001good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting sergeant-at-arms and does or designee as the front lobby been attended to ensure public access the school board meeting of may 24th 2022 is now called to order the time is 602. we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district vision to be a world class school system board member patricka will be participating and voting by phone this evening pursuant to board policy 1.11 ms patrick are you with us mrs patrick are you with us online well we'll make sure that she gets online so when she does pop in miss thomas maybe we can reach out
002thank you this evening agenda includes invocation presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance recognitions public comments consent action items which include one item under board office five items under executive services 21 items under academics six items under business services five items under human resources which one is good cause dr bernier please provide an explanation for this one item madam chair this matters presented as good cause this evening so the district staff can implement the changes to the salary schedule necessitated by the tentative agreement with spalk these changes must occur prior to july 1 to comply with the agreement thank you as presiding officer i find there is good cause to add this one item to the agenda two items under information systems 22 items under operations one item under lease incorporation and three items under
003public hearings board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda i'll move to adopt the agenda as printed thank you mrs fisher thank you miss kittens and please record your vote i am i don't think so i didn't i didn't receive electronic but i didn't oh difficulties we're waiting for madam chair i'm able to just came up my vote are you online with us yet okay i don't think she's here so i'm i'm here madam got it thank you okay it is six zero with one not present motion carries i will introduce our guest madam chair can you hear me i can hear you now miss miss patricka and attempt to vote yes several times okay thank you so can we make the adjustments it would be 7-0 thank you ms patricka okay i
004will i will introduce our guest for the invocation after which miss vaughn will lead us in the presentation of colors and the pledge of allegiance our guests please stand our guest for the invocation is pastor michael a barn senior pastor of jerusalem church of god in christ in fort myers florida pastor barnes will you go ahead and step up here please thank you pastor barnes has been a minister for over 25 years in 1997 he became the founder and pastor of servants united in christ church in fort myers florida in 2010 pastor barnes was selected to be the pastor of jerusalem church of god in christ church also known also in fort myers florida he is a graduate of lee county school district cape coral high school of class of 1983. he has been married
005to his lovely wife mildred for 35 years together they have five adult children 17 grandchildren and four great grands pastor barnes is also co-owner along with his wife of mildred's to go and cater and located on 2282 cranford avenue in fort myers pastor barnes desire as a church is to be within the community proclaiming the word of christ and providing good deeds whenever possible to the community during the covet 19 pandemic pastor barnes spearheaded an in-house food distribution initiative which provided home-cooked meals for church members to help out a time of needs his community accomplishments have been the establishment of a community food bank that feeds families and times of necessities for children and their family members the food distribution outreach initiative provides usda fresh meats vegetables bread toiletries and other essential food items through
006the partnership of other churches outreach ministries business business corporations friends and families amongst his future vision one is to establish a youth center that will help educate and motivate our youth of tomorrow pastor barnes is a man who loves god god's people and his word he enjoys family times relaxing and learning whatever he can to share with others he enjoys preaching and teaching the word of god with power conviction and some simplicity at every opportunity that avails without compromise welcome pastor barnes amen thank you it's an honor to be here too this evening but just before we pray i just received word from sister jordan that there was a shooting in texas then we lost 14 children and one teacher and with a heavy heart we're going to pray but we're just asking everyone to
007pray for those families dear heavenly father we come before you today and with a heavy heart god we ask you to look on those families in texas we put them first in this prayer today because lord no one knows to hurt like you know when they know at this time and we pray that you would comfort those families right now that has suffered this loss and we know that you're the only one that can give a peace that surpasses all understanding look on that school look on that school district and god look on that community strengthen them in this time lord we know that you're able and god strengthened us in this room oh god to continue to pray for them during this time of parent now lord as we pray for this particular meeting
008tonight we ask your blessings upon it lord we want to thank you for every teacher that who have served this year and every employee of the school board lord we thank you for our new superintendent and god we ask that you would bless him in a mighty way we ask that you will bless this board and give them wisdom lord in every decision that they make and i pray that you would make them one lord i pray that you'll unify this board so they can do your will you have called them for such a time as this so lord let them remember that their decision affect their employees and it affect the children of this community so god they have a great responsibility help them and give them strength and god if you do these
009things we will constantly give you the praise and we ask these blessings in jesus name amen amen thank you pastor barnes miss vaughn the cadet presenting the national colors tonight will be introduced by lieutenant colonel barry c dickerson the senior army instructor at bonita springs high school lieutenant colonel dickerson retired from active duty service in 2014 after 29 years of distinguished military service he is a desert shield and desert storm veteran completed multiple combat deployments to baghdad iraq and has been awarded three bronze star medals lieutenant colonel dickerson is in his eighth year of teaching in the school district having spent his first four years at east lee county high school welcome lieutenant colonel and thank you so much for your service thank you very much miss fine the national colors for our pledge of
010allegiance tonight will be presented by cadet colonel ulyssa garcia martinez of the bonita springs high school jrotc program cadet colonel garcia martinez is the highest ranking cadet leader in the bull shark brigade and serves as the brigade commander of over 350 cadets she is also the color guard commander and a member of the state qualifying raiders team cadet garcia martinez holds the unique distinction of being the first ever lee county school district jrotc drone racing champion her pilot call sign is hollywood cadet garcia martinez excels in the classroom as well evidenced by her 4.7 gpa being the well-rounded student that she is cadet garcia martinez is a member of the school's band and earned a superior rating during the district's ensemble performance lastly she was recently selected as the president of the high school's best
011buddies club after high school cadet garcia martinez plans to attend florida a m university participate in its rotc program and pursue a career as an officer in the united states marine corps ladies and gentlemen please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much okay please be seated okay the student representative is miguel guerrero a senior student from south fort myers high school i have to say a senior he just graduated the other night so congratulations she said ex-senior he is constantly involved with community and school with over 150 community service hours serving as the secretary of the class of 2022
012varsity athletic in soccer and a member of the south fort myers wolf pack brigade commander of cyber patriot team and the commander of the current lee county or was the current lee county jrotc drones champion member of the national honor society and a student council member of the college reach out program with fgcu miguel has a deep curiosity for learning and enrich enriches himself at school by taking advanced classes and enriching electives and maintains a 4.6 grade point average after high school miguel would like to pursue a career in bioengineering starting at fgcu next fall correct okay also being accepted into the honors college currently working at one of the biggest bioengineer companies in the world arthrex please welcome miguel guerrero next we will do recognitions and i am going to turn this over to
013miguel all right okay tonight's recognitions are the following the 2022 black history month contest winner the first lego league challenge team 2022 sunshine state scholars florida junior thespian lee county district 6 florida dance educators organization and the 2022 or idc world competition board members please take your places in the pitiful recognitions so let's go do you have mice thank you i would like to invite allen park elementary school principal lisa s eastridge to join me at the lectern governor ron desantis announced the winners of the black history month student essay and art contest students from grade k through third were invited to participate in an art contest and students in grade 4 through 12 were invited to participate in the essay contest the theme of the years contest was celebrating african-american contributions to florida history
014zorie jackson a third grader at allen park elementary who submitted her work titled future donald's legacy the 2022 black history month essay contest asked students in grade 4 through 12 to write an essay of no more than 500 words based on this year's theme oh sorry that was a repeat i apologize for that one the essay contest had three overall winners who will each receive a four-year florida college plan scholarship provided by florida prepaid college foundation and i will say we did this at the last meeting however the date zory had a different date on there that's why we are redoing that so some people think that we have done this we did do this for other students but we wanted to make sure that she was represented as well and recognized the school board
015and the superintendents are pleased to recognize zory jackson oh no she was hoping oh she is here okay congratulations good evening i would like to invite paul lawrence dunbar middle principal trent eckard oak hammock middle principal jennifer mcmillan barnes allen park elementary principal lisa eastridge and homeschool assistant principal meredith berry to please join me at the lectern first for inspiration and recognition recognition of science and technology is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive team-based robotics programs for ages 4 to 18 pre-k through 12. that can be facilitated in in school or in structured after-school programs boosted by a global support system of volunteers educators and sponsors that include over 200 of the fortune 500 companies teams operate under a signature set of first core values to
016conduct research fundraise design build and showcase their achievements during annual challenges an international not for-profit organization a 501c3 founded by accomplished inventor dean kamen in 1989 first has a proven impact on stem learning interest and skill building well beyond high school alumni of first programs gain access to exclusive scholarships internships and other opportunities that create connections and open pathways to a wide variety of careers the mission of first is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science engineering and technology skills that inspire innovation that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence communication and leadership first participants also develop skills in teamwork problem solving and communication preparing them for success in school and the workforce no matter what path they take as i
017call out your school would everyone from the school please come forward to have a group picture taken and we'll begin with paul lawrence dunbar middle school sebastian aust augustenberg 8th grade delaney balcom 8th grade nashini fernando 8th grade benjamin moore dennis seventh grade and nash balcom sixth grade this is there's and now okamic middle school in detail good job thank you and for allen park elementary school dara sharmer thank you and finally from home school jake kasai hazen camp so we can have all of you come up now as because i know you competed as one solid together team thank you a big spot thank you i would like to invite fort myers high school principal dr robert butts lehigh senior high school principal jackie corey and riverdale high school principal scott cook to join
018me at the lectern please and while they're coming i will read why they are coming the sunshine state scholars recognition program for high school students began in 1997 to recognize excellence in mathematics and science it has since evolved into a program designed to recognize florida's top high school science technology engineering and math or stem students and recruit them to pursue their post-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 that fort myers high school students alum dhruv is it did i say it correctly dream drew is here okay drew and charles dalton are this year's lee county sunshine state scholars jasmine max of lehigh senior high school and joshfin rahman
019of riverdale high school were named as this year's alternates in march our lee county sunshine state scholars along with their parents traveled to orlando for a two-day program there they received recognition for their achievements talked with stem industry leaders about careers and internships and met with representatives from florida's colleges and universities to learn about programs of study and available scholarships the school board and superintendent are pleased to recognize drew did i say it right i'm drew charles dalton as this year's lee county sunshine state scholars as well as jasmine max and joshua rahman as this year's alternates we are proud of the accomplishments of these students and wish them the best in all of their future endeavors please come forward to have a group picture taken and there you go yes i would like to
020invite golf middle school principal james morland and veteran park academy for the arts principal edwin carter to please join me at the lectern the florida junior thespians annual state festival was held january 14th and 15 2022 at the orange county convention center in orlando middle school students from lee county school district attended and earned all-state superior awards in various areas as i call out your school would everyone from the school please come forward to have a group picture taken okay first from gulf middle school abigail places ava bernhardt karina rafael miranda mendeville shane hernandez and victoria clark golf middle school yes and now veterans park academy for the arts yes yosvani silva please come forward we would also like to acknowledge challenger middle school principal stacia winfrey they could not be here tonight due to
