School Board Briefing Meeting: April 23, 2024

001good afternoon everyone it's Tuesday April 23rd 2024 this is a Schoolboard briefing and the time is 2:30 p.m. there are seven items on the agenda quarterly reports for Schoolboard advisory committees for the third quarter independent sales tax sales sir tax oversight committee construction change order report from March 2024 job descriptions code of conduct public comment good of the order in other business per board protocol each member should strive for four minutes for initial comment and two minutes for followup with a total of 10 minutes during today's discussions we are going to begin with our quarterly reports for the Schoolboard advisory committees for this third quarter today do we have a representative from the construction advisory committee oh there she is you can go ahead and step up thank you okay this is going to be

002a very short report we only had two meetings from last time so we I will start reporting for the construction advisory committee I'm the chair I'm Clarissa parodi we had a meeting in February 2024 and we review the 10 years Capital update and Mr Ross executive director of operations and Mr Maloy from planning conducted a thorough review of the committee's recommendations concerning the revised 10 years Capital plan which which was initially presented to Le Count School Board in January and the following recommendations were provided enhance school school capacity and seating to reduce the cost per seat optimize building utilization by reducing the number of structures fostering a more Compact and energy efficient design of school prototypes lower maintenance expenses and investigate additional Revenue Avenues such as renewing the half the penny tax post 2028 expiration

003dates the next item that the committee review were recommendations regarding the job order Contracting program or J that was presented to the war also and the committee revised the presentation on the J program delivered by gordian in a prior meeting and upon review it was determined that the project management component of the program might not be economical economically viable for the district because the fee charged by gordian for providing Management Services for one average cost project equates to the salary of a project manager employed by The District in facilities who's capable of overseeing more than 10 project 10 projects annually so additionally the committee emphasized that this program could be problematic regarding competition of outof town firms potentially impacting local construction companies I hire locally pay taxes and contribute locally so even when we don't

004have formal recommendations there was strong opinion regarding the this program so in March 2024 we have the visit from planning Joel de Gman planning coordinator and he gave an update to the committee regarding the district plans to accommodate projected student growth in the district and all of the new schools proposed by the capital plan so the discussion was about different aspects about prop property acquisition utilities funding sources emergency shelter requirements a student enrollment forecast it was a very interesting meeting so same thing we don't have formal recommendations but it was an eye opener to see the growth that is projected and how the school district is working to accommodate that and as a good of the order and given the extensive construction agenda for the next five years committee members emphasize the importance of discussing

005the professional qualification selection process or RFQ requirements guidelines scoring criteria Etc and that will happen in our next meeting in April where we invited procuran to give us a some information regarding the procedure so everybody can understand it and that's it thank you thank do you have any questions superintendent or board do we have any questions okay seeing none oh okay Miss Patria I think I'd like a little bit more detail regarding the recommendations you don't have to do it right now who's who's my construction advisory maybe at a future briefing you could break this down for me and let me know a little bit more what this means that would be great so to the two of you those my comments thank if you have any question regarding any of the items I can

006clarify it not a problem I'm thinking it's probably like a 105 minute discussion that might be better at a briefing if you're okay with that okay thank you thank you thank you all right next up do we have a representative from the curriculum advisory committee with us today good afternoon I'm Bethany Quisenberry the director for elementary curriculum and instruction I'm a Staff liaison for the committee the committee met February 26th in February the committee held a hybrid meeting members received information about the process for the social studies adoption they were able to ask clarifying questions and learn how to view the selected material prior to the school board Action meeting which was on March 26th in addition members reviewed the media access form members discussed the wording of the options Miss Patria encourag members to

007review the July 26th board workshop and July 31st board briefing meeting to learn more about the wording of the options members received links from the committee secretary to view prior to revisiting The Forum at the March meeting members also inquired about the number of media Specialists serving our schools and the data was shared with members as requested Mrs padria as also highlighted the new sport of flag football for high school girls and talked about the importance that Sports plays in engaging students in school three members signed up to participate in upcoming ad hoc committees for book challenges at the March 25th meeting the committee held a hybrid meeting members continued the selected topic of learning loss administrators from school counseling and M Health Services shared information about new required legislation regarding resiliency they highlighted the

