School Board Action Meeting: November 2, 2021

001good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting the school board meeting of november 2nd 2021 is now called to order the time is 601 pm we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district's vision to be a world class school system prior to the start of this evening's meeting we had the pleasure to enjoy from the fort myers high school greenway trouble course under the direction of trevor tran the accompanist for tonight's performance is shannon arnold the pre pieces performed were shine on me hold fast to dreams and never one thing if you would like to hear more of the greenway choir their

002annual holiday concert will take place on december 10th at 7 pm in the fort myers high school auditorium please join me again and given our students performance a round of applause thank you this is what we're here for right here in front of us these kids so thank you at this time we're going to take a brief pause so that they can clear the performance areas thank you so much and thank you parents for bringing them okay this evening's agenda includes invocation presentation of colors and the pledge of allegiance acknowledgements special presentation to the board public comment consent items which include four items under board office one item under academic services four items under business services three items under human resources two items under information specialist systems nine items under operations and one item under

003public hearings and four items under other business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda miss vaughn i move to adopt the agenda thank you i may have a second i'll second miss fisher okay it was moved by miss vaughn and seconded by mrs fisher please record your vote hey miss thomas if you can help me i can't see it on the screen has everybody voted no i can't pull it up okay thank you miss fisher will lead us in the invocation after which miss giovanelli will lead us in the presentation of colors and the pledge of allegiance miss fisher please yes thank you please rise this evening we are blessed with reverend israel suarez from the nations association nations association charities was founded in 1978 by dr israel suarez over the years

004thousands have been able to benefit from his assistance and programs reverend suarez and his family have mentored and reinforced positive lifestyles and values that will allow families and young people to take their place as productive members of our community the youth in fort myers community have learned life skills been taught personal responsibility and leadership they have earned scholarships volunteered in the community and mentors those who came after them in the programs reverend suarez is also a founder of the community prayer breakfast designed to bring southwest florida residents together his vision for nations is to provide programs that help transform at-risk youth in southwest florida into points of light in fact in 1990 the nation's association was recognized with a point of light designation by president george h.w bush now as reverend suarez celebrates 43 years

005of service to the community he continues in that mission please welcome reverend suarez is thank you for the god because without you is no way we can do it we live in social difficulty time but thank you that you always there to protect us and help us and i ask you for the god that tonight you'll be present here with the issue that the boy and the superintendent gonna present we ask you for the god that when we walk out of this facility we work out here thinking that the blessing from heaven gonna be forever to this institution i present this prayer in the name of the father son and holy spirit amen thank you mr givenelli will you please lead us in the presentation of the colors yes introducing the cadet who is presenting

006the national colors for our pledge allegiance is lieutenant colonel brent dahl assistant senior army instructor for the dunbar high school jrotc program lieutenant colonel dahl served 26 years in the army assigned to numerous positions of increasing responsibility prior to his retirement this is lieutenant colonel dahl's first year as a jrotc instructor in the district thank you for your service welcome thank you ma'am presenting the national callers tonight is cadet spate otheller the cadet brigade commander of the dunbar high school jrotc program cadet oliver is a member of the national honor society and is an honor roll student he is actively involved in the jrotc marksmanship team and was the previous academic team commander cadet oliver is planning on attending norwich university after graduation and completing its officer program prior to his future military endeavors please

007join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all so please be seated reverend suarez thank you very much for being here this evening students representative from district student advisory committee is christian whitish a ninth grader at north fort myers high school christian is a member of student government serving as class of 2025 president a member of youth in government and an ace honor student christian has a gpa of 4.0 and currently as a freshman 23 hours of community service towards the florida bright future scholarship christian enjoys playing golf tennis writing listening to music and going out with his friends with your friends good christian hopes one day to major in political science at fsu or uf graduate from yale law school with a focus

008in corporate law and serve as the governor of florida and eventually a u.s representative or senator please welcome christian wittish thank you for being here and you're next good to mike there you go good evening tonight i will read the character word for november the character word is patriotism a quote from john f kennedy ask not what your country can do for you yet ask what you can do for your country the design you see displayed on the screen was created by jade nelson a 12th grade student at mariner high school thank you okay and they know this one back here he's not finished we're working him today we have all these videos school board of lee county acknowledges the following events for the month of november 2021 national stem steam day november 8 2021

009national education support professionals day november 17 2021 holocaust education week november 8th through 12th 2021 school psychology awareness week november 8th through 12th 2021 gifted education week november 11th through 14th 2021 american education week november 14th through 20th 2021 and florida family engagement and education month november 1st through 30th 2021. thank you thank you so much christian and christian will be here throughout the evening if it gets too late we'll have him do his his public comments go to the order so he will from now on we will be making sure we have a student advisory sitting with us and hopefully we'll have entertainment here now so they will be observing and then give their feedback at the end but again if it does get too late then we'll take a break so that he'll

010have the opportunity to do his public comment and then we'll continue on with the meeting thank you okay special presentation to the board at this time please welcome the estero council of community leaders eccl please use the podium on the right to present your special presentation and if you would please state your name i have multiple names on here so yes thank you good evening i'm mark novitskiy i'm the chief operating officer for the sterile council community leaders and we're here tonight actually the eccl is a non-profit non-partisan non-political volunteer civic advocacy advocacy organization been a tough day sorry with me i have alan bowditch our c ceo chief communication officer and amy kuchebecker she's our education co-chair and each one is going to have a few minutes tonight to speak to you tonight we're

011here to present the school board's superintendent and staff a copy of our book the history of the eccl titled forging a better path okay we passed out copies earlier the board gets hard copies the rest get our soft copy sorry about that what we have to do the basically the book outlays outlaws owls identifies what we've accomplished and where we're going what we've accomplished over the last 20 years and where we think we're going you know we all know you're in the education business but we're here to help we're here to support the village we're here to support the school district you may notice that i didn't say the village of estero it's the greater estero area and that's important to us because we look throughout southwest florida we live and work and volunteer in

012all parts of lee county my wife and i have taught junior achievement at bonita middle and bonita charter i've taught personal finance and career development at dunbar east lee and estero high school and a little bit later on amy's going to talk about the 80 ambassadors as we call them that go into the four or five estero area schools to help with financial literacy and other things the toughest class i taught was economics and i don't know what you all thought of economics when you're going through college but economics was not my favorite subject but anyway we also do other things this past year at a sterile high school we partnered with the chamber of commerce and the estero historical society and had three thousand dollar scholarships to estero high school students they didn't have

013to live in estero they just needed to attend the school this year we're also lined up to do that again thursday night i had a conversation with principal mike mobile yeah i always say that wrong and he corrects me i apologize for that and we're going to do it again this year and it's great to get the kids and to me students seniors you know understanding the business the history and the governance of the estero area we've also got we're working with three oaks middle and the athenian academy on fourth and seventh grade essay contests on the history of estero we hoped to kick it kicked it off for the fall but you know we couldn't get into schools at that time you all understand that so we're probably going to do it next fall

014so we do the fourth and seventh in the fall and high school scholarships in the spring we also are involved heavily in a community in the school district we have at least three community members on the school board advisory councils i sit on the financial advisory board a two billion dollar budget i'm a financial analyst of by by trade and actually a forensic accountant depending the financial advisory and budget people are a little tired of me right now after only two meetings but somebody told me that they'll love me once they get to know me we also have somebody on the independent sales tax oversight committee and a continuous system improvement we are involved in community we are involved in the school district our j8 program where we had the 80 ambassadors touched i'm sorry

015can't use that word reached every second fifth eighth and eleventh grader in the four estero area schools in nineteen twenty was a bad year let's just not even talk about that okay amy will talk a little bit more about that we've even offered through gwen gittins to export our model to eastleigh the east lee cooperative we've had discussions on that i actually spoke on one of their meetings so again we need the volunteers to make that happen and at this point in time i'd like to turn it over to allen and let him talk about the book for a few minutes thank you thank you thank you mark and very warm good evening members of the board and ladies and gentlemen my name is alan baudich i'm the chief communications officer at the eccl the

016book you've received actually took about nine months to produce there were over 28 interviews that were carried out with such people as members of the lee county commissioners members of past members of the eccl members who served on the planning and zoning boards consultants to our community in the environmental area and so forth so that 30 hours of interviews had to be transcribed which amounted to about 200 hours of work and in addition to that of course there were a great many items in archives both in the estero historical society press releases from the past which all had to be accumulated and put together i'm extremely grateful to jim shields who is worked within the eccl since 2004 who had the vision for this particular book he felt that it was extremely important to identify

017and recognize the many young's unsung heroes that have worked diligently over the last 20 years to help make the great ristero area what it is today and i hope as you read the book you will come to realize the various inputs that these individuals who did it on a voluntary basis made over this very long period of time so it was felt that the need was to acknowledge these individuals their work and the support that wasn't just entirely of course on their own this was a joint effort over that long period of time working with county commissioners other environmental organizations as well as skilled experts in the various fields so it was very much a collaborative endeavor over that time and i think the term of the book the title forging a better path is

018the way that the current executive management team at the eccl feels that it's the best way forward dialogue as opposed to any aspect of confrontation two important things that i just like to mention about the book it explains not only what happened in the past as mark has mentioned but what the eccl's focus will be in the years ahead as we try to represent the views of residents in the southwest florida area on many aspects like safety education economic development culture and recreation and health and the second point is that our organization which mark has already mentioned isn't focused only on estero but southwest florida we have provided help and guidance not only on educational issues but water quality economic development outside the greater estero area and we hope that where issues that affect all

019of us in southwest florida arise in the future we can provide input that might assist in the decision making taken at a county level finally i'd just like to comment on some of the unsolicited comments that have been made about the book that you now have in front of you laura cummings the laura cummins gates the editor of estero life magazine said what a great idea to record this local history brian bartolek general manager and chief operating officer at shadowwood country club said the book is an incredible idea and i'm amazed at the amount of time and effort that went into interviewing people and the research and development involved congratulations on being part of something that will make a difference for many years to come and maybe just finally a comment from nolan rollins who

020as some of you may know as the former director and chairman of the estera chamber of commerce he said the recent publication forging a better path has educated all of us on the past accomplishments and the eccl's activities and keeps us posted on the important things of what comes next so thank you for listening to me and i wish you well thank you hello i better lower this my name is amy cooganbacker i'm a sterile resident but i am the chief operating record keeper for our we call it our eccl 258 graduate program and we've partnered with there was an actual agreement between you all on the school board the village of estero and junior achievement of southwest florida and for those of you not familiar with what junior achievement is we are going in

021and we've picked in our four and five estero area schools we picked some programs because we couldn't teach them all in grades 2 5 8 11 and we were piloting just starting to pi pilot a financial literacy course for seniors in high school before the parents let them go on campus and say wow i've got all this money and i can get a free t-shirt and i can get a credit card and to understand some of those ramifications of signing legal agreements so i'm not going to focus too much on what i do more what we do we in the eccl you're going to hear the name jim shields again jim went to nick bedos one day and said you know we got to do something to help the schools out in the area because

022they're great schools and jim jim's the one that brought you and your achievement into it and some of you know the rest of it and so then it was up to jim to go out in the community and he knows the stereo because that's where he lives and to recruit all these volunteers to teach in all these classrooms now grade two doesn't sound like a lot but when you say we have pinewoods elementary and three oaks elementary in our area and each may have you know eight nine classes in each and we have a team teaching approach somebody's the leader and then we have them just bring a helper and my motto is just show up you don't have to do anything just pass out papers it gets people hooked and to understand what this

023financial literacy entrepreneurship and you know and picking your careers really is and the most interesting thing to me is going into a second grade class i mean second graders are babies and we hand them each their play money and we say okay you're the store keeper your building burned down who do you call well they say the firemen but there's no money going to the fire department how do we get money to them so we in that aspect we teach them about taxes and they honestly leave after that lesson understanding and we know because when it comes time we wear signs that say you know tax man when the tax man cometh they're hiding their little money play money bills under their desk and so they don't like paying taxes anymore okay anyway so what

024we did was we went in and we held meetings at the library or we went into some of our communities invited people to different locations and just told them about our program half the people left and said oh i'm too scared i don't want to do that we still put them on the list we kept after them and most of those in 80 was an underestimation we had over 120 people go into these classrooms and a lot of those people that were afraid to go in or apprehensive or didn't want to commit the time we ended up getting them in there as helpers and they're teaching now now kovid obviously threw a cog in our wheels we had two years under our belt just sneaked through the middle school and the elementary schools before kovitz

025shut everything down so we had two full years with these you know over a hundred people teaching in these schools and they were so disappointed when we weren't teaching anymore well can i teach virtually and the junior achievement curriculum was not set up to teach virtual i head up the three oaks middle school group and i tried to teach virtually and the connection is not there with the students so with that being said you all have any questions for me anybody i'll just say thank you all for what you do and thank you for the partnership we're forging with the east zone as well we love this program i mean we just love it and we're going back into the classroom tomorrow at the middle school we weren't able to scramble quick enough to get

026because we just got the go-ahead from junior achievement in the school board to go back in the classroom but at the middle school we have a very cooperative teacher there miss jen macleod and she's a joy to work with and she welcomes us to her classroom and so we're we're starting in again tomorrow and we're excited so thank you and we are taking care of the children i they're not getting this in their curriculums so we're happy to teach it to them so thank you thank you thank you chair it's 15 minutes yeah i was just going to say that i said one last thing we found that the ambassadors like certain grades i don't like second and fifth the lowest i'll go was eighth grade and i really like eleventh grade i taught twelfth