021competitions the school board and superintendent are pleased to recognize and extend congratulations to all of these very talented students i would like to invite cypress lake high school principal angela rolls lehigh senior high principal jackie corey and norfolk myers academy for the arts principal andrea gunns to join me at the lectern the florida dance educators organization held dance performance assessments january 29th through the 30th 2022 in tampa students from lee county attended and earned recognition in high honors as follows in various areas as i call out your school would you would everyone come from the school please come forward to have a group picture taken cypress lake high school all students in cypress lake high school and the teachers please now lehigh senior high school can you please all come down with the teachers as
022well our instructors wow so last but not least north fort myers academy for the arts the school board and the superintendent are pleased to recognize and extend congratulations to all these talented students that way thank you oh yes thank you i would like to invite cypress lake high school principal andrew roles to join me at the lectern after competing at the inaugural district radc and i had to ask what this is and focus robotic autonomous drone competition the cypress like i'll say that again robotic autonomous drone competition the cypress lake high school jrotc drone team b qualified for the world competition team members include team captain and pilot cadet corporal nathan nguyen team spotter cadet sergeant cariana santiago and team programmer cadet private andre ruiz the final day of the world competition was very intense
023with 68 teams competing for the coveted title of best of radc world 2022 the competition was a constant struggle for all teams with the cypress lake team fluctuating between 4th and 19th place team b captain nguyen wisely chose alliance with west virginia high school carver monarchs from charleston west virginia for their partner and made it to the finals in the end cypress lake jrotc ended up in second place as the world finalist and placed third in programming skills cyprus lake jrotc students worked hard during practices and competition to qualify for radc world 22 competition this experience has allowed them to meet students from across the u.s and gain and gain a wealth of knowledge that they would not otherwise have learned in the classroom team a from cypress lake is also present led by captain
024and programmer cadet corporal miguel hernandez pilot cadet private shastly converse and spotter cadet second lieutenant jason whitney they placed 45th in the program and 56th overall in the world both teams work diligently to develop their programming and flying skills leading up to the radc world competition please come forward to have your picture taken the recipients are team captain and pilot cadet corporal nathan nguyen team spotter cadet sergeant angela we'll let you hand these out team spotter cadet sergeant cariana santiago programmer cadet private andre ruiz team captain and programmer cadet corporal miguel hernandez t and what is your name i should introduce you guys sergeant-maker major ortega thank you thank you oh yours okay we're going to take a moment so that way for those who just recognize if they have the opportunity to to leave
025let's give them all another hand please together okay the next on the agenda is public comments miss dupree bruno please address the item of public comment thank you madam chair school board policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district if you completed a public comment card please put it in the basket provided at the back of the room if you need a public comment card they are provided by our staff located in the hallway outside of the boardroom the rules concerning public comment are posted in and will be made from the microphone in the back of the room please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment
026to remarks made by speakers speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on school district issues abusive language is prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing or display of temper during the public comment period is prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers we will take recesses as necessary if there is not decorum in the chambers per board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 two if there are thirty and one if there are
027thirty one or more the maximum time allotted for public comment is one hour sixty speakers you will find a countdown on the big screen in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the microphone i will call your names five speakers at a time please follow staff's direction when lining up madam chair there are ten speakers that wish to address the board this evening three minutes per speaker thank you please make sure you have completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comments the card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information to staff for follow-up the cards are located with the staff in the hallway is there anyone in the audience who
028wishes to address the board but did not fill out a comment card please raise your hand okay i'm going to ask again is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the board but did not fill out a comment card okay miss dupree bruno please proceed thank you madam chair for the following individuals please line up kathy stout kathy horn keith olsen denise nystrom jerry ware good evening just a second i miss de prix bruno is it working now the clock because it was not working this afternoon i just want to make sure before she begins oh yes thank you can we miss thomas can we oh there it goes okay thank you good evening kathy stout dr bernier welcome i have a question for everyone on the board don't you agree a yearbook
029should be about children and all their achievements awards sports dances don't you think it should be about them and them only recently has come to my attention that many concerned parents along with students in north fort myers high school allowed a very highly political message promoting non i'm sorry homosexuality and transgender transgenderism without even notifying parents this became very personal to a lot of us including the parents and the students there were two pages that uses children as a mouthpiece to advance a message of radical sexual politics while attacking our governor public schools should be and i quote a place of education not introduction and only schools circuit curriculums and yearbooks should not be used to push controversial political positions that violate the religious and ethical beliefs of many parents and students in taxpayer funded
030schools or school sponsors forums i agree with dr bonaire to approach the cabinet meeting moving forward during your meeting i advise that all of you please do discuss the future yearbooks that all your books you do publish in the future should be non-political and stick to children achievement awards sports and them having fun not all children believe in what you did in their yearbooks and it should remain freedom of speech as we all know about all opinions and not just one we need to include all children who believe in everything that they choose and not in their yearbooks so this was very very personal for a lot of people and i also watching a few things too i you know i know moving forward you all have different issues and i do believe that things
031will be a little bit better i don't think a lot but i really have to say that watch what you're spending because i don't believe in spending a lot of money on hand sanitizers the other thing too we need to put that money back into our teachers bus drivers because a lot of them are quitting before the fall even begins so i would really look into that thank you good evening i'm kathy horn when i welcome dr bernier congratulate the school board on all the successes of the graduating seniors seemed like an awful lot of things and debbie jordan in your op-ed a lot of wonderful achievements but the students noted so thank you for that i want to counterbalance the calls for god in our schools to quote a recent facebook post the founders
032wrote the constitution not the apostles they added the bill of rights not the ten commandments their intent was freedom of religion not controlled by religion they created a democracy not a theocracy thank you for remembering that your students come from a variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds i want to thank you for understanding that lgbtq students deserve the support of their teachers and administrators attempts by christians to shame them change them deny their existence and deny their safety in schools are the real reason behind high suicide rates for these students many christians and other religious people support this community and recognize these students are created by god to be exactly who they are the very idea of grooming or that exposure to lgbtq support would make students gay is either an uneducated view or a
033deliberate attempt to force religious belief upon the entire student population thank you for fighting that ignorance i want to ask certain board members what they mean when they say things like this is this board is a terrible board or we just can't get along is it not obvious to you that you are the board and thus you are saying i am terrible and i can't get along with others and that pointing that out to the public is self defeating immature and detrimental you say you want to forget the past and move forward but you keep bringing up the past and rehashing old grievances please stop it's painful to watch and i want to speak in support of ms patricka in meeting after meeting after meeting she is accused of a wide variety of illegal mean-spirited
034evil acts as if she were some kind of putin-esque machiavellian figure in defiance of your own rules of behavior she is called out by name and falsely accused of things of which she has already been proven innocent in three years of watching board meetings i have never seen ms patricka show any public disrespect for her colleagues or even stoop to defend herself against this constant public lashing she has been a consummate professional the entire time simply using her comments to discuss board matters not interpersonal grievances i wish all of you would do the same then only then you might find yourselves a board that isn't so terrible thank you good evening my name is keith olsen i'm going to start by saying that different views probably shouldn't be judged as ignorant just because they're different
035i first became aware of critical theory as a psychotherapist in san diego during the 1970s 1980s and narrative therapy was one of those theories it was based on this philosophy it was used to help victims of domestic violence child abuse child sexual abuse and rape to change the meaning of the violence that they had experienced guilt and shame was transferred from them to the perpetrator experiencing themselves as victims changed to seeing themselves as victors over the perpetrator and his or her violence this was great however now critical theory is being used not to change to the positive but to destroy our culture it causes people to deconstruct or tear down beliefs knowledge history and perceptions and then to reconstruct or create new beliefs pseudo knowledge pseudo-history and new perceptions critical theory is the basis of
036critical race theory it tears down the belief that all people are created by god as equal in his sight as taught by martin luther king jr it replaces this truth with the false belief that our inherited race makes us either an oppressor white person or an oppressed non-white person as it permeates education and other social institutions our children and grandchildren are taught to feel guilt shame anger and rage gender ideology is the insidious movement that is undermining the scientific determination of male and female is also a product of critical theory the genetic biological and anatomical facts of sex and gender identify our identity determination are replaced with emotion sense of uncertainty fear and anxiety throughout development especially during pre-adolescence and adolescence some gender questioning and even mild gender dysphoria are common the vast majority of
037youth who are supported in their biological sex identification mature into healthy well-adjusted men and women the transgender movement distorts healthy psychosexual development into premature labeling often with peer pressure and adult intrusion the most egregious traumas are inflicted through hormone blockers hormone therapy and surgical mutilation will the following individuals please line up sharon mcgill jen wadi tara jenner robert roper christy divijelli denise nystrom i would like to address three items this evening another shooting where children have died nothing could be more sad in light of this recent incident in texas perhaps the board should again look at the guardian program a program that can save the lives of children we're talking about a program where highly skilled individuals in our schools are armed one only has to train with guns to understand that it's a skill
038and many people are highly skilled in this area i believe it could save lives where is the district with regard to hiring an internal auditor it seems like it was months ago that the board discussed that rsm would be willing to re-enter into a contract with the district it must be over a year since the district has had an auditor if someone could please let us know where we are in that process i would be grateful regarding the codes of conduct during one of the last few board meetings i stated that last year when the board was asked to place the parents bill of rights in the codes of conduct the board stated that they did not have enough time because the codes would be late in going to print i ask that since this
039subject is getting brought up earlier this year was the board going to get in front of the issue instead of approving the codes of conduct tonight be ready to put into board policy and updated parents bill of rights policy directly after it goes into effect after july 1st have the information ready to be placed in the code of conduct and then it can go into print thank you good evening jerry ware the school board members the doctor in year and to attorney bruno i'm wondering why at the end of each meeting that each school board member has a tendency to cite the different events that they have attended while this might be significant i think it would be a more significance if you were to share what you have done to improve the quality of
040the education of our students education what has been done with our budget what has been done for our school bus drivers these are significant things that should be shared with us more so than what you attended i had the distinct pleasure of reading dr brenier's file and i am looking forward to you charging you to create some change utilizing the skill set that i really really adhere to with this synergism i would like for us to return to the podium down in the front creating some cohesiveness i would also like for us to be able to participate in the dialogue in workshops because the only dialogue you have here is three minutes i would like also for the school board members to tell tell us what you've done in your communities what you've done with