008initiative and shared examples of how the district is providing instruction to support students and teachers while meeting legislative requirements the committee also Revisited the media access form there was a motion to make a recommendation to remove the form but it did not pass another motion was made to suggest edits to the form but due to time constraints the motion was tabled until the April meeting which will be April 29 9 there were about 60 to 70 members of the community present and 12 elected to share public comment on the media access form thank you superintendent or board members do you have any questions okay thank you thank you do we have a representative from the district advisory Council today board apologies for my appearance I rode my motorcycle today cuz the weather was just awesome

009so you work from home you're working the computer all the time you got to take every break you can get so three meetings so far this quarter really just happy to report that we have outstanding participation in the district advisory Council lots of people want to have their voices shared and you see you and it's not segregated to one area or one grade level it seems elementary middle and high we have good representation from parents both the actual sack memb from their schools and members of the public as well that join in I believe that having the online meetings are really the key to success on that one where you know you don't have to worry about people coming meeting down here and fighting traffic on their motorcycle just as a as a random example

010on January 31st we had our first Dak meeting I understand you all will be briefed later today on the code of conduct and I thought it was a wonderful briefing it was well well received Mr Ron AI excuse or or rusy excuse me if I think mispronounced that twice talked about the changes in general people were fond of what they were presented the idea of having QR codes and better access was important and I think they're going to be talking to you about that later this afternoon but one one thing that stuck out was the inclusion of AI with cheating and so again I think that's something that's on the agenda for this afternoon but something that we discussed on the deck was it was overly Broad in its language and so if we were

011to say that you know you have a couple words really on cheating in the code of conduct and if you just broadly say all use of AI is cheating you know it's a it's Ain to when spell check came out saying anytime you see a red squiggly line you're cheating or you know anything to that effect using calculators is cheating you know I think we need to be very specific and cautious when we decide to dictate how students use this tool it is undoubtedly the future so much so I work for a private private Equity held company right now we have mandate in the next 6 months we have to tell our owners how we're incorporating AI into our company and this it's happening all throughout the business World our students need to learn Ai

012and we should do nothing to inhibit their growth in that area responsible use absolutely we need to talk about that I think that's what they'll address later but we had a lot of discussion on that and it's really important that we make sure that we don't stifle growth in this rapidly expanding area moving on to February 28th we had a great briefing from human resources on staff retention generally the DC members we have a good representation of teachers or former teachers on the DC and so they definitely provided their input on you know the challenges facing our districts are tension ideas to help recruiting nothing maybe that you haven't heard all before challenges with compensation the cost of living here in Lee County of course being an issue transportation in Lee County you know and

013the challenges of being in the district maybe you live South in Bonita Springs and then you get a job up where I live at Mariner High School you know you're staring down an hourlong commute and that's that's not really unique to Lee County except for the fact that it's a countywide school district and so that's you know if we're trying to hire teachers from outside the state it's just one more barrier into an area that's already struggling for Recruitment and then on the retention side you one comment was made that it seemed as though the retention numbers were aligned with the national average so you know while we want to keep everyone as much as possible of course and we don't want anyone leaving for reasons that are avoidable you know hostile work environment appropriate

014management not feeling like you have a voice all the normal things in general it seemed as though our overall retention numbers were in line with the national average and so maybe the focus needs to Pivot slightly toward deliberate turnover and so how do we manage people that we want managed out and then more importantly what are we doing on the recruiting side to make sure that there's always a constant flow of new recruits in a pipeline if you will to to manage that and that was offered to to the committee no public comments were received a couple comments for the good of the order then finally in March 27th we had an amazing briefing on student enr enrollment Miss Ralph talked to us about the cus system and efforts to improve student enrollment a lot

015of time and energy was focused on how do we reduce the line outside the district building as much as possible various ideas were submitted I don't know if you all have them all was on our Jam boards but the things that stuck out was you know similar to how it public you have the kiosk for your vehicle registration maybe that could be an option explored for district res you know District registration people move to the area they have to register their vehicles that may be a way a good place for outreach and another comment was reducing if not eliminating the need to come to the district office all together initially the question was why does anyone need to be seen in person it's 2024 I moved to the district a couple years ago and did

016it all online and the team was amazing so and we're really glad to be here but it quickly became apparent that due to a myriad of fact on an exclusively online application process is Impractical for good and bad reasons but maybe what we need to do is decentralize it to where we Empower school counselors there's a hey you live here more likely than not you're going to go to this school talk to this school counselor and set it up that way and so you have your a distributed en enrollment process just like so many things armchair quarterbacking of course it's a complex thing and the committee was gracious with our input and that W that wraps up the three meetings that we've had we've got one more yet this month it's my pleasure to serve