027i said it but it's funny how the ambassadors teachers which we gravitate to and it's just been a lot of fun so thanks for your time thanks for allowing us to be here and if you've got any questions on the book or need anything else a couple of you know how to get a hold of me thanks we really appreciate you being here next the next on our agenda i'm going to please welcome the lee county naacp if you will come up and use the lectern over here and i have miss jacqueline mcmiller and mr love this is mcmillar mcmillan you can go right here and do your presentation good evening good evening will mr love be joining or no he will not okay thank you he's over at the board of county commissioners so

028we have split up the fight here thank you lee county board of education and good evening honorable chairwoman and honorable school board leaders my name is jacqueline mcmiller and i'm the co-chair of the naacp redistricting committee executive board member of the naacp former student of the lee county school system and most importantly i'm a mother grandmother of children within the current school system while raising my kids as a single parent my focus was on raising my children keeping them safe and making a better life for us i didn't realize at that time the significance of redistricting and ensuring that the lines are drawn fairly and partially and equitably and that's the reason why i'm here how can this be accomplished through the school board at this time some may ask by admitting that the purpose

029and duties of the school board is vastly different than those of the board of county commissioners the voting district and the voting systems are different this is a single member district and the board of county commissioners is an at large district so that voting system is completely different so therefore we at the naacp and as parents we urge the board of this board of the lee county school system to not adopt the same maps as the county board of the board of county commissioners and instead draw your own the school board and the county board of commissioners use two different types of election methods and again that's single member district and at large this alters how voters select their preferred candidates of choice and how members interact with voters the county board of commissioners has

030repeatedly stated and said that their focus on their maps is not on individual districts however it's they're looking at their constituents and the needs of their constituents representing the county as a whole on october the 19th commissioner pendergrass stated we serve everyone and everyone gets treated equally the school board's five single member districts cannot follow this path these members must listen serve and advocate for the individual needs of the children and the parents that live within their districts the board of county commissioners focus is not on the school to prison pipeline the students with disabilities the lgbtq plus and gender non-conforming students and students of color who we all know are particularly vulnerable to the school-to-prison pipeline you are serving that purpose in 2019 at varsity lakes middle school they suspended over 200 students the

031majority of those students were students of color students within this district are more likely to receive a certificate of completion after 12 years rather than in high school diploma than anywhere else within this county more students of color who do not attend college are denied opportunities to learn a trade and other comprehensive schools in high schools it is your responsibility to juggle the understaffing of school counselors where most in the most recent data it indicates that we have schools with no counselors social workers and psychologists your focus is addressing the fact that there is an absence of equity adequate support for students to have safe learning environments service services to address unmet needs of trauma which is often the causal reason for bad behavior and we know this and addressing the fact that there should

032be clear roles for our police behavior management is left to law enforcement to the police leading to student leading students to be arrested for school fights i remember they were done in high school but we did not get arrested for it class eruption disruptions and other behaviors when studies have shown that a single arrest will increase the likelihood of further rest and drop out parents depend on you to focus on student support student to staff ratio for student councilors in 2017 and 18 indicates it was for school counselors it was 598 students to one and we're we're looking at facts here five hundred and eight ninety eight students to one when the industry standard is 250 to 1. the student ratio for school psychologists in lee county is 3631 to 1. when the industry recommendation

033is between 5 and 700 and the student to social worker ratio is 2009 to 1 when the industry recommendation is 250 to 1. lehigh and fort myers has the lowest graduation rate for high school and college this has been brought to the forefront during the pandemic where it has been documented that there are specific areas within the school district where there is major food and securities when compared to other districts within lee county during the pandemic when there was an in-home learning a higher rate of minority students fell behind than whites and let me just reiterate and remind you that child hunger does not discriminate trauma does not discriminate mental health does not discriminate unemployment does not discriminate however we do recognize that there is areas within this county that has a higher rate of

034need and deal with this on a day-to-day basis than other areas within lee county that's what we're here for that's what the lee county school board needs to identify and recognize the board of county commissioners represents the county as a whole or at large this magnificent board must represent the uniqueness of each and every individual district because you are a single member district the lee county naacp map submitted on october 15 was specifically for the commissioners and not for the school board and let me repeat that map that we submitted was specifically for the board of county commissioners not this entity if the board the school board adopts the same redistricting plan as accounting as the board of county commissioners it will ignore the unique needs and challenges facing our children and their parents in

035this lease county school system children of color and their corresponding communities of interest would continue to be split between districts two four and five academic and disciplinary outcomes are far worse for black and brown students in lee county than for their white counterparts and in fact the commissioners do not even consider that because it's not their job it is yours and we know by your history you recognize that the school board has an opportunity to draw their districts centering on racial equity and ensuring that youth in the lee county are treated fairly and given the opportunities they deserve to succeed in the school system how can there be equity when specific needs are not being met the school board can change course center racial equity and do better than the board of counter commissioner commissioners

036be the change that we need there's still time for the board to create an inclusive transparent and participatory progress and process to draw maps that will prioritize our children's future for and not for political gain lee county has a well-documented history of voters of color being unable to elect their candidates of choice and the school board it was not until 2018 that mem our member giddens was elected in district 5 and that was after the league county naacp's advocacy and involvement for single member district the board needs to continue this process it is the floor not the ceiling and one representative should not and cannot speak for the entire black and brown community families of color need to be able to hold the school district accountable and have their voices heard and know that the

037schools are improving to ensure that our youth and lee county are treated fairly and given the opportunities that they deserve to succeed in school and lehigh acres in fort myers 64 of the population is minorities primarily hispanics and blacks and two of the those are the two largest groups and according to the voting rights act when that is the case boundaries must be drawn the 1965 voting rights act indicates that when those that this is the situation those boundaries must be drawn in real time that represents that coalition of a minority majority district so what does this indicate we the people the parents myself most importantly the students they need fair and equitable representation on behalf of the naacp concerned parents and citizens we ask that the school board reject the board of county commissioners

038maps and draw your own to address the specific needs of the children that we as citizens place in your care they're in your hands we ask that we are provided the opportunity that the community and the public are providing an opportunity to have input on the development of those act of those maps we ask for full transparency this school board has represented lee county very well you've done a great job with what you've had to work with but we all know we have a long long way to go there's much improvement that must be made we're proud of the work that you've done thus far and using by using these antiquity these these antiquated maps that you pull from the board of county commissioners you have an authority and we're looking as parents that you

039use that authority that you utilize it and you work with the parents and the students and it's wonderful to see this student representative here because he has a voice and he wants to be heard i pose to you just imagine if you drew your own maps and you focus on the needs of those students by drawing your own maps because these are individual needs in different districts imagine the strides that you can make for the children and the families by identifying that identifying your own you are your own separate entity taking the bull by the horns and doing what must be done to be fair and equitable thank you for your time and consideration and i yield my the remainder of my time thank you very much thank you mr miller appreciate it thank you

040is when we have these presentations is it a question and answering well i think the time because it's 15 minutes actually i just would ask for the what she read if she could email it to us that through the chair okay thank you that's all i want miss mcmiller would you please email that to the board what you read thank you so much appreciate you okay the next item on the agenda is public comment mr bruno please address the item thank you 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 in the back of the

041room if you need a public comment card they are provided by our staff located in the hallway outside of the boardroom the rules concerning public comment are posted and will be made from the microphone in the back please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on school district issues personal attacks on individuals or abusive language are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing or display of temper are prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the

042microphone for board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers there will be one warning and we ask that you govern yourself accordingly we will take recesses as necessary if there is not decorum in the chambers please remember that it is unlawful in a second degree misdemeanor to knowingly disrupt or interfere with the school board meeting for board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 speakers 2 minutes if there are 30 in 1 minute if there are 31 speakers or more the maximum time allotted for public comment is one hour 60 speakers you will find a countdown on the big screens in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off we encourage you to address the board as a whole

043versus individual board members as they act as a collective board please state your name i will call you five speakers at a time and please follow the staff's direction when lining up madam chair we have 21 speakers today that will be two minutes per speaker okay thank you please make sure you have completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comment the card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information to staff for follow-up the cards are located with staff in the hallway or in here i'm not sure where they're at right now but we have them in addition if there is not decorum during this meeting i will call for a five-minute recess we will continue to resist this meeting as needed increasing five minutes each time

044members of the diocese will when a recess is called i ask that you leave the chambers of course it goes without saying that during the recess board members will not discuss any matters that is pending on the agenda or will come before this body to avoid any sunshine violations i will reiterate what mr pre bruno just said in that it is unlawful and second-degree misdemeanor to knowingly disrupt or interfere with the school board meeting we would appreciate it if you would state your name prior to making your comment is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the board but has not filled out a comments card please raise your hand see a nun mr pre bruno would you please sure thank you madam chair actually we have 19 speakers because two of them

045were our presenters today so it's actually three minutes per speaker will the following individuals please line up kathy horn rose mcbride keith olsen edward drast and don armstrong everybody ready sorry hi my name's kathy lauren i'm from estero i'm here tonight partly this i want to thank the board for always politely listening to what everyone has to say up here and for creating a space that is safe to do so and i'd like to thank the men and women around the room who are also here to help keep us safe i appreciate everybody's efforts i'm particularly here tonight to say that i really appreciate the efforts of the board in the community to reach out to people and to do what's best for children and in particular to thank my board member from district 3

046for all her hard work often unrecognized or unknown by the by the general public the many nights that she has spent away from family the many hours and hours she spends talking with people in the community particularly i'm impressed with her efforts in on behalf of the half penny sales tax which allowed lee county to be one of the primary school districts in the country because they had the funds to do computer work and more at-home learning than many other places and i'd like to say that i'm proud that she has done this in spite of often vicious campaigns against her integrity unfounded often in truth and pushed by people with their own agendas and hidden hidden issues and i want to say that i support my board member and i support all the board

047members and i want to go back to what was said earlier tonight ask not what you can do for your country people that come up here and speak i'd like to ask them that's not what you can do for your school board or for your lee county school district ask about what they can do for you ask what you can do for them because they do a lot of work on behalf of nearly 100 000 students and every bit of help they can have to pull together to do that is a good thing thank you and just a reminder speakers to please stay on the other side of the stanchions good evening school board members my name is rose mcbride i just wanted to express my appreciation and admiration of you folks because from where

048i'm standing more often than not it seems like a thankless job that you all do i'm glad you're willing to do it beginning with having to mount a full court press political campaign to get your positions and then getting such a measly salary for them and serving as much of the vocal communities whipping boy if you will for in order to allow them to vent their anger and frustration about a myriad of things i admire you all for what you do and i appreciate that you do it and you all i know do your jobs to the best of your ability you all perform as well as you can and you do it for very little recompense and much public scorn and criticism i think that you are to be held up as an example

049of people who are public servants and doing the best job they can under the circumstances so thank you all very much hang in there and hopefully the tides will turn and more of the community will come to appreciate what you all do thank you hi my name is keith olsen i wanted to be home tonight watching the election returns however after i read the drafted policy 1.111 i realized that i needed to be here to try to defend our dwindling rights to speak and express ourselves during school board meetings i your previous policies i thought were a bit stringent we're a bit tight we're a bit controlling over controlling the ones that are presented in 1.11 are in parts frankly egregious to the concept of freedom of speech and freedom of expression you start out

050under the policy saying the school board welcomes the public to share thoughts i must say that your welcome is becoming more and more disingenuous i'll start with point nine i we are told that the school board must be addressed through the chair so i'm addressing the whole school board through the chair second point is that hand gestures to signify approval or disapproval are prohibited you've already said we cannot clap we cannot even emit a small groan we have no vocal expression according to your rules at all and now we can't even wave that is absolutely ridiculous and completely inappropriate you also state that clapping creates an imminent threat to to disruption we just had clapping we were clapping to approve i don't think anything happened in terms of disruption and so again you are being

051extremely tight and rigid you also said that the nothing well i'll repeat it may not distribute flyers or other documents while on district property one of your presenters broke that rule i was talking with the folks from eccl before the meeting and one of them had the audacity to give me his car according to this policy if you pass it that will be against your regulations please reconsider you also stated that a limit to the previous stated concern is or limiting to only one stated concern signed on the card would be allowed that way you eliminate any spontaneous or comment that might come out of the interaction between you and the people thank you sir will the following speakers please line up crystal johnson denise nystrom ken robinson dr edward drast i think i should

052have coordinated with a previous speaker we are of the same mindset my question also involves policy board policy 1.111 i'm asking what are the purposes for all of these restrictive measures do we see a lot of terrorism in the audience tonight why continue to keep people standing outside until 10 minutes before the meeting you have a lot of older people in attendance the heat the humidity can affect them is this in their best interest and why all the law enforcement people one person commented that some meetings have more law enforcement than actual spectators do we really need that and do it does the district need the expense to pay these men and women over time for this service that they're providing this presence is a chilling and overpowering effect on public speech as is the

053other measures that you've put into effect with board policy 1.111 i still believe this should be an open forum for public speech if there are grievances they need to be aired sometimes they need to be aired with a harsh or angry tone that's not threatening to the board at least it shouldn't be i mean you are all adults you've all been in interactions with people before sometimes an angry person does this to try to get their point across when especially they feel they're not being heard by the school board that represents all the 95 000 students in this district so take that into account when you act on this new harsh restrictive board policy to limit public comment there are many other issues that this board needs to address which are pertinent to the operation

