School Board Action Meeting: October 20, 2020

001good evening ladies and gentlemen we're ready to start this evening's board meeting okay i gotta log in the school board meeting of october 20th is now called to order the time is 602 pm at this time we request that all electronic devices be put in the silent mode also we ask that you please refrain from using flash photography we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district's mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and of the district's vision to be a world-class school system this evening's agenda includes the invocation the pledge of allegiance public comment consent to action items which include one item under executive services five items under academic services three items under business services two items under

002human resources two items under operations two items under attorney's recommendations as well as four items under other business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda miss morgan i move that we adopt the agenda thank you miss morgan and seconded by miss jordan thank you please record your vote board members martian carries 7-0 miss vaughn did you vote no she didn't no she didn't i just came in and just logged in oh i'm so sorry okay what is this the approvals have the agenda can you thank you okay motion carry seven zero thank you this evening mrs giovinelli will deliver the invocation after which miss jordan will lead us in the pledge of allegiance mrs giavinelli please invite your guests to deliver the invocation at this time rick stevens on the phone please

003rise oh okay who's right pastor rick stevens is the pastor of diplomat wesleyan church in cape coral since 1997 previously served churches in the u.s and canada his son graduated from mariner high school he has a granddaughter attending lee county school system thank you pastor stevens for the year of the invocation please deliver thank you let us pray our heavenly father we come to you in the name of the one who is and was and is to come we thank you for these board members and all of the district people who serve your students and families and i pray that you would bless them all you have entrusted them with enormous responsibilities this evening we especially pray that you would bless each board member they face many pressures and i pray that you would grant

004them clarity to discern what is right and what is wrong in your eyes then give them courage to choose right no matter the temptations or pressures they face for surely they like all of us will give an account to you therefore we commend them to you and to your strengthening grace we ask this in the name of jesus your anointed one amen i pledge allegiance to the lord for which ends one nation under thank you please be seated the next item on the agenda is public comment mrs dupuy bruno please address the item of public comment please make sure you have completed a blue card if you intend to provide public comment the blue card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information for staff to follow up the blue cards

005are located in the hallway thank you thank you madam chair school board policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district if you completed a blue card please put it in the basket or provide it to staff at the back of the room if you need a blue card they are located in the hallway outside of the board room the rules concerning public comment are posted at the back of the room public comment will be made from the central microphone in the back of the room please be advised that the board does not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers at the end of the public comment period the

006board chair ms fisher will address concerns or the assignment of any concerns or requests to the superintendent board policy 1.81 1.181 is in effect and requires everyone to wear a mask when on school board property unless you have a reasonable accommodation and have requested same in addition for the benefit of other speakers we ask that you use sanitization supplies which are provided near the microphone after you speak for the benefit of the next speaker speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on school district issues personal attacks on individuals or abusive language are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing are prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker

007continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone you will be told that you are out of order and you will have one opportunity per board policy 1.11 and you may be removed from the chambers for board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 two minutes if there are thirty and one minute for anyone if there are more than thirty one speakers the maximum time allotted is one hour you will find a countdown on the big screen in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name prior to your comment and madam chair i'm still waiting for the number of public comments thank you attorney bruno we'll just wait mr parfait's going to check madam speaker

008we have 12 speakers well speakers thank you is there anyone in the audience who did not fill out a blue card and wishes to speak this evening okay attorney bruno please call the first card thank you and i apologize in advance if i mispronounce your name i'll do the best i can crystal zyskon i have the pleasure of knowing three of you i look forward to hopefully speaking with all of you i watched the workshop where the lgbtq meeting resolution was addressed and it was determined that there would be a workshop after november i'm happy to hear that there has been i feel some positive messages sent and recognitions at the last board meeting however i would like to state that trans lives lgbtq children's lives are not to be politicized i feel that by

009waiting to push this until november 17th you have essentially politicized lgbtq lives and i'm standing here today to you in two ways as a mother and as an organizer in lee county i have the ability and the capacity to really organize behind us i know that there was dismay expressed by many board members about the onslaught of emails and phone numbers and how difficult it was at the last ward meeting and i would like to remind you how difficult it has been for me as a parent of a transgender child in lee county i have been working for four years four years for my child to go to school and have a normal life we just passed a non-discrimination act in june in june at the very last meeting after all of you have been

010on this board for two years almost right so now that we have passed this non-discrimination act that really gives me the power to no longer be silent and stand here and say to you i need you to fight for my child's life i need you to stop thinking about politics i need you to stop thinking about elections i need you as women as mothers to recognize that my child has never been to a high school dance my child has never made a friend because my child is not safe to go to school we should not be waiting until november to deal with my child's life my child has to go out into this world and you see what it's like in this world in america to be a transgender person you have studies and statistics

011sent to you about the psychological ramifications of just one person allowing them to be themselves in a safe environment as a child before they go out in this world and you are not fighting for my child's life i want you to know that this is not gonna go away from me i will be here in november i will be watching that movie and i will be bringing people with me so please use your power leverage your position fight for my child's life thank you thank you and just a reminder if you are able to speak and make your public comment put your mask on that is what the board policy requires if you need an accommodation just let us know when we will accommodate you the next speaker is rachel westbrook i've never done this

012before so i'm a little nervous i will be reading my phone i probably won't be as passionate and overwhelming as crystal my name is rachel westbrook i am a former teacher in lee county and a transgender woman i've come here today to express just how disappointed i am in the school board that you have pulled the lgbtq resolution because a group of parents who seem to already be having even bigger issues with i work with a group of lgbt youth on a monthly basis as i volunteer at a pride center right here in southwest florida do you know what these kids number one fears are school some of these stories are truly heartbreaking i want to remind you of three very important things and i think madam chair has already done that the district motto

013personal passionate and progressive the district vision is to be a world-class school system and the district mission is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential when you have time i do urge each and every one of you on the board to look up the percentage of suicide and depression among lgbtq teenagers that percentage could be lowered drastically if they knew that their school accepted them and they were part of the bigger curriculum that teaches their bullies and naysayers what lgbtq history really is speaking from experience tackling the mental health that goes into being a young queer person is hard work and that is something i find most parents don't automatically understand we're not trying to turn your straight kids gay we're trying to keep your gay kids alive and the

014first step in doing that is acceptance and acknowledgement in our schools thank you and thank you for your time thank you katrina de vista house thank you thank you very much for hearing for hearing me today hi my name is cat doosterhouse katrina but everyone calls me cat as someone who identifies as non-binary i can tell you firsthand that discrimination against lgbtq plus folks is real i can also tell you what it would have meant to me personally to have celebrated lgbtq plus pride in my school and when there are gender neutral bathrooms and the discrimination that i feel when none are available for myself and others feeling seen and accepted is key to developing confidence and there is no time when confidence is more crucial than in our formative years while we're in school

015furthermore i wish to remind you that these rights are protected by the recently passed non-discrimination act and that denial of these rights could open you up to lawsuit though i hope you will do the right thing here not because of legal fear but because it is the right thing to embrace students of every gender identity and sexual orientation i urge you to consider that this is not a political matter it is a human rights issue specifically lgbtq plus rights please do the right thing now it may be too late in november don't let even one student feel unseen and take their lives it is a serious serious issue when kids are bullied or scared or don't feel accepted and don't feel like they are welcome here so please let's create a more inclusive and welcoming

016environment for every student thank you todd truax oh there goes three seconds my name is todd shoewax i live in bonita springs i know many of you and i appreciate your sitting here and listening to us talk these are some impassioned speeches from some impassioned advocates i hope you consider their words i had a minute last time so i feel like i can take a breath mary i'm glad to see that you have a safe space there and i think all the schools should be a safe space for the lgbtq community i applaud your efforts and bringing it to the agenda and your staunch support for the community and the student that you had from the past that came to advocate and for for the community and applaud your efforts i thank you for that