017and answer any of your all's questions thank you so much superintendent or board members any comments Dr Savage well I wanted to defer to the board members first but I just have to really thank you for highlighting a couple issues one in particular just want to start the first one you mentioned the AI certainly I think is vital we in education we're in a futurist profession and that we're essentially building for the future which is evolving in front of us so it's that in of itself is a very difficult thing to do because you're trying to build a foundation for the time you can't quite predict exactly but it is very clear that artificial intelligence is a extraordinary part of the future and how we kind of embrace and understand our role in helping to

018prepare students for that world that they're walking into our current staff and leveraging all that is a huge body of work so looking forward to potentially more conversation on that but just thank you again always Dak for really getting into difficult issues and providing such unique feedback the other thing I just have to say because it's always been a huge issue for me is that line out of the door anytime we're in the student assignment and I know we've made really good steps to try to address with a culus system a lot of other things having data on that but it is a huge huge issue for us that we want to continue and one thing we have looked at in the past was decentralization because we do have Information Specialist guidance counselors folks who

019can enroll and receive records and things like that but moving those are massive shifts as you know they're they're just that's phenomenal work but thank you for really being being engaged on important issues and just can't thank you enough for your service my pleasure thank you any other board member comments okay great thank you do we have a representative from the equity and diversity advisory committee with us today good afternoon Madam Vice chair to our superintendent Dr Savage and also our attorney and our board memb I am not Dr Christopher Blakeley and I am not Dr Paula Porter however I am Jared Edy and I serve as a staff liaison for our District's advisory committee the committee has had two meetings since the last time they appeared before you the committee met on February 12th

020of 20124 and received a presentation about the student code of conduct as well as the district's non-discrimination policy that briefing and informational overview was provided by Mr Chuck Bradley as well as a student code of conduct by Dr Dr Dr Ron arusi the committee deliberated and have much discussion about the code of conduct and they will offer official recommendations through their board liaison your colleague Miss Debbie Jordan in addition to that conversation your attorney Miss Kathy Bruno presented the coordinator for civil rights and Equity compliance Miss Jennifer Fuller who introduced herself to the committee and discussed the process for investigation relative to title 6 title 7 and Title 9 for the month of March the committee met and received a presentation from the newly Meed Executive Director of Human Resources Mrs susette Rivera Who provided

021an update about Recruitment and Retention strategies additionally through a formal motion brought to you by your board liaison Miss Debbie Jordan the committee did meet and gave a recommendation relative to specific District departments across district and District policies the committee met for the month of April and on April 8th they offered a very Hefty list of recomend recommendations to close out this year those will be provided to you in a forthcoming communication to wrap up our advisory committee Year and that is the report submitted on behalf of Dr Christopher Blakeley who sends his regards as well as Vice chair Dr Paula Porter Madam Vice chair thank you any questions or comments from our board or superintendent Miss Jordan I just want to thank Mr Edy for all that he does with this committee and then

022I had sent you all the recommendations at the last meeting so you already have what Mr Ed is speaking on I just wanted to make sure you remember that thank you thank you all right thank you have a great afternoon you too do we have a representative from the finance advisory committee hi veryy Ryan chair of the finance advisory committee for February during our public comment Alva community members raised concerns about the proposed School location and its overall cost Kelly lecher budget director gave a presentation on the legislative update the committee requested a representative from the HR department to present information regarding salaries exit rates and exit interviews for March during the meeting we did not have enough members to pres present to establish a quorum however we were joined by and Angela Mont Morano

023Chief human resource officer who presented who was present to answer some questions from the committee members she informed us that that the Evergreen compensation survey is still pending which will help us understand how competitive our teacher salaries are compared to other counties furthermore the human resource department is currently undergo undergoing a transformation and a new position will be created to include a national recruiter the committee requested to review the exit interview form and discuss and discuss initial data from the Evergreen compensation survey in our next meeting thank you any questions or comments board members or superintendent Miss Morgan thank you for your report but I I do want to say that Finance advisory has not had a quum the last two meetings the lack of attendance concerns me and I think I'm going to bring