054of the district including funding for new schools monitoring the budget fiscal responsibility audits to make sure that all of the financing that occurs for construction in this district is done appropriately and with all full public knowledge and disclosure there are also board members that are under scrutiny and that needs to continue the governor still hasn't made a decision on the board's recommendation that was made at the last meeting to sanction one of the members which i can't mention because policy 1.111 won't allow me but that issue still remains front and center with the public and will continue to do so till a decision is made good afternoon for the record my name is don armstrong proud parent of two juniors that go to north fort myers high school let's talk about free speech losman versus

055city of rivera beach florida lost ensued and won for openly criticizing his public officials and calling them out by name this went all the way to the supreme court justice kennedy wrote the right to complain and criticize our government officials without fear and retaliation is one of the most precious liberties safeguarded by our bill of rights when you sit there and try to stop people from calling individuals out that's how we vote for you by name not only that my kids go to these meetings once in a while with me and when they approach one of you i expect them to call you by name mrs miss they know if they didn't they'd be in trouble but you're telling them to call them by district one district two how about this let's remind this board

056that when you're telling the individuals you cannot call you out by name why not we vote for you by name you talk to us by name well let's just go back to common sense which i don't think is around here that much anymore common sense the public owns this building you work for us we don't work for you we can call you by name we can suggest you do things and we'll try to work with you but you guys when i listened to the briefing meeting this afternoon i would have thought maybe you guys would have v8 moment going on right there you guys mentioned the public's given public comments have been a little out of hand lately about the fact if you notice the more you make stringent policies on the public the more

057the public seems to be upset with you realize that this is the public building it's called public education stop making so many stringent policies open it up have a free speech for the public and i guarantee you once you do that you'll realize the public will actually work with you a lot more than what they are right now because right now the only thing that we're going to call you by name is make sure we call you by name when we retire you good evening i'm crystal johnson community advocate and concerned parent i'm here tonight to support our school bus drivers students and parents i was told by drivers that they do not feel like district employees they aren't respected nor appreciated a driver's health and safety should be held in the highest regard since

058they are whom we trust to trans transport our children to and from schools safely i read an article over the weekend on social media where in seattle they have suspended 142 bus routes due to a driver shortage as a parent this was very alarming to me leaving me wondering if this is our fate here in lee county if our drivers needs aren't met we can't afford to lose our drivers treat them better thank you well the following individuals please line up ali lock christy divigelli caitlyn k robert roper jan m let's talk facts here tonight the building of the new k-8 school in estero needs to be stopped a student population growth study needs to be presented because a lot of residents believe that building needs to occur in eastleigh and lehigh you see a

059video dated march 4th 2020 the superintendent now who was then the chief of operations stated that the student growth rate was in estero not in east leed why did the estero plans continue then because as district 3 board member stated earlier today on a video she gave five speeches a day to get that half penny sales tax passed has it gone down so far well there was a 70 acre parcel of land on three oaks parkway in estero purchased in 2003 that in 2020 was deemed unbuildable so the district purchased an additional 10 acres of land next to the estero high school and had planners and surveyors come out and look at that land to date approximately 20 million dollars has been spent so far while board member five has asked numerous times for poop

060for proof of population growth i'm sorry district sex i think i did that before for population growth and has not been given the information eastleigh students are 50 black and 25 hispanic estero is predominantly white we consider this a racial issue so together with the president of the u s florida chamber of commerce mario juarez we sent a letter to the office of civil rights and we are requesting an investigation into school board member district three mr superintendent you were not the superintendent then this is not falling on you i am urging you however to do what is necessary to protect yourself but to bring transparency to the district the facts are the facts and the evidence abounds on a side note from time to time we have seen contractors awarded bids and then they're

061pulled from the agenda and then they reappear six months later and another contractor with the same qualifications and sometimes at a higher cost is awarded the contract why procurement can be a huge issue when it comes to fraud and misappropriation of funds i would just like to know that the checks and balances are in order in this district and i'll be looking into that too good evening ladies and gentlemen the lee county school board my name is ken robinson i'm the owner of country cooling and heating thank you for allowing me to speak i know you all have one of the toughest jobs protecting and educating our youth which is one of the most important things we can do as adults and parents in my opinion i was born and raised in lee county as

062well as my parents and grandparents we all attended lee county public schools i graduated from riverdale high school in 1994 and currently have a son that's there now i love this town and community forever will i'm here tonight not to fight or argue with any of the decisions made by the district but voice my opinion on the current rejection notice that i received on october 21st for itn number 217 404 ja after i received an intent to award on september 15th i feel that it puts my company staff and families an extremely unfair advantage now that the pricing has been publicly posted online for everyone to see we have been doing business with the school district for 10 plus years and i've never experienced this issue in the past and i hope me standing up

063here tonight doesn't have doesn't leave a bad image or taste in anyone's mind or mouth we love working with the school district staff and look forward to being able to continue to do so feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns about this issue thank you very much for your time hi i'm caitlin and i go to north fort myers high school i'm a sophomore i have come here to say to address the needs of not only me but also my peers and every student of the lee county school district i believe that every student deserves a quality education and part of that is providing healthy lunches that are at the very least complies with the usda my healthy plate requirements lee county school district has been failing in this area the meals

064that i have received this school year i would not feed my dog and to be honest i would not he would not even eat them some of the meals that we have received at lunch include bags of molded fruit steak that looks like chicken soup there has been beef that was and smelled like cat food as well i could continue but i only have two minutes all the choice is gone the only choice we are given is what line we can choose to go into for lunch most days we don't eat but every day we are left hungry after lunch and i doubt it's just us high schoolers i remember when i was in middle school and we had fresh fruits and vegetables every day and the lunch ladies made us great food i asked

065my mom where did the food go and she told me to ask you she said it was partially your fault is that true and most importantly what are you going to do for me and every other student in the lee county school district we need to make sure that we receive quality food and are able to have a great education as a sophomore in high school i should be able to focus more importantly on my academics but right now i'm fighting for us to be able to be fed proper nutrients and i just hope that you all like help fix this because it's really not right thank you christine division i'd like to start by asking someone to please put time clocks back in transportation there's no reason why they don't they shouldn't have those

066next i'm going to go to j1 i'd like to know what's being done with the items on the attached list i already sent an email to the attorney and i did cc the superintendent so the fact that it got ceced again to the superintendent and i still didn't get a response it's kind of annoying but this is the second several hundred thousand dollar list of write-offs in the last two months is the district destroying these items are they being donated are they being thrown away if the district is destroying these items i'd like to know can i take a look at them before they're destroyed so i can actually see is there video that they're actually being destroyed there's hundreds of thousands of dollars of outdated software smart boards rosetta stone i don't know how

067rosetta stone is outdated but that was like a three thousand dollar a line item on that speaking of line items j3 this is not an itemized budget for example object code 55 1000 supplies over 51 million dollars budgeted for supplies 3 million spent so far this year where was that spent 22 million spent or budgeted for food 6 million spent so far this year hmm find that hard to believe considering what my daughter just said about her school lunch i have pictures for all you board members too in case you don't believe me m7 i want to remind the board and the public of january 17 2019 when this very same board along with dotage refused to rescind a contract with fresh air solutions this vendor was flagged by the florida auditor general and was

068also a campaign manager for guess which board member two board members fought to have this contract re-bid and were specifically told no that it could not be done yet here we are tonight we're sending or talking about rescinding a contract for exhaust fans and extending it for 180 days only to send it out to bid again why is it that we're opening up our district to unnecessary liability why is it that one vendor is treated differently than another where is the equity in that i will finish with this last week i requested from dr spiro and his team a list and a process and a list of every classroom library and the books contained within it that is not a hard request it is one email that is sent out to everyone and the principals

069have to send it out to their teachers give me a list of your books it's real easy i would like a list of those books please and thank you hi my name is robert roper also known as ward cleaver i'd like to talk about a response to a four-year request of the some of the objectionable materials in the lee county school media centers and library start with the youngest this is a board book meaning that it's designed to be handled by little kids it's made out of cardboard the title is and tango makes three it's about two male penguins that hatch an egg a little girl penguin this board is rated among the best books for lgbtq families and is provided to many school libraries by the gay lesbian straight education network this book directly

070opposes teaching of many parents of the faith community worm loves worm it's for very very young audiences ages four to eight it normalizes the same sex attraction same-sex marriage and it's to an inappropriate age group this book was designed by the writer to appeal to four to eight-year-olds in the book it says which one will be the bride which one will be the groom we both can it's the answer then the cricket points out that's not how it's always been done been done the warm answers then we'll just do it we'll we'll just change how it's done it's perfectly normal there's nothing perfectly normal about this book it's full of cartoon graphics of naked boys and girls and sex acts it's designed for 10 year olds it's found in one of your libraries you school

071board members that i met with you in person i held this book up in front of you and you all said no way would that be in a lee county public school library not going to happen i can't even show you or read to you those things in this book it's you would shut me down you would say it's inappropriate comment yet it's in our library and it's designed for 10 year olds when i showed you this book i asked for a list of books and each one of you assured me it was easy i could do it no problem at all the problem was it was going to cost me 3 500 paid to the school board it took a an attorney group from california to get this book list when you do introduce

072an idea that is not age appropriate it is not in education it is indoctrination when you introduce a concept that goes against societal norms or parental standards it is activism when you begin to introduce these concepts at such an early age the result is gender confusion before the board comments and accuses us of wanting to ban books that is not what we're asking we're simply asking you to protect our children we protect our children at school from illegal drugs alcohol firearms why not protect them from this harmful material we need to value the innocence of our children and allow them to preserve their childhood innocence will the following individuals please line up lara chris fonte marsha ellis mary beth ocean jacqueline perez melissa hatter latoya weaver good evening ali lock i'd like to ask what

073are we doing right now to keep teachers and bus drivers i checked the past eight board meetings and since july 27th 251 teachers have resigned 158 just in school began and right now we have 197 open instructional positions in the district so it's pretty evident that we have a teacher retention issue and i'd like to bring that to life why are teachers leaving in droves are we questioning that what are you doing to combat that has anyone wondered if the lack of raises for veteran teachers or bus drivers have anything to do with it have you conducted exit interviews with the teachers or bus drivers or support staff that are leaving to ask them why they are leaving i wonder if those teachers that have resigned bus drivers as well feel that talc and spout

074don't actually represent them the way that they claim to teachers and bus drivers choose to do their jobs every single day and i hear that when i make any sort of statement about my job or about needing a raise not being paid enough people always say well you chose to do that job that's right because i love kids just like our bus drivers do just like our support staff do but because we love our students and we show up to work every day because we love them not because of the money that we make we kind of get taken advantage of and put on the back burner so i think it's only fair for you guys to help us out please give our teachers our support staff our bus drivers raises i ask you to

075fight for us right now because me alone our bus drivers here it doesn't seem to be working and we need your help thank you hi my name is jan i want to take a minute and thank everyone involved in teaching and taking care of our students i'll start with the board i know you guys have a job that's not easy sometimes i know that you've been through a lot we've all been through a lot with covid but i'm going to say it i know that you received threats and i'll say it publicly and i'm sorry about that and i want to thank you for what you do i want to thank our teachers i want to thank the support staff and i want to thank the bus drivers they all take care of our kids

076and that's really important i want to thank the board for bringing in students today i thought that was the best thing for bringing students to bring us music for bringing a student representative and the student who spoke about her lunches i thought that was very important if we're serving students we need to listen to students there's always solutions and i think that should be the goal and was complaining does nothing it's not what we teach our kids and it's not what we teach our students i've done this before but i want to thank you again for the strong anti-bullying policy that we have in lee county schools and it's because believe it or not of a student an honors student from cape coral that we lost years ago by the name of jeffrey johnston and

077because of his mother who rose up because jeffrey johnston took his own life because he was tired of being called fat and ugly and because of that the state of florida passed a law that prohibits bullying in schools specifically bans two things harassment and intimidation therefore we as adults can abide by these same rules and prevent ourselves from harassing other adults and intimidating other adults we can't expect the same out of ourselves then something's wrong i want to speak in support of jacqueline mcmiller she made some really great well-researched thoughtful comments and pleas for our students our children our families of color and for our lgbtq students also and families i want to thank just again the whole staff but just a quick reminder that when we face problems being solution oriented is being an

078advocate nobody needs me to state the problem more eloquently you know be the solution be part of the solution suggest the solution and that's what we teach our kids we should be doing what we teach our kids thank you hello everyone i don't have a written speech first of all good evening to everyone i'm coming here today as a mother i've been dealing with the school board since 2005 when i relocated from dade county i've never had an issue ma'am could you just state your name please respond thank you yeah i raised my son who graduated in 2016 from mariner he went to ucf and graduated my daughter graduated in 2019 when i had a baker went to ucf as well where she's still there so this is my first time here at a board

079meeting and we've never had any issues where i felt like i had to come before the board i currently have a child a 13 year old is an 8th grader at golf middle and we are fighting an internal family fight right now because she doesn't want to go to school anymore and the reason for that is because she has been subjected to a lot of racial slurs first it was her hair i'm from haiti her father's from nigeria so her hair is very coarse she wears an afro and for some people they don't understand the beauty or the value of it and they make fun of that of course we talked to her and explained to her you know it's just jealousy your hair can go down it can go up we can do braids

080bears can't we play with it so she doesn't feel what's really happening however about two weeks ago she was called blackie by one of her student friends dirt neck and the list goes on so i took it upon myself to go to the school i spoke to the assistant principal she agreed that this childhood was an issue and has done it to other children and they needed to be addressed not sure how they addressed it but the child is still there i reached out to mr bradley i reached out to the principal only then did i make enough noise they say okay we need to look into this could be bullying and harassment and whatnot so again since being here in 2005 i have never had an issue where i felt that i had to