017i think all the colors of the rainbow are important to us and that we should recognize that and allow for those pride days and recognition of the pride history previously there was a nurse that came here and talked about how masks don't matter i'm a licensed nursing home administrator i carry a license and i have to have continuing education in healthcare and i'm responsible for the lives and safety of my staff and the residents in these facilities i was dismayed when i saw a nurse say masks don't matter i thought at that very moment she should have her license stripped also i saw a school counselor say there's no time for the lgbtq community or to counsel them i thought she i'm also a social worker should have her license stripped i don't think we

018should neglect the community that we are all here to serve that's part of our community i was disheartened by the throng of people that advocated against masks and advocated against the lgbtq rights i hope you were too whether it's an election issue or not the time now is to act not november don't do what's expedient do what is necessary do it now don't do it when it's convenient or after you've gotten enough votes we would like to do the act now and i expect as much we pay you some not a much oh back to the budget issue i don't believe in sros i don't believe more guns make people more safe i believe paying a hundred and thirty thousand dollars for a sheriff or a police chief from cape coral is money well spent

019i think that money could pay for two college professors that would be money better spent thank you daniella die my name is daniela dye and i'd like to say that i heard everybody speak yesterday about how you got messages and responses in regards to the way that people felt safe or the heckling and things that happened and that was both directions so i would just like to be on the record and ask on a forum where everybody can hear and it could be record that if it's going to be applied it's going to apply both ways that when we're going to put a policy into place that we have in place already we should enforce it if we're going to put a policy in place or make a change it should be changed across for

020everybody there shouldn't be any kind of special provisions for for me because you think that i'm a heckler or somebody else to protect them because you're worried they're going to get heckled we got heckled just as much as anybody else did i wanted to address something that mr pre o'brien or sorry mr p bruno keeps saying and it refers to people that will not wear a mask as if we are just sitting here being willfully neglectful and that's not the case many of us actually do have medical conditions which have been documented by people that are here at the board who have asked for our medical documentation and have reviewed it and have on record said oh yes we're right you do have that information so when you're making your recommendations and you're making your

021statements about what we will or will not do you should take into consideration that we will listen to our medical professionals the people that know our medical history over the people that make policies for the school board because it doesn't apply to medical professionals many other people here have spoken to on a personal level or on a political level unfortunately and it seems that we're under the impression that there is a non-discrimination of rights policy that was paid passed we want to enforce that we want to enforce nondiscrimination across the board we don't think that anybody should be discriminated against and have regularly said that needs to be enforced across the board recently this week there was stickers placed on the school doors that encouraged safe space for pride members that same safe space is

022not put across the board for everybody else there's no safe space period heckling so i will just say that if we're going to make safe spaces i think that we should continue to go ahead and encourage safe spaces period you have a safe space to speak whether it has to do with any of the things that are protected we should be teaching kids not to bully not to harass not to heckle not to be rude not to physically harm or anything else i guess that's it for now thank you pamela vasquez hello thanks pamela and i'm here to voice my support on adding a lgbtqia history month i'd like to point out especially after we just heard that the issues that people in the lgbt community face are very unique and different than the issues

023that people who are not in that community face by having safe spaces just generally people will fall through the cracks and certain issues that are unique to the lgbt community will not get addressed we can't always focus on the majority sometimes especially in a world where there is not equality we do not have equality for lgbt people in a world like that we need to be focused on the specific issues that the minority face here i really would like to point out and i'm sure that you've maybe seen the statistics but people in the lgb community are five times more likely that number goes way way more up when we can when we add in the tea and when we have when we start thinking about school as this as this place we want students

024to feel safe in we want schools to be a place where students can forget the stuff that happens at home they can forget any of the hardships they might feel when they're not at school and they can go to school and they can feel like this is safety for me this is a safe take this is a safe haven and when we do not create environments like that when we do not take steps towards making sure that students feel like it's not a constant concern of whether or not someone's going to find out that they're they're gay or trans that when it's not a constant concern of whether or not they can use the bathroom them holding it in because they feel like they can't even go to the bathroom then that's not creating a

025safe community that's not creating a safe space when when people when students have to worry about whether or not you know who they're talking to knows about their history knows about knows about the history it takes for them to get the rights that they have now that's not creating a safe space we need to have a school in which we understand as a collective the history that has gone behind gone behind people getting their rights here so that people fully understand what being trans is what being lgbt is so people aren't scared and that's what we have to do and for me i have family members who are in schooling age who are in the school system here and i and are trans and they need to have these this kind of support please thank

026you louis navarro lou navarra retired teacher many years in lee county my son said dad don't go down there anymore they don't listen to you he said why risk kelvin he lives in jacksonville i said well perseverance i was very shocked to see and i talked to mr malloy your dashboard here it's gotten worse you quit keeping track and you turned it over to the state i believe in the state as much as i do in the federal government that means zero now i'm shocked i talked to mr malloy you quit in october this thing you gotta have cataract surgery like i had to even read it and it's baloney i don't believe the state so i asked you for a dashboard and you wouldn't even do that and now you come up with this

027thing and i heard there's cases of kids that are supposed to stay home at fort myers high from one of the candidates you know let's be truthful come on second round's coming europe's gonna is locking down again and you guys are just sitting here i don't know just wasting away i guess i put everything back in the dashboard i talked to one board member she said oh there's no deaths no one's seriously injured we're doing the best i can well i'm sorry that's not good enough it really isn't you don't even take the temperature of the kids coming in if they're 69.99 you could have the sro they don't do a lot they should be teaching classes the cops and be doing other things take their temperature with the principal and the assistant what is

028it about a hundred thousand dollars and you don't have it but you guys gave yourself fat raises i saw a video where the board chair is approving another percent and a half to the administrators and it's coming out of the sales tax now maybe it's wrong but that's what i saw well next thing i want to talk about is the masks staffing connections i know the chiefs here tonight he said we don't pay for it you don't pay for it the city pays for it well they need to wear masks here's i'm leaving you these pictures i've talked to mr lloyd i've talked to a lot of people and nobody's doing anything and i don't see the kids wearing their masks like they should be when they get off the bus and on the bus

029but i'm not doing a witch hunt on the bus drivers i'm just telling you but i've given you the addresses i don't think i need to do that anymore those are the crossing guards but i will make the first donation 69.99 i'm gonna put up a check and i want all you people that are making hundreds of thousands thank you sir thank you melissa hatter thank you mr navarre thank you now hi i'm melissa hatter i'm the mother of two kids in her school district and one of my kids is being she somebody tried to attack her at a school event 11 days ago and i still have no answers from the school as to a plan of action to protect her in the future i don't know if the non-student that was there and

030did it is banned i can't get any answers i've reached out to the board and my paper i put down retaliation i'm here for but what i'm really here for too is accountability that's what you've been elected for and you're not ensuring and we have a bullying and a harassment policy and it's not being followed and nobody cares it's been 11 days nothing it took the other parent because she didn't report a misappropriation of boosters like i did which was supported in the preliminary investigation by the auditor so but i'm the villain and i can't get any responses to anything i ask about my children i can't get it from the superintendent i can't get it from the board members i got two responses after the third email i mean i don't know what we're

031supposed to do everybody can do whatever they want and we'll just ignore i'm not going away i have two kids in the district both of the responses that i received stated yeah they're doing the investigation you're doing an investigation about the boosters you're not doing about the retaliatory behavior i'm victim of my daughter is nobody's willing to step up i was actually i asked one question of the auditor and that was when did it start because i keep the booster investigation because i keep getting conflicting information i asked that one question it was not answered you know what happened instead i got a call from mr blizina that mr williams asked him to call me and ask me not to call the auditor or contact him again ivy wasn't asking details i asked a start

