001good evening ladies and gentlemen we're ready to begin this evening's board meeting Sergeant arms everything okay thank you we request all electronic devices be turned off or put in silent mode also please refrain from using flash photography except during the special presentations portion of the meeting prior to start of this evening's meeting we have been enjoying music from the Cape Coral high school jazz program this is a select group of students from the Jazz department at Cape Coral high school who recently received the highest rating of superior at their music performance assessment members of this group were also recently featured at the city of Fort Meers Latin music festival I am pleased to welcome you to the October 3rd 2023 Schoolboard meeting the time is 6:02 p.m. and this meeting is called to order we
002will now hear one more song from this amazing group thank you we will pause briefly giving these performers time to clear the pit area there it's great to see that jazz is still alive that's right student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district's Vision to be a world class school system this evening's agenda includes the invocation presentation of colors and Pledge of Allegiance acknowledgements public comment consent action items which include two items under Board office five items under academic services and one item under which is good cause Dr berer would you please provide an explanation of this one item Mr chairman members of the board members of the public we're bringing forth this item for good cause due to the nature of the action the Florida administrator code requires a quick turnaround
003for District staff to file to protect the district's interests and such action requires board authorization thank you as presiding off officer I find there is good cause to add this item to the agenda there's also three items under Business Services two items under Human Resources seven items under operations one public hearing and four items under the good of the order of their business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda Mr fiser motion to adopt the agenda tonight including the good cause item M Jordan second second moveed by Mr fiser and seconded by Miss Jordan please record your vote motion carries as is the custom the board I will lead us in the invocation afterward Miss Morgan will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance would you please stand let us pray we
004come before you today with gratitude for the opportunity to gather as members of the school board entrusted with the important task of shaping the future of our educational Community grant us wisdom patience and understanding as we deliberate on matters that affect the lives of our students teachers and staff help us make decisions that prioritize the well-being and growth of all those who under our care we ask for your guidance in promoting an environment of respect and inclusion within our schools where every student can Thrive regardless of their background or circumstances bless our Educators with the strength and passion to impart knowledge and nurture the hearts and minds of our youth may they find fulfillment in their work knowing they make a profound difference in the lives of our students as we engage in discussions and
005decisionmaking may we always seek the common good putting the interest of our students first we recognize the challenges we face and responsibilities we bear grant us the courage to address these challenges with Grace and resilience we pray for a successful and productive school board meeting May our efforts today reflect on our commitment to serving our community and advancing the cause of Education amen am introducing the cadet who will present the colors tonight is Lieutenant Colonel John bler Senior Army instructor for the Cape Coral high school JC program Lieutenant Colonel bler retired from the Army in September 2013 after 26 years of service this is his ninth year as jrc instructor in the district thank Miss Morgan presenting the national colors tonight is Cadet Jacob Martinez the cadet commander of the Cape Coral high school JROTC
006program Cadet Martinez serves as the Director of Outreach in Cape Coral's Student Government Association he actively participates on the JC Raider team as well as the JC drone competition team he is a current he is currently applying to and has received offers from various Junior military colleges around the nation please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you may be seated this evening's student representative is Casey morset Casey is a senior at Cyprus Lake High School she currently participates on the varsity track and field the flag football team the soccer teams and was highlighted as this District's student athlete of the month
007for September you left off cheerleading sorry she told me she was cheerlead okay not that she doesn't have time to do anything else she is a member of the National Honor Society of Dance Arts the student government Association the national Senior Honor Society and the Yearbook staff at her school Casey currently holds a 4.28 GPA and she plans to attend UCF in the summer to study Kinesiology while minoring in business after college Casey plans to start her own Physical Therapy business and stay as connected to the athletic industry as possible please welcome Casey next on the agenda are acknowledgements for the month of October Casey the character word for October is respect respect means showing regard for the value of persons or things through courteous consideration and appreciation the design you see displayed on the
008screen was created by Kristen Huffman an 11th grade student at Le Lee High Senior High School the school board of Lee County acknowledges the following events for the month of October 2023 disability history and awareness weeks October 2nd through 13th national school lunch week October 9th through 13th national school bus safety week October 16th through the 20th National Red Ribbon Week October 23rd through the 31st National principal month National bullying prevention month and the national Italian American month thank you Casey the next item on the agenda is public comment attorney dupe Bruno please address the item of public comment thank you Mr chairman and good evening 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