041constituents because there's a life of community participation these are some of my concerns so i'm asking you this evening if you would please as opposed to telling me what graduation you went to tell me what difference did you make what change did you create thank you very much for the opportunity to share with you good evening sharon mcgill good evening board members attorney bruno and welcome dr bernier and if dr savage is in the room thank you for your service and your continued service through the next year as a community stakeholder not running for office of any kind or affiliated with any kind of organization i listened closely yesterday to the self-evaluations and with all due respect to everybody on the board and no individual persons identified here was my take on that you are
042the face and the voice of the school district managing two billion dollar budget being one of the largest employers in the county and representing 95 000 students any personal issues or animosity should be checked at those doors when you walk in this room which it often is not please agree to disagree we all do that it's how we live our lives and if a vote or anything else does not go your way you should be above taking it as a personal affront it was interesting that dignity and respect were important among board members and yet you repeatedly allow disrespectful behavior from audience members even though rules of participation are clearly stated i would hope the process of requesting public records is reviewed and becomes more efficient and transparent having submitted public records requests with no
043acknowledgement or response does not build confidence in transparency a section on the agenda called follow-up or if you want to use the unfinished business would be helpful in keeping the public informed of ongoing items examples the hurricane reimbursement from lee county what's the status of that the status of reimbursement for the questionable scholarship funds from the state and the most recent book charges that were all over the media what's the status on that i just want to say i support the tenants in public education wholeheartedly so many amazing things happen in the district that the public doesn't hear about you are missing out on a tremendous opportunity to engage and educate the public and get them involved the only reason i know about everything that's going on is because i'm here for basically every meeting
044thank you tara jenner during the last school board meeting i was removed for walking up to speak from one of the side microphones i immediately offered to relocate to the back microphone but was informed that they wanted me removed i would like to know first and foremost who they are i also request a formal apology for my unwarranted removal which prevented me from asserting my rights to peaceably assemble and petition you the elected officials for a redress of grievance as guaranteed under the fourth amendment of the united states constitution and further to instruct my representatives as secured by the florida state constitution under article 1 section 5. by the way i was not offered a warning and i have never been told even on any prior occasion that i would be removed if i continued
045with my quote behavior secondly as a homeschool mom who speaks four languages and has a law degree is licensed and retired out of the state of texas i offer the following english language and arts observation the district attorney who read the public comment information reference board policy 1.11 wherein there is nothing zip nada referencing the location from which public comments must be made additionally she read quote the rules for public comment are posted and will be read from the microphone in the back of the room just as she did tonight diagramming sentences helps evaluate sentence structure in this case the subject of the sentence is the rules and not the public comment hence it is the rules which will be posted and will be made from the back microphone not the public comment according to
046the admonition given by the board attorney disparate treatment should never be supported or condoned by the way this public comment update is found on your agenda items but it is not found anywhere in the formal school board policies it's actually incorrectly titled coveted policy we were told by our board attorney it was for security reasons now but it's actually listed as a public comment information as i said a minute ago disparate treatment should never be condoned this is along the lines of saying that we should shut up and be happy about sitting in the back of the bus something that rosa parks fought against and i'm doing likewise in this situation i didn't go up there tonight because i knew i'd get pulled out you're signaling that we're less worthy and a threat really let
047that sink in for a bit and you'll see why i'm adamantly adverse to speaking from this location offer three microphones and people may choose and it is a side i have a hearing impairment i need to be up closer than those first third row i can't hear half the time what you're doing i lip read and from back here i can't see your facial expressions good evening christy divajelli so i wasn't sure what i was going to say today because i have a few things i'm going to first start with agenda item what is this i don't know what agenda item it is it's the approval piggyback university of california rfp uc system wide for 500 000 and it says university of california for maintenance repair and operation supplies and related services was awarded to
048fastenal company for the period of july 2018 through june 30th 2023 this contract supports purchase of gallons of hand sanitizer face shields social distancing decals partitions and other ppe materials that may be required i would like some clarification on that and why we would need that five hundred thousand dollars worth the next one is an approval piggyback us communities city of kansas missouri contract for utility transportation golf vehicles that one is for 120 000 and same thing same question why i'd like to know why first of all we're going out to out of state and why we're not finding places like this that could vendors in state that can provide these services to us but i'd still just like to know why we need 500 000 for gallons worth of hand sanitizer and then the
049comment that was made before about you know too much religion in schools and government i have a book here it's called a glorious standard for all mankind written by christopher s bentley it's filled with hundreds i mean hundreds of people throughout our history who who are speaking about our great constitution our great united states of america and how it was god inspired the whole thing so you know if you want a copy of that i have it here for you and then the last thing is i was just added recently to a facebook group and i'm very grateful that i was added to it because it's a it's a group where there's a lot of bus drivers in it and there even though i know that spout just agreed on a contract and you know
050you guys are i think approving it tonight or whatever but i have like five different emails in here from employees that they've decided to post and share saying that they're still leaving and that they've sent in their notice because they still don't feel appreciated they don't feel like here's one of them it says it's just the same thing those of us who have been here for seven years will learn the same as a new employee what a lack of respect another one yeah this is real fair rookie off the street gets the same as a driver that's been here for at least three years or more go transportation and if i went back even a few more weeks like here's another one so if this is correct i'm currently at 17 21 with 21 years
051experience nine of those in this district and i am going to get a 29 raised to 17.50 same as the new drivers makes decisions even easier for me i mean that would make decisions easier for me too i know that these things take time but please please look into them thank you robert roper welcome dr bernier i appreciate your coming to lee county and wish you the best the previous school board superintendent had a email address that's called concerns and so if a citizen sends in a concern you hear back from concerns with how it's going to be addressed but you cannot email back that concerns i'd like you to look into that because of all the email responses i got from concerns they never followed up on anything and you can't email concerns back
052second thing has to do with the ad hoc committee meeting it's a meeting to address potentially objectionable materials and there's an anomaly with that committee and that is all the decisions are made and then public comment is received that's probably not the best way to do it if you really want public comment i would suggest that each book be presented as a motion and you use the same rules you use here once a motion is made then public comment is allowed either for or against that particular material lastly i've been reminded a number of times from the board chair that the board is non-partisan there's there's no politics in the board and therefore there's no politics in the classroom yet in north fort myers there was a very serious protest that was objectionable in fact
053i believe it violated the lee county school board's nondiscrimination policy because it was highly objectionable to the religious community and it was very political i don't know if they're taking their lead from the board because there was a board workshop where the lawmakers were disparaged that they called the parental rights bill the don't say gay bill which is politically charged but even in this north fort myers protest and subsequent documentation in their school yearbook it says we say gay that is political in nature most of that comes from our influence from equality florida it's a huge mistake all students deserve support and we should probably figure out how to manage students teach them to respect law and the governor and not not to slander the governor the way this was done if we can't figure
054out how before the supreme court announces on abortion you may have protests on both sides of that and it could very well get out of hand thank you and i'm chair that concludes public comment thank you okay i'm gonna go through a few of these first of all again thank you so much for for all of you who are attending and speaking to us i know i say this every meeting we do appreciate you coming here and we do hear what you're saying i did want to mention i was going to say this earlier but regarding spouk so our spouk will be coming up for the agreement and this is the made some notes earlier so that way i have my thoughts right we the overall increase for spock employees has been the highest that
055it ever has been right now and i know there were some numbers that were spoken about here we cannot get into that and i know dr bernier may speak on this a little bit at the end so i'm gonna leave that for for him to speak on but i just wanted to say that there was a question regarding our auditors rsm they have been with us for quite some time now we have audit committee rsm has been in place for and i can't recall how many months now but they are here we're moving forward with with working with them and i just wanted to make sure that was clarified the yearbook regarding the yearbook that is a student publication that is memorializing the events of the past school year it is important that we remember
056too that the yearbook was reviewed and it took place prior to the parental rights in education bill was signed so when that was approved and looked upon that was well before that law had come in and then you have tinker versus demois which states that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gates however we did as the district put a statement in the yearbook a sticker was placed on that page which stated this is a student publication memorializing events of the past school year the content does not express the views of the school district which follows all applicable laws so i wanted to make sure that was out there and understood for as far as that is concerned the other question is why do we share
057events and things that we do we are sharing that is because that is what we're doing out there in the events perhaps we should get into more details on what that and what that looks like on our being in these locations and what's the good that's doing with the schools and how and how we're helping when we're there so i thank you for that comment and i know going forward i will definitely work harder in sharing more information regarding that and the follow-up i thought that was very good as well and dr bernier maybe that's something that we can look at as well so going forward and as far as the email concerns and i know that you were taking notes on that one about responding thank you okay so seeing that we will move
058on to the approval of the consent action items the next is the approval of action items in the agenda under consent the documentation for action items listed under consent is made available to board members seven business days prior to the board meeting we are expected to review all 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 been also briefed or workshopped with the board in advance of appearing 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 miss fisher following the review of the agenda yesterday i have no polls this evening thank you mr givenelli i have none thank you miss miss
059patricka no thank you thank you miss kittens i have none miss vaughn yes i will be pulling f one thank you miss miss morgan i have none and i have none is there a motion to approve the agenda consent items with the exception of f1 i'll move to approve the consent agenda with the exception of f1 thank you miss fisher may have a second miss morgan a second thank you and please record your votes miss patrick are you able to record yours yes ma'am i can vote online thank you miss thomas says everybody vote it thank you 7-0 motion carries thank you dr bernier please introduce any administrators in attendance with a new assignment that were approved under the consent agenda madam president we have three appointments that were covered on consent under human resources
060the first is megan deroso she will be joining us in curriculum instruction innovation she's a she is a curriculum and instruction secondary from the district mathematics coast coordinator of teaching and learning we have we have danielle napp she will also become a curriculum and instructional innovation secondary specialist and she is coming from the district content specialist to coordinator for teacher and learning finally join marks from north fort myers academy for the arts assistant principal to curriculum and instruction and innovation elementary coordinator to teaching and learning elementary coordinator helping us with our focus project she's not here this year thank you okay we have f1 pulled to address dr brunir please read your recommendation for pulled item f1 madam chair f1 approval to renew itn number one sorry number n sorry let me go back one
061more time item f1 approval to renew itn number n177293rc for branding awarded to priority marketing of fort myers for the third and final renewal period of june 6 2022 through june 5 of 2023 at the ex estimated expenditure of four hundred and twelve thousand seven hundred and forty dollars pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the board approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents thank you is there a motion to adopt dr bernier's recommendation miss morgan hi excuse me i move we appre we approve dr vernier's recommendation to approve renewal renewal of itn number n177293rc branding thank you and we have a second please thank you mrs fisher so it has been made by miss morgan and seconded by mrs fisher any discussion and i will start with you