032date but i'm not allowed to call what about my other complaints what about the retaliation i'm getting and that my daughter is oh but don't call us oh melissa sent emails about it let's not answer her let's not respond it's demeaning it's unprofessional and it's illegal thank you courtney mcgirt danielle hagman hi give me one second can you guys hear me everybody hear me yes this has come off okay okay so i was here at the little last meeting as well when we were talking about the lgbtq history month tonight i've decided to take a different route than has been previously taken about it because i'm sure after hearing the same points and statistics and anecdotes there's nothing you really haven't been told on repeat instead i'm going to talk about the last time we

033were gathered here for pretty much the same reason we are tonight but the last time i was here i was here with my oldest two daughters tonight my wife is here with me and our eight-month-old daughter this is our daughter who we co-parent with a gay couple who works within the school district as well we are a blended family and she is the glue that holds us all together when my daughters and i left here two weeks ago our ride home was really contemplative and a little sad as one of the last to speak we had the opportunity to sit in the back of the room for an hour and listen as one fellow human after the other came up and listed their reasons why lgbtq history and education were not worthwhile subjects to incorporate

034and some even going so far as to call the concept perverse when we left here the only questions they had equated to why do people hate our family and why is our history not worth learning about they were sad because to them the concept of loving everyone also equates to wanting to know everything they can about those people who are different from themselves these two concepts go hand in hand i had no answers for them because there's really not a valid one visuality means everything to those who are invisible hate can only flourish through ignorance and ignorance is only perpetrated through the absence of education this is why we have black history month holocaust week women's history month built into our curriculum and while we have made a lot of progress and it continues to

035be made in spite of those who would prefer to halt it our children still come home from school with stories like today about classmates who say things like i'm not a homophobe i just don't like gay people your goal is to create a world-class school system it says as much in your mission statement world-class status is not birthed from fear it is birth from inclusion i hope you will take the time to consider what i've said and consider the example you're setting by allowing fear of pushback or votes to dictate this end result after all in the lgbtq community the battle for inclusion is a battle we fight every day and if we just tabled our struggles for fear of reprisal i wouldn't be sitting here discussing any of this with you tonight thank you

036for your time thank you randy randy scott good to see you wow hello all you beautiful people your masks look really good this really doesn't look like a trump rally to me and i think that is what masks are about you can forget all this health stuff because we're intelligent people i'd like you all to try a little bit of liberty i'd like you to do some studying in regards to what masks do to your health let's forget about just the physical health let's look at your mental health let's look at whether or not you like liberty all right since when are we responsible to take care of our neighbor who might be vulnerable all right we can walk around we can avoid them but if you're vulnerable you stay home you take off the

037mask and let's get back to the point of health if it was really a problem and you make us stand back here then i think during the briefing meeting when i was here earlier your 20 chiefs who have that special privilege to walk up there and to walk up there and to speak to you spreading their their liberty disease upon you is hypocrisy at its finest look at the kids at school the students do they have this freedom of space i bet you they don't i bet you they're close but we're privileged right this is a political thing you're doing this isn't health you're you're fouchy acaloids and that's a shame because it's all of you except for one board member in my opinion that are moving this school district in a real far leftist

038agenda and that's horrible it's clear it's evidence you know i currently have a lawsuit against a school district sitting in the second district court of appeals it's in regards to an alleged bribery that was performed by one of your vendors and that vendor gave it to an employee i asked for those records and those records aren't available to me so i sued the judge at the lower level court just dismissed it suspente which means without any presentation of a defense from the district completely improper now your council who has to be hired outside because your board council doesn't have the capability of managing these sort of suits from a pro se plaintiff i think this district has finally found what the plague is all about i think across america that students and parents who love

039liberty are being set free by powers and sources greater than me and greater than you thank you mercedes harry good evening my name is mercedes harry and i want to first apologize to all of you because i had no idea that we as a society have heaped so much responsibility on the school board to do absolutely everything for our children from transporting them to feeding them to making them feel safe to every i mean it's just it blows my mind so i actually feel bad for you guys and i appreciate even though i don't agree with many of you what you are doing because i couldn't do it i do want to say that i'm not against anybody i don't hate anybody and i teach my kids not to hate anybody hate is an evil

040thing many people that i know don't hate anybody what we love is our children and so i think people are like me and we're just a little confused about what exactly you guys are planning to do with the lgbt month last week it was bullying even though we have lots of bullying information legislation both on a state and local level this week it's about safe spaces but i thought it was about history so i'm confused and when people like me are confused and we see what's happening and we see what seems to be an agenda that has many other extreme factions attached to it they're all kind of together all the time all the time all the time it's a little concerning so i think i'm just unaware of what the age minimum is what

041the curriculum will be i'm not opposed to anything maybe not a conversation for my six-year-old but maybe my 16 year old let's talk about that so i think that it's a good idea for all of us to take a step back and as opposed to being so defensive and and trying to emote our way all the time maybe it's just a good idea for us to be clear about what our objectives are and i apologize if i missed it i've been watching board meetings i may be a little behind but i feel like for me as a parent with two young children in the system if i just had a better idea i'd be open to it i'm a gen xer we never had a problem with anybody until about 2010 and then suddenly the

042country that i grew up in as a brown woman which i guess gives me some kind of clout now i'm not sure i just thought i was an american i just thought i was mercedes but that's not the case now so with that being said let's work together let's find a resolution but let's also be careful about what we do with our really small children you don't have to teach anyone to hate anybody just wait until maybe things are age appropriate that's my two cents thank you madam chair those are all of the public comments thank you very much i want to thank everyone who came to share their opinions and their thoughts i do want to reiterate that we are at the school district committed to anti-bullying and harassment and any discrimination based on

043race color sex orientation gender identification or expression disability age religion socioeconomic status or any legally protected category we hear you we understand that there are differences of opinions we did have a workshop yesterday where we agreed as a board unanimously that we would wait for our workshop on the lgbt issue until after the elections and the reorganization of the board so that any decisions made will be made by the board that will be seated together for the next two years i we are listening mr navarre you know that i'm listening and i hope that you'll re-watch that video because i don't know if it's what you saw was correct and mercedes i'm glad that you were the last speaker because i loved what you said let's work together and that is what we have to

044do because we all have the responsibility for this community's children and we take it very seriously and again we look to be equitable and provide equality and a safe space for all of our kids thank you the next item on the agenda is approval of consent action items the documentation for items listed under consent is made available to board members seven business days prior to the board meeting we are expected to review the material and we have an opportunity to speak to 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 agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under the unfinished business tabled items portion of the

045agenda mrs giovannelli i have none miss patricka no thank you miss jordan i have none miss kittens yeah miss vaughan yes i do i wish to pull g one personnel recommendations specifically since there's three categories probably can't divide it but i'm going to say it's under administrative agenda g1 thank you miss morgan i have none and i have none is there a motion to approve the agenda's consent action items with the exception of item g1 mr kittens i moved to accept the agenda with the exception of item g1 administrative thank you annex a second please second second second mrs giovannelli board members please record your vote pardon me i voted i it gives me my little red change vote hand so it appears as if it i'm sorry miss thomas unanimous okay we have one

046pool to address dr atkins will you please read your recommendation for the pulled item and approval of the general personnel recommendations as presented thank you is there a motion for the pooled item board members ms bond so moved recommendation for the discuss the fold item second thank you and second and by miss kittens so board members is it to discuss or to approve so you can't the discussion will come with the motion so are you making a motion to adopt the superintendent's recommendation no i know you want to discuss it i want to discuss it to to not adopt this okay so i believe what madam chair is looking for at this point is there a motion to adopt the recommendation so that discussion can be open that we adopt the recommendation of the superintendent