009the operation of the school district please complete a public comment card and put it in the basket provided if you need a public comment card they are provided by our staff the rules concerning public comment are posted in the back and will be made from the podium in the front center aisle please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers concerns will be addressed by the superintendent or his staff as necessary and the chair May comment as deemed appropriate as May the superintendent if deemed appropriate at the conclusion of public comment comment the purpose of public comment is to Pro provide feedback on District issues such as duties responsibilities decisions and the general operation of the district the school board is Viewpoint neutral during public comment we
010ask that decorum be kept and respect be shown which is what is expected when a government agency conducts official business therefore abusive language such as cursing insults derogatory language levied against an individual or a class of people are prohibited further personal attacks such as name calling are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing or a display of temper during public comment is prohibited speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order by board chair or the parliamentarian any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone for board policy 016 9.1 and may may be removed from the chambers by the Sergeant at Arms per board policy 01691 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 speakers 2 minutes if there are
01130 and 1 minute if there are 31 speakers or more the maximum time allotted for public comment is 1 hour 60 speakers you will find a countdown on the big screens in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the mic microphone and I will call your names five speakers at a time please follow staff Direction when lining up Mr chairman there are four individuals that wish to address the board this evening the time per speaker is 3 minutes thank you is there anyone who would like to speak and has not filled out a comment card seeing none if please proceed thank you Mr chairman the follow will the following individuals please line up Dr Paula Porter Jerry rare Robert
012Daniels Denise a burrow good evening and happy band books month or week I'm Dr Paula Porter from Lehigh Acres I wish to speak about an issue I noticed when reading board policy P 2522 challenges to adoption or use of instructional library or reading materials I'm quoting the first few lines of this policy the following individuals may contest the adoption of specific instructional material or object to the use of specific material used in a classroom made available in a school library or included on a reading list a parent of a student in the district and resident of the county as an author editor English and literature Professor the use of and in that case means that both of the criteria must be met by the person issuing the challenge in other words those who do not
013have have a student in school do not meet the St the stated criteria I also consulted with two colleagues who are law professors to further verify the legal use of and they indicated again quoting and means both are required if or is used then one or the other can challenge as a policy is written many book challenges submitted by others who are not parents then should not be accepted as they do not meet policy criteria another issue noticed in a few of the challenges I found on the School Board website is a requirement for the complaintant to read the book in its entirety some of the forms reviewed are copying and pasting content from a website called booklook s.org This is not following the challenge form itself I would argue this is plagiarism as the
014original source is not acknowledged and is a form of cheating as well as a strong indication that the submitter did not read the entire book I find it hypocritical just a little bit to take the moral High Road of protecting students of banning a book through lying and cheating on the challenge forms to meet the criteria of the policy I would suggest that any challenge that you that is noted copied from another site from another source be rejected these forms are in violation of the expected requirements of the book Challenge and are submitted through dishonest means thank you good evening my name is Jerry wear and I'm speaking this evening on behalf of those kids that walk from the Renaissance to James Stevens and over at Franklin Park on Monday morning I received a call
015that one of the kids had been hereit I had addressed it with Dr Mallo during the proximity hearings that I did not feel that was a very safe area for kids to be walking so fortunately this child only has a broken arm and a broken leg my question to you this evening is what do you plan to do to enhance the safety of those kids walking from the Renaissance to James Steven and Franklin Park thank you very much hi to De Eberly 22 year resident of Alva your responses last meeting demonstrated you did not listen to us at all this is how they translated to each every one of us Mr fiser your comment was dismissive basically saying tough it's too bad Miss Patria the people of Alva gave educated professional and fact-based information not
016antidotes we are far from country bumkins Mr ganelli it's many many more than 30 people who spoke it was 183 per the petition the most current one and 60 plus at the Ala Inc town hall and 19 95 of a petition I submitted related to the 201617 proposed High School in Alva then did you watch the zoom meeting of two TH or did you watch the zoom meeting related to the Alva Inc Town Hall many people there Miss Morgan you repeated the same speech I believe it was 2 years ago related to Bonita almost verbatim you basically generalized our concerns and just offers us an excuse as justification for your vote Mr persons you are the most disappointing of all I don't think an explanation is needed as to why I only have 57 seconds
017left Miss Langford and Miss Jordan thank you for doing the responsible thing I submitted many emails to all of you not one has responded with answers for nnn it's $7 million $3.5 million more dollars than it was with for the for the Gateway School this school is $140 million how much over budget are you willing to go for nnn you will already be $33 million over budget in the capital plan and this is after Bor ing $2.6 million was the $7 million phase one is that part of the $140 million or is that an additional amount of money related to the NN and school those are just some questions I have I've asked I haven't received answer Robert Daniels I want to start by saying thank you to Dr berer you've helped me find my