062miss one please yes this was this was something that was discussed yesterday in our workshop and i listened carefully to all that was said and actually have received actually all of us on the board received additional information this afternoon from the superintendent's office after reading the additional information and some other pulling some other research that i have i am still opposed to this amount of money being spent first of all the ask is for almost four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars and yes i do understand what budgeting means doesn't mean as was pointed out to educate me yesterday which i already knew that budgeting doesn't mean every cent is going to be spent however it has been my experience on the board that when big ticket items are brought up after something has been budgeted
063that it's a typical question is this a budgeted expense and somehow the answer yes it's budgeted kind of accelerates the idea oh it's budgeted we can spend it the amount of almost 413 thousand dollars that's budgeted is more than double the amount from prior years and i have some additional information and i'm going to be quoting here and there from a story covered on april 4th 2022 by peter fleischer of wink news and it includes actually both sides it includes information about this particular this how some of this money has been used let's put it that way how some of this money has been used now i did ask yesterday at the workshop about specifics with how it was used for social media because it has been an issue that has been brought up in
064this from this board before and also in this news report to quote and here's something that i'm adding that was not discussed at all yesterday there has been controversy around a portion of the money that has been spent on social media monitoring and i double checked to make sure this was still accurate information i double checked it at about quarter till six there is an active investigation currently going on to quote from wink news a whistleblower complaint filed in february claims communications staff was instructed to quote spy unquote on facebook posts and comments about the district while on the clock potentially being paid taxpayer dollars to use taxpayer resources to spy on taxpayers and there are other comments here let's see lee county school district director strategic communication miss irma lancaster according to this report
065said quote it to mr peter fleisher that one of the top three services that is used in communication has been media monitoring and this would be part of the money that would be used for this renewed contract with priority marketing some of the other things and i've questioned this i'm a big advocate for when we can do something in-house we need to do it in-house because we have lots of very very skilled people that can do some of these jobs now yes there are some jobs that perhaps are too time consuming not cost effective for someone in-house to work on as a project but looking at the list that i got all of us got late this afternoon i continue to question some of these things for instance priority marketing doing press releases i know
066that we have skilled writers that can do press releases yesterday one of the big things that was mentioned is oh we need to for new schools we need to develop logos in the information i got today it said all right the new logos and branding we have branding it hasn't it wasn't done so many years ago we have already existing templates that for instance if i as a board member want it to let's say i wanted to illustrate something to my board colleagues and i wanted to use the powerpoint template from the district i can go online and there it is we have plenty of those things obviously we've had a change in superintendent i'm not sure how difficult it is to switch out names as a matter of fact i believe that's already been
067done of course i don't know if it was done by priority marketing or if we managed to do that in-house some other things refreshing the marketing material a list of schools one school expenditures south fort myers high school eighty thousand dollars that's a lot of money eighty thousand dollars for what for brochures lots of you know i could go on and list all the different kinds of brochures etcetera anticipation expenditures approximately two hundred and eleven thousand five hundred grants department marketing funds finally to round off to that 400 almost 413 thousand dollars another miscellaneous fifty thousand dollars one more time i'm going to say please board colleagues do not educate me on what it means to budget i understand what it needs to budget i also although i'm not a big mathematics scholar i know
068what more than double is i have confidence that there are people in this school district that can accomplish these things especially since many of these things and i'm going to cite the branding right now are already in existence and again as i said earlier when it's budgeted it tends to be spent when it comes up in front of the board this is why i will not be supporting this consent item tonight thank you miss miss vaughn miss morgan please yeah so first of all for the public i would like them to understand that the reason the budget doubled is because the grants department obtained a grant for two hundred and eleven thousand dollars and so those funds will be expended in support of the new schools that we're building and new programs i think ms
069vaughn is really questioning whether or not we have confidence that the superintendent has processes in place to ensure that funding in support of schools is equitable but that is that's independent to me of approving the budget i believe that we have been spending a little over two hundred thousand dollars a year for the for the past two years if there are questions about the way that money has been spent then we need to look at the procedures that we have in place to make certain that we're not the money is being spent in a way that is a an effective effective resource especially for the schools so i will be supporting this because i do believe that these are essential these represent opportunities for the district to better educate the public the parents schools and
070us so as i said i think we need to look at the protocols that go with this but i am confident in the work of the staff with respect to this item thank you miss kittens i've for a long time had a question in my mind about what branding really is and i do not attempt to be a professional in marketing or anything of that sort but i've you know had some experience in a project i personally was involved in and someone trying to sell me branding for something i'd already done i just i don't have a lot of faith in in in the process of branding i understand branding i understand we have our logo and all the wonderful things that make every every time someone sees that they know that it's us but
071i also feel that at times maybe we need to step back and look at how that money is being spent in good times branding is wonderful we change the colors we add color coding here and there and all of that's great but i don't know i just feel like it just it just needs to be looked at and looked into a little bit more carefully as to is it the best use of this money at this time and i understand that when they're doing grants and all these types of things at different schools that they do the marketing package and everything matches and all the colors and but i guess i go back to old school and say before there was branding we still had grants and how did we get the grants across the
072line how did we get things you know people to understand what's what's going on i just feel a little iffy about how much money we spend on various things at various times if it were a different time and place and we had the money perhaps i just i don't know miss i was going to ask miss patrick miss miss patricka do you have any comments on this i'll like may i direct your question to dr bernier through the chair yes thank you dr bernier are we contracting through this contract with priority marketing to monitor social media we do not have a provision within this contract to monitor social media no okay thank you our communication staff is really amazing i know that i commented to the board table about the fact that you know sometimes
073i watch their podcast or i watch a video that they put together and puts a lump in my throat because i think they do a great job of telling our story to the extent that their resources permit them to do so they are amazing but they lack resources to handle all of this work i think that asking them to do more with without appropriate resources both financially and human is really untenable and i feel like denying this recommendation tonight is the equivalent of asking them to fix a problem caused by a lack of resources by spreading their already scant resources even thinner i will definitely be supporting this recommendation tonight thank you those are my comments thank you miss fisher so in looking at the information that we were provided the paragraph regarding the anticipated
074expenditures of approximately two hundred and eleven thousand five hundred dollars grants department so a portion of the idea magnet grant is for advertising and marketing to attract a diverse student population and then the grant description says marketing costs social media tv billboard radio ads mailers brochures and sites the awarded schools utilize marketing funds for new logos and branding as well as advertising or updating and refreshing marketing materials so i guess i just want to clarify that it appears that money comes from the grant not from the district general fund so that would account for the doubling in amount from from last year say and that the grant has to be followed per the directions that they're given or or you lose it so i just wanted to bring that to light because then we really
075have not had an increase in money from the district that's being spent budgeted thank you mr charlotte mr evanelli okay thank you so my concern is we have an oh we have an open position for the director of communications or and it may not be a director of communications or chief of communications i'm not sure what dr bernier has planned for that department so that would be one question i would raise you know the hiring of that to to fill an opening because i hear that communications is short-handed so you know what direction would that director want and would they go per this grant i guess the grant designates these ex schools and then it that's how this money is broke down how because my concern is the how this is not quite equitable and
076then second we have allegations pending for that department and so i would recommend waiting until those are resolved third schools would have their own budgeting i would think and some of this would fall under that and how does that actually compare you know because i think that should be equitable across the i mean across the district i mean you have middle schools and you got elementary schools getting more than middle schools and so i that part is really a little bit concerned and then i get you need money to start up a new school and brand it and everything like that so but none of these schools are the new schools in place or that we're that's we know that we're gonna have so that for me knowing that there's a new school where they
077where they fit in the picture of the grant so those would be the things that i would question and why i have i'm having a hard time supporting it based on just knowing those things thank you madam chair yes please miss chief miller make sure i have these right we wanted to talk about the chief communications thank you he wanted to talk about the costs not being equitable and we wanted to talk about that equal but not equitable but not equal sorry and then we also wanted to talk about the branding for the new schools so let me begin with the chief of communications there's a person who left our organization prior to me coming on board she was paid at the executive level in order to afford the position that we put dr savage
078in those dollars were taken and provided to the chief strategy officer position so technically we do not have a vacancy right now for chief of communications do i believe a chief of communications is a pretty solid hire for a district of this size i do but we are not in the process right now of any type of revisioning of our structures so that answers that first one in terms of the different costs for different schools i think it's important for me and i'm just trying to remind myself our schools compete for enrollment and specifically this two hundred eleven five hundred five hundred thousand dollars was part of a grant that was specifically written so our schools who are competing for enrollment have the opportunity to market their programs branding is a process of creating a
079strong positive perception of that school it doesn't necessarily mean rebranding or anything like that but it does mean a consistent competitive market presence and as you drive down heck i just forgot the name of it turns into rip parkway metro if you drive up metro towards the office from down on alico you'll pass a very large billboard that has south fort myers very prominently displayed it's part of how they attract students so equitable is never equal there are schools that need more there are schools that need less this grant was written competitively and we were awarded it as to the new school if you'll notice under that same area of twenty two hundred and eleven thousand five hundred dollars that bullet actually i believe should be drawn in slightly there's fifty thousand dollars set aside
080for other school department and locations as needed and that potentially would give us the dollars to work within a monastery i don't think they would need all of it and again just a reminder this is a budget i know ms vaughn was very clear so i will stop there and just leave it at that this is not actual expenses at this point those will not be determined until later in the process i hope that answers the questions you provided me if not i'm happy to follow up with you first of all thank you so much for answering the questions to the best of your ability but like so for me i did southport myers graduation i did cyprus graduation and i did fort myers graduation and south fort myers had a very large graduation but
081cyprus had a very small graduation only 315 students i think they need the billboard i would like to see their campus utilized so i mean and it's not up to me to pick and choose you know who gets the advertising but i think all our schools should be advertised so i'm having a hard time with the and i love south don't get me wrong actually the principal does he should be he is the cheerleader of that school so an awesome principal so i just that's my concern is it's that equitability and i know that some schools are underutilized and some i mean lehigh senior had a huge graduation class so i'm having a hard time with that with the equitable things happening so i'm and this is one of them thank you okay and i