047with regard to item g1 approval personnel recommendations general okay it has been moved by miss patricka and a second please miss morgan now is there any discussion board members miss vaughn okay since i was the one that pulled this we discussed this particular recommendation at length yesterday and i listened very carefully to the rationale prior to yesterday's meeting i also had pulled both of the job descriptions one of the job descriptions that i pulled as a comparison is executive as director safety and security and the new position is executive director which is there's superintendent chief for people out there and then executive director so it's a very high level position safety security and this adds emergency management when i asked about the cost on this i was told that it is a repurposed executive position

048its position that's been on the books for a while we actually just a few months ago approved this new job title that added emergency management to safety and security and that it was a cost neutral change okay and i understand what that means since it's pre-budgeted however the reason that i am pulling this item and then i am not supporting this item is that i do not feel that as a school district we're in the position whether this is budgeted or not to add yet another executive position here in the district and i'm going to repeat the points that i made yesterday number one i again i listened to the rationale to me a lot of the duties of this position seemed to be pr kind of duties the second thing is that we're in

049a real bind with our teachers and as we have more and more students that are going to be returning face-to-face in the classroom we have openings we have teachers that i have personally talked with who are quite literally at the end of their rope and suffer weekly daily from migraine headaches blood pressure problems spend their weekends working on trying to get caught up i worry about our teachers and i also worry about the fact that we are right now in negotiations and i can't talk about negotiations but i can say this that i want to keep as much money on the table that we can offer if we need to until the negotiations are done if we can i and i don't see what a problem i don't have a problem i said this yesterday

050with revisiting this after the new year into the new semester when we see how we're doing with our teachers because after all they are the backbone of our district yes you can run maybe not a district this size but you can run a school without administrative personnel but if you don't have teachers there is no school so an abundance of caution and looking at our taxpayer money and looking at not wanting to go further into debt thinking about the salary of an executive director and how many teachers this might fund several also the fact that this could fund quite a few teacher raises if it gets to that point i find those things much more important and i'm going to add that the start date for this is not until december 1st so if this

051were such a pressing need and we've had this pandemic going on since last march we could have actually gotten on this a lot earlier as we were making our initial changes in the school district as we are making not just policy changes but coming up with plans on how to keep our children safe in the schools coming up with plans on virtual options for our children and all of those things i mean we're in the middle of the pandemic and yes it's cost a whole lot more work for everybody for all the administrators and all the teachers as well so i don't have a problem with revisiting this if it really is something that we can't do without at a later date but i do not want to spend any more money on creating and

052this is a creative job it's not one that we're filling that somebody left i do not want to spend one more nickel on created jobs for upper level administrative management until we get everything on an even keel we have our teachers taken care of we have all of our supplementary employees spout and tap taken care of and then let's look at it again and if we feel we really do need this position then and i want to say this has nothing to do with the individual it's solely having to do with what i feel is right for this school district and my responsibility for financial oversight as a board member thank you miss vaughn miss morgan and then mrs gettings so according to state statute the school the district school board shall designate positions to

053be filled we approved the position 7-0 describe qualifications that was part of the approval process and provide for the appointment the district school board shall act upon written recommendations submitted by the district school superintendent for positions to be filled so we provided for the position in the budget we approved the position we described the position we provided for it in budget the school district board the district school board may only reject the position for good cause period and i would like the board attorney to please weigh in on this can we please give our other friends for me may we please give our other comments before we get the board attorneys i think depre bruno will respond to miss morgan at this point thank you regards to what miss morgan said in terms of when

054the superintendent makes a recommendation for a hire that's pretty well settled law and goes there's many many cases that address that as well as the attorney general opinion when the superintendent makes a recommendation for a hire the board must accept that recommendation unless good cause is shown and the definition of good cause pursuant to case law is one moral turpitude or two if there is a lack of professional qualification thank you attorney bruno excuse me miss kittens but i'm going to ask dr atkins he had a comment well i had my hand up first before anyway that's fine miss kittens please proceed i am not attacking any individual i am discussing policy honoring my statutory right as an elected official elected by the people for oversight school district lee county according to policy 5.021 section

0552 line 22 revisions to job titles pay grades or other base compensation minimum qualifications major functions of administrative schedule positions and changes in base compensation shall require board action in my understanding what happened on the september 8th meeting it was the title was changed we were told yesterday in our meeting that the that the department had as stated decided to repurpose the position also according to and when i asked about a line item showing where that was already budgeted before the 8th and on the 8th by the way what we were voting on was the final budget for the 20 20 21 year not for titles and changes the other when i asked for what was the line item and i was told in fact i was told when i asked about the position and

056how much it would pay and i was told look it up it's online so i did and prior to that two years ago we went through the same deja vu of asking for line items and in florida statute 101.42 under the powers and duties of district school board individual school board members may request and receive financial information and we are continually told it's there it's under personnel and to kind of help you understand why i'm confused if you say in a budget that it's under personnel and you have all these other items and i say what is the what is the makeup of that line item and i've been told on several occasions they don't have that well i'll give you an example it's like you going to the grocery store and you buy a

057hundred dollars worth of groceries and you come home and someone says how much did you pay for milk and you say i don't know i just bought groceries well let me see your receipt the receipt is not just going to say groceries groceries groceries it's going to say how much milk was all i'm asking for is to show each item under personnel the questions that i have what was the frame the time frame between the approval of the position and repurposing the position second where's the paperwork documenting the change example if there was a personal action form a job description change a budget change there's got to be some type of paperwork that shows not just a statement saying we chose to repurpose and how long was the initial approved position there before it was

058changed because we were told that it was under another title and then it was changed repurposed the main issue is that i would not ever have approved a top level position during a pandemic in a district that we've been told over and over and over again that we are too top-heavy we have hired consultants that have come in and have said they have all said the same thing we're too top-heavy and in the middle of a pandemic when we have children that have been out of education some of them for six months and we need tutoring for them we need reading coaches we need all the things that they need to make sure that they are educated we need those things before we need another person at this district students are returning to education and

059need much help remediation hand-holding and execution and an executive position can fund at least two or three two positions and i know you're tired of hearing me say it but in the east zone we are desperate to get teachers we're the highest on the list of needing teachers and workers and people to teach our children and i'll stop saying it when there's equity and we don't have to to ask for that district-wide students need mental health services we've got the lgbtq students here that are saying they have issues and we could do with more trained guidance counselors we're always talking about mental health and i do not understand why our district defines prior how they define priority please please please take care of the greatest needs first take a different look at priority what will

060it take to redefine the definition of priority in the league county schools thank you miss kittens mrs giovanelli yes we were elected as oversight of the district so i had asked i asked what the salary was going to be i was told it was a hundred thousand i asked again in an email and that i didn't get that answer today i've heard through the through gossip that the position really is 170 000 so i have a hard time in the middle of a pandemic to when we need the money in the classrooms to pay another position to handle to actually to supervise seven individuals i was told yesterday seven individuals so i just have a hard time when i think the need is in the classroom and the support for the teachers if it's a

061digital additional salary for these teachers and staff whatever it takes if that amount of money can be in the classroom that i believe that's where it's needed at this time i was not advised that we had a need for safety and emergency until it was put on the agenda last tuesday so i'm just not quite convinced that we need this position at this time i think that we've got so many other government agencies that has hiring freezes in the middle of the pandemic so that causes me for alarm and we already have a two billion dollar budget so and we're told that budget's going to go that could go away so then we'll have these positions and that we can't afford to pay our teachers and our staff and i don't want to i don't