018voice and a path to kind of give my role you know extra meaning and advocating in behalf of teachers and students and that would not be something I would have done without your encouragement over the last few months from the podium for coming up and speaking and the compliments you have given I'd also like to thank the entire board for the what looked like a sincere gesture of Good Will towards the teachers with the sharp and significant increases that we received at the close of bargaining last night I know that you did what you could I'm going to stay on my point that going back 20 years to when I was in high school here in Florida in Highlands County that even after the increase is adjusted for today's dollars I'll be making 15,000 less
019than what my biology teacher was at the same point in their career those 20 years ago so I feel like we still have a couple of steps left to go in the same direction I do wish there were more of us here to continue to hammer that point but I will remind you that I'm here because still when the news story started you know about a month and a half ago one of the first reactions from the district was to ask for the name and school of employment for the teachers that were voice and concerns speak up listen up culture is something that I hope we've embraced it's something I'm taking you on trust that we're following that was an echo of the previous administration and it scared a lot of teachers away from speaking
020I don't know how many problems are going to go on noticed now because you have teachers who are so concerned that things are just how they always used to be I'm my concerned how many students with special needs have needs that are not being met because the teachers are un willing to speak up and criticize what's going on with them how much is going unkn because of something as simple as request and teachers who are you know saying there is a problem must be identified when they've already gone through the trouble of speaking up if not publicly but at least look into it without trying to find the culprit furthermore the whole subject of book band and I feel someone needs to come out and say it none of these books are banned in Florida
021you can go to a public library you can go to a bookstore you can go to anywhere to get these books if you want your kids to have them you just simply cannot go to a public school library for your child to without your permission get access to a book that once they read what's in that book there's no putting the genie back in the bottle you have done a great step with this to protecting our youth and I continue to encourage you to put the safety of those students first and the right of the parent parents to control the moral growth of their children before the advocacy of those who would usurp that right Mr chairman that concludes public comment thank you Mr superintendent do you have anything you would like to address do
022have a couple of places I would like to comment back if that's possible regarding the instructional materials challenge we'll certainly look into to the use of the word and I know our legal department takes great pride in their work as they develop policies we'll make sure that as we get into a second and third reading that particular issue is addressed the instructional challenge process has been around for a long time it is not just about Library materials it has to do with curriculum materials and other things and we'll make sure that we're in compliance with the law on behalf of the student who was injured walking to school the district has reached out and we will continue to reach out the Operations Division along with school safety whenever a student is hit goes out and
023looks at the area we will continue to divise whatever plans we can including talking with local government regarding crossing guards and other things that's one potential solution I want to make sure that I'm clear to everyone we're not promising that but we will always look into a situation that could be deemed unsafe and if they're unsafe walking conditions then the district has a responsibility to address those to the Alva Community phase one is just that it's phase one it's an opportunity for us to get to the guaranteed maximum price I know that this is difficult sometimes to understand when we're budgeting we're making estimates of what things potentially could cost the $140 million that was carried in the capital plan is just that it's an estimate of what the building would cost that's why this
024board moved away from just building off an estimate to a phase one of construction which provides you a guaranteed maximum price and then we hold the account with through a c contract we hold those Builders accountable for that maximum price and finally to Robert thank you for the kind words it appears that we have some more discussions to have myself and a member of Staff will reach out because I can tell you that request did not come from the superintendent of schools so I would hope that you would carry back the message that if people need to speak out or or get in touch or however they choose to get their message across we have Lighthouse and other areas where people can provide that information we'll take that information seriously and identities are not necessary
025finally at the request of the board I'd like to just speak to a particular item on the agenda tonight the national teacher shortage has required the school district of Lee County to take unprecedented action to find and hire new teachers we've increased our recruitment to a yearr round commitment we're going to where teachers are instead of waiting for them to come to us that's not just physically but that's through electronic means as well our HR team has continued to work hard to grow our own teachers through our high school academies and our principles are working onmy and scholarships that potentially could lead to employment I've spent time in elementary schools talking to third and fourth graders I will tell you that invariably in any class of third and fourth graders between three and four hands
026go up that they are considering teaching as a profession we must know who these students are we must nurture them through Elementary School into middle school with teaching programs that allow them opportunities to tutor and interact with younger children and then in high school we must continue to make our magnet program to bring our students a robust education that will allow them to move on to the Florida Gulf Coast just like many of our students do now with clap courses and requirements already taken care of spent countless hours this past year and we'll continue with Dr tamour and the president of Florida Southwest to continue to look for those opportunities for our young people to join our profession tonight on the agenda there's another new step to try to bring even more teachers to our