082think too that a lot of i'm sorry miss kittens these schools that are represented right here or they were part of the grant writing as well so they were which all the schools have opportunities to do that and if you really look branding is the identity who are we what are we it's the communication part so every big organization they have companies that do this for them because they are continuous doing this that's what they do and so i think that is something that we really do need to have to make sure that we are we always speak about communication and making sure that we're getting as much information out to community this is the way that we do that is getting it out there and this grant and i really think it's great that
083they were able to get this grant because that takes work to you know to get these grants so i definitely will be supporting this as well miss kittens please okay so here's my question in the item as it's listed in the agenda under public content there's a line that says sir these services for advertising marketing to attract a diverse student population at the seven district schools who currently receive i dare magnet grant funding does everyone see that it's in the dead center of that of that paragraph so that's where i have a question on one hand we're working on proximity and you know equalizing schools and the resources and all of that and i guess so one of my main questions is how when we're talking about competing for enrollment and proximity how do we
084either marry those two or how do those two what do those two have to do with each other does that and through the chair may i ask the superintendent thank you for mary gittins that's a great question so let me clarify that you're asking about how proximity and how a movement in terms of a proximity plan to some other type of process in in what we've been talking and what we've been privately talking about one-on-one with board members and i believe addressed slightly publicly we have and how this fits together right now we don't have a proximity plan we have a plan that was developed by davis demographics we know we have maps and we have some ideas i've shared with all of you individually that the next step in that process is a strong
085community engagement process which we're going to bring forward to a workshop so that you can approve a calendar upping the dates related to when staff originally said the earliest possible date for proximity could be far off into the future so i would say that right now what we have is the system that we have and in the meantime this grant was developed with our schools who chose to participate i have terry kennedy in the back if if we need her who could talk about how the grant came into being so that we could understand why some of these numbers are the way that they are but right now without a change in how we're going to enroll students in our school buildings and the level of choice that we're offering and other things i think
086we really need to be cognizant of how our schools are competing for their student bodies and that's what that would this to some extent allows them to do that and it's okay i you know you don't need to have someone come up i just it's just a question in my mind that we're saying proximity or basically neighborhood schools and in the other hand we're talking about attracting students to specific schools that are magnets that's that's where i have the so madam chair a point of clarification neighborhood schools is probably a difficult thing for you to attribute to me at this point i know as a board you've had those conversations but to the public listening i think it's really important that we are coming into a community engagement around a proximity process and there has
087been no decisions that have been made we want to engage the community or the board first so we can improve the timelines and then begin begin with an engagement process with the community so we can look at what might be the next best steps forward between now and january so we might be able to be in a position to make a recommendation to the sport i just i want to be i just want to be careful right now because this is could be news to individuals who are listening and i just think it's important that they know that we are going to spend time with community in order to drive and get a better understanding of what they're looking for in that process and may i just finish off yes by by saying and before
088you arrived we did have the proximity tours and the community involved in and the community was given a broad picture of this is what we're doing and then it stopped and now we're at this point where we're saying we're going to regroup and go back out and do it again and i i honestly think with this because it's basically the grant that i could support the grant i think where a lot of people are coming from is that just continuing to you know review and to do the same contract with the same company we're going to keep doing the same thing and getting the same thing and i think that's what the issue is i've had questions from the community about how does you know the bid going out why do we always have the
089same you know the company same company over and over again that's some of the questions that i received from the community so i'm done now i'm sure can i just clarify board member kittens would you like me to answer that question or is that just if if you would care too i would love to i would love to but i just want to be careful i'm in my first meeting with all of you publicly i'm trying to make sure that i'm navigating all of you for those of you in the audience it's like having seven different dance partners some like to wall some like to jitterbug i just got to keep learning i got to learn i have to get an electric slide please so when so very specifically this is this was a contract
090that previously approved by the board that created a three-year deal we are in the third year following the conclusion of this contract an itn or rfq would go out to look at if we were going if we were going to continue those services we would put it out back on the street if you will with an rfq or an it an invitation to negotiate we would we would put it back out so that we could then solicit potential other vendors to do this work for the following correct i don't want i don't know the exact timeline i'd have to confer with staff and get back to you okay thank you okay so i'm going to call on miss vaughn and then miss givenelli and then i'm going to call for the vote miss vaughan please
091yeah i just wanted to reiterate a couple things and maybe add a piece or two i did not say that we should have no contract for priority marketing or whomever is our selection to help with these with these you know the social media and the billboards and the brochures branding and all of that i did say that i oppose the amount even with the with the grant you know we get grant money and i felt that it was kind of a last not kind of it was a last-minute thing sent today not brought forth yesterday at all we didn't get any kind of edification on the grant anything meaningful that explained it and today we get a page of oh somebody pulled it let's supply more information okay so i have a problem with that
092number one as i said earlier i have a problem with some of the things listed here press releases and i'm gonna go back to the branding because we have all kinds of templates are we going to look to rebrand the whole school district i think not the other thing that i really think is important to point out is how this is spent regarding social media monitoring no matter what you say from the list that was sent today there is right now an active investigation a whistleblower complaint that came from i'll read it again filed in february it claims communication staff was instructed to quote unquote spy on facebook posts and comments about the district while on the clock potentially being paid taxpayer dollars to use taxpayer resources to spy on taxpayers all right it's an
093ongoing investigation we don't know how it's going to turn out why not and i did give administration the superintendent's office and it was a last minute heads up that i was going to bring this up and this particular issue about the active investigation just today we're looking at new ways to increase our oversight of vendors well this isn't exactly the vendor it's how the money is being spent apparently through the vendor because i also want and i was involved with this in the news report during a school board meeting board member betsy vaughn said this is goes back before april i don't remember what month i asked is it somebody in house that would be doing this monitoring which i think is an invasion and of of people's privacy of people's rights to say what
094they want to say on their social media we have had i remember mentioning at this time that going back a little bit over a year ago i was warned by a high-level staff member that there had been complaints a complaint about a remark that i made on facebook my private not any kind of school board but a private facebook and it was a joke between myself and my sister-in-law why would anybody be looking at that somebody sitting right here on the dais was chastised for liking somebody's post somebody who was let's say viewed as not a friend to the district it wasn't me but what an invasion i think that's a terrible way to to spend the money if this whistleblower complaint which is still active is seen to have no legal substantial substantiality is
095that even a legal word it's not legally substantial then it changes things doesn't it but while this is an active investigation and it comes from how this money is being spent i'm sorry but i am not no i'm not sorry i'm proud that i'm not going to be supporting this it's my final statement on this steven ellie thank you thank you miss farm so and i think we're not at least i can say that this has nothing to do with the grant for me it has to do with the vendor and the allegations that have come forward where the vendor has been involved in some giving you information or to the district and they're obviously looking at differences okay so i want to be very very careful miss vaughn was reading from an article i
096listened very carefully and that's just out there in the public that was an article that she's reading at this time there is an active investigation so we cannot assume that anything has been determined as of yet because this is an ongoing active investigation and i will caution the board as i always do we should not be discussing active investigations at the dais let's allow the process to be completed and once that process is completed we will know what occurred and a recommendation will be made thank you so for me i would rather wait till the allegations and are over and resolved before i would commit to giving them any more money at this point in time the vendor and that is really what i was just trying to say i think that because the grant
097belongs to the district it doesn't belong to any vendor so how we spend it obviously is part of the grant and if it's branding that's great but my you know i have to agree with ms vaughn the information that we received today was not forthcoming or transparent if we received it after the fact regarding the grant and you for me it's also doubled with includes a grant let's just spin the grant and leave it at that i would be good with that but no we're doubling it we're spending the grant and spending another 200. so now that's at 400. so there's the amount we didn't spend 400 last year based on the grant it's we've increased it we've we've we're giving them what was contracted i believe and now adding the grant to it my
098i would like to see this be i don't know pulled and wait till the allegations are resolved and then we can move forward dr bernier i just my i guess my question is i hear what they're saying about the grants however we just spoke about equity and having funds for everybody else but this grant is only for certain items period so we just then told everybody else that we don't want them to have anything so if we're pulling the other money do you have a any comments or anything to share before we take a vote please and thank you madam chair i'm listening intently but i'm i think your board members understand what you're telling what you're saying but i would need additional clarification as to what you're asking me to respond to i just
099was asking your question do you have any other any other comments that you may want to speak on before we take a vote i think the only thing that does not come up in the course of the discussion is the limited amount of funds that are actually going to the communications department the communications department is only receiving around 20 also in an organization this large 400 412 000 a 211 of it from a grant is far less than one percent of our total balance but it is the pleasure of the board what to do with this item and my job as the as your as your other employee is to then administrate appropriately based upon your decision thank you okay with that being said i am gonna go ahead and call for the vote miss
100patricka yeah please thank you miss morgan yes please miss vaughn no miss kittens no miss givenelli no thank you miss fisher yes and yes four three motion carries thank you okay we will we will now recess the regular school board meeting at this time as president of the lee county school board lisa incorporation i would like to call this meeting of may 24 2022 to order the time is 805. approval of the agenda as the order of business this evening's agenda includes public comment two second secretaries recommendation other business and adjournment do i hear a motion to adopt the agenda i'll move to adopt the agenda as listed thank you miss fisher i'll second that thank you mr vinelli there has been a motion to adopt the agenda by mrs fisher and seconded by ms
101giavanelli all those in favor this will be a hand vote miss retrica yeah please thank you miss morgan just left miss vaughn yes miss kittens yes miss givenelli yes miss fisher yes and yes that's six with one missing motion carries we will now take i'm sorry we will now take public comments mr pre bruno please address the agenda items of the public comment please and thank you yes madam chair at this time you have the opportunity to participate in the public comment for this particular leasing corporation business the only item that may be addressed is what's on the agenda for the leasing corporation thank you i'm gonna see if there's anyone who has signed up for this madam chair in one minute please i do not see anyone sign up is there anyone in the
102audience that would like to speak on this item regarding the lee county school board leasing corporation only that's the only item that we're speaking on not yet okay seeing none we will move we will now move to the secretary's recommendation dr bernier please present your recommendation madam chair members of the board approval of the minutes from the last league county board leasing corporation meeting held on january 25 2022. thank you directors you have heard the secretary's recommendation to approve the minutes of the last lee county school board leasing corporation meeting held on january 25 2022 i will now enter a motion i need a motion the sec i need a motion i'll move that we approve the minutes of the lee county school board leasing corporation from january 25th 2022. thank you mr may have
103a second please i'll second it thank you miss phone is there any discussion seeing none i will call for the vote and this will also be a hand vote miss patricka yes please thank you and miss vaughn yes miss kittens yes miss javinelli yes miss fisher yes and yes six to one with miss morgan absent excuse me madam madam chair can you restate the vote count six to six to zero because she's missing yep six to zero with one missing thank you okay item two approval of the organization resolution of the lee county school board leasing corporation dr bernier please present your recommendation madam chair members of the board my recommendation is to approve the organizational resolution of the lee county school board leasing corporation thank you directors you have heard the secretary's recommendation to