062want to have another year bargaining where we can't pay our teachers and staff that's where the money needs to be in the classroom right now every cent of it so at this time i can't support this because i was unaware that there was a need for this position so until i am convinced of that i won't support this tonight thank you dr atkins we have we have certainly any case why this position is needed this is something i really hope to get here thankfully nothing happened this is time for this school district i think to to grow into its size and understand that when you're responsible for ninety five thousand students that we have to have a position that has of a composite nature of this one that can actually coordinate an emergency response in

063a major situation across this district we need somebody who has experience at doing this type of thing that has the skill and the expertise to do this type of thing and that is what this position is for i mean i think that you see a lot of other districts you know that are our size or larger that have had this some of them even have their own police forces i don't think that's necessary at this time but here's the thing we approve this job description it is part of the approved budget it was described as to why there was a need for this position not just when the job description was approved before that we are in an environment where dealing with a pandemic shooters hurricanes you have other situations like bomb threats and so

064forth you have all kinds of other student situations we had a situation in the neighborhood today that we had to have had to have our folks be a part of in terms of diverting traffic to a building i mean this is a small small investment this thought that this is somehow going to come to the say saving grace of the of the negotiations is just that's just simply not the case you're talking about an amount of money that with the number of employees that we have across this school district i'm sorry it's not going to make a dent this is not going to be make or break negotiation time in fact this is about the student the student safety and about the safety of the employees let's think about that for a minute this is

065also important as well you know so yes i feel passionately about this as passionate as you feel on the other side in my experience this is something that's necessary or i wouldn't be bringing it forward today thank you thank you dr akin okay board miss giovanelli so i have to ask you dr atkins we have a director of safety are you saying that he's not doing his job i'm saying that we need more than just a director of safety because well how does it i mean marjory stoneman douglas was over two years ago so i'm just trying to figure out now i mean why two two years later i don't and so that i just i wish you'd have brought me along at the seat of the table when you wanted to make this position

066happen because i don't understand the need because i was never explained the need so that's that's why i can't support it i guess miss vaughn yes first of all one of the questions that was asked i believe yesterday at the workshop had to do with the approval of the job description and the question was asked and answered and it was made very clear that approving a job description does not at that moment at that meeting mean approving that job it's just a job description and i believe it was dr pruitt that said that we have a i don't remember the word but we have like a list we have a log of various descriptions some of which we are not using but it's there for when we use it and i would agree with miss

067geminelli that this whole repurposed job came up awfully quickly and i don't remember that we had a briefing on it secondly as far as being the saving grace i never said it was going to be the saving grace but i did say that it would contribute to helping with having that extra money as i recall in prior and a couple years ago when negotiations were at a standstill as i remember and we needed more money across the board across the whole district departments were asked to tighten their belt and i don't think it sends a good message to the other departments that we have here in the school district if we are approving and as i said earlier if all works out fine let's revisit it after the new year but i just see so

068many reasons why this particular position should not be approved tonight and i realize that some people are look at the letter of the law and see it as more important than the concepts and the spirit of of the law but again miss morgan talked about rejection of someone for moral turpitude or someone was criminal i didn't hear any of us who talked against this speak ill of the person that was selected as a matter of fact i didn't see a problem but as a board member as someone who was elected to look at the finances to make my best financial judgments quite frankly i don't care what it says in that policy i'm not voting for this position at this time if you want to put it off and try it again in a couple

069months fine when we see what kind of position we're in but right now it does not send a good message if we start wondering where the money's going to come to support our employees and we ask everybody to tighten their belt so that's my final comments on on this thank you board members any other comments attorney bruno do you have anything further to add there appears to be two discussions that i've heard one of them is about the position and one of them is about the recommendation for the nomination and that's two different issues pursuant to the statute so the recommendation for the nomination is very clear the position is something that the board needs to decide thank you okay but may i ask hasn't the board already decided in funding the budget and if

070the board has already voted on the job description in approving the budget and approving the job description if the board has already approved the job description and the board has already approved the funding of the position then the border has already decided but i was clarifying that there's two different issues that you guys what i'm hearing that you're talking about so that decision has already been made the board has already decided to create and fund the position and now we're just what's in front of us is the superintendent's recommendation and the statutory framework surrounding that which you've already explained thank you that clarifies things i think miss kittens okay and i don't know if i just was asleep during that time but my understanding what we approved was the 2021 budget and at that time

071it had been decided and the job description had been repurposed that job description did not come back before the board with an explanation that we need this right now and here's why we have not had that conversation so to say the board's already approved it the board approved the budget and at the time the budget was approved it was listed in there different from the position that we had spoken to spoken about before before it was repurposed thank you any other comments or discussion okay then at this time we will take a voice but vote okay so mrs giovannelli can you state the motion please that we're voting okay let's repeat that dr atkins will you repeat your approval of the general personnel recommendations as presented okay thank you so we're voting now on approving

072dr atkins recommendation for the position the administrative position mrs giovannelli i don't know okay miss patricka i will vote yes because we had this conversation already okay miss kittens no miss vaughn no miss morgan yes and i vote yes motion carries 4-3 next on the agenda are attorneys recommendations attorney dupree bruce if after all that do you mind if i at least introduce oh i'm sorry dr atkins would you like to mr newland i apologize for the late hour this is david newlin executive director safety security and emergency management and i am i for one am thrilled and i am confident that he'll prove the three of you wrong and i and i do i say that in the nicest of terms and i anticipate based on his history with us and cape coral that

073he will do an excellent job thank you okay madam chair yes just give a reminder that it was never about the person right thank you and for the record clarify that it was never about the person it was about and miss vaughn we have time for that in our end of the okay comments thank you on it to make sure since next on the agenda is the attorney's recommendations and attorney dupree bruno please state your recommendations for this evenings thank you madam chair i would like approval for the statement of work between the school board and rsm to provide internal audits and assist rsm in proposing to the school board with the purchasing and procurement compliance as well as human resource and recruitment as well as any additional meetings requesting research as well as assistance

074with the ethics and education as approved by the board this would be effective june 2020 for the period of one year ending on june 19 2021 thank you attorney bruno board members is there a motion to approve the recommendation to approve the statement of work between the approved the statement of work agreement between the school board of lee county and rsm us llp to provide internal audits and assistance miss morgan i move we approve the rsm statement of work thank you and now a second second miss giovanelli second okay any discussion board members miss jordan no miss patricka attorney dapi bruno i thought that we had asked them to include in here that phone calls would not be charged separately i didn't see that anywhere in here and also i didn't see anywhere in here

075the structure of payment yes i can't approve this without those edits made so with regards to the phone calls what the language is and if i can let me just pull it up really quickly here basically what they have done is encompassed everything with regards to the two audits it's included in that and anything else that would require any additional work would have to come to the board for approval right so that's how it's drafted and with regards your second question ms patricka was with regards to the payment i don't understand how that explanation answers my question about phone calls so any phone calls relating to the audit is included in the fixed price of the audit but it doesn't say that in here it is it doesn't specifically say phone call but it includes

076it if i can pull it up i'll find the language for you give me one second it encompasses everything is how it was written and with regards to the second question they will be paid after the completion of everything and the report is provided they will receive one lump sum payment at that time where in the agreement does it say now hold on one second if i can give me one second to pull it up ma'am it does appear that it's the same one that they had the first one without the corrections if you go to page eight under d it starts looks like it's the second the third paragraph the total cost for purchasing and procurement compliance in human resources recruitment and onboarding audits including project related expenses which will include the phone calls

077will not exceed 50 000 each and will be billed on a fixed fee basis when the final report is submitted to the board okay thank you thank you i'm still not comfortable without the phone calls being in there as i indicated at our workshop on this i was able to find some double billing from the white sarota they told us and they wrote in there that phone calls would not be charged and when they charged us for phone calls i was able to go back and push back on that and i'm not i'm not i mean i specifically said i needed language phone calls in there and i don't see that language in here i've searched for the term phone and i've searched for the term calls and it's i don't see it anywhere i