027district it is my recommendation that we enter into an agreement with University instruction to provide 25 teachers for the school year they will be assigned to two elementary schools two middle schools and a high school University instructor s employs temporary teachers similar to the concept of traveling nurses to help with the national shortage of nurses temporary teachers are not the long-term solution but they are shortterm help the amount budgeted for this contract is $2.9 million which includes the negotiated 10% discount that we negotiated however we will not spend that entire amount again it was a budgetary estimate based upon the cost of the teachers working an entire school year we currently know these teachers will join us after the start of the second quarter so there will be cost savings on top of that initial
028number in the budget it is important to note this is not additional money being spent we are spending money on this contract that we would have spent anyway to hire teachers to these open positions they are just not all there yes they do cost more than the people we've hired yes they do cost more than some of the people we've hired to fill spots but we do not have teachers for these classrooms and our students deserve a full-time certified educator to lead their instruction and the other members of these staffs deserve the opportunity not to have to cover a classroom that's uncovered by a guest teacher the 25 University instructor employees provided to the district will remain employees of the company until the end of the school year we will then have the opportunity to
029offer them a full-time job it is our belief that we can convince them to stay once we create connections and they settle into the wonderful community that is southwest Florida Plus at that time we can offer them the health care and retirement benefits their current employer does not provide we are aware of the economic headwinds that are making it difficult across Industries in Southwest Florida to find employees we continue to fight through them and mention the number of teachers we still need is the fact that we have hired and mentioned often the number of teachers we still need it is still a fact though that we've hired 617 instructional staff members for this school year which brings us to the issue in our strategic plan concerning retention if we can retain those teachers our numbers
030will continue to dwindle in terms of needing more these 25 do not fill the Gap but it does help we will place the 25 teachers that are most at risk schools with hard to fill POS hard to fill openings for this reason it's my recommendation to approve the contract to the benefit of our students currently the way it's planned and ensuring that 25 arrive there will be there will be several teachers placed one in first grade at G Weaver hips one in fourth grade at G Weaver hips and one in fifth grade at G Weaver hips there will be four teachers at Fort Myers's middle three in English language arts and one in science in River Hall we have one in kindergarten one in first grade one in second grade two in third one in
031fourth and two in fifth East Le County High School will get one in Reading three and 6 through 12 math and one social studies and finally Oak Hammock Middle will receive three in English language arts one in mathematics and one in science again this is not the perfect solution but it is another attempt for myself our HR department and for our commitment to trying to help support first and foremost our students who deserve a full-time certified educator but also to help our staff our principles and other other individuals to ensure that they don't have to take away from their instruction to cover for someone else thank you thank you Dr berer for explaining that to the public next is the approval of action items under the agenda for consent the documentation for Action items listed
032under consent is made available to board members seven business days before the board meeting we are expected to review all the material and we have the opportunity to speak with the superintendent oneon-one with any questions we may have regarding the recommendations some of these items have also been briefed or workshopped with the board before appearing on the action agenda board members are there any agenda items you wish to pull for discussion under unfinished business table items Mr fiser I have no items Mrs janelli I have none thank you Mrs Patria no thank you Miss Jordan I have none thank you Mrs lford Fleming I have none Miss Morgan I have none thank you and I have none is there a motion to approve the agenda consent items as listed I motion to approve the agenda
033items as consented okay is there a second M Jordan yes all right would you please record your vote motion carries 70 Dr berer would you please please introduce any administrators and attendance with a new assignment that was approved under the consent agenda be happy to Sir Mr chair members of the board members of the public we have three of those individuals in attendance this evening first with a change of assignment is Michelle D she'll be joining the Early Childhood learning services division as the coordinator of the Head Start program second I have Caitlyn cell we have Caitlyn cell who will be joining the team and family of Ida S Baker as the new assistant principal and finally members of the board we have Bridget McGill she will be joining Early Childhood learning Services again as
034a coordinator for the Head Start program Mr chair those are all the appointments we have this evening to all of you congratulations on your newest assignment to the family members gathered with you thank you for your help and support to this point to get them to this part of their career understand they will continue to need your support moving forward some more than some more than ever because of the nature of the work they do and the importance of the work lastly I just want to remind all the people who have been promoted to administrative positions this symbolizes a very important process that this school board and this superintendent has for each and one of you and it can be summarized in one word that is trust we trust you to do your job each