024up in my comments that we need to consider a way to EV have get feedback from committee members about their participation on these committees and the use of their time so that would be my because you know staff takes time to come and present and when you don't even have enough people to really have a good conversation about the material presented it's it's really a shame so I think we need to do a little bit more work on our end about committee work I will also say referencing the comment about Alva being at the meeting one of the things Alva said was that why don't you have a facilities meeting facilities committee because you have a finance committee that looks at your budget and you have a construction committee that looks at work underway but

025you don't have any way for the public to engage with the board in an ad hoc way on growth and what growth means in terms of areas of the county new schools additions to schools that sort of thing so I'm going to bring that up again in in my board member comments and maybe make some suggestions so those are my comments thank you thank you for your presentation absolutely Miss Patria if I may through the chair ask whoever knows does Finance advisory have a hybrid option available both in person and online all right thank you any other comments or questions right thank you for joining us thank you do we have a representative from the strategic planning and accountability advisory committee with us today thank you madam chair I'm Bill Ribble I'm the vice chair

026of our committee and I want to thank Dr Savage for his leadership this year and for his in-depth report that's in your binder and I'm going to just take a few seconds to recap it because I know you already probably previewed it I'm happy to say we have a great Committee in place this year we had 15 members of our committee we had a quorum each and every every time the last time we met we started to talking about recommendations in March and it was so passionate that we rolled it in and decided to have another meeting on April 11th so as as leas on chair Mr fiser can attest there was a lot of passion in the room but believe it or not we agreed on on our recommendations I'm going to share with

027you in a second two areas of strategic plan that we addressed this year was objective five and you heard about this in three other reports it comes under code of conduct promote a safe learning and working environment a lot of passion and discussion on that objective five number six to increase employee Recruitment and Retention and of course addressing the turnover as I mentioned the last meeting we had we all agreed to support the Strategic plan by improving both the quality and transparency of data systems and it's really the first time we got into report reporting of data and in-depth reporting and we had a lot of folks on our committee this year that are real passionate about it they have a lot of training in the workplace and some folks from FGCU some professors including

028our chair Dr roric as many of you folks have probably met over the last couple of years as our board chair so we had two recommendations I'll just boil them down briefly the first one being Rec recommend to the board that Finance should be included in the direct budget funding to establish integrated information analysis and capability so we need some funding for that and the second recommendation is for the board to direct staff to develop a program with specific objectives and timeliness to collect col collect collate and Report information to the public on on the district's website and that should not be limited to but including Capital plan projects student Behavior student teacher ratio metrics and the district Finance reporting included that's all we have do we have any questions on the report board members

029Mr fiser thank you Madame Vice chair thank you to Mr ribel Dr St and the rest the committee this was a this was a very fascinating committee to be on they really Dove deep into some of the things we need to be looking at with data so I'd also like to thank Dr Savage being the leaz on this year we really really got some some good feedback and some of it we've Incorporated through the briefings and I'm kind of looking forward to some of what they're what the future and I can go through dur in board comment about the recommendations maybe with Dr Savage a little bit more but they really brought some things to T and there's very diverse people from just either in business industry teachers ftcu so there was a lot of

030opinions in there that really really as I said I really enjoyed it and actually mired a lot of our discussions with when we were working on the Strategic plan refresh so I just wanted to say kudos to all thank you any other board member comments questions superintendent okay thank you thank you next on the agenda is the independent sales ctax oversight committee report Steve Shimp committee chair and Susan Malay committee lays on good afternoon I'm Steve Shimp I'm chairman of the independent sales sir taxed oversight committee and I'm glad that there's an acronym for it we refer to it as the iso that makes it a lot simpler we do have a PowerPoint presentation for you today and I'll walk you through that and then encourage you to ask questions about our activities the in

031and basically what we're going to do is walk you very briefly through an overview and some of you have heard this before of of the composition and function of our committee share with you the results to date of of the sales tax that have come in most of that are numerical but it'll give you an idea of how much of an impact in an overview basis it's it's made on the committee we'll talk about compliance and with the referendum and the results of our committee's efforts the district communication District level Communications to the public that have happened with regard to the sales tax communication that is really a bit new targeted at schools in a very specific way as to the impact of the sales tax and then some efforts on behalf of committee members