078don't have a comfort level knowing that i can't call my internal auditor without potentially being billed for it so with regards to those specific projects because i specifically talk to them and discuss this question with them it is inclusive within those two audits with regards to anything else if you go to page six under meetings request and research it specifically says from time to time the school board or district staff may request rsm to perform ad hoc requests research attend meetings beyond the above projects due to the unknown factors and needs fees for such services will be on an hourly basis and will only be conducted upon approval from the board i understand but if i want to call them and i want to discuss a question that i have about if it's a question

079about the two audits that's included if it's i have a question about their performance or if i have a conversation to have about why did they decide to recommend a problem abuse call for further investigation so if you look further down in that same section under the fraud waste and abuse rsm and klein agree that any significant additional projects will be subject of mutual agreed separate executed statements of work or if more appropriate and mutually agreed and separately executed change order i understand and where in there does it say i can call them without paying extra well they if you call them to ask a question then it has to come to the board for the board to say yes they can move forward with that project yes miss jordan i know we had multiple

080conversations about that because of the concern about how they had the bills broke out and that was one of the conversations it was specifically about if we needed to call to ask a question that they would not bill us for that and they were going to make sure that they put that in there it has nothing to do with if we thought of something that we needed to do and it would come back before the board it was just in general if we were any of us decided to call them that they would not be charging us for that communication and they were supposed to put that on the in the contract as well as how they were being paid after each project was done then they were going to be paid so i think

081the scope of their work are the two audits as well as the ethics in education as well as any additional research request etc and the way that they drafted it is anything with regards to those two audits is covered anything with regards to those two other issues has to come back before the board that's how they drafted it and those are the only four things in their statement of work any further discussion board members okay then at this time board members please record your vote did you get one unanimous 6-2-1 madam chair yes thank you okay six two one i'm sorry what is this six to one thank you attorney dupree bruno please continue with your next recommendation for this evening thank you madam chair the next recommendation is with regards to the approval of

082a settlement agreement between the collegiate school of fort myers and the board this would be in lieu of the school board's immediate termination of said charter to allow the collegiate to voluntarily terminate and they would also withdraw the current review in front of the administrative law judge thank you've heard the attorney's recommendation that the board approved the settlement agreement allowing the collegiate school of fort myers to voluntarily term voluntarily terminate their charter with the lee county school district in lieu of the school boards board's immediate termination of the charter is there a motion to approve ms vaughn i move that we approve the settlement agreement allowing collegiate school of fort myers to voluntarily terminate their charter with lee county school district thank you in a second board members ms jordan thank you any discussion can

083i approve this pending changes to the form and the typos in here this document that is uploaded is a corrected document okay and i reviewed the second one that was uploaded and it still has form issues and it still has typos so if i approve this can we hold off on having the chair sign it until all of that is addressed i don't have any problems with approving and unless the until the forum is addressed and if you could tell me you can send me an email in terms of what those are because this document is a clean document thank you i'm comfortable approving it as long as we can make those changes i mean they're not substantive it's just farming typos especially you have a hand yes miss vaughn i'm i'm just wondering why

084miss patricka didn't bring up these issues i did yes you brought them up yesterday during our meeting i brought them up with the attorney and most of them were fixed but all of them were not okay but not during our meeting and i'm a board member i can ask questions at the table i'm just before things are approved well excuse me i'm just ask point of order point of order okay thank you any further discussion regarding miss giovannelli so yeah so i just wanted i'm in support of this tonight however i think it's really important to make sure that in the future that we're vetting these charter schools and i know it wasn't done by our grant writer and now department now this was done two years ago but i think it's important to note

085that this particular charter school had was denied in several other counties and so i think it's it's critical that we are making sure that we're vetting vetting so that this doesn't happen again that we're vetting these charter schools thank you thank you mrs giovanelli any further discussion board members at this time please record your vote seven zero is unanimous madam chair i'm sorry i couldn't hear you seven zero seven zero emotion passes unanimously thank you board members next on the agenda is board members comments and or reports mrs giovannelli okay i just i'll be real quick i just want to thank everybody that came out and spoke tonight i think it's really important that their voices are heard and i want to them to know that we are hearing them i believe that safety is

086for all and i and all means all so i just really want to acknowledge that tonight and i also would like miss duprie bruno to address or take mrs hatter's complaint whatever that she's talking about at this point in time and she seems to me that she's not being taken seriously so if someone could contact her and deal with that because i don't want to be accused of not addressing the initiate an issue and that's really cute miss javanelli i just want to let you know that i'm going to address that okay great because i missed that sorry okay yeah okay thank you and that's it thank you thank you very much miss patricka i have no comments no comments miss jordan i would just like to say i really appreciate everybody coming out again

087in support of the lgbtq a and everyone else as well but i do believe that we do have a role in making sure that our children are protected and that they can go to school and be feel safe so thank you all for coming out here and speaking for them but we do hear you and a few things that i've been able to attend this week via virtual future makers which was really great it was a conversation about structural racism and it's implicit bias and just listening to the people that were on that call it really makes you think it was a two-hour course if you will but it was i thought that it was very beneficial for me have attended many meetings with choice neighborhood initiatives that's working with the southward village project that

088will be on edison avenue and ford and multiple community meetings throughout the district as well as working at with franklin park the community schools and finalizing the strategic planning on what that looks like and that is it thank you jordan mrs gittins yes first i'll piggyback on miss jordan on the future makers event the it was very very good and the part that i wish that all the board members could have been privy to and i have asked them if it's something that is recorded that we can share it was the part about the history and the history of of racism in lee county and by the time that section was finished i don't think there was a dry eye on the zoo meeting and to think that we are in 2020 and some of

089the same things they talked about are still still happening is very sad in response to some of the comments thank you to everyone that spoke and crystal i i feel for you that we don't politicize this but that we think of children first and not politicizing the thing that really struck me was miss harry mercedes comment when she says i don't hate i hate anybody and i love all children the key to her her speech were the two words clear objectives and personally i think that's why we're here at this juncture today is because there were not clear objectives that were shared that were stated i as a board member was not aware of some of the things i wasn't aware that many of our staff and administrators have had training and if that had

090been made known to us or told us what they were doing then with the phone calls and all that we received from different individuals we could say yes this group of people was already trained and here's what they were trained in and that's what i've been saying all along when i first started out talking about it was the word educate and the fact the word educate can mean different things to different people as shown in our last two meetings how polarized we are over what the word educate means and i think we i have said continually we have a problem with communication how we communicate when we communicate and to whom we communicate and miss fisher and please don't take offense to this that a lot of the things that have gone on you were

091privy to more than at least to me i can only speak for me and even to have the the sign up tonight it would might have been a nice thing to say to the rest of us here are some copies of this if you would like to do the same thing i think when we talk about communicating and being unified we need to do that and it could have been something that was said that we could have all done in support of the situation and not singling out that one person is more in support of our students than another one is this i don't know i just i think that we need to to look back and honestly at our workshop yesterday it was not a vote that we would wait until november if you

092look back at the meeting in the very beginning we were told in a statement by ms fisher that this was not going to be discussed until december and i brought up something and i was told no we're not talking about that until until our reorg meeting and i have said all along that last before the last meeting i said we can't just drop it we have to explain to people that it's not we're throwing a group of children aside and ignoring them but we need to get everything together and decide what it is we're going to collectively say so it was not and the way it happened just taking it off of the agenda did make it seem like oh well we don't care and when actuality the whole point was that we needed to