104approve the organization resolution of the lee county school board leasing corporation for the elect election of officers debbie jordan president mary fisher vice president christopher s bernier edd secretary amy v dessimore ed treasurer i will now entertain a motion i'll prove that we approve the organizational resolution for the lee county school board leasing corporation thank you may i have a second please second thank you miss kittens is there any discussion please say and none i will go ahead and call for the vote ms patricka yeah please thank you this is vaughn yes miss kittens yes mr giovanelli yes miss fisher yes miss morgan this is the leasing corp this is for the leasing corp yes please thank you and yes 7-0 motion carries okay we will now move to other business please note that comments
105may only be made in your capacity as directors and or officers of the corporation are there any comments miss fisher i have no comment at this time stevenelli i have none ms patricka no thank you miss kittens no miss vaughn no comments miss morgan i have none thank you dr bernier no ma'am nothing thank you and i have none at this point having no other business to come before this board and see a no objection this meeting is adjourned at this time i will reconvene the regular school board meeting of may 24 2022. public hearing dr bernier please present your recommendations for this evening's public hearing items madam chair members of the board there are three items item p1 approval to adopt the 2022-2023 adult code of conduct in compliance with the changes in related
106rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and provide transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25 2022 item p2 approval to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct pre-k grade 5 in compliance with the changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25 2022 and finally item p3 to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct grades 6 through 12 in compliance with the changes related in rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25 2022. we will now recess the regular school board meeting and open the public hearing items as indicated the public hearing this evening is to consider
107number one approval to adopt the 2022 through 2023 adult code of conduct in compliance with changes and related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25th 2022. item two approval to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct pre-k through grade five in compliance with changes and related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of adoption shall be may 25 2022 item three approval to adopt the 2020 to 2023 code of conduct grades 6 through 12 in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25th 2022 at this time the public
108will be invited to speak on these three items again these three items only one two and three the time allowed for comments is three minutes is there now you can see is there anyone that would like to speak if so please go to the back and if you will please state your name prior to speaking thank you tara jenner i know that in the code of conduct it talks a little bit about accommodations and modifications in there so it's a little bit of an aside but we were having the speakers in the back showing up on the screen and we're not anymore and so that's why i have to keep moving back and forth because i need to be able to liberate the people in the back of the room and then i can't see
109the board members at the same time because i'm having to constantly do back and forth and being able to pick up your verbal nonverbal cues in response to the speakers is a key thing for me as a member of the public evaluating your behavior and your responses to people since you don't seem to comment on what people say from this particular microphone so having said that incorporating the new parental rights laws or any other law that comes down the line that isn't going to be officially enacted until a future date can be done by reference and with a hot link to the state statute the purpose here complying with the parental rights laws is to give parents advanced notice and information so they can make informed decisions if you wait until after the school year
110and they've gone through all this and then you make a minor change here or there they're not going to know about it they're going to only read this 90-something page document once if ever so do it at the first on the onset you can actually get that in there now if the law turns out not to end up being upheld after court action the link will go nowhere or show that the law has been repealed or changed by judicial review this is a no-brainer people you can get it out there the key is giving the parents the information and i also have noticed that too many times both in the parental i mean excuse me in the code of conduct as well as in our policies you reference policy you reference state statute sometimes but
111not all the time and there's no reference to the constitution both the u.s constitution or the state constitution which actually is what gives parents a clarification of what their rights are it doesn't give them their rights it gives them the clarification of what their rights are we don't even need a parental bill of rights to have rights we don't need your policy to have rights it just makes it easier for people to know how to actually enforce and ensure that you implement those rights so again incorporate by reference a hot link to the statute do it now and i'm surprised miss patricka didn't complain about the number of spacing errors and other grammatical faux pas that were in the document thank you the third time i'm asking about placing the parental bill of rights in
112the code of conduct for the third time and you know this is really a question of accountability and transparency to the families in the community which is something that we have been coming to the podium now for over a year to express that we don't feel that there is enough transparency and yet with regard to the code of conduct when you have enough time to rectify this matter to go ahead and vote to approve them is just once again saying to the public that you're not listening so once again for the third time and for the second time tonight there is plenty of time to approve these codes of conduct and once again i am asking for 1557 to be placed into the code of conduct thank you hello again christie diva jelly i would
113like to echo my to be the two speakers before me i understand this is a very large district almost 100 000 students i understand that you guys have a calendar and a timeline but you also have the capability to make to create two versions of this one that has the laws in it and one that doesn't and then guess what there were like 100 meetings in 2020 so many of them were special meetings 2021 had special meetings then too there is no reason why we can't have one special meeting in july after this has gone into place or hasn't or whatever and if you i mean what denise said take some give us an inch here we've been asking for even just the parental bill of rights to be displayed in the code of conduct
114it's over 90 pages long you could have included one page for the parents that clearly explains what their already existing rights are you know if you don't want there to be such an adversarial relationship between the board and the community a little bit of transparency a little bit of give every now and then is what's required this is one of those situations that you could easily appease the community more specifically the parents the parents who are going to when it comes to orientation week or orientation night not be able to access their child's focus until they sign their rights away and read and pretend like they've read through a 90-page document in order to do so i was one of those parents like where are the checks and balances there you know if you want
115us to read this book if you want parents to be engaged in this process act like it and you could start by adding the parental bill of rights in there adding the current legislature the legislation that's going to go into effect in july if it doesn't go into effect make two of them it's not that hard i've seen you guys do a lot a lot more and a lot less time please consider what we've been asking you here tonight thank you so much okay or is there any other is there anyone else that would like to speak okay cnn i will now close this public hearing and reconvene the regular school board meeting of may 24th 2022. dr bernier please restate your recommendations for this evening's public hearing items one more time and if you
116would do it one at a time please you have opportunity to have discussion yes you do in between yes yes thank you yes ma'am p one approved to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct in compliance with the changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25 2022. thank you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approves to adopt the 2022-2023 adult code of conduct in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of the adoption shall be may 25 2022 board members is there a motion to approve ms morgan i move we approve the superintendent's recommendation to adopt the 2022-2023 adult code of
117conduct thank you thank you miss that okay miss giovanelli okay now is there discussion and mr annella you i don't have discussion on this one that's the other two so okay is there any discussion on this particular one okay let me make sure this is item one this is the other that's the adult this is that is correct the adults okay no no okay so if you would then say a no discussion please record your vote okay seven zero motion carries dr bernier will you restate your recommendation for item two madam president members of the board p two approval to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct pre-k through grade 5 in compliance with the changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of
118this adoption shall be may 25 2022 thank you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct pre-k through grade 25 in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statute to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective dates of this adoption shall be may 25th board members is there a motion to approve miss fisher yes i'll move that we adopt the superintendent's recommendation to approve the code of conduct pre-k through five okay and second it i'll second it i miss morgan okay so moved by mrs fisher and second it by miss i'm sorry moved by miss fisher and seconded by miss morgan and discussion with giovannelli oh i'm sorry miss fisher okay so in the pre-k through five code of conduct on page
11915. excuse me page 15 and 16 is notification of parental rights federal and state law provides parents and guardians of following rights and then at the bottom of page 16 there is a link for the parent bill of rights parental rights and education and additional resources through the school district of lee county parent portal you okay just wanted to let you know that thank you for being there mr ellie did you have yeah so when you click on that link however it does not take you to the actual parents bill of rights it takes you to different things on at the district my question is actually for attorney bruno please that there's we're going to have an equity guide and my question is and how we're going to arrive at that equity guide through community
120committees i believe and but the equity guide could the payroll rights law actually be in that equity guide when they're working on that mr prieberto so yes we're going to have an equity guide and yes there should be some reference to the parent's bill of rights in the equity guide so and then there is going to be a community feedback group that will be working with the administration in reviewing revising and providing recommendation on that equity guide okay thank you and i just wanted to let go ahead ms fisher okay and i just wanted to conclude that there is a disclaimer in here that says the design of this page will be enhanced visually to draw attention to the parent portal so this is still a work in progress thank you and the link does
121go to the parental parents bill of rights it goes right to the right to the rights where you click on right here and it has the parent's bill right chapter 10 14 florida statue consisting of it's right there if you click on there miss kittens please okay so when i clicked on it took me to the parent portal correct correct and the parent portal in the top right corner says focus parent portal login my concern is why would it not just be open to every parent or every community member that clicks on there that wants to know what is the parental bill of rights why because what if a parent doesn't even know if it's not a parent or someone wants to see what is this law so why can't this be linked directly to
122and available to anyone who does not necessarily have access to focus login this deprived because when you do click on that it takes you to everything pertaining to any kind of information that you may parent university parents bill of rights parents this so not necessarily do you have to have focus anybody can get on there because i'm not on focus and i can go right to that so can you can you address that may i finish my comment okay so my thing is when you click on it you get this page with multiple areas all i'm saying is let's simplify it and have that one click lead to one thing and if you i have to go through this whole list of a through whatever to find which item i want this is what i'm
123talking about with our website that makes it very difficult to manipulate because what if i don't know where to go on here just one click for one click parent bill of rights takes you to prepare bill of rights correct that's what i assumed keep it simple yeah i'm not a designer so i would not know because we would need a single singular button for every single one of these no you would not no i'm not saying that i'm saying that when you go back to this first page right and it says on page 16 the parents bill of rights i should be able to just go click and the next thing my eyes see is that parent bill of rights it's just that simple it's not you know you don't have to write a program
124for it you just link the click to that page just clicking this yeah i'm a fan of the links throughout as a matter of fact if i'd been writing this i probably would have condensed a lot of the a lot of the print in it and said for further information blah blah and here's here's the here's the link so i'm i'm with miss getting son on that i all of you know my ideological stance even though we're nonpartisan but i don't see the problem with just a one click why not so dr bernier this would come back to you all because that would have to just be changed in there and make it simplistic where in the red versus parent bill of rights parental rights and education members of the board i think the question