032to get out in the community and try to express to the community what's been going on and after that I'll be glad to open it up for U for questions and hopefully I can provide you answers and if not I'm going to refer to Susan Malay who surely will know the U the independent sales C tax oversight committee was formed as a result of the passage of the referendum about five or six years ago which levies a sales tax in Lee County for four purposes our committee members are pretty Broad in terms of their expertise some of us have construction backgrounds there we have some accounting backgrounds we have people in real estate we have people that have served in government and we have past employees of the district that are really quite valuable because

033they have an insight as to how the district functions our committee is comprised of 15 members and two alternates our alternat do not have voting rights unless they become one of the 15 members each of you selects a couple of members for our board and you're familiar with that we have staggered terms ranging from 2 to four years that those two-year terms are now a thing of the past as long as one wants to continue they were a function of when we got started of our initial group some of Ser served a two-year term and then could be recho or or agree to serve for another four we all have to be residents of Lee County and we do have to serve with no compensation and that's fine with all of us none of us

034have asked for any pay I really thought that was kind of comical in in a number of years I've been there and we decide that if we did that you'd probably tell us that we weren't worth more more than a dollar and we don't want to hear that so there are four authorized spending categories that the deals with and they are the key to the functions that we perform the money is intended to be spent in accordance with what was passed by the voters on construction on safety on maintenance Capital maintenance and on technology and our function as a committee reporting to the public is to ensure the public as best we can that in fact those four areas are where the fir the funds are being spent it goes without saying that an exclusion

035area is for operations we are not allowed to expend sales tax money for things like salaries in the district that sort of thing switching to the results so far we have U the district has received $507 U million do so far as a result of the sales tax a considerable sum we've only expended 352 million of that but that is somewhat of a dece number and that the commitments that have been made on construction projects get funded over a period of time so a higher a considerably higher amount of that number has been committed to projects so that the 352 can be easily misinterpreted if you don't understand that capital projects are expended over a period of time we've seated 4,767 students in new seats in the district new schools we have eight new schools

036that have been built with sales tax money we have seven schools that have been undergo substantial renovation and major Renovations that are that are in progress we have Safety Systems in place in all schools you all must be familiar now with the walk through standards that we walk through the weapons detection system that's in addition to numerous things that have to do with the flow of people in and out of our physic physical facilities traffic patterns Security in terms of cameras and U various steps that can be taken in the event of emergency as well as communication with First Responders at both the school and the district level we've placed 22,000 Chromebooks in elementary schools and 73,000 Chromebooks for the what we call the student refresh program every student in Lee County has access to

037a school district to a Chromebook and I think and I tell me if I'm wrong Susan we are in the top 1% of the country in terms of the number of students that have access to using a Chromebook that's an exceptional pool pool in the day and Ken when you talk about AI coming in you know that's in preparation those students as well 100% of our schools have received improvements as a result of the of the ctax in terms of our report and our our findings as a committee I would encourage you to read the minutes when they come out from our meetings there are questions asked by our committee members does this necessarily fall within the the tax portion you know what was intended there are questions that are asked about specific projects and

038answered so it's not that we put your staff through a grilling but I'm sure that they understand that there may very well be questions from their reports as a result of those inquiries and the quality of the reports that we have from staff in each meeting we've been able to pass a motion that in fact we approve the financial report that's been placed in front of us and we approve the U the projects report that is offered to us to ensure that the projects that are funded are within the district's responsibility next I'll go to communication your website is not is not new communication the district website with regard to the sales tax has been in place for about 5 years now you should go to it regularly as you know all are familiar I'm

039sure there are multiple tabs that you can click on and take a look at what's happening an individual school can be looked at that's important to the public that they can look at their school your your media department works heavily in in press releases on our projects funded by the iso or or by the by the sales tax and social media has been used regularly somewhat new has been in the past year the district has gone to reporting at the school level those specific projects that have been funded by sales tax and on this side on the right hand side you'll see that's a that's an insert in a in an athletic bulletin that explains that on that particular campus the Lehi Senior High School 9,538 N2 has been spent on improvements that have been

040funded by the sales tax that is generally an effort to thank the public for passing the referendum and last and maybe least of all the communications our committee felt that as citizen members that we ought to step outside as individual citizens not internal to the district and speak to what's happening as a result of the sales tax we prepared a PowerPoint presentation that overviews it gives some specific results fair amount of work went from your staff and that's because we're probably a little more demanding in terms of would you modify this would you modify that when we got it to the point where our committee approved it to take it to the public we have presented that to a number of locations the I think we started at the foundation of Lee County Public Schools