081come before the board but i'm coming now because i feel that it's an issue that needs to be addressed because when your child says she doesn't want to go to school it becomes my problem okay we have unfortunately i have heard i haven't been here but i have heard that there are anybody that people here that can make derogatory comments towards certain ethnicities so it has trickled down to administrators obviously who are not taking it seriously enough and unfortunately down to even the students i mean we raise our daughter she doesn't know the difference between black and white but now she's going to school because she's this she's that she's black she's not this is 2021 and i'm appalled that i'm even having to take time for my schedule to come here and have this

082conversation where i'm from i'm from haiti again we don't know black and white and i'm ashamed that i moved from the economy to be here only to not be victimized by what's happening here hello my name is mary beth ocean i'm a resident of estero community good evening lee county school board members and mr savage i have challenged the location of the new school on three oaks since october 2020. why here i asked why not williams road after investing over 4 million on the land parcels it was decided that after the parkland shootings in 2017 the williams site would not allow for the kind of security needed of course my district 3 representative failed to give me an exact reason she just sent me a 75-page document prepared by the florida department of education meanwhile

083between april and may 2020 lee's school district and the estero village made a unilateral decision without proper procedure to place the future new school on three oaks there was no action booked by the school board no notice to the public no community outreach no nothing the school district failed to put a banner on the property to give notice to the surrounding communities and no one knew the taxpayers did not know let's remember the drawbacks of a school on three oaks a single entry exit school this is so wrong for many reasons the proposition of a school 1900 feet from one of the busiest intersections in estero will make this a traffic nightmare with no future solution this is a wetland site it is a floodplain issue from surrounding communities in comprehensive plants throughout the country

084no schools or churches are to be built on wetlands as growth continues we need to be very careful what we do on existing wetlands lest we forget the collapse of southside towers which was built on wetlands the site would be very dangerous for children to walk or bike to school they would have to navigate across two of the busiest intersections in estero again the student population numbers used to validate the construction of a new school which were presented to the florida department of ed why would we need a school here on three oaks when all the growth is occurring off of corkscrew further east of 175 and lehigh that's when i discovered that lee county schools has approximately 1900 students in portables while the rest of lee county has only a fraction where is this

085going is this discriminatory decisions by the board i'm hoping that you members here will do the right thing and stop the school from being built there good evening board i'd like to speak about the complaint that was placed against the school district for this trip the quadruple a school and i'm going to plead with you tonight for one of you to be brave enough to make a motion to stop this construction immediately one of you has to have the courage to come forward and put and protect the most vulnerable children that we have in district 5 that are being continuously ignored i'm going to read you some numbers that i was given last week from the district of the capacity in district 3. in bonita elementary the capacity is 604 it is occupied presently by

086547. in pine woods the capacity is 1142 you have 1 107 students there in rhema you have eight capacity for 855 you have 827 and i can go on spring creek you have and it's occupied by 662. three oaks 1041 capacity you have 1014. there are no numbers in district 3 that prove you have 117 percent population those are all exaggerated and fabricated numbers for whatever reasons you did it's wrong one of you has to have the courage tonight to stop this madness this is hurting children we have children in lehi who don't even have deaths the they have the highest rate of dropouts they have the highest rate of lowest achievement rates they have the highest rate of violence of over due to overcrowding you imagine you put children and you squeeze them in

087there like sardines and they're going to have trouble you cannot treat children like this and all children deserve to be treated equally i am pleading with you to have some sensibility to have some kindness to have some fairness and some equity and to stop this construction please i'm going to speak quickly on the contract that's being pulled i think that you need to also review that do not take a vote on that contract that contract that was spoken about before in 2019 of fresh air solutions led to ethics complaints against a board member false ethic complaints i want to remind you all that you need to be fair and equitable to all your vendors and what is being done to country cooling is totally discriminatory thank you hello even though the board chair confirmed receipt

088of the following i've not been contacted regarding my appeal of the hr and beyond investigation for which i have documentation proving the findings inaccurate two lighthouse complaints from may or to complaints of from october 5th nor the complaint of my 13 public records requests that are being denied without statutory exemption i mentioned that a couple weeks ago still haven't heard from you dr savage i look forward to hearing from you as a follow-up from our meeting back in july however tonight i will focus on the illegal issues with the public comment policy proposal attorney bruno stated she removed the phrase personal attack to conform with case law yet merely substituted it with like language lines 17 and 120 public comment subjects are not limited to agenda items as the public is permitted to discuss any

089school district business hence your line seven lines twenty through twenty three open public comment should not be moved until after german this is obviously a blatant attempt to reduce the amount of public comments and it's obvious to everyone that's all it is line 129 130. this is not the spirit of the law that provides us the opportunity to speak on any district matters by reducing the time and number for people on non-agenda items lines 138 179 and 203 all implement viewpoint restrictions the personal opinion of relevance respect and appropriateness by the board chair is a violation to the public's first amendment rights four speakers before me she was allowed to name somebody by name you didn't stop her line 154 in order for the board to restrict comments from group members the board must be

090able to provide official proof of the official group and the roster they provided you with of their members this is america our right for our to express ourselves is protected line 175 please state the law preventing peaceful public protests with signage and flyers on government property 201 the public's legally permitted to address any elected public official and may not have that right limited to the board chair line 220 the board or sergeant of arms have legal authority to deny the public's legal right to speak on board matters lines 2 29 and 231 it is not illegal to invoke our constitutional rights the law provides for a maximum 10-year prison term for denying the public of their constitutional rights if you can't do it i suggest everybody run for school board against these people because they

091don't deserve to be here these implemented a new policy we can't even address very much hello my name is marcia ellis and i came to the school board meeting tonight and felt like my spirit had been lifted because i could see some of those things that are traditional in our community returning things like the presentation of the choir student representatives and it just felt like the temperature of the room had had come down a few degrees and i think that's great what i want to do is i want to come back to that message of unity of when i first came to a board meeting a couple of months ago and i was shocked because people seemed so far apart that they didn't want to work together for the benefit of the kids in this

092community and today we had the presentation from the eccl that talked about the efforts that the community has put together to educate the kids about an important topic financial literacy we have heard from people who previously had opposing messages speak about a common issue which is our teacher retention the retention of our bus drivers and showing respect for the education sector as a community we can do a lot to create a positive narrative and it's really up to us we can take a hold we can seize the moment and we can start to do for our community personally i'm trying to organize a food truck for our bus drivers on a community level because i think it's important that they know that we appreciate them hey you brought those kids to me at varsity lakes

093for 10 years and i want to give back i appreciate you and i want to model for the rest of the community what can happen whenever you put yourself out there and i encourage anyone who is concerned about retention of bus drivers is concerned about retention of teachers to step on out there put yourself out there let's work together as a community let's put down our elbows and let's work together to get something done and show the kind of people that we are this is lee county florida our home we love our educators everybody from daycare to adult ed we are there we are one sector regardless of whether we're mopping the floors we're keeping people safe in the schools we're driving a bus we're educating kids we are one sector and we're going to

094stand together in order to lift this community up out of a tragic troubling time and i welcome a coalition with anyone to get that done thank you will the following individual please line up rebecca carey's hi my name is latoya weaver i come as a bus driver and as oh i can go to home i'm sorry as a bus strava and as a parent as a bus straw i've been in the district almost now 23 years and i'm tired i'm tired of being overworked underpaid i'm tired i never say anything i sat in the meeting last week i stood out because i was the only driver that sat up in the front so y'all that did come y'all seeing me i saw in the front because i wanted to hear because y'all are my peers

095but i came i was one of those jobs that came to work last monday and what i seen was a whole bunch of kids that were left behind not because the drivers was taking a stand it was because i felt like a lot of my co-workers are tired we get up 3 30 in the morning we have no breaks we make breaks put it that way we we make a break this district don't care about our department and since we spoke out to y'all it's like our supervisors have turned their back on us everybody got an attitude because we voiced our opinion we didn't have a voice we always stayed quiet not that we don't say something now our superiors they have a problem with it why why do everybody have a problem with it

096i know none of y'all don't want to go to work and get underpaid from the job that y'all perform and that's us that's our department i see that i had between i worked in the east zone and i seen 19 superiors meaning supervisor director dispatch 19 people out of the 19 it was four of the 19 people that was present at work last monday hold the cdl so it was 19 routes that could have been covered had they had a cdl so i don't understand why we have we have peers over us and they can't even do our job but yeah they tell us what to do they try to tell us how we ought to be on the bus how we supposed to be as a driver y'all need to just go back and

097y'all need to reevaluate a lot of stuff that's going on in our department and really really look into transportation not just sweep us on the road and send an email out because i see all in the news i read it said we was having another meeting it wasn't it wasn't another meeting not with the driver so who did you have a meeting with so i'm just trying to figure out what is going on and is we getting the raise or not because they saying ain't no money so if they no money i know this driver right here will be gone as december if i don't get nothing i'm not working for free no more good evening my name is rebecca careys and i'm a student of the lee county school district here to speak on

098behalf of my peers educators and transporters i've been a student of this county for the past six years and i have to say it has been the most unpleasant experience of my life i have faced bullying for my race my gender and surprisingly my accent in the past six years my mental health has reached a low that no teenager should ever face i am here tonight asking that our teachers and drivers are receiving the respect they deserve when they can't do their jobs properly my peers and i can't learn in the past year i was supposed to be learning chemistry and i did not retain a single thing due to the fact that my educator had given up and was no longer giving his all our transporters are waking up at unspeakable hours and coming

099home later than acceptable giving them no free time to spend with their families the people at school who are supposed to care about us no longer do we have guidance counselors who do not take us seriously and teachers who have given up due to you the board failing to support them i ask that the people who hold this community together are able to get the help that they deserve so that i can receive a proper education safe prop transportation and healthy meals madam chair that concludes public comment there's just one speaker that i think that we will have to the administration has to take a look at which would be mr robinson so i would caution in terms of any comments about mr robinson until there's a little bit more clarity well first of all

100i would like to thank everybody who have you know have spoken this evening our students i really appreciate the students who speak and caitlin thank you for sharing that about the food and we have a representative from your school right kristen we're going to take that back we're going to look at the food because you have your represent representative here so we can make that happen also rebecca thank you really appreciate students who come out and speak i know it's difficult and i appreciate your time our bus drivers and teachers i just have to say we i'm gonna speak for me i appreciate you to the end and i know you all came out to that meeting dr savage was there he heard what you all said he had staff there that really listened to

101what you said and i know that i don't know dr savage if you want to speak on that for a minute because i really for them to stand here and believe that they have no voice and there now there's an attitude i have a problem with that and that cannot be because we want to hear what they have to say so i need you to maybe yeah i'm having a comment on that yeah absolutely we're very happy to to hear the feedback i think it's very important that the bus drivers were heard they really filled up lehigh senior auditorium there were hundreds of drivers there it was it was powerful to hear and what it really kind of resonated was that there's a lot of work to be done i can't speak to why supervisors

102would have given a cold shoulder but that's not acceptable clearly we all would would agree that our drivers come first there that's that's what that transportation apparatus is there they're the bedrock of that successful operation so we care tremendously obviously we're not going to talk about compensation because we're in bargaining right now that's something that is being bargained so i can't get into any specifics about compensation but certainly we value all of our employees tremendously so as it pertains to teachers i think we can all acknowledge teachers have been through quite a bit this year as have all of our staff members we're not just short and teachers we're short in support staff that's that's all manner of positions in our schools the conditions have been very very difficult coming through the delta pandemic and

103then just looking around our entire community there's a lot of staffing challenges out there not just in the school district but really in retail in the hospitality industry and many others so this is not something that we are unique in facing but we have an obligation to get to a better solution not just in compensation but also in the general working conditions so we hear the frustration of employees some of whom came here today and many who did not that is a huge priority for us and we continue to work on that piece hopefully for those who tune into the bargaining they can hear about some of those issues that are talked about those meetings are recorded so people can listen to what the various sides are kind of bringing as priorities that's an ongoing

104process so that doesn't it's more than just compensation they talk about a lot of the other issues that are priorities as we go through that process as well thank you and miss lock thank you for always bringing and speaking on the teachers and we do actually because i had asked that question regarding exit interviews and i was informed that yes because to me that's something that we really need to be doing so that way we can assess the situation and that is something that does take place as far as the policy 1.111 that was spoken about this afternoon at the briefing that is has not been implemented that's going to be coming back for a further discussion so i just want to make sure that everybody does understand that is we will be having more

105discussion over that and again i just really appreciate all of you sharing with us the next approval of the consent action items next is the approval of the action items in the agenda under consent the documentation for action items listed under consent is made available to the board members seven business days prior to the board meeting we are expected to review all the materials and we have the opportunity to speak with the superintendent with any questions we may have regarding the recommendations some of these items have also been briefed or workshopped with the board in advance of appearing on the action items agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business table items portion of the agenda miss giavanelli okay i think i'm i'm i have one

106i'm gonna i'm thinking and i sent an email just really quick a few minutes ago it's m9 to reject the itn number n217 404 ja exhaust fans repairing replacement and i'm just pulling that item okay and then miss giovanelli i'm i'm just going to say this is for everyone when we receive an email when we're at a board meeting when our concentration should be on what is taking place here hopefully none of us are on our emails so i'm not sure who did receive it or who did not receive that but i think that's something that we need to just have a little bit thoughtfulness there so that way we could all be on understand what each other is pulling miss fisher do you have any items i have no pulls this evening miss patricka