125for me is this a possible fix for our code of conduct before going to print that is a very easy fix for us we could make the links the parental bill of rights go directly to the page in the portal right so they don't have to then land on the portal and scroll down but we'll also keep the link to the parent portal so they can have all the information that they wanted as well but a direct link i'm looking at dwayne i just yeah it's a really relatively simple fix for where that link lands this is if you just nod your head for me so thank you so if you as a superintendent this is a pretty easy decision yeah it makes sense okay mr evanelli do we need to give a directive for
126the superintendent to add that link or at this point madam cherry do you want could we please ask you to if everybody else is in agreement of this have that i'm not your parliamentarian so i'm going to defer to kathy dupuy bruno i think you probably should amend your motion that would provide me the direction that we would approve the code of conduct and then i would have the direction to change this particular item so that i can meet your expectations madam chair miss kittens please make an amendment to the motion that's on the floor to add that there will be a singular link speak up did you hear me yes that there will be a single link from the parent portal to the parents bill of rights one click and there will be the
127additional click for what did you say to the parent portal list and i know i didn't say that concise okay so you'd like to amend the motion to have the parents bill of rights parental rights and education with one click that would take you right to the parental rights bill and also keeping with the parents portal as well another yes so there would be two clicks two clicks two links so go ahead and miss one more question just there's nothing there's nothing but we have a motion there's an amendment on the floor we need a second if there's a i'll second it okay thank you now we have a conversation in my apology i just want to make sure too that what we're voting on tonight there's no attached and this is a disclaimer there's
128no attached equity guide at this time correct no that's in these embedded in these two code of conduct thank you that is correct okay thank you so could we have a vote on that then vote on the amendment yes vote on the amendment which miss had stated seconded by mr evanelli and can we have a hand vote miss morgan i miss vaughn yes ms kittens yes miss patricka yeah please thank you mr avanelli yes mrs fisher yes and yes thank you okay seven okay and then miss thomas did you get that motion or shell you did get it thank you so much appreciate it dr bernier now miss jordan you need to have a vote on the motion as amended oh sorry now you're going to have a vote on the recommendation as amended okay
129may i have a motion on the amended motion as stated whatever you said miss morgan i move we approve the superintendent's recommendation to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct pre-k grade five as amended nice second thank you and thank you miss kittens now is there any discussion no discussion may we have a vote miss morgan i miss vaughn yes miss kittens yes miss patricka yes please thank you miss jayvanelli yes miss fisher yes and yes so motion carries thank you and again miss thomas did you get that one too thank you so much okay dr bernier will you please restate your recommendation for item three please madam president members of the board i'm sorry madam chair members of the board p3 approval to adopt the 2022-2023 code of conduct grades 6-12 in compliance with the
130changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25 2022. thank you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved to adopt the 2023 code of conduct grades 6 through 12 in compliance with changes in related rules and regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be may 25th 2022. board members is there a motion to approve to approve the superintendent's recommendation that we adopt the code of conduct six through twelve thank you thank you said second i'll second it and thank you and discussion then i would like to amend the motion as we amended the last one i'd like to amend the superintendent's motion
131to add that there be a one link button to the parent's bill of rights and the additional button would link to the parent portal okay may i have that right yes you did that was good you may have a second please i'll second that okay is there any discussion on that one see a nun may i get a hand vote on the amended motion as stated by ms gittins to add the additional link to the parents bill of rights parent rights and education to its own link as well as the parent portal having it their link as well i thank you miss miss morgan miss fun yes miss kittens yes miss giovanelli yes ms patricka yeah thank you miss fisher yes and yes 7-0 and now i need to make a motion i need to
132take a vote on the amend on the amended motion a lot of amendments here may i get someone too okay i think it's that i would like to make the motion that we accept the superintendent's recommendation recommendation with the amendment as previously stated in vodadon is that right yes thank you she's looking at me funny okay so what miss kitten says says that she would like to i think recommend the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved the adopted 2022-2023 code of conduct grades 6 through 12 with compliance with changes and related rules regulations with the amended motion as amended as amended thank you ms kittens and we have a second on that one thank you miss morgan this time may i make a point of order yes please i believe this is the second time
133that we have made and seconded a motion when there's already an amended motion on the table all we need to do is vote on the underlying motion on the table that has been amended we had we voted to amend the motion and now we're voting for the amended motion well what ms patrick is saying that we got a second with the when we did the recommendation with the amendment it's a point of order that she called madam chair you can go ahead and roll on the point of order parliamentary procedure-wise i've got to check my robert's rules of order to be able to advise but i don't think it's in inconsequential we can move forward with the motion and vote on it thank you so we'll go ahead and take a vote on this then
134miss morgan miss morgan thank you i wasn't sure which way i was starting miss morgan miss vaughn miss kittens yes i didn't say anything i opened my mouth and you were calling i was reading your lips yes thank you miss patricka yes please thank you miss giavanelli yes miss fisher yes and yes 7-0 motion carries i apologize i've said your name so many times i'm not sure whose name i'm saying and thank you dr bernier for going through all this with us next we made it through that so next on the agenda will be board member comments and i will start with miss fisher please okay so i did my comments this afternoon and i just want to wish island coast good luck with their championship baseball game tonight and i also as i thanked
135staff and our parents i neglected one group of people and that is our secretaries our assistants and our office workers who keep the ball rolling for us all the time and will continue to work with us during the summer and i just want to thank them for their work and dedication also thank you thank you mr fisher miss giovanelli yes i would like to thank dr savage for his leadership i know that i think i might have mentioned it at a workshop but i just wanted to say it one more time and then at the same time welcome dr brunier here for his first meeting and i look forward to the many more and i just want to congratulate the class of 2022 and all the staff and and to all the employees for those
136who get the summer break and the summer off enjoy your summer make sure you get plenty of rest and relaxation we need you back here strong and ready to go in august so and those that are working through the summer thank you for all your hard work through this year and i look forward to working with everyone again for 2023 school year thank you thank you miss givenelli miss patricka please i have no comments thank you thank you let's see biscuits okay i have a couple of comments to make one of the speakers tonight talked about what difference did we make during the time that we're out in the community and doing whatever so i'm going to read my comment briefly i listen to and guided parents and community and members and employees to the
137processes and procedures to find solutions to their issues according to policy and protocol i have listened to tearful parents and employees as well as joyous ones my attendance at schools as a part of supporting and encouraging all students and employees so that is besides all the things we mentioned this afternoon with the graduations and all of that my last comment has to do with the self-evaluation and i entitled this the self-evaluation versus sunshine law our evaluation is done once a year if you want to see a change in the conversation that we have then contact tallahassee this is where you can write letters to the governor to the legislators talk to them about the sunshine law the sunshine law is not required for legislators that make the major laws that we all have to abide
138by so it would maybe behoove some people to talk to them about why it is necessary for us at this level i do understand what respect and dignity are and what they look like and how they feel and i've heard many times in the last several weeks rhetoric about how this board is so chaotic every time i heard the word i cringed the board is in chaos well if you look up chaos it means confusion mayhem bedlam pandemonium madness havoc turmoil i don't think you see that sitting up here we have just tonight approved 58 items that directly affect the education of close to 100 000 students and over 12 000 employees and manage a one point nine billion dollar tax taxpayer dollars in our budget there's no confusion i know what my job is
139they know what their job is there's no mayhem there's no bedlam pandemonium madness or turmoil they're sometimes very often angst fear of retaliation and being erased and overlooked and ignored not me individual individually but a large portion of students and staff at times there is no statute on how i'm sorry messed up here no statute we raise how that we must like each other there's no statute that says i have to like you okay i raised my hand and i said i will follow the laws in the statutes of the state of florida it doesn't say i have to like you i'm not saying i don't but i don't have to if i don't want to but the statute says i have to do the work of the district i feel we do the work
140the district again 58 items that have affected a hundred thousand students twelve thousand employees and one point nine billion dollar taxpayer budget i know i am not liked by some but that's not even important doing the work is important we've done the work we do the work we don't always agree but we approve 58 items tonight thank you and congratulations to all the graduates congratulations to the teachers that you made it through this year almost it's almost done and we hope and pray that you will come back teachers bus drivers and everybody relaxed and ready and please come back to us in the fall thank you very much and good night mrs vaughn actually i'd like to start with something that may seem kind of random after some of the things that we've been talking
141about but it's a news article i read and i would like to send kudos to the city of cape coral the our the news article that i read is that cape coral is going to in the next five years install 15 miles of sidewalks near our schools and this is something many of us have have talked about because it's you know the bus stops if there's if there's no sidewalk we've had some tragedies and near tragedies and i think this is going to help tremendously with us the safety issues and now i'm hoping and i know lehigh acres is in a different i don't know how to say it like a different kind of organization and hopefully the county commissioners and others that are responsible for that will step up to the plate because we
142have tremendous growth in this county and it really really bothers me that apparently there's no kind of legislation the way you know i came from some of your favorite state new jersey that when new schools were erected in and new infrastructure that everything you know parks or whatever came along with that and we have builders that build and they really don't take any of that into consideration because they don't have to and it's more profit for them so kudos to cape coral and i'm hoping that builders keep in mind that this is their civic duty to ensure the safety of our children and just general pedestrians and i hope to see more sidewalks near our schools i already sent out kudos to the graduates and i'm just going to mention it one more time graduates
143whatever you're doing next year you know starting today and you know somebody tell the graduates that we all sent those those kudos and good wishes to them because if i were to bet maybe four graduates are listening tonight to what we have to say but anyway we do wish you wish you well and i also send my best wishes to all employees i know some of you especially district employees work throughout the summer and i mentioned earlier that many of their teachers either work throughout the summer second or third job or i know a few of my teacher friends that haven't yet retired are actually already working on summer projects for professional development looking ahead to preparing new lesson plans based on the shorter class period adopting adapting what they have and so i also
144want to say all of you that still have the notion how wonderful a job it is to teach because they get the summer off i don't know all that many teachers that have this summer off as i said they're either working another job or i know i don't remember any summers any that i wasn't either doing district curriculum writing or preparing for new subjects that i was going to be teaching or tweaking tweaking or attending college board workshops so teachers always have those kinds of things on their mind so it is a wonderful job and they are lucky to have it but it's not because they have the summers off let's see dr bernier has been our superintendent now for eight days and oh i just thought of the beatles song eight days a week
145how many days does it feel like may i ask it's an accurate description before you answer someone locked the doors i'm probably not allowed to ask you that i'm not following protocol here but i think you're off to a great start i see dr savage is sitting back there humming a little tune in his head right anyway moving on one one other thing that i didn't mention this afternoon was that i was pleased to be able to get to two senior awards ceremonies in the past week and a half but not wearing my school board member hat as a matter of fact in one of them i had to make a correction as i was introduced as school board member from the you know district six i said no i am wearing the hat of
146the scholarship chair of the haitian-american community coalition and like so many other groups it's it's really amazing to hear all of the different community groups and memorial scholarships and all of that and i know we're a very small organization relatively but we were very pleased to give out four one thousand dollar academic scholarships and it just happened this year and we actually were quizzed about it by a couple people on social media where are the boys where are the male students all four of them were young ladies guys you're gonna they're gonna need to start they hadn't put in the number maybe 20 percent of the applications came from young men and that may be actually a trend especially among minority students minority males and so maybe that's something we can think about you know