041but we've hit the rotary clubs of the cape Estero Fort Meers North Fort Meers we have presented to the National pan atantic Council we've been to the Horizon council at the Estero chamber leadership class as well it's really been very interesting to be the presenter in those we reached some we we do encounter some people who would would be against attacks in any event no matter how what it was for and they speak up and that's all well and good but generally speaking I can report to you that the public reception of those presentations has been positive and I think it's positive because there are private Enterprise people making those presentations they're product Collective of the of the district and our committee but for me as a taxpayer I always like to hear another taxpayers

042say that can't possibly get some benefit out of it you know gee this is going pretty well and you ought to be happy about it I I put some stock in that and a number of our audiences done have done that we have more presentations scheduled we'll be at Rotary South on April 29th and then we're working on setting up the Hispanic chamber and various qu Kanas clubs if you as a board member have not attended one of those presentations I would encourage you as those dates are set you know come join us we'll we'll low key you or or introduce you right up front whatever your fancy is we can let you hide in the back of the room or sit at the front table but those presentations for you to hear them and

043see the public reaction may be of interest to you with that I'd be glad to field questions board members or superintendent do we have any questions yes Mr persons I was just wondering cuz I can't remember I'm getting old what percent of the sales tax is from non-residents or tourist or whatever that's in our presentation I'd have to refer to it but I think that's a 20% number if I'm remembering correctly right thank you it's significant right M Morgan yeah I just want to compliment Mr Shimp he has been the chair for the last three years at least and he has he's the one who's really pushed the committee to put together this presentation that goes out to The Community peers speaking to peers in the community about what the sales tax is doing and

044that's really important because you all know those of you who will be on the board after this year that there has to be a conversation about what happens going forward and the extent to which the community is familiar with what has taken place thus far will be I think critical in terms of our ability to go out and have that conversation again if that is what this board chooses so I want to thank you for your work and I want to thank you for pushing the committee and I want to thank M Malay and her group because I know that you two work together to put these presentations on and I would I have to correct you in some he's only been two years that I've been chairman I would I would tell you that

045when I rolled out the idea there was no question no hesitancy on the part of the committee to do it this was embraced and your staff has really given us good support you know the quality of the presentation we give they update numbers every time to make sure we're current and you've got some pretty good folks in in your in your presentation and media Department that have assisted us there's always a technical person there in case our laptop blows up to help us so we can't click our clicker and you know that's kind of neat too but they've done a great job supporting the speakers that makes our job easier so thank you Miss Patria yeah I think I say it every time you come in front of us it's you and others on the

046committee bring automatic credibility to the position I'm very grateful not just for your service on ISO but taking it a step further and going out into the community I know that there are people out there who are no tax no matter what I was one of them until the facts of the half penny sales tax were placed in front of me but if I continued to be one of them I would have a hard time arguing with you and with others on the committee because of your track record of success in business and the fact that you're considered a leader in this community so the fact that you're willing to go out and talk about this and it can be difficult I know I did a lot of it before it was passed it can

047be difficult you can be met with with some pretty angry push back I'm very very grateful that you're willing to do this for our kids and for our staff so thank you it's it's been interesting as those people have spoken up that they really didn't you know they saw as an unnecessary tax there were another three or four in the room said you know based to them basically at The Rotary Club level they all joke anyway you know now you're you're you're missing the point and those conversations have been have been there's very few people that it's not really been well received as for you Chris if if you take a position against it next time around we'll still forgive you we you know but but we'll tell you're wrong that's all Dr Savage yes

048I just want to thank you so much for your service and really on behalf of the rest of the committee I think just want to highlight a couple things one the independent nature of it's very important that folks understand that this is independent that this is not a district advocacy our role as a District administration side is really just to provide facts that is all we can do and that is all we should do that it is this is not our sales tax this is the community this is the voters the voters are the ones who who put this and so Our obligation is to provide information to the voters on what the impact of this is in the organization so they can make the informed decision and that's essentially why we contribute and help