093discuss it and rather than wait until november we should have done it right away it was too big of an issue to to push aside and wait until november but anyway that's that's my thought on it he's still here mr is it new con congratulations and welcome to the district and i look forward to working with you and please understand that i had nothing i don't even know you to have anything against you contrary to certain comments okay i look forward to working with you like everyone else in the district and thank you this is anti-bullying month tomorrow is the unity day whoa think about it tomorrow's unity day and tomorrow we're all supposed to wear orange well i wore orange today because i knew we wouldn't be here tomorrow but to remind everybody to

094wear orange get an orange ribbon wear orange hat whatever to recognize every student that has been maybe and possibly being bullied it's about anti-bullying and as the anti-bullying week states it's about three words kindness acceptance and inclusion and i can't think of any living person that does not want all three regardless for who you are and where you are i have been told in the last couple of weeks that people are disappointed in me because me of all people being the only black person up here i should understand the plight of people and yes i do because i deal with it all the time and it's not over so i do understand that kindness acceptance and inclusion for everyone that's what the day is for tomorrow please wear orange to support our children thank you

095thank you mrs gittins miss vaughn thank you i am the board liaison to the equity and diversity committee edac and we held a meeting a week ago yesterday monday the 12th and i wanted to give a report on that meeting the first part of the meeting the topic that we covered was instructional models and the focus was on elementary and we had people on a panel and there were a variety of people represented represented from several of the schools including principals and teachers from different grade levels and because it's equity and diversity the committee really wanted to know well what are the things that are working best and what are the things that aren't working as well with the emphasis on our students particularly students of color students who may come from homes that can't

096afford that had to have the hot spots that we provide and anyway it was a very it was a very good almost an hour that we spent with that and the group presented a lot of positives there weren't very many many negatives but of course things are always better when for teaching at least from my point of view when you're face to face and the other thing is there there are some challenges with with some of our students just because of economic situations or you know if there are a lot of children in a particular home sometimes those children don't have quiet places for you know that they get away and interact with their classroom the second part of the meeting and it was quite a long meeting dealt with the topic that we've already

097touched on tonight and several of my board colleagues have have mentioned we had which is kind of unusual for a first for an advisory committee we actually had six public comments some were emailed in and we had a couple that were people who actually were there in the zoom i almost said in person no we were all on zoom but some had sent in their their comments and what i want to do is and i'm going to preface this with at the end of the meeting because you know that an advisory committee is a school board advisory committee and we will take back from the committee take to the school board their their desires their recommendations etc and so what it wound up to be and this was unanimous that the entire committee gave me

098a vote of confidence that i would do a good job of summarizing and educating the board on exactly what they had to say believe me i tried to get them to give me something to say but no they won't this is what they wanted so this is what i'm going to do next first of all the comments from the public speakers from the public comment were very very similar to the comments that i heard from the members of the committee one big theme through that meeting was disappointment disappointment in the board disappointment that the resolution to recognize lgbtq month did not happen and many of them felt that it was particularly hypocritical in that we all were supporting the anti-bullying and yet if you look at the lgbtq community and a couple of the speakers

099tonight really drove that point home they are bullied they are i remember and i think all of us as board members got a an email from an older man a man in his 60s who was a gay man who had recently lost his spouse and before we took this resolution away he was so happy that we were going to do this that this was on our agenda because he said and you've got to figure his age and going back in time and also for those of you who are a little even just a little bit younger you may not remember a time when this wasn't out in the open but in fact i believe i don't remember the year but it was during president obama's term that the supreme court recognized some of the rights

100that now seem like you know pretty pretty normal but this man said oh i so wish that when i was in school and really throughout my life that i would have had these rights also this is something else that was both from the committee and from the public comment they felt that this resolution would have given students of the lgbtq community more of an ability to see value in themselves to see their self-worth and to feel included not like they were different comments specifically from members and again remember it was unanimous among the members that these were their thoughts and they endorsed all of these thoughts that were discussed during this meeting they said that not endorsing this resolution sent a negative message to our children and they felt and i felt the same way

101that you know when that decision was made but of course it's a board decision not my individual decision that it was particularly hurtful in that this resolution was pulled less than 24 hours before our meeting so there's their their hope and desire and it was and it was dashed again this is what edac wanted me to tell all of you we had a brief discussion on equality florida another group that i hadn't heard of might be familiar to some of you is a group called glsen is one that they mentioned that's a good training group and i remember specifically as we were talking about the resolution that it was brought up to this board that equality florida was political and that and i agree with the point that if a group is outwardly political that

102it doesn't have anything to do you know we shouldn't have political agendas in our in our schools but that really wasn't that's not true i think just that statement you know sometimes if somebody makes a statement and said i did research on this and they're very political you know sometimes you hear a statement and you think oh maybe it is true maybe they are political but and this goes back to something miss getting said you know i never realized that we actually have been using equality florida in the schools i had no way of knowing as a matter of fact that very night there were a couple staff members that and that's where i we got posters this week board members did at least i found one on my desk from equality florida and posters

103were on their way out to the schools in support of lgbtq history month i've known that well i really would have pushed for i mean if we're sending posters out to the school and then the board pulls it and that's this is my own commentary not from eat act i i find that well i find it not not right i won't say what i'm thinking anyway so we did have a discussion on that and there's some wonderful like the safe place that's a decal isn't it and they have developed also it's really neat a i think it's clings gel gel cleans you know that you can put on windows and all it's a picture of our seal for the school district like that one there and around it their hearts and the hearts go from

104pretty pale skinned all the way through all the different manifestations well not everyone but you know different skin shades down to the last two are rainbow striped and it's it's really really neat and these things are already going out to the school so personally again i'm i'm coming away from what edac said personally i'm embarrassed or sad or upset you know negative emotions here that when we were discussing this that i did not know what wonderful things we were doing from the equity and diversity department that i didn't know about because it seems to me it would mesh just perfectly we as the school board with that and i'm very sorry that a decision was made that we weren't going to since it's still october bring it back up but i didn't i thought about

105it even mentioned it to miss dupree bruno and then as i talked to her about it i kind of was reflecting what i said and i said no i'm not going to bring up that motion because it does go against what the board as whole said finally i want to give and i'm back to edact what they said they said that they recommend that this board receive sensitivity training and education on this topic that is their board recommendation very specifically and again i'm going to say what ms bitton said i don't think we were ever informed that all of the principals were trained i just happened to somebody sent me somebody out of the district sent me hey look here it was a very nice powerpoint and it wasn't anything i got from the district

106so i just feel like if we go back to transparency and communication i think a lot of this would have been avoided if there had been up and down the line better communication okay i could say other things but i've talked long enough so thank you for listening and i hope that as a board chair fisher if you noted their recommendation at least that they would like to see us and it sounds like it would be cost neutral since apparently there is already a training module that was done for the for the principals okay so you have that noted yes all right thank you don't address that in my comments okay thank you yes okay i'm done thank you so much thank you so much miss morgan i neglected this afternoon and good of the

107order to ask the question how do we put on the agenda for the reorg meeting issues that we believe should be addressed in the reorg meeting i would send them in by email to attorney dupree bruno if you have issues and to miss mcclung not issues just things like yeah topics for discussion for discussion yes okay thank you do you have any other comments other comments thank you okay so i'm usually brief but i may not be that brief this evening so first of all during public comment miss hatter had some comments about responses to her emails and i had made a note to myself to ask dr atkins to respond to that and i'm sorry i neglected to do that so if you could just briefly address that so she doesn't feel totally neglected

108in your comments i would appreciate that okay the next thing i wanted to report on was i attended the foundation board meeting the other last friday and so our partners in the foundation have done such an amazing job in supporting us through this pandemic and continuing to provide programs to enhance the education of our students and i want to thank marshall bauer and his amazing team who i think i don't know i think he has a whip back there or something because they are always working very hard but they had many questions for superintendent atkins and i think it probably was at least a half hour if not more where people were curious about what was happening with our response to covet and the academics and he did a super job and really i think