107no thank you miss kittens i have j3 it's a standing pole 3j3 yes ma'am thank you miss vaughn i was actually also going to pull m9 thank you miss fawn miss morgan i have no pulls okay and i have none is there a motion to approve the agenda action item with the exception of the pulled items n9 and j3 i move that we accept the agenda with the exception of is it nine n nine n nine and j three m m like i'm so sorry m and j three thank you miss kittens in a second please bye second thank you miss givenelli and can you please record your vote stop this is seven zero thank you seven zero emotion carries okay and excuse me one second please are you good to stay for a little

108bit longer okay i had to consult with my friend here so moving along we have two pulled items to address dr savage will you please read your recommendation for pulled item m9 yes madam chair item m9 approval to reject all proposals for itn number n217 for exhaust fans repair and replacement thank you okay is there a motion to adopt dr savage's recommendation i'll move to adopt dr savage's recommendation thank you miss fisher they may have a second i'll second morgan thank you miss morgan okay so item has been moved by miss fisher and seconded by miss morgan and now we're in discussion and mr giovanelli please so i believe we had a guest speaker tonight a public speaker tonight regarding this item i would just like to see this tabled until we get more information

109exactly what transpired i have to respect someone that would come here and bring it to our attention and i read through it and i kind of understand it and so i would just like to see this tabled until we have a little more information and that's where i'm at okay thank you thank you miss vaughn yeah and i too would like more information but i do want to also go over the public content here the idea that for many of our proposals that we get not very many responses that's not something new there was one of the speakers referred to something from a couple years ago and i believe that what the speaker was referring to is something that i was involved in early on in my time on the board and i remember at

110that time i was wondering well you know this is a really big county and why is it that for these important contracts why aren't our businesses applying for these i've come to understand it quite a bit better or i would be really slow if i hadn't but and i and i realized you know there are a lot of criteria that the different vendors need to meet the interesting thing with this and this is why it just came to my head today or as during this meeting is that we had the speaker who is the speaker who just had his let's see what number was that it was m eight nine seven sorry seven so this person's company has this contract right now and had approval we just gave approval for that to be extended for

111180 days this goes on in the public content to say that due to the low number of responsive proposals the district received for this itn it's recommended that all proposals be rejected and a new solicitation be issued and i just don't get that so because there were few people but there's somebody who's good enough to have served in this contract now and to be extended for half of a year we're just going to reject all the proposals and do a new solicitation frankly that doesn't make sense to me i know i should have asked for this yesterday frankly wow i was homesick and so it really didn't click with me to be honest until this the speakers the two speakers tonight that brought it up so this is why it's coming right now so i

112don't know if it's appropriate for or if dr savage has anything that he can say on why would all proposals be rejected i think it's going to speak yeah it's fine because there are only two i'm happy to pull the item that's what what i think would be the best recommendation right now is to pull the item and ensure that any appropriate backup information could be answered typically as you know procedurally we do go through this at the agenda review phase but whenever there's concerns about a particular item the first thing i look is are there any significant negative implications of pulling the item so that we can have a proper level of information and backup information provided so i've checked and there's no issue with us pulling this item and then we'll we'll provide

113information and that will will go from there well and i thank you for that and i would be happy for that and i apologize for not doing it yesterday i have my that's my only excuse that i was kind of out of it in listening in to the board meeting but quite frankly sometimes it happens as as i said that we have some speakers that shine a light on something and so you know between that and mrs giovannelli pulling it that's why i thought i really can't in good conscience support this one so i appreciate that you would table this thank you he's pulling and he's not table in it and then so miss fisher would need to take back her motion or just it's it's fine there's no more okay so if you want

114to just officially just withdraw the money i withdraw my i mean my table thank you same thank you yeah okay and so we have dr savage please read your recommendation for pooled item j three yes ma'am item j3 a recommended action approval of the monthly budget report for the period ending september 30th 2021. okay do i have is there a motion to adopt dr savage's recommendation miss morgan i move we approve dr savage's recommendation for the monthly budget report for the period ending september 30 2021. thank you second now i'll second it okay this one so okay the item has been moved by miss morgan and seconded by mrs fisher is there any discussion and misskins okay the reason i said a standing pole i have said for the last i think year and a

115half that i would not vote on anything that had to do with south k8 quadruple a i have stated my reasons previously i do not feel that it's necessary and i understand this is a budget of things that happened but it is it's it's it's just a process for me i will not vote for anything that has that in there i am very concerned that we move forward so quickly on things and before you know it there's a school or you know we're too far along in the process i'm still very concerned that it started out at 72 million and is now at 93 and i understand that we still haven't received the 9 million in in steel that we purchased and when we do then that will be added to it as well it's

116just a concern for me i've stated this before so i will not vote on anything that has it in there no offense to any of the other items in there but i just on principle cannot do that thank you is there any other discussion mr evanelli i have very have a lot of concern over the k-8 school as well and i will be supporting miss gittins and not be supporting the this tonight and it only has to do with that item as well i have shared my concerns recently and i will i'm gonna i'm gonna continue just do what miss getting said about this school until i get more information on it and the numbers are accurate thank you is there any other discussion no other discussion okay please record we're gonna go ahead and

117take a hand vote then miss morgan i miss vaughn i miss kittens nay miss patricka aye there's giannelli nay miss fisher hi and jordan i motion carries five to two dr savage please present your recommendation for this evening's public hearing item yes madam chair in q1 approval of the district educational facilities plan for fiscal years 2022 through 2041. each district school board shall prepare a tentative district educational facilities plan that includes long-range planning for facilities needs over a five-year 10-year and 20-year periods the plan must be developed in coordination with the general purpose local governments and be consistent with the local government comprehensive plans the effective date of the district educational facilities plan shall be november 3rd 2021. thank you we will now recess the regular school board meeting and open the public hearing as

118indicated the public hearing this evening is to consider approval of the district educational facility plan for the fiscal years 2022 through 2041 each district school board shall prepare a tentative district educational facility plan that includes long-range planning for facilities needed needs over 5 years 10 years and 20 years periods the plan must be developed in coordination with the general purpose local governments and because consistent with the local government comprehension plans the effective date of the district educational facility plan shall be november 3rd 2021 at this time the public will be invited to speak on this one item the time allowed for comment is three minutes is there anyone it does doesn't matter if it's the right or left is there anyone in the room that would like to address the board on this particular item

119if so please go to the lectern podium and it's regarding the approval of the district educational facility plan chair jordan if i'm off base in any way please just let me know because i'm not 100 familiar with that but it seems like this fits in okay i can't imagine that anybody that's in this room that encountered another individual be it somebody because they were disabled or due to an ethnic origin saw something occurring to them and wouldn't step in to assess none of us i think we would all go to bat for everybody it wouldn't matter their sex their race their disability yet all we've been asking for is information to prove that we're building in the right area and we haven't gotten it so why have we already spent upwards of 20 million dollars

120and then continue to move along with it when we know that this is impacting children i am imploring you this is just not okay i took a ride one day with my husband out through east lee and lehi just to go see the facilities i couldn't believe what i saw varsity middle looks like a prison so if it was somebody that you were encountering in the street they fell in front of traffic would you not pick them up because of their sex or their race or their disability yet we're moving forward with this plan as a fade to complete why where is the data please where's the data thank you is there anyone else that would like to speak on the approval of the district educational facility plan i'm going to ask it one more

121time is there anyone else that would care to speak on the approval of the district educational facility plan cnn i will now close this public hearing and reconvene the regular school board meeting of november 2nd 2021 dr savage please reinstate restate your recommendation for this evening's public hearing items yes madam chair q1 district educational facilities plan for the fiscal years 2022 through 2041 thank you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved the district educational facility plan for the fiscal year 2022 through 2041 each district should school board shall prepare a tentative district educational facility plan that includes long-range planning for facilities needs over 5-year 10-year and 20-year periods the plan must be developed in coordination with the general purpose local governments and be consistent with the local government comprehension plans the effective date

122of the district educational facility plan shall be november 3rd 2021. board members is there a motion to approve anybody miss morgan i move we approve the district educational facilities plan for the fiscal years 2022 through 2041. thank you in a second please i'll second that thank you miss fisher is there any discussion miss morgan yeah i would just like to point out to the listening public that there are i believe 39 pages of detail about this particular plan and i think that anybody who's interested in what we intend to do long term and how it relates to our growth etc take a look at that the very detailed plans thank you thank you miss morgan mr ms kittens i just want to say first of all thank you to those that prepared this dr desmore

123and her team i and dr savage under your direction i appreciate the number of times that i see east zone on here as a project i want you to know i do appreciate that i think that i am i don't know how to put it i guess shell shocked in some way over the last three years to get to this point where we do have more happening in the east zone but again we still haven't stopped the one expenditure that i'm really concerned about and i know that there will be enough votes to go ahead and pass this i just i can't of good conscience pass anything that says quadrupley anywhere on it i feel it's a it's a misuse of taxpayer money it's just my personal opinion i don't have the information to tell

124me that it's not so i again it's i appreciate the moving up and adding more in the east zone but i can't help but think how many times projects have been and no offense to the current administration but their projects have been on the five-year plan and moved to the 10-year plan and i just worry about priorities and resources i know that it will go through and we will be you know building schools i just ask that you listen and understand and actually i long for the day that other board members see what i see and understand why it means so much to me it's not east zone it's not lehigh it's not district five it's children in general and i feel that we as a board anytime we you know shortchange any child that

125it's all of our responsibility tell that's all i have to say thank you miss kittens is there any other discussion oh i'm so sorry mr patrick you did have your hand up i apologize so there there's been a quite the outcry for information i'd like the board to recall that on may 26 2020 we received a 24-page memo from staff regarding capacity over capacity issues in south south south zone schools it also presented the board with several options with regard to building a school there the other thing i'll point out to you is something that came in front of us today which is exhibit a associated with the referendum the half penny sales tax referendum where we promised the taxpayers in voting for this referendum an elementary school in the east zone a middle school

126in east zone a high school in the east zone an elementary and middle school in the south zone the elementary school the middle school and the high school have all been built in the east zone and the southstone schools have not yet been built finally the state has approved this school the state requires us to prove the need before they will approve the school the state has approved this school which means that we have demonstrated through the use of factual data and information that the school is necessary because we are over capacity i will be supporting this item those are my comments thank you thank you yeah oh mr sharon i have miss fisher yeah i just want to appreciate this long-term plan which is in compliance with responsibilities that we have legally and i

127just happened to notice as i was looking through it that there is a zero expectation that we get pico funds back over the next long-term planning so that was of interest to me after our decision after our conversation regarding sharing the sales tax with the charter schools and so i also appreciate the description of the use of the revenue sources on this report and i also know that as we grow we update this from time to time so it can change with need and population expansion as we move forward thank you thank you mr don't know what well i want to hear from people who have not spoken first and then i'll go back to it is a detailed plan and i'm like literally on the fence because of the fact that i don't feel

128like it's equitable but it is a detailed plan that we need and that we need to so i will support it but i still question the timing you know and then and the moving from block lane to three oaks i we never voted to do that so i'm not going to that's why i'm having a hard time with that decision being made just automatically moving and not allowing the public to comment on it and i've expressed that quite a bit lately and but i will support this plan because of all the other needs that are on there based on just that one school i'm not going to stop progress thank you thank you miss kittens one of the things that i have asked for and i still haven't seen i even tried to get it

129from tallahassee miss patricka mentioned several times that it was approved by the doe and i would like to see all of the paperwork that was submitted to d.o.e from the inception of this project to the current time i have still not seen that and i if if i saw all of those details i think that i would have a maybe a different opinion of it but from the data that i have pulled and that i have looked at and the homework that i have done i don't see the numbers that were being told and prove me wrong please and i just want to say too when we speak of the east so in the south zone and the west zone we are actually sitting in the south zone so south zone is not a stero

130or we have to remember that when we're talking about where our kids are coming from so they're coming from all over so i just want to make sure that we are understanding that who our kids are and the zones when we're speaking on on zones okay so to that point we have been told that there are three schools that make up the 117 percent thus the need for quadruple a within 3.2 miles of quadruple a are four schools and san carlos is one of those schools they are at 70 percent capacity when you take all four schools together that are within 3.2 miles of the new school you come up with 96 percent like i said please prove me wrong but i have calculated and calculated and asked and asked and that's what i think

131thank you miss kittens is there any other discussion no other discussion if you would please record your vote i'm so sorry miss thomas you appreciate that next on our order of business is board member comments and if i may i'm going to ask kristen to go ahead and do be the first one to give your comments tonight we're in the we're in the portion where we all have comments a lot of time to speak but i'm gonna i would love for you to be the first one to to do that on what you see what you feel whatever you want to say the floor is yours thank you i am a student as you all may know at north myers high school and i'd firstly like to say and to appreciate the board's efforts from

132recovering from cobin 19. specifically my school just hosted what we call movie night where we sat out on the field and we watched a movie we held concessions and we really got back that social aspect that i feel has been lacking in the last two to three years due to cobia 19. and i just wanted to say greatly appreciate the board's efforts from this because i know personally in seventh and eighth grade seventh grade be cutting being cutting short for myself in eighth grade it was amazing to feel that aspect again like in the years previous we had not myself and my other friends and fellow students we had not had that social aspect and that is one of the greatest i'd say elements of school culture so again i'd like to thank the board