035and every day to the benefit of our children to ensure that each student achieves his our highest personal potential and then you help us achieve the ability and the designation of being a world class school system so thank you we'll take a moment here if those that were recognized and their families would like to leave and go spend some time together celebrating please feel free to leave right now as I always say make sure you're on time tomorrow morning okay Dr berer would you please present your recommendation for this evening's public hearing yes sir me Mr chair members of the board item Q one is the approval to adopt the 2023 2024 student student progression plan in compliance with the changes and related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency
036and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be October 4 2023 thank you we will now recess the regular school board meeting and open the public hearing the time is 6:42 as indicated the public hearing this evening is to consider Dr beran's recommendation as previously stated at this time the public will be invited to speak on this one item the time allowed for public comment is 3 minutes is there anyone in the audience that would like to address this item please come forward okay hello my name is k I'm currently a guest teacher and I was just curious if the travel teaching thing was supposed to address the guest teachers I currently am a recipient of the growe own teacher scholarship so I've been going to school to become a teacher in Lee County
037I was really curious if that travel teacher thing is also open to current guest teachers because I think that would be a really great way to stay in a school sort of traveling and like getting my feet wet versus like just doing day-to-day sub which is what I've been kind of doing right now and is there any you mentioned like I heard mentions about like benefits as well which would be really nice because current gets teachers we don't get benefits or any sort of job security which is not nice to feel okay excuse me yes unfortunately the comment now has to be only on this one item oh what's the item there's approval of a student progression plan oh I am so sorry my first time at a board meeting she email us Mr chair
038yes point just a point of personal privilege we have members of our team here in the audience who work with our human resource division they'll be more than happy to see you they're going to see where you go back and sit down and they'll make their way over to you they'll be able to work with you and get your questions answered okay thank you're welcome and thank you any other speakers on this item I will now close the public hearing and reconvene the regular school board board meeting of October 3 2023 the time is 6:44 Dr berer would you please restate your recommendation for this even evening's public hearing item yes sir the item is q1 approval to adopt the 2023 2024 student progression plan in compliance with the changes and related rules regulations and
039statutes to adopt best practices and to proot transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be October 4 2023 thank you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved to adopt the 2023 student progression plan in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be October 4 2023 board members is there a motion to approve Mr fiser motion to approve the 2023 2024 student progression plan right is there a second I'll second Morgan Miss Morgan is there any discussion seeting none please record your vote okay the motion passes 70 Dr berer is there any you would like to address regarding this public hearing any further no sir okay thank you we will now move
040on to the good of the order and other business board members comments and reports I'm going to start with our student Casey would you like to start hi I would just like to say thank you to everyone that is on the board for having me tonight and also thank you to Cypress Lake High School for all of the opportunities they have given me making me a well well-rounded student and getting me to the place where I am now without the board the school and of course having like dual enrollment programs allowing me to be in all the sports and different clubs that I am part of I will not be where I am today so I just want to say thank you to everyone for supporting me past present and future thank you very much
041thank you for being here Miss Morgan you mind we'll start start with you tonight no I gave my comments this afternoon the only comment I'd like to make this evening is kudos to the negotiating team we have reached a tentative agreement and I'm very excited to see this process complete so those are my comments thank you Mr lford Fleming I do have a few things yes in regards to Mr Daniels I want every teacher to know every educator every staff member to know that if they have anything that they need to speak up about we are here to listen so please pass that word along that's something I'm very proud of that this board adopted back in almost a year ago I am so glad we have students back to entertain us with their multi
042multi talents it's just it's awesome walking in here and you hearing that so I was telling some board members that I played the saxophone in high school I was nowhere near the talent that we saw in this room today one thing I did want to say is I know Golden Apple applicants the applications were due and turned in by September 18th good luck to all of those that are now in that second phase we've got some All-Star teachers in our district so encourage you to continue on and pursue that I was able to attend Rock the school and game date Rock the school was something amazing Heights Elementary did with their teachers and then tangle Elementary turned their whole entire School into this amazing arcade for their kids it was just over the toop wonderful
043it got my Elementary School chills all going again so kudos to both of those schools one thing I did want to say when it came to the acknowledgements of for the month I'm not sure why I don't know if this would be a motion or anything like that I'm not sure why breast cancer awareness isn't part of our acknowledgements I know that's not something that students deal with but we've had many Educators going going through that horrible illness we've lost some amazing people due to that I know that a colleague on the board today was talking about something she was going to do this month to acknowledge someone dear to her heart and and I am as well so I don't know if that's something that we can add to our acknowledgements for the month