109informed our partners to the point where they are even more anxious to be partners with us and to help us and support us the other partnership that i've been enjoying and i do report on this as often as i can but is with lee health the healthy league coalition and healthy minds we've been finding locations for people to set up the healthy minds displays in different areas of the county and what's happening is they're trying to help people who have stress and job related issues due to the pandemic and trying to improve people's mental health one of our mental health people sheri wenzel is also a member of that and she represents the district quite aptly i want to say that many people have been reached and people have brought their children there to speak

110kids who are contemplating suicide kids who are having a lot of difficulty navigating through the stress that their families may be experiencing during this very difficult time i want to welcome dave newlin to our team and i look forward to working with you also dave so i was watching the news the other day and speaking of lee health golisano children's hospital and our ese department have a partnership and they have projects project search so our esc students who are needing community-based instruction so that they have the opportunity to be wage earners and to to basically positively impact the economy when they do finish with school are working there as in terms interns and volunteers at the hospital doing all kinds of different jobs including transporting patients and folding laundry and keeping records and really really

111adding a lot to the hospital environment there so i want to thank them for that also so now the lgbtq resolution i was the one who put it on the agenda it was on the agenda a week before the meeting of october 6. equality florida has been providing training to our administrators our social workers our counselors many people in this district for probably close to four years they also along with members of our own equity and diversity department presented at florida school boards association during a time all board members were present one of our employees actually interacted with us about the training that's done they were invited to go to fsba to present because of the wonderful work that they've been doing in this district i don't know how anyone could be totally unaware of

112that especially since our since our equity and diversity department has been working so hard there was a time when we had a principles training dr adkins did a welcome when dee palazzo the director of equality florida was here i was there i said a few words and other board members were in and out during the day so when people say that they're not aware i don't buy it i just want you to know that i meant no trouble or harm in doing that i have been invited to be on the school board advisory for equality florida i accepted i've been on this whole year and i have reported a few times and i have and i do have the documentation about the activities that were being involved with our staff in order to help with

113the diversity issue this is supposed to be a safe space for all including gender orientation identities abilities cultures and backgrounds is it i am embarrassed at what happened last week it has definitely been more of a negative reaction because we took it off the agenda four members of our board decided to take it off the agenda because they didn't know how to handle it and because we had had some input from the public people have different opinions they have different opinions about disabilities about race about religion and of course about sexual orientation and identity i think that we do need to put it together miss kittens you said kindness acceptance and inclusion that's for all that is for all and i don't know how but it's incumbent on this board to protect the children in

114this county to get it together and really live that and yeah we do need sensitivity training and it's available right here in our own school district so i think that when we i wanted to say too about equality florida yeah they have a political action committee so do many other organizations like the naacp like some of like our unions okay do we not communicate with them because of that this is a very dramatic election year and i think that maybe that has partly contributed to this but our reaction was unacceptable and i think that we need to be thoughtful in the future before we make that kind of a decision and make our district look like it's not a world-class school system and like we aren't working for each and every student to meet his

115or her personal potential so with that i want to thank our hard-working staff the people in the schools for all of the extra hours and extra effort that they have been donating and volunteering to make our kids education the best it can be and i'm going to ask this board to get on board and to join those people in that hard work and to not be discriminatory or allow ourselves during anti-bullying month to be bullied into making a decision that was not good for all thank you attorney bruno thank you madam chair i just want to thank the board i know yesterday when we got our agenda review i saw our attorney recommendation on that and i was so surprised and i think the board members that did put that on the agenda review was

116very helpful and i appreciate you treating those recommendations the same way you treat the superintendent recommendations and we were able to discuss things and resolve the question that was posed so that was very appreciated that we had that on the agenda review yesterday and the only other thing i don't know if the board members know at this point with regards to general liabilities torts errors and omissions those cases are now being handled in the school board attorney's office for the past month and a half so i wanted to let the board know that as well thank you thank you attorney bruno dr atkins thank you madam chair i'll keep my comments brief really just to the hatter situation so thank you for the opportunities for that i think the first thing the incident that she

117was referring to that occurred after a football game that is the most recent and just want to assure miss hatter and the board that i know staff has has made it clear that the individual that was involved in that was an outlet out of town person and believe young adult and that person is not invited back to a future game so she can be rest assured that will not occur the other thing i think that's important on that based on that situation that it's my understanding that additional security will be in the parking lot of that particular high school which is typical that we do put security in those parking lots particularly after games so that's something that will take place and then i was also informed today that there there has been mediation that

118has occurred among the specific students that were directly involved with with that situation so the last mediation as i understand it occurred today relative to a lot of the other things you know i spent probably about four and a half hours on friday working through one of the documents that were sent in to us because you have to connect a lot of the different emails met with staff and i think that the first thing i would say to everybody including mrs hatter is that let's please be patient we have an audit that is being completed it is my understanding that in my hope that will be completed this week and miss bruno was the prie bruno was very clear with the hatters when we met with them miss madame chair you were there she indicated

119that these audits can take a substantial period of time and think of the word that she used with months although i don't want to speak for her fortunately it's not going to take that long in this case you know our indication from our auditor is that should be completed very very soon you know i do want everybody to understand that i do believe that we have worked very hard to stay in communication this the degree of communication is very difficult to keep up with i mean it's you know one email is followed by a series of emails and so a lot a lot of them saying very similar things so again trying to piece those together but again i would ask for patience on the part of the parent and the board because i do

120think we'll have you know a lot of this resolved with the completion of that audit and that's all for my comments unless there's any questions thank you very much miss kittens i have a question for the superintendent can you please update us on the secretary position and then i have a suggestion about that okay my understanding is that they are in the process of re-advertising that position and when we get applicants coming in from that second round they'll go through the screening process in addition to that and i don't know the outcome but i know she was going to reach back out to staff to see if we had anybody internal that could fill the void i'd like to put forward a suggestion that and i haven't discussed this with with any of the parties

121i'm about to mention but i think it would be a reasonable idea to have ms tortosa take that position and then to hire a secretary that is a paralegal that would be able to assist our board attorney more specifically with legal items and we can ask her opinion on that it's just something that i thought about and i said i wanted to bring it forward and see what anybody thought i think it would help us with our you know legal issues and things that have to be done to have someone in that position that is a you know has the law background so that's what i'm putting forward and i don't know if miss attorney dupree reynold would like to say whether that would be something that would be acceptable to you or helpful or

122you actually read my mind just today i actually had approached dr pruitt about what that process was like at this point i think it would be very helpful to have a paralegal someone who has a little bit of legal experience to assist especially with the responsibilities that are more than what's just in the job description and i can provide the board with a list of all of those things but i think it would be very helpful to have apparently and i think i mentioned that to maybe a couple of board members as well about perhaps having a paralegal that would be helpful and miss miss chartosa at this point i know is working on the board advisement but she's also working on some contracts so i don't know if we can share her a little

123bit but something like that would be very helpful so madam chair how would we go about do we you know propose it or what to have attorney dupree bruno work with the superintendent and dr pruitt to see the feasibility of that and i think that attorney bruno said she did reach out to dr pruitt so at this point i would put it back in the superintendents and staff's hands to do that i mean we have the suggestion out there and i'm sure that they will act on that is that okay dr atkins thank you okay okay any other on monday november 2nd there'll be a board workshop at 1pm not two guys sorry about that miss patricka and on wednesday november 4th there will be a board briefing meeting at 1pm as well as an

124action meeting at 6 pm tuesday november 3rd of course is election day so we won't be meeting officially that day and you know my good wishes to all of those candidates who have worked so hard in an effort to become public servants either once again or or for the first time and everyone home safe and thank you god bless and good night this meeting is adjourned you