133for their efforts on recovering from coven 19. i'd also like to speak on another topic that i hold dear to my heart and that a lot of other students in my school and i know across the district hold dear to their heart is mental health the school district has a lot of challenges and a lot of complications generally but i'd like to ask the school district take special interest in mental health mental health it can be positive or negative but in the elements of it being negative it doesn't just affect the person but it affects the people around them and it affects their overall overall performance as students mental health can be anxiety it can be depression it can be bipolar disorders but i'd like to say that it especially affects teens and it's affecting

134teens now more than ever recorded or heard of and i have friends close to me who have self-harmed or who have tried to commit suicide and it's a matter that i hold again dear to my heart and i'd like to ask that the board take special interest in this topic in the coming years for it finally i'd like to say that another topic hold even more held even more deeply to my heart is the issue of sexual harassment and assault in our schools my best friend who i talk with constantly and who i constantly interact with has a personal connection to this but sexual assault and harassment happens more often than we seem to think and that a lot of sources seem to address it's an issue that also affects children and i'm not talking

135teens i'm talking four five six seven eight year olds and it's an issue that carries over to that student and that child's overall life the impacts of these scenarios occurring in children lasts for years and for the rest of their life it's something that they do not forget now every scenario is different in the way that the person perceives it but i'd like to ask that the i'm working on a personal campaign myself with my friend that i just spoke about that we would like to eventually introduce to the district before we graduate and i'd like to see it take off but i will save that for later but again i'd like to ask that the board takes special interest in sexual assault and harassment in modifying the policies because if i read correctly last

136year when i joined the student advisory committee if i read correctly in the code of conduct if a person assaults another individual specifically students the of course law enforcement gets involved in the disciplinary actions but it did not dictate enough zero tolerance for the issue it did not dictate that person is removed from that school immediately and cordially and although i have not i am not a victim of the issue i know plenty of people who are and it's not something to be taken lightly it should be something that should be on everyone's mind but again i'd like to thank the school board for their efforts in recovering coping 19 and i'd like to ask that sexual harassment assault and mental health be taken as major priorities in the board's actions thank you wow thank

137you are you good to stay for a little bit longer okay miss fisher i'm going to begin with you please okay thank you i want to offer thanks to reverend suarez for being here this evening and for mr train from fort myers high school for bringing the chorus they were awesome and their music was beautiful i'm so glad that christian is here and that we have our student advisory representative back with us at the board table and he filled you in on what is going on with our students who are members of our student advisory and their peers and before when we had the public speaking we had someone talk about our bullying anti-bullying policy so in 2005 when jeffrey debbie's son took his life i had an opportunity to join with her and a

138group of people and many students in in lobbying in tallahassee and in washington for the anti-bullying law we are one of the leaders in the country many of the other states have modeled after florida's law what what happened with that and why it passed so fully in three years was the students were the ones who did the lobbying they visited the senate and the house in tallahassee several times and even took a trip to washington courtesy of jetblue to to lobby for that so and with suicide as a result of bullying being the second leading cause of death in teenagers i appreciate christian's comments this evening i always say listen to the students because they know what is going on in our schools it they have their own subculture so whenever we are making plans

139for what needs to be done whenever we are making rules for them to follow they need to be part of that process so welcome back christian and thank you're doing an awesome job our csi committee i know reported this afternoon at the briefing meeting and we will be meeting again on the 10th of november and we will have a presentation on comprehensive and mental health from our student services department let's see i want to say that i did attend the insurance insurance task force meeting thank you and thank you and that we had a lot of good news including the fact and i may have said this once before but there have been literally millions of dollars saved in claims by the participation of our workforce in in the wellness programs that we have had

140over the last five or six years so let me see what else last thursd last thursday we had the drug free coalition red ribbon awards which highlighted our student who have academic success athletic prowess and at and artistic talent and it was a full house the audience was so beautifully behaved and so supportive of the kids it was really a great event and i want to thank deb camilla from the coalition for all of her programs that support our kids leading a healthy and drug-free lifestyle our talc and spout people through the fea have won a platinum and gold award for increasing their membership and continuing to work with us in negotiating to try to support and get those raises that our teachers our support staff and without saying our bus drivers need with that

141i just want to say that i know that we're looking at the relationships between our administrators and our workers and we are supporting improvement in in those situations when needed and i know people are putting a lot of effort into that and finally i just want to say thank you to those bus drivers that get our kids to school and home safely every day and i know they're tired and i know they're overworked because we are short staffed and to all of the teachers and all of our staff who go above and beyond every day to try to provide our kids with a good education thank you miss fisher miss morgan i'm gonna bounce around i'm i'm bouncing yeah that's okay i actually only have one comment people in public comment say that they don't

142have the opportunity to talk to us so they don't have enough time to talk to us my district office number is 239-337-8303 i'm happy to talk with anybody who makes an appointment with me my email address is kathleen o-m-c-a-t-h l-e-e-n-o amazon mary at leeschools.net please contact me if there's something you would like to discuss it's difficult to sit here and listen to you all talk at us and not have the opportunity to respond to what you say immediately i much prefer one on one or invite me to come speak to a group and i and i'm happy to do that so those are my comments this evening thank you thank you mr vanilli thank you i just have a few a couple things i just wanted to let people know that the edison festival light

143is going to have a parade this year and so i want to make sure that the kids are involved because they have a children's parade and the grand night parade and i just want to bring that to people's attention because i'd like for them to make sure we have a lot of participation we're really really kind of worried about it this year that it's we're not going to have a lot of participation could you say the dates because well it's january 19th february the 13th which happens to be super bowl sunday so i'm a little concerned and then i think that it's the 19th that following saturday is the grand parade but in that there's a run a junior run on the for the children's parade so i think it's that's always you know exciting

144to watch and then just to remind everybody too that we also have this skimtastics with that as well as a science fair so i'm not sure exactly i haven't been able to attend all the meetings this year if that's going to be virtual or not but i know that skimtastics is going to be in person and we're still deciding if it's going to still stay here at the district or not there's still i think i haven't i don't attend that meeting so i'm waiting for an update on that but or have it back downtown where they used to have it so they're still working out those details but the other things that i had was to for the superintendent regarding the busing situation and to address the and the this time clock thing and please

145bus drivers thank you so much that you were here and i am sorry for the environment that you're dealing with but change doesn't happen super fast so just be patient and and i promise you're gonna have change and i and i apologize for any retaliation that you're receiving i hope that changes first thing tomorrow morning actually so and thank you for being here late because i know you get up very early and thank those other colleagues with you because we could not do this without you and so i want you to know that and i really appreciate you working that monday when others chose not to but i do respect the fact the stand they they that they took at that time the other thing that i wanted to bring up oh i had a

146couple people talk to me about and this is just for the calendar committee and i forget who's on the calendar committee but a parent brought up the fact that what is our attendance the day the day after halloween because some schools apparently had that day off on monday you know and i don't know it fell on a sunday this year but they think that they're curious if that we have a you know large absenteeism on that day and what the numbers are and i would just be curious because it was kind of funny because i have friends that had their children at vero and they had monday off i said oh for the holiday of halloween okay and so it was kind of a joke and then i had parents reach out to me about

147it i'm like well that's funny that you mentioned it so i thought i'd ask about that because i heard that even like the day after super bowl the attendance is down so for even employees so i'm just curious myself on that another thing that i had and i wanted to bring up with the board recently was and i had my notes on it so i you know i do talk about accountability a lot and i feel like i have to be accountable and i have to hold employees accountable and my employees are auditor board attorney and the superintendent and so and to show my commitment i wanted to bring up this up for talk topic i wanted to bring it up earlier but we ran out of time today so i will i apologize for

148doing it this evening and then i didn't send a memo out because i don't know what the board's appetite is regarding this but i am committed that and i'm just going to read what i have because i'm committed to making making sure all employees are successful i would like to discuss our recent board attorney interim evaluation personal approval plan is used when there's a commitment to help employees and make professional improvements based on the interim review or interim evaluation that i submitted i feel that there are timely issues that should be addressed by the board and it shows that all are dedicated in taking the step to help our board attorney be successful and acknowledge and dress these things that we deem necessary so i would like to see us haven't discussed this at a

149time either discuss it i would like to see a six-month plan and goals put in place because i feel like that we're not addressing some of the issues and we want to make sure that she gets the support that's needed i'm very concerned over that and for her to be for us to be successful she needs to be successful and it works both ways and so my suggestion is to either have a workshop to discuss a plan in place and i don't know what the board's appetite is up for that we'll go ahead and ask i mean this is something we could have brought up when we just did our workshop yesterday before that i know but we ran out of time for that as well so if i we can bring that back to

150that workshop to put on the priority list well my only concern is we do it we do an evaluation every six months and then final evaluation and if we don't give if we don't help her now how does that how does that if we go we give her two months to and then a six month has passed i mean so i don't understand how we don't address it immediately this is this is some of the things that i feel like this board does is we kick the can down the road and then therefore we and we fail and i don't i want to make sure that she's hired additional staff and we want i need to see how that's all going to play out and we need to we need to actually have a plan

151in place and i don't know if it's a personal improvement plan or what but i feel and it was based on my only evaluation i haven't seen any other evaluations and i we don't necessarily do that but i don't want to wait six months and be addressing this publicly at that point and that's why i think it we need to address it sooner than later okay anybody have any comment miss gettings yes and actually i agree and if you recall i was the one that had reminded us and brought up the six-month evaluation and i go back to my statement in corporate settings it's always a process to help someone to be their best and to do their best and achieve what they need to help them during this process and i think we have

152kind of dropped the ball and that we did the evaluation i don't know is there some policy that we don't see the full process but i think we need to do some discussion about it i do not think it should go on our project list which continues to just go on and on i think it is something as i spoke earlier about priorities it needs to be a priority it's been i think it was october 15th it'll be a month before we even get back together again you know for another meeting and it's it's not a negative thing it's a positive as to how we all can you know be better and help our employees to be the best that they can be i don't like surprises when it comes to dealing with employees and

153i think unless you put it out there and say okay expectations or discuss it then in the end and six more months all of a sudden there's a so probably we didn't like this or this could have been done better we need to work collaboratively and to help our employees however we can help them to be successful any other comments regarding this or concerns or miss patricka we don't publicly discuss our interim evaluations ever since i've been on the board that's not something that we've done i meet individually with the superintendent and the board attorney should that become necessary i mean i know that i sat i've always sat with the superintendent and i've always sat with the board attorney at the annual evaluation before the public meeting so that so that we can have

154that conversation and somebody said nothing's a surprise there is nothing stopping any one of us from making an appointment to go through that evaluation individually with each of our employees and i would recommend that we do that before scheduling something else publicly and taking up more board time if the issues are not appropriately addressed in those one-on-ones any other comments well and i'm only based on my don't do we not normally see everybody else's what their about their inner evaluations are on our employees not with the no it's individual and we do individual meetings with with them okay that's how we've always done it well since i've been here so unless it was we almost didn't even do the evaluations like ms getting said we didn't even i mean she had to remind everybody so

155i remind staff so my concern yeah and was it is on their radar so they know when all the evaluations are coming up and it's on their calendars and that's when they sent that out to us and then turn it into to our miss debris bruno okay so ms did you have something else to well yes in my recollection we weren't reminded i brought it up on the dais but so basically then you're saying that we individually work on performance goals or plans individually is that what you're saying what i'm saying is the when we do have done the in interim evaluations we have just always had the opportunity that we they have it she's received everything and then at that time you all can set up a meeting with her to go over what

156you feel that needs to take place or how she needs to improve or what you can do to help and at that time she would be more than happy to share that it's it's not ever been out here in in the public well and i wasn't really asking that i think at our reorg meeting or something to have some time to talk about that but okay and my only thought is the is you know the goals but i mean i guess if there's seven of us we could all have different ass different visions and we were supposed to be we're supposed to be a board of one so it just really kind of com contradicts what we what we do so because everybody else has we're seven people that have different seven opinions and obviously

157it doesn't work well with us so i just when trying to be on the same page as others and maybe i'm the one off so that's that's really part of it for me i appreciate what you're saying but she does have a job description of what her role is and that's what she needs to be focusing on that's true so if there's any concerns then that definitely will be something that each one of us would have the opportunity to set up time and speak to her yeah all right thank you okay thank you anything else no that was it thank you miss vaughn please thank you the kids are back here in in the boardroom and that's that's been wonderful to come out here at quarter till six and hear the lovely voices to have

158christian here sitting sitting with us and speaking in in such a mature and thoughtful intelligent way and i think you really honed in on some topics that are really really important to all of us and that we can't forget i know there were four of us miss fisher already mentioned how lovely it was last week the red ribbon awards ceremony and it was it was quite amazing to hear the gpas of you know how many of how many of us had maybe some of you did gpas of like 4.79 or you know they were they were truly truly amazing the we've already touched on some of the things about the bus drivers and i'm happy that somebody did record that from i mean it wasn't an official recording but i did get to see parts

159of it that from from that recording that was on that was online but very pleased that the superintendent and his team took kind of combined all of the comments and and that's been very very helpful to us as board members i feel that we have we have seen the most pressing issues with the bus drivers you know the bus drivers and it's been said many times this is not something unique but they're the first they're the first adults that our kids see in in in the morning for for those who take the bus and they are so important and they have our precious cargo and frankly it's very disturbing for me to hear a report that the it was the perception of the supervisors and people turning their backs on on on the bus drivers

160for speaking out so i'm glad that our superintendent has already brought that up and i know that will be dealt with and followed up and i think for not i think i know for every employee it's about respect from your superiors your supervisors and the schools the principles it's really about respect because i know from my own experience as a teacher and my discussions with friends of mine who are still teaching that you know again teachers know they're they're not going to be making huge huge salaries but teachers you know let me let me back that up a little not huge salaries but certainly better than and i'm going to talk in a minute about that better than what they're receiving right now especially under the circumstances of of covet but lots of times people