147to get more of the minority males to participate in in those kinds of things and actually it was four different schools and it's it's it's a joy to me to be able to hand out those scholarships to haitian heritage students and one of our top of these top students was born in haiti and so she started out you know she and her parents coming to the u.s and when i read essays and i look at all of the scholarship applications and then we have others that look at the kind of the second round we've had students that came to the us as junior high or middle school students and rise to the top of their class with all kinds of honors and all kinds of community involvement and the final thing i'm going to say
148to sing my kudos to a group that i really love is that i'm trying to remember if all four of the young ladies or at least three of the four we're going into some medical field and often it's because they were looking back at relatives they had people that they knew that didn't have proper medical care and so you know i know it's not unique to the haitian american population but it's one that i'm very familiar with and i couldn't let this time pass without singing praises to those and to all of our wonderful especially those community scholarships that recognize some of the things that might not be recognized in in the same way by some of the larger scholarships so goodnight from me thank you miss vaughn thanks morgan and i'm going to keep
149you from the island coast high school game because i do have comments this evening first of all i want to complement staff the revised weekly update i thought was terrific i want to congratulate staff for the their exceeding their enrollment targets in the middle school summer novel reading program there were four new programs highlighted that i would like the community to hear about i assume they were funded by esser one is scholastic books for elementary students elementary live science labs summer science labs for fourth graders a national development program geared towards rigorous high high level academic expendit rigorous high-level academic expanded learning i also enjoyed the highlights from the school levels you know we can't get to all the schools so it's just fun to see you know what people choose what schools choose to
150highlight about their weeks i also have been wanting to speak about the fact you know i always talk about partnerships that's a big thing for me i want to mention the harms marsh harness marsh middle school relationship with the east lee county chamber they had a gala this winter recognizing teachers they are provide they are funding providing funding for a summer camp at harness marsh middle school and they are planning a trip to tallahassee during session in 2023 for students from harns marsh middle school we talk about you know the diverse opportunities that our schools have in the diverse resources and i will continue to say that there are people in the community who may not do be able to do the same things for every school but what they do for certain schools can
151make a difference now that takes me to the board meeting and there are more partnerships in the board meeting that we are in the agenda that we approve today operating summer programs for students on our campuses ymca southwest florida imag history and science center and the boys and girls clubs of lee county these are people stepping up to help us recover from what we have been through the past couple of years when you see these people in the community please thank them for for their support of our students i also want to mention that we approved three dental partnerships for students needing internships for accreditation now that i've talked about what we've done i want to mention something that miss juvenelli brought up this afternoon talking about partnerships going forward she said that we should
152be looking at some relief for traditional hires moving to lee county in terms of finding a place to live renting and that's far from a simple problem but i think given the governor's initiative regarding home purchases that the time may be right to form a task force with the horizon council lee health lee county school district police and sheriff higher education to address the needs of first responders and to start talking about advocating as a team at the state level so i want to thank you for that many of you talked about graduations today i attended the non-traditional graduations and i was struck by the comments you all made about the prevalence of covid in your graduation speeches i heard very little of that at the charter adult ed and virtual school graduations their barriers
153have not changed since pre-covered they are still talking about the same health wellness social issues economic issues there was one that one gal who's whose mother was homeschooling her until the mother passed when the child was six years old that child had no former schooling after that age the reason she was receiving her ged was because an older sibling spouse encouraged her to enroll in the ged program i mean that's the kind there are so many underlying social economic issues in this community that are barriers to students we've learned a lot with covet about things that we can do differently but we need to be doing more so let's see that brings me to my final comment regarding the mass murder of children in texas i heard the governor quoted as saying this is a
154terrible tragedy and we will contin we will hear from him and others the trite and tired hearts and prayers for the children and the families where are the political leaders who can say either our policies or our administration of those policies is failing we need to ask serious questions about the role of our legislators our politicians their role responsibility and accountability for these kinds of tragedies it is not our problem alone to solve and those are my comments thank you oh thank you miss morgan i am going to have miguel thank you so much for being here this evening and if you have some comments to share i know you graduated so you might want to share you know what what you've heard here today what you've thought about it what your plans are and
155yeah so to begin with i want to say thank you for inviting me you've been quite an experience i never imagined or leaked on a school board being you know this way or and also i want to say thank you to all the parents and grandparents that come here and start off with your kids or grandkids i really appreciate that you want to come and give your time i might not agree with all the stuff you're fighting for but i can understand where you're coming from in a standpoint of caring so thank you for all of you that stood here for three hours so far so now the other comment that i have is you know thank you for inviting me to the board and welcome to our new superintendent i think it's gonna be
156challenging i know our high school our school system here in the county has a lot of stuff to improve but going to a lady here to my left side that some kids come here you know 11th 12th grade i came to united states three years ago i came and started three years ago wow yeah three years ago and you know i'm a clear example that lee connie does a lot of good stuff and for me he taught me a language how to write it how to understand how to say my ideas clearly in a way that i can everybody can understand me also being recipient of one of many many many lee county school scholarship scholarships i got the richard haggis culture for two thousand dollars gonna help me take the next level to college
157and keep doing what i like to do the best and that's learning and being better every day so for that i thank you everybody everyone here in the school board because i know without your hard work and for the man that's over there you know through all those years it's like oh i know i'm from somewhere you know as a student you don't get to see your faces as much and i didn't know you did all this work you know all the legislation you're going through all the changes you have to make and for me it's you know an enlightened experience to see your hard work and how much you care about our community our school system and most importantly our future the future of lee county which it might not be me because i'm
158out of the system now you've been so long in three days but now that i'm out of the system we care about the future so i have a brother in ninth grade and now he's in good hands because you're working really hard to make this county better every night and every day so thank you very much and thank you for everybody being here have a great night well let me go i again i want to thank you and the gentleman that you're looking at you did see him and made him downtown i was so impressed by you when i met you at south and then downtown again i was like okay we got to find this kid we got to get him over here because you are just very i was very impressed by you
159and just your story and everything about you and thank you for sharing that with us so you're going to make me for me all upset here but i appreciate what everyone else has said here tonight and i just want to thank the all of our the staff in the schools this is our last meeting before school is over thank you for caring for our children thank you for caring for all my grandchildren nieces nephews my whole entire family that's in the district because you make them better and i really appreciate that and to our graduates thank you know congratulations and i wish you the very best and you just yeah i love you're a good kid and miss debris bruno thank you madam chair i just want to clarify with regards to a second when
160you have the amended motion that is not required i look back to an email that i sent the board in may of 2021 with the instructions so we want to i just want to clarify that since that was brought up in addition we could have done something different just do a friendly amendment but however has the board has been trained with doing amendments this way i prefer to do it that way so that we don't have any confusions in addition robert's rules does have different rules when you have a board that is less than 12. it allows for more flexibility in latitude with formalities to ensure that the business of the board is not interrupted and we can move forward so when i say it's inconsequential it's because of that rule to allow us to
161move forward with a business without getting stuck on formalities thank you thank you mr bruno dr bernier this is your first action meeting comments please well first to our student guests incredible story and thank you for being an example of the work that this school system can do i think i told all of this i wanted to be this last job but i think you found your next superintendent we just have to wait a couple years i think he's ready very impressed very impressive i want to just echo some sentiments regarding our educators our principals our staff out at schools it has been no matter where you've been during this period of time whether you were in the state of florida or the state of nevada it has been a trying time and i look
162forward to the summer for our teachers and ms bond is absolutely correct they have second jobs they're going to be attending tons of staff development they're going to be working with florida best standards we're going to be adopting additional right we're not we're adopting some curriculum materials that's going to require them to dig in and study and make sure that they're prepared for their lessons coming into the fall but i share this with principals and i share it with our staff pretty regularly our students are going to go home and recharge and they're going to be back in august so to the staff present here as well as to the staff listening at home more to the principles that i've spoken to and the staffs i've been able to reach i think it's really important
163that we stress that when you're going to take care of other people the first most important thing is to take care of yourself so i hope this summer they find the time to relax find a beach or a mountain or a hiking trail or whatever it is that recharges them and to our students going off to college i hope they'll do the same because the level of effort will be required of everyone as we come back in the fall so those those are my sort of my comments around graduation because it's already been said i do want to highlight a particular issue that's coming up in the community and that's the franklin park school that is being renovated we talk often about our schools that are new and coming online and we don't talk about
164the necessity of going back into our community to look at schools that have outlived their useful lifespan and i appreciate the forward thinking of this school district and this board to look at those particular issues because young people deserve the very best educational environments we can provide and not just where growth is occurring all that's a priority for this board i understand that but we have to come back and we have to look at learning environments that have outlived their but by state law as well outlive their usefulness so i know franklin park's going to have to swing to a portable site or a swing site but they are very excited after leaving the zero completion meeting they're very excited about the opportunity of their new school building when they get back then we'll be
165using it again to repeat that process for another site as well to the assembly required team and the panther force i really love those names the young people that received it here earlier today who completed in the robotics and the drone competitions teamwork stem empowerment engagement problem solving resilience grit challenging and challenges that concur without you even realizing that your robot's going to break down you've got to fix it within 10 minutes to get it back out on the stage really amazing work that our young people are involved in with stem across this district to the board thank you for the support in the workshop on monday related to restructuring how a cabinet meets here so that we can be better prepared and not providing information at the last minute to board members who need
166that information in advance to be prepared not only for themselves but for their constituency and last but not least tonight scheduled at 7 00 p.m which has been rain delayed and lightning delayed till 9 15. somebody somebody's looking out for the new superintendent i'm going to have the opportunity to leave here tonight and go see island coast compete against jensen beach for the state title and baseball it and again there what you learn inside the lines is applicable outside the lines if athletic athletes are being taught correctly the lessons they learn about rule following the rules of the game and sportsmanship apply in everything that they do as a later adult and community member so just thank you to everyone and thank you to this board for an amazing first week really have enjoyed it
167and continue to look forward to our additional work together thank you all right thank you thank you the next scheduled meeting of the board is on monday june 13th there will be a board workshop at 12 p.m on tuesday june 14th there will be a board briefing at 1 p.m followed by an action meeting at 6 00 pm see you no other at this point have no other business to come before this body this meeting is adjourned thank you and have a safe evening you