044of October attorney Bruno is that something we can so miss lford if you want to make a motion yeah the chair will entertain a motion I would like to make a motion that October is that on the month of October is added Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the Lee County School District thank you is there a second second okay Mr fiser we'll do a roll call conversation oh discussion discussion and then public comment okay public comment first I'm sorry anyone like to make public comment okay any discussion board yes M Jordan okay I believe that not that I have anything against breast cancer awareness because it has affected people in my family as well but I thought when we did this acknowledgement there was a Cadence of what was to be on this and what
045was not to be and so I don't know where that falls in line because I know which I will bring up when I when it's my turn there was something that was on here before that has been taken off of our acknowledgements so I guess that would be to miss depri Bruno so the board does have some guidance in its protocol manual with regards to acknowledgements and let me pull it up so it's on page 12 in your protocol manual school board acknowledgements or statements of honor and support acknowledgements brought before the school board for consideration must meet the following criteria be in alignment with the vision mission and values of the school district relate to one or more of the following areas education health safety or welfare of Children and Youth history of a
046group Culture heritage family community engagement and education recognition of the work of District employees thank you m depro so I'm not sure where that lies oh Health yeah health for sure okay any other discussion seeing none we'll do a roll call vote on this Mr fiser i m j vanelli i m Patria yes please M Jordan oh go one with the board M ler Fleming I miss Morgan I and I'm an I we will add that to our acknowledgements for the future as well as for today I just had one more thing Casey you're like a girl after my own heart with your athletic background Kinesiology is an incredible career path for you I'm so glad to hear you're adding business along with it because I feel like one day you're going to own your
047own PT business so I encourage you to continue along that path I'm a little jealous I was a fifth grade teacher for about eight years and I kind of wish that you were on my kickball team when I was a fifth grade teacher our kickball tournament so I feel like you would have helped tremendously but congratulations on how far you've come and I know you don't know me but I'm incredibly proud of of who you are becoming so thank you for being here thank you for having me you're welcome Miss Jordan thank you I have a few things I also attended on Tanglewood the rock your school event which you are correct that was just an awesome day just being in that being in there with the students and the excitement that the students had
048and how much they really wanted to learn because they were going to get those tokens to to get a game or get something so it was just all all all around it was wonderful I also attended Lehi Senior High congratulations it's their 30th year anniversary it was a great day it was hot as heck but people were there students were there kids were performing it was really a nice day I attended the mayor scholarship ball which is many of our students from the West Zone have received four-year scholarships to universities or technical schools so that's always a great event to to see and to know that it is it is done and is going to a good place I also had an opportunity to speak at the north from Myers rotary club which was really
049nice to to have that opportunity to do that and of course Franklin Park is coming along that's exciting every day when you drive past there and you see the walls going up I believe all the walls are up and then now the rest of it's going to begin but I also wanted to bring today is the word is respect and this is something that was on our acknowledgements for years and now it is off of there and you know with the with the word respect and show and regards for the value of persons or thing through consideration appreciation and then I looked at this Proclamation that was done at arge County Public Schools and this is regarding today is well this month is L lgbtq history history month and that was very much a part
050of our acknowled acknowledgements in the past and it has been removed I'm not sure why it's no longer on on here but it is not so I just wanted to acknowledge that fact so thank you Miss Patria so Casey we sat here this afternoon for three and a half hours I think and we worked really hard like we got we received a lot of information from staff we prepared ourselves to make some future decisions like we don't talk a lot at this meeting but this afternoon we received a lot and by the end I was calling people by their wrong name and I was like delirious and not speaking very clearly but you make it all worth it sitting here with you and seeing your achievements and hearing you speak and you're the reason why
051we do this and your presence here tonight is a very happy reminder of that for me I do have a request will you please send me a copy of your flag football schedule seriously cuz if it if it doesn't arrive in my inbox I might not make it but if you send it to me and it's in my inbox I will definitely make it out to a game I couldn't be more excited that Lee County is doing that this year and I can see that there's some excitement surrounding the sport so best of luck to you oh my gosh you're good thank you for that and I will make sure that everyone on the board gets the first schedule once it is it finalized and I would love to see all of you guys out
052there thank you thank you those are my comments Mr J vanelli thank you I just want to congratulate all the U new the promotions tonight in the new assignments welcome Casey student rep as a also congratulations being student athlete of the month that's awesome I just wanted to thank you for actually being The Shining Light in our meeting tonight you really have been so thank you and I look forward to seeing what you what you're going to do in your future you got a great future ahead of you so thank you for that for being a great student I just want to thank the bargaining team I am looking forward to continued support of all our staff employees there's so much work still to be done and I'm committed to continue that work and is