161will stay with a job that's not perfect as long as they're getting a fair working wage of that goes along with their expertise and you know i've heard of people that have changed jobs because they're gonna make a whole lot more money and then they're miserable but what's happened now unfortunately to our teachers is they're miserable and they're not making a lot of money and that hurts really hurts my heart to to see this and i want to been thinking about how exactly to say this but without being too political but the whole thing started or not started but part of the issue is that coming from tallahassee governor desantis brought forward was it a year and a half ago or whenever it was about the 47 000 salary for beginning teachers and i said

162at the time and it was a rather unpopular statement there were people right on this board saying to me well you should be happy that he's proposing a salary increase for anybody but lo and behold what has happened is the foundation of our schools our teachers our veteran teachers they've been leaving in droves there there are teachers that i mean i have a really good friend that she was a career changer but she'd been teaching for 14 years and out of and was receiving a lot of disrespect and looking at her own salary and the role that she was playing in mentoring as i call them the newbies and you know teachers saying oh it's my first year to teach this do you have lesson plans for this do you have and handing over you

163know that's people some people if you haven't talked you don't realize the number of hours and hours and hours and classes to put together lesson plans and to put together those special little tweaks so it's it is a big deal it is a big deal for those veteran teachers to take the time and mentor the newbies and hand over their lesson plans and their their special materials and so when when we think about these things we also need to think about what's coming from tallahassee and what is really putting up stumbling blocks including members of our own local delegation who appeared on a segment on cnn and i was a part of that same segment who said i wouldn't send my students to my children to any of those government schools and said flat out

164to the reporter that he was in favor of dismantling those so when you think about these things think about what's happening in tallahassee as as well one other important thing is this is my third board meeting in a row to do this but i always like to be informative one of the speakers was upset because she had asked for classroom libraries a list of classroom libraries i'm going to assume that most of the classroom libraries are like my library was that i built up over 38 years with i don't even know i gave away so many books and i probably had at least a hundred probably more like 150 books they were my books personal books that i brought in some of them were from college days some of them were books i bought with

165my own money or a lot of teachers will also go to the foundation for lee county public schools which has when our public libraries purge their collections the many of the teachers go there and can get books for their classroom libraries so i don't want you to have you know and some of them may be school books but many times these classroom libraries are teachers personal copies that they have spent their own money to build these libraries and so this is not an easy task to say well you know you just need to send this to me that's that's not an easy task the other thing is again the reminder for those of you who are concerned that we are indoctrinating the children with book selections that appear in our school libraries if you have

166a book that you feel is inappropriate i'm not saying you can't come to the school board and you know i don't shock easily so really if you want to read something out loud to us like from one of the books that appeared on the list a picture book that had this horrendous page talking about different families and one page in that multi-colored beautiful picture book said and some families have two mothers or two fathers shocking maybe that's something that goes against your own family values and i suggest that if since these are library books i suggest that if your own personal child rather than somebody that you're imagining from the community if your own child comes home with a book that you feel is inappropriate that you counsel your child and that if you feel

167it's really inappropriate you go to our district website we have that wonderful new area on the website that has to do with the parents bills bill of rights says parents bill of rights you click on it and you will find the process documents that we use as a district okay because we're not as a board because a book is held up where i mean we don't have the jurisdiction to do this it's a process document and a form to fill out we do value your children's innocence but william blake wrote of songs of innocence and experience at some point the children need to be educated for the world as well and when i say that i'm not indicating anything that is obscene or pornography or the things that so many of you feel that we

168are teaching in our schools we are educating our children for the global economy and that includes a lot of information and i actually feel that sometimes if you really examine what is happening you're really going to find that it's it's not anything shocking it's something that is valuable to our children as they go out into the world end of speech was that it was fun end of speech thank you miss mike you want me to go on no i'm good thank you though miss kittens okay i have a couple of shout outs and then i have some broccoli and spinach we have to eat the first shout outs are to the chorus and i love the lighthouse song and they were looking at my lighthouse as they passed i said yeah we saw the lighthouse

169so that was my song christian our future in this world is bright because you're in it and thank you nations association reverend suarez i just i know he's left but i just want to thank him for 43 years of service to this community miss miller redistricting plan was excellent and i hope we carry with us to be the change that we need if each of us do does that our world will be a better place a shout out to the teachers and the bus drivers and especially to miss marcia ellis you are an example of the statement it takes a village and you are definitely an excellent part of our village to help everyone to succeed also a shout out to new life church in lehi for having the i think one of the best

170a halloween well it was their family fall festival and i think every child in lehi must have been there but they were the cutest outfits and all that so thank them for serving our children and the community and giving the families and the children a safe and happy place to be okay i mentioned about oh this is november is florida family engagement month so i thought of an exercise for everybody if it's family engagement month if you have a child in the school system or even if you don't let's say you live down the street from a school make it a point to just drop a card off and say thank you to all the staff and the teachers for all they do and basically saying thank you for letting us be a part of

171your family the more we think family and community and helping each other the better it's going to be for all of us and especially our children now i mentioned that sometimes we have to eat broccoli and spinach and so i need to bring this up it is not angry it is not being nasty but it is something that i need to say and sunshine law is truly a detriment to especially a school board and to the work that we do but it's a cross that we have to bear and if there were any other way or time to bring up a topic we can't do it because of sunshine law so i have no choice but bring this up now we voted by majority at our last meeting to respectfully ask the governor's assistants and

172sanctioning board member patricka for accusations of abusive position we have a list of items that i will not revisit tonight so as not to rip off the band-aid again we need to heal fact the board voted fact i requested in the vote well the consensus to work with the attorney on preparing that letter since it was my motion and subsequently we have received well i sent an email because i thought it's not fair to have our attorney who works directly with us to write that letter so my suggestion was that we would use mr john quick who has been sitting at our table who knows us who has an integral has had an integral part in this district and if he could you know like i said work with me to draft the letter i

173do not intend to be nasty i just didn't tend to be factual and but i don't think that we need to put attorney bruno in that position if the board chooses to either not follow what we voted on or to water it down i will be doing my own letter that will go to the governor's office to be added to the case that i already have again this is not to be nasty it is not to be mean it is a process that we voted on and we have to follow through on it so i don't know if there's a discussion or whatever about that and then i have one more thing so i don't know if you want to address that or not is there anyone that would like discussion i believe that we

174asked mr pre-bruno to write something and we left it in her hand so is there anyone else that would need to but there were issues with that because it puts her in a precarious position to if you read the emails that we received it's not fair to have her be potentially put in a difficult position in her job so like i said if and she has said to us in an email today that she didn't feel comfortable doing that so i leave it up to the rest of you whatever you want to do i will be doing a letter on my own if no one else feels the need to do so i think you have one comment steven ellie my only concern is that the letter needs to be based on the motion and

175the paragraph that was written had nothing there was no verbage from our motion from the motion that was passed so i think we have to be very careful because we need to be the letter needs to match the motion and in fact mr prairie bruno can can you respond to that please so the letter what are you in this situation but would you please respond so the letter that was drafted takes the language directly from the minutes that recorded the motion that's what i thought thank you for stating that okay so am i then to believe that the board is just agreeing to send the letter that we received initially i'm saying we asked her to do something it was done based on the motion and to me that's what we asked her to do

176okay that's so my personal this miss fun yeah i did send an email to our board attorney and registered my disapproval of of the letter in terms of not really what i'm trying to think a good way to put this of not really capturing the essence of what we said i really feel like it didn't catch capture the essence and i agree with mrs giovanelli because i pulled up that motion again and it was partly there and partly not there that said i understand the the issue for our board attorney who sent us the email saying explaining that she does not feel comfortable or that it's appropriate for her as our employee to write anything scathing let's say about one of her clients i believe was what she said so it really brings up to

177me a conundrum because we do have the sunshine laws and you know for better or worse and if we didn't have the sunshine laws then all of all of the people that are here would not be getting public records or we wouldn't be getting public records and so there is a reason for it but on the other hand it's it's a problem and i find that it is a problem when just one board member gets with let's say the attorney to write something you know to write something and yet here's the conundrum how are we going to seven of us write something so it just really the whole thing's been very frustrating to me because i really feel like it didn't the letter didn't reflect what i wanted to see when i did my vote

178to say yes to write the letter but i'm i'm stuck for for a solution to it quite frankly and i don't know which email you're referring to so i did not see that so yeah she just sent her she just sent it today yesterday as long as i'm in a meeting i am not on my email so i will never see those and may i just say it's not it's not having one board member write something for everyone it's having the board member write something with the assistance of another attorney that is not as integrally involved and it as a draft i did not say anything about me writing and sending something to governor on behalf of the rest of you without you all seeing it that's not what i said but anyway for the

179sake of time i guess you all have to decide what you're going to do i have one more thing too i have miss did you want to say something miss morgan yeah yeah what i wanted to say was i thought the board attorney did what what was asked which emotion was put forward to make a statement in a letter and that's what she wrote i think if somebody wants something more detailed then they have to bring something detailed to the board for review and approval but all we all that was approved by my understanding was the motion which is what attorney dupuy bruno captured in the letter i'm not sure what i don't understand the conversation and miss fisher did you have a comment yeah i thought we had that vote i thought that the

180subject the matter was closed that the letter was on its way i do have a question for attorney dupree bruno madam chair if i may so were all of our names signed on that letter that hasn't gone you received the draft of the letter and the letter has not been sent out for the sake of time madam chair we can move on i will just the rest of the board can decide what they're going to do and like i said i will i just want to say it wasn't sent out because i kept getting emails from board members with various concerns i'm sure you want to finish it and i just want to go on record and say i do not want my name on that letter sorry i couldn't hear you i said i

181want to go on record saying that i do not want my name signed on that letter thank you mrs fisher miss morgan that's an option i don't either thank you and miss vaughn how my question is a legal one how can that be if the board voted a certain way is that an option that isn't that part of policy that once even if it's something you don't agree with that you at least will you know you don't have to talk it up and the billboard out there but that you should go with what the board voted on is that not no there is no direction as to whose signature would be on the letter so the board instructed me to draft a letter that reflected the motion which is what i did and honestly the

182letter was on my letterhead wasn't didn't have any board members on it okay yeah that's i'd forgotten that it was on your letterhead but just for the future reference if there's something like this that people that there's a letter and you know it's it's a vote for a particular letter wouldn't if it came from the board directly wouldn't it have everybody's name on it depends on the letter and the instruction from the board it could be set from the chair or it could be sent you know it just depends on what the board's wishes are okay thank you chair may i move along then yes okay since there's no appetite to discuss this so i'm gathering that the letter that attorney dupri bruno wrote will be sent and perhaps you can just ask if everyone

183who wants their signature on it but for a second time i think we need to to move on i am doing what i call my goodwill tour with staff and what i've been doing is contacting different staff members in different departments visiting with them and talking with them because i believe in the last three years there has been a misconception for one of who i am and what i think and what i believe and so this week the lucky one who was in i'm sorry arita davis the director of adult and career education and when i talk to the different staff members and then i ask them to give me something that you're really proud of so i can give you a shout out when we're on the board on the deus so rita davis's

184staff this is getting in my way so rita davis's staff from from adult and career education and they invited me to their gratitude party i couldn't go because i had a conflict but i think it's something that's really great to do they have a list of notes and people put notes in the basket of something that they're grateful for another employee and then they have a party and they read them out and give the notes to everybody and i have a picture but i can share it with you later i think it's just one of the good things that is coming out of departments and their notes of gratitude is something that i think we all could could look at the other thing that they are very proud of is a program called transtrancio am

185i saying it correct transieo and i'll explain really quickly what it is but she also wanted me to say that two members that worked hard to help build this program melissa johnson and suzette rivera melissa johnson worked with the team in cte and i think she moved on to hr but she wanted to give them a shout out so what the program is let me tell you really quickly so trancio is an online management tool used to track work based learning experiences basically it's like a mentoring program and the community can get involved in it in various ways and for example you can do a classroom presentation through career academies you can do a one-time job shadowing or mentoring program as long as i see dr spyro's head going like this i'm okay all right

186and then there's a long-term mentoring program there's an internship requiring 150 hours of work experience and leading hopefully to employment so i think this is a fabulous fabulous program you can go online i'm sure it's on our website and it's trans-c-o-t-r-a-n-s-e-o and it will give you all the details if you're a business even have a small business and you need some some help then you can possibly hook up and get a student to do a mentor program and then we're all there we go with the village again you're helping students to get gainful employment and learn a skill that they can take throughout their lives so it is a wonderful program i thank you to rita davis and her team and if i were there i'd put a gratitude note in your box to thank

187you all for the hard work that you do and that's my comments thank you ms kittens miss patricka thank you christian what is your last name please swedish so future governor widdish you're phenomenal see those kids out there four kids wave those are my four children and i have three aunts and a mother out there and while i always like to be incredibly supportive of children and their future goals i will tell you that politics is incredibly difficult business it's mostly difficult on the families that surround us so i encourage you to to follow your dreams because right now your two platform items which are prevention of sexual assault sexual harassment and improvement of mental health services for all people those are winning platform items i encourage you to not lose your spirit your integrity

188or your ethics as you work your way through the process make sure you have people who surround you who will sort of punch you in the face if you go down the wrong road does that make sense i don't mean literally punch you in the face i mean you know just really keep you in line you give me hope for our future so thank you very much for being here tonight i really appreciate it if i may through the chair ask the superintendent to follow up with us on one of one of the issues that christian raised which is could we have some data regarding sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints in our schools i don't feel as much of a need to follow up on the mental health issues because number one i don't

