we have we have talked about it i brought that to you a while ago that we were moving in this direction now in terms of what happened last week i don't know myself and so i told you what i know of it and you and the other what i did do was take action so that we could hopefully resolve it and that's why you have the meeting on friday with the attorneys so beyond that you know as much as i do thank you and that i'm just
181dad it's kind of sad that the superintendent doesn't know anything either on on this well because i think it was no i'm not blaming you i'm just saying it's i'm not blaming you i'm just saying somebody has to know what happened and i will be following up on it individually thank you thank you miss vaughn thank you dr atkins miss morgan given the hour i'm going to make one comment and that is that i am just so grateful for the grants department the schools in the district that continue to look for opportunities to support our kids in individual schools with programs and miss morgan could you speak into the microphone i want to celebrate the 9 million dollar magnet school assistance program grant and i want to celebrate the grant staff the school staff and
182the district staff who continually look for opportunities to fund programs for our kids this one was one of nine awarded nationally it will take faith it will take the franklin park i dare program to phase two there will be new programs at south fort myers high school and james stevens international academy i i we can every year we continue to land really extraordinary opportunities whether they are academic extracurricular steam stem and i just i think that nationally we are being viewed as an organization that's doing good stuff for kids we are clearly accountable for we are being viewed as a district that measures what we are doing we hold people accountable for the funds that we're investing in our programs so that other grant programs feel comfortable giving money to the lee county school district
183and i think that's cause for great celebration we have come so far as a district that you know the national level we are looked at as a worthy recipient of in excess of just this year nine million dollars in grant money for three schools so congrats to the leadership and to all of the staff who participated in collecting the information and putting the grant proposal forward those are my comments thank you miss morgan and i gave my comments yesterday and i gave him this morning i do want to thank attorney quick for being here this evening on helping us all well being here today with us so i do appreciate that and i and i have to give two shout outs my grandson's receiving his first letter in high school tonight so i'm sure that
184i'll be seeing pictures of that and my other grandchild it's her birthday today so celebrating that too in my heart so moving on because i think this is really important work and we all need to be here and do it do what we have to do mr pre-bruno do you have any comments for this evening i do not thank you okay dr atkins none this evening thank you thank you mrs jordan oh i'm sorry mr evanelli i just want to i just want to actually i want to defend dr atkins because he brought up nr101 he brought up the acceleration academy over probably the last at least six months that i'm aware of and also he brought it up probably a few months ago in a board meeting he mentioned it and that's when i
185became came back on my radar those two times so i've been waiting actually patiently to see where this was going to go with with the acceleration academy so i think you know sometimes we and i wanted once we might forget or you know so and that but i just want to say i know two instances that this did come back up from him so you know regarding what happened last week i you know i'm sure he's going to get to the bottom of that and we'll you know have answers but i mean i mean i want to commend the district for acknowledging and owning the fact that we have a significant high dropout rate or students and that we're going to address it and this is the answer to that so i it's it's commendable
186because it's it's actually things that i talk about all the time it's taking ownership of a deficiency and making a correction and for a better outcome for our students and that's all it is and that's how we move forward and we can do this as as a board and i'm excited for that thank you mr evanelli okay the next schedule meetings of the board on monday may 24th there will be a school board workshop at 1pm on tuesday may 25th there will be a briefing meeting at 1pm an action meeting at six o'clock at this point having no further business to come before this body and seeing no objections this meeting is adjourned thank you good night be safe you