053important to reinforce to staff to speak up and listen up that culture really needs to be embedded in everything that we do so it's really important that Mr Daniels brought that up because I've heard the same stories they want to know the name and the school people are from when they when they make a statement somewhere or who they were so I think it's that's really irrelevant it's it's more important of what they're saying that we need to hear and listen right so I think that's important please know you have my support on that speak up listen up culture October is National bullying awareness month and this is an opportunity to encourage the nation to act at the local level to create safe and supportive organizations bullying is unacceptable and the comments or conduct that
054belittles or demonstrates hostility or hatred towards others is not to be tolerated by being accepting kind and inclusive you can always help make the world a better place let's bring awareness every day together thank you that's it thank you Mr fiser thank you going to Echo the comments Casey amazing job just listening to even back there when you're talking I get exhausted by the amount of activities you do you were amazing one request though whenever you consider starting your business I hope you do it in Lee County so we'd love to have you here so a great job by the cape corl High School band that was awesome I really enjoyed that today many of us just want to acknowledge we and thank you to the Dr Brer and staff we're able to attend many
055locations on hurricane Ian remers day down to Fort Meers Beach that was a moving and positive ceremony so they're not all the way back but there's progress there we also went went out to Lexington Middle School and saw that amazing gym great job to our construction staff on that looks great we went over to santel to commemorate in what was going on with Ian as kind of a cookout where Dr berer even helped cook great job great tree planting as well which was amazing great to see those students and we finished up over at Hector caffara Northwest Cape Coral I can tell you the Cape Coral Community is really really excited about that school also attended the mayor's scholarship ball had a great time there and I thank the board there for doing that went
056to rock your school too at Tanglewood shout out to Tanglewood you guys did an amazing job I really enjoyed the the idioms with little pictures and the flashlight took me a bit to get it but it was amazing I attended Cape corl High School last week the IB breakfast in the morning where the students got to go over their senior IB essays and go over their topics and I was absolutely Blown Away we have some amazing students so it just it was amazing it was the the topics from biology to just Marine grass everything it was really cool so kudos to them also in regards to speak up listen up I agree with everyone up here make sure we know about it's important nobody should stay silent ever and I hope that District everyone acknowledges
057that and understands that last I want to acknowledge again to teachers and staff I'm excited thank you to our bargaining team and the district for as well coming to a tenative agreement teacher staff we support you and thank you for all you do thanks thank you pretty much everybody has said everything that I wanted to say went to all the same pretty much all the same events there is one event coming up that wasn't mentioned Riverdale High School is going to be celebrating their 50th anniversary of was when it opened wow and also the very first class to graduate is obviously doing their 50th reunion cuz it started out I think 9th 10th 11th and 12th so they're having actually a multiple they're all invited to the same one all those years I guess that
058would be 73 72 7 no 73 74 75 graduating classes but they were all there in 19773 when they opened so congratulations to them of course we're doing a huge rebuild there and we're all excited about that Dr berer do you have any oops yes Miss Morgan so Miss Jordan made a comment about sort of an arbitrary change in our recognitions and acknowledgements I think we need to talk about it as a board because we had agreed on what was being recognized ized and acknowledged on a monthly basis and if individuals or there are decisions being made to change that I think they ought to be brought to the board before those opportunities or expectations for acknowledgement arise so just wanted to piggyback on what she said thank you okay I'll address that a little
059bit the problem with that is everything that we acknowledge is open for discussion by teachers and students because we acknowledged it and the new parental Bill law that was passed says you may not have any discussions on sexual orientation and genders in most of the grades so it becomes a very difficult position you're putting the teacher into do that it's almost like if we recognize it we say yes we'll recognize this but but you can't talk about it I I you know there's been several other one District did a plation and other District said I'm not touching it for various reasons so under best practices I think this board should just pass on those type of proclamations may I call a point of order this is not the time for board discussion if this is
060something we are to discuss it should be placed on a workshop or a briefing agenda that'd be fine too thank you Dr berer do you have any I think I think I'm next I'm sorry apologies that's okay I do have a couple of things actually a few things the first is to thank operations for inviting legal to join them when they brought the Department of Education down to come and do the educational facility and the srf training that was really great and we got 23 hours of continuing legal education from that as well so was a all around a good thing I do have a question for the board because the board has already given us a consensus to move forward to Second reading on the proposed policy as revised 2522 and we did hear
061a public comment so I want some direction from the board I'm going to read the document as it is the following individual with an S May contest the adoption of a specific instructional material or object to the use or object to the use of specific material used in a classroom made available in a school or classroom library or included on a reading list colon a parent of a student in the district and B resident of the county for purposes of this policy parent means a parent of a student enrolled in the district schools resident means a person residing in the county who has maintained their residence in Florida for the preceding year has purchased a home that is occupied by them as their residents or has established a doicle in Florida pursuing to Florida statute