189understand them and number two board member fisher is truly an expert in that area but i would like to understand what the legal limitations are for schools in the district with regard to a student who is found to have offended with regards to sexual harassment or sexual assault what are the limitations for us i know that we can we can expel under some circumstances we can't expel under other circumstances that might be an attorney a question for the board attorney and the final thing is i'd like to ask the chair to please put this item in our parking lot so that we as a board can have a deeper discussion to address your concerns okay are we good okay all right so i have wrote down here students exclamation point because it's just so wonderful

190to have you back in our boardroom and it really helps center me and focus me on you know why we're here and why we do what we do i do have a couple of acknowledgments fhsaa thomas kenna from cape coral high school was appointed he was that he is their athletic director he was appointed to the florida high school athletic association board of directors yesterday that's why i had to leave our meeting was to go to that special meeting to have him appointed that's a real feather in the cap of lee county i mean it's great representation he will be at all of our board meetings until june and i think you know dave larosa mr lerosa also goes to all of those meetings so there really should be nothing occurring athletically in the state

191of florida that we're we're not well versed on at this point another acknowledgment gary freeze is a deceased wrestling coach who started at fort myers high school i want to say in 1982 does that even sound right is that even possible sure somewhere around there incredibly impactful coach not just in terms of his wins and his admission to the wrestling national wrestling hall of fame but in terms of his positive impact on kids and keeping them from dropping out and all of that he was recognized yesterday by the city of fort myers november 4th will officially from this point forward be considered or proclaimed to be gary freeze day in the city of fort myers so that's a huge feather in his cap and it's a little bit of a personal thing for me because

192his daughter is my daughter's swim coach so there's that connection there as well plus you guys know how much i love wrestling lynn takas is leaving which was a shock to me when i read that email i was completely and totally stunned when i go to schools i tell the principal whoever is giving me the tour i'm not here to judge i'm here to help i'm here to support please tell me what you need from the district and then i come back and i report to the superintendent the good the bad the everything and overwhelmingly lynn's name comes up all the time when i'm talking to principals about how amazing and wonderful she is how hard she works how accurate she is in the information that she gives you know you walk through that office

193and she sits there quietly and she's got her head down and she's always doing her work and the praise that she got from our schools was just beyond and i'm really sad to see her go because i think she was fantastic the naacp presentation today reflected a little bit of an inaccuracy that i would like to correct which is that we only represent the people students and schools in our individual districts i think a lot of people believe that to be the case when state session state statute actually requires us to represent every single student every single voter every single taxpayer every single school in the entire district so there really isn't that much of a difference in terms of the districts and why they're made up the way they are and i think there

194was some kind of an indication there that we could draw lines based on the needs of our students and what i'm getting through the chair dr savage what i'm understanding from the proximity plan is that we hope to use policy with in conjunction with the proximity plan to address student needs whether it be ese or students who come from circumstances of economic disadvantage or ells or any of that so i'm not sure that the redistricting the drawing of maps is going to address many of the issues that were legitimately brought up today a couple more things i was on the calendar committee and i hear you about about halloween and the day after halloween please don't tell my children that they people miss school the day after the super bowl because they will give me

195a hard time and they are not allowed to miss school ever but the day after halloween is just so low on the priority of things to be addressed by that calendar committee because they're looking at you know they're they're looking at a lot of other like really legal holidays and making sure the whole week of thanksgiving is off and things like that so i just want you to know that there was a high level of expertise in there unfortunately i have two more relatively lengthy things that i have to go through i'm sorry i know it's late the fsba resolution i told you all that i would read it to you and then we can go if this is appropriate go through the group and each person can say whether they approve of it or

196they support it or and if you don't you can just stay silent but i know that people want to get on record about this and i did send you all a copy of it so that you could read along florida school boards association resolution ensuring that views are heard and exchanged in a safe environment whereas the florida school boards association has nonpartisan board which represents 346 school board members and whereas public education is essential to an informed citizen citizenry the foundation of our democratic society and whereas public schools are the cornerstone cornerstone of each community bringing together adults and children educators volunteers business leaders community groups and elected officials in a common enterprise and whereas a commitment to first amendment rights of all citizens is guaranteed by the u.s constitution that should say united states

197constitution in integral to the spirit of florida's open meeting laws and whereas florida school boards both encourage and welcome parents as well as other concerned citizens to engage in lively respectful and civil civic discourse at school board meetings and whereas the fsba affirms that the safety of all school board members and citizens who attend school board members is of the utmost importance and whereas the fsba is concerned about alarming incidents and comments if they extend beyond civil civic discourse and whereas illegal acts cannot be tolerated and whereas the florida school board members maintain full confidence in and appreciate our partnership with local and state law enforcement agencies to effectively address issues of public safety if they arise now therefore be it resolved that the board of directors of the florida school boards association calls upon

198all school districts to collaborate with their respective local law enforcement agencies to continue to provide a safe environment for all stakeholders to exchange views thereby ensuring parents voices are heard when it comes to decisions about their children's education and safety i will start and say i fully support this statement and then we can go okay miss miss fisher i support it yes i support it giavanelli miss kittens i'm fine with it i'm sorry i'm fine with it oh thank you i support it and miss morgan i support it wow that was quick and easy let me tell you let me give you a bit of an update as well i mean you're you're seeing in the news that state associations are pulling out of nsba at you know here and there one off here and

199there know that your florida school boards association is in discussions about this discussions about this have been going on for more than a decade so understand that this is not just the nsba letter this is governance issues with nsba we are addressing them on a regular basis your executive committee speaks about this at least once a week and we will not pull out of nsba unless and until we go through the appropriate governance processes for fsba so if you're alarmed by the fact that there's been a lack of action it's only because your board of directors doesn't meet again until december so i wanted to give you that update if you have any questions please let me know and finally the rest of my comments tonight are directed toward the public but really made for

200the benefit of my children who are here tonight to support me it's sort of my time to support them so over the past few years i have not responded to the numerous attacks on my character from some members of the public i chose instead to try to keep the focus on children and improving lee county schools even now it really feels distasteful to me to explain the context of the circumstances under which i've been working but i think it's time that i did address that context i would first like to thank the hundreds and hundreds of people both in lee county and across the state who have reached out to me to offer words of encouragement and support over the years unfortunately many of the people who have reached out to me in recent weeks

201also expressed anger and confusion because of what they are seeing on social media and at school board meetings almost everyone with whom i have spoken urged me to share at least some of the context of my experience in november of 2020 i won re-election to this board by a healthy margin it was not close during that time and since my opponent has engaged in a vicious and relentless campaign to smear my name my reputation and the body of work i have engaged in as a member of this board before she ran for a seat on the board and i'm sorry before she ran for a seat on the board she sued the school district of lee county the judge ordered a mistrial and granted the district's motion for a directive verdict both of which are

202very very rare my opponent and her group of about five supporters have filed countless complaints against me and the school district with the florida department of education the auditor general the florida commission on ethics various agencies of the federal government and with the school board we hired an outside investigator to fully vet those claims my opponent refused to cooperate with the investigator with the exception of one claim that the district did settle because the federal government was withholding a 10 million dollar grant until the claim was resolved every single complaint local state and federal has been returned with findings of no merit every single one my opponent's escalating obsession with me is also evidenced by the email campaign in which she engages a very small group of about five equally preoccupied supporters most of whom

203participate in public comment during school board meetings between my opponent and her supporters she has sent or been copied on more than emails since i started saving them in february of 2019 some of those emails are as long as 213 pages this data does not account for the hundreds and hundreds of baseless and angry emails that she sends to my colleagues across the county and across the state upon which i am not copied i've managed this never-ending savage campaign by remaining quiet i have stayed above the fray and i have taken the high road the attacks were against me and i guess that you know in our political climate this kind of behavior has become normalized and frankly i can take it because so much of it is really just sophomoric but i'm now compelled

204to speak out because my opponent has attacked my kids when you go after my kids mama bear comes out and i will do everything in my power to protect them i will protect them with every fiber of my being my opponent has a fake photoshopped picture of me behind bars in prison stripes on her social media page my children have received screenshots from their friends and been ridiculed as a result of this out of bounds behavior most recently pictures of my children engaging in their activities at their schools have been featured in my opponent's offensive and bizarre videos i would hope that the public would agree when i say that my children are off limits they have done nothing to warrant public attacks by a person who simply cannot accept defeat i'd like everyone to

205reflect upon what is in the heart of a person who would unabashedly attack children please think about that as you come across the content of the materials my opponent places in the public forum i invite my opponent in her clique to mature the level of dialogue i work hard to project a positive professional image of the school board and the school district our students our staff and our community deserve nothing less accept defeat and stop dragging the level of dialogue down to your level we have real problems and we need thoughtful people to solve them i was elected to this position and i will not resign those are my comments thank you see is that the ending thank you so the only comments a lot of my colleagues have already spoke about the different activities

206and places that we have been this week and just a mere fact of the children at the different red ribbon event was amazing seeing these kids in here again and just bringing life back into this board room which we intend on doing every week to to make us you know continue to remember why we are here and that is the reason why we are here kristin had to leave it was beyond his curfew so that's why he politely got up and left but just seeing like these kids here and knowing that you know they're gonna return and they hear what we're doing they hear what's coming across you know in both ways so i think that i think it's gonna be good for all of us to have them here with us and i look

207forward to to that taking place as well next i'm going to have mr pre-verna do you have any comments yes ma'am i would like a formal action vote with regards to the letter so i'm clear as to the board's direction okay what point of order may i'm not allowed to vote right no okay and will you prepare the paperwork for me please yes thank you and i will publicly state that i have a conflict of interest because i am the subject of the letter i think i have to do that orally as well correct yes thank you thank you okay and well i can't make the motion so what who's going to make a motion what do you want to motion on when we already had a motion well for you a draft a draft

208letter was sent to the board for your consideration and i received you know several comments back from board members with regards to the letter that is the extent of my comfort in drafting this letter pursuant to the florida ethics rules and conflict of interest if this is the letter that the board would like to send i would like a formal action so that we can move that forward an action vote so can i get a motion to accept the draft letter that mr preet bruno has created to be sent out this one just one quick question is does it exist now in the exact form that you sent it out to us does it i'm sorry i didn't understand the question oh wait you're speaking up in a an email today no no ask her

209again repeat what she did not understand i didn't understand oh well i've no i've read the letter okay from a prior email what i'm asking is you said you had gotten comments and what i'm asking is have you acted on any of the comments or does it exist the way we received i have not changed the letter from what was sent to the board all right i'm just going to i'm going to make a motion that the board send the letter as drafted by our board attorney yeah i have a second on that please well if i don't have a second we cannot have a vote then then then then it's motion guys thank you just to be clear i will not be sending the letter correct okay is that the end of your comments

210mr prix bruno yes thank you thank you dr savage yes madam chair i did the courtesy of dr spyro he did give us the answer to your question about absenteeism and the day after halloween it was 14 252 students which is a sizable number yeah so we'll be sure to pass that along to the calendar committee so they will take that under advisement so thank you for that and thank you dr spyro for that quick work 14 252 students on that absentee day after halloween and through the chair i'm sorry real quick one of the parents one of them that i spoke to mentioned there was a holiday around that i don't know and i i wasn't thinking but you know i don't know if there's a teacher do today or something that can be

211i don't know that could be worked in there but just i just throw i'm throwing that in there as well because i just had no idea happened to fall within just where halloween fell at that time so as it stands it will certainly pass that along just really i know that he had to leave as well very grateful for christian and really grateful for all the students all the young people that were here today in the boardroom i couldn't agree more with many of the board members who shared the comments that keeping us centered on students truly is our work and sometimes in our jobs they can feel very far from students so it's so important that they remain at the forefront of our thinking and all of our work that's so they also want

212to acknowledge all of our staff it was you know we had a number of folks bus drivers in particular bus drivers many of them get up at 2 30 3 o'clock 3 30 4 o'clock in the morning to begin their work it's a very difficult job the hours that they work make it very difficult to hold down second jobs as well so i just want to make sure i publicly state as i've said many times to the board to the bus drivers just the sympathy that we have for these folks who are true servants as well as all of our staff people out in schools teachers support staff people have been through a lot but i also want to acknowledge it was brought up as supervisors leaders as well we are one team and so

213it's so important that we acknowledge that everyone has been through a difficult time right now and while there may have been some supervisors who took the words personally my hope is that it wasn't that many i hope that many really truly took it as it was meant an opportunity for us to constantly improve and so i want to make sure that what i do is not vilify any particular group it's so important that we acknowledge that our leaders have very difficult jobs very thankless jobs as well and it's only through the work of all of us respecting our respective roles and how we are there to support each other through and through and ultimately how we all work to support our children that is the success of this district so from every single board member

214sitting here from our board attorney down to every single support staff person every child in our school every person who volunteers i'm grateful for all of their sacrifices through this tremendously difficult time and let's work together to to make our district the best it can be so thank you those are my comments for this evening thank you very much the next schedule meetings of the board on wednesday november 3rd there will be a board briefing at 1 00 p.m on thursday november 11th there will be a board workshop at 9 00 a.m on monday november 15th there will be a workshop on tuesday november 16th there will be a board briefing at 1 pm followed by an action meeting at 6. at this point having no further business to come before this body and see

215an objection this meeting is adjourned everyone please have a safe evening and thank you