06222217 so the question that was raised is because we have a parent of a student in the district and B a resident of the county whether or not you want to change that in to an or M Patria does the law require that no it does not the law just make sure that either a parent or resident of the county can make the objection so I can't I'm sorry the way I learn and think I can't listen to what you're saying I need to actually read it and have in front of me so in your opinion if I may through the chair in your opinion does that and after that semicolon allow either a parent or a resident yes if that's in compliance with the law I see no reason to change it any other
063comments no so then we move yes M my comment is are should we be having comments on this right now or should we be having a workshop on this no because this was already approved to go to Second reading which is going to be on the 17th so I want to make sure that I have the board's direction as to how you want me to move forward with that so that's why I'm bringing it up so if the board is okay then we'll leave it as is and move it to Second reading on the 17th is that's the board okay thank you and then the last thing I don't know I still don't know how to pronounce it I heard Miss Langford Fleming say Kinesiology Kinesiology Kinesiology I had to look it up I didn't
064know what it was but I'm certain that I will use it in the future and I hope that we keep in touch cuz I'll probably need your services congratulations Casey and best wishes thank you thank you Mr chairman thank you no I not quite sure what I have to add I would tell you that first and foremost I would like to just speak to Casey just for a moment I was had the luxury of not last weekend but the weekend before last to be out at Cypress lake and watch a football game let's just say that the first half was not going the way Cypress lake would have wanted it to and yet her and her entire cheerleading team which somehow she left off her resume you're going to have some explaining to do just
065were passionate and heartfelt and I will tell you just before the end of the half and as the second half started Cypress started to make a comeback and just the way you interacted with the fans and the way you interacted with your fellow students you and your entire team of cheerleaders deserve all the Credit in the world because when the chips were down you would have never known it standing on the Cypress Lake sideline so appreciate the hard work it was nice it's always nice when you can put a face with an event and know that you've been somewhere to watch them in their own element and I'm telling you I agree with Miss Patria I think we all deserve a great opportunity to go out and watch a flag football game because that's one
066element of you and your personality your stated career is another and I just have this amazing feeling after discussing with you your speed it will be fun to watch you on a flag football field so I'm looking forward to that schedule so that we all can look at our schedules and make that happen I just want to Echo the sentiments of the board related to both the teachers our tal Union and our spal Union for really looking at the agreement that was there I do agree with some of the public comment tonight it's a start I think we still have more to do but we can only do so much on an annual basis and still meet the con constitutional requirement of balancing a budget we had a great hurricane Ian update today I want
067you to know with your action today and passing the consent agenda you also provided opportunities for some of the additional sun shades to be either replaced because they're up for replacement but many of them are due to Hurricane and the principals and staff and children will be very appreciative of those Sun shanes as they start to go in I do want to just recognize our wonderful Communications team for their work related not only to everything having to do with hurricane Ian and we learned some of the other things they're working on today but the work specifically around the Hurrican annual anniversary and then specifically kudos to the team but specifically to Adam Wright for his documentary if the community has not seen the documentary it's out on YouTube it's it's a great watch Adam Wright
068did amazing work and looking forward to potentially recognizing him and then I just without getting into the particulars there were two specific requests at the last board meeting regarding an RSM audit and information on the millage both of those projects are moving forward I have to have a meeting with the chair regarding RSM and we are definitely will make dates certain by October 11th for the other presentation so just wanted to make sure you had an update on those issues as well lastly I just want to share some I think hurricane good news that we didn't really get to share today fort Myers Beach Elementary School is on track drywall and drywall finish is to be completed by October 12th paint will begin in some areas prior to that drywall finish on October 9th exterior
069Footers for the chiller pad are being poured and columns are getting ready for steel exterior fencing is completed less the gates which are in fabrication temporary AC units will be delivered should have been delivered already on October 1st and all mechanical electrical and plumbing is roughed in and ready for trim out we are still on track for that school building to reopen at towards the end of November so I want you want you to know that and want you to know that Fort Meers Beach that'll be our next big event out at the beach that'll be a different type of ribbon cutting and and a good opportunity for the community and for our students so thank you for that opportunity M Patria you wanted to yeah if I may Dr Bernie when the FHSAA was
070down here for state championships for baseball I gave Craig Damon the executive director of FHSAA a tour of the island and he asked if he could be included or invited to the reopening of Fort Mars Beach Elementary so I just I wanted to put that on your radar thank you I just had a number of Staff members who would be responsible for that invitation nod their heads they've got it all right at this point oh I'm sorry our next schedule meetings on Wednesday October 11th there will be a board meeting Workshop shop at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday October 17th there'll be a board briefing at 1:00 p.m. and a board Action meeting at 6: p.m. at this point having no other business to come before this body and see no objection this meeting is adjourned
071the time is 7:13 p.m.