049in that way is strictly to provide information that we are expected and obligated to do and so I just really want to thank you for always kind of walking that fine line of presenting get keeping all of us as a governance team informed for your advocacy that you constantly want to get more information for for folks to be able to know just so it's informed but just thank you so much for everything you've done it doesn't take that much time Ken I'm an old retired guy I've got time to do some of this stuff Miss Jordan thank you just real quick I again I want to thank you as well and I do believe that when people do see this it makes sense because they're actually seeing the fruits of Labor they're seeing what's taking

050place with their money and then also I wanted to thank you could you had made mention about the questions that are asked on the minutes it does show that there are questions and it's even written down what the questions are so it's not that you're having these meetings and people are not asking the questions those questions are being asked and answered so thank you for thatc appreciate it Miss vrio This is not for you Mr Shimp if I may to the superintendent through the chair it's been a while since we've had any kind of data presented to us regarding Chromebooks that used to be pretty regular occurrence when I first got on the board and I know some members of the public have pushed back and said said well why are we replacing them as

051frequently as we are and I know that there are answers but they're not at the tip of my tongue because it's been so long since it was presented to us so I don't know what the board's pleasure is but if we could just have a brief presentation on technology where we stand that would be super helpful thank you I think that's a great idea Miss fatri I would add with regard to the chome books that's been a you know that's been been a big part it's not a huge expense in terms of building whole building but a lot of the public doesn't even know what a Chromebook is and you know you that would be worth communicating more clearly how much out in front we are as a district that that would be worth doing

052because it's significant and it's a gold star you can hang up thank you yeah when I sat and listened to the last meeting that was a big big topic quite frankly so but thank you so much for serving our community in this capacity you're welcome next up is the construction change order report from March 2024 Scott rickenbacher is well we're going to welcome him to the podium thank you good afternoon board memb superintendent this is your March 2024 change order report as required by St statute as you will notice we had zero direct material purchases to report this month we had $1,948 in non-direct material purchase change orders and contingency adjustments in the amount of 9,363 12 the supporting information on page two breaks out what campuses and what projects these change orders were assigned

053to so we've had two zero as I mentioned zero direct material purchase change orders we had two change orders for Gulf Point construction at the prek Edition at G Weaver hips and at Fort Myers Beach Elementary we also had contingency adjustments one for Gulf Point one for tobler joint venture o at the prek Edition at G Weaver and also at Frankin Parks rebuil are there any questions board members do you have any questions superintendent okay thank you yes you as well next on this afternoon's agenda is job descriptions with Angela Mont Morano good afternoon board members superintendent attorney today we have two new job descriptions that were up for your review as well as one job description with a revision they were provided to you to review and at this time I'd ask if there

054was any comments or discussion thank you board members do you have any comments or discussion questions Dr Savage wow that was easy that's always easy right more thank you're welcome thank you next is the code of conduct this will be presented by Dr Jessica Duncan Rachel gold and Dr Ron Russy and Tommy Tammy Scott excuse me welcome thank you good afternoon I'm Rachel G I'm one of the directors of constituent services and student discipline I'm here with my colleagues Tammy Scott and Dr ronai rusy and we're here to talk to you about the student code of conduct go to the next slide hold on our agenda today we will review the updates we made to the 2324 code the legislative additions and the code engagement that we had we will also talk about the feedback

055groups we spoke to for the 2425 code the proposed changes and the timeline moving forward all right so our updates from last year to this year as you are aware we were able to reduce the size of the code from a little over 100 Pages down to 56 and we combined the elementary code and the secondary code into one book so now we are responsible for publishing an English version a Spanish version and a haian creole version that's three books rather than doubling that amount last year we also aligned our codes to be more in alignment with the state in our sessor coding so level one to five are aligned with one being the most severe we included QR codes on the information that we removed from previous codes and that has been well received

056and then we focused on threat towards a teacher was moved to a level two offense rather than a level three offense we also added a landing page on our district website that is more of an online type of book rather than parents accessing the book and then they'd have to flip through the pages in a PDF format so it was much more user friendly at that point so one addition that we will be doing is on our landing page for the code of conduct there is a phrase that says additional language setting options in the menu bar but if you do not read English you wouldn't really know that is saying that so our request is to add that sentence in Spanish and in Haitian creel as well so we're really looking for additional ways

057throughout our process for accessibility for our families this legislative update has been made to our current code for both the student code and the adult code of conduct this is the only change made to the adult code you will see that change when we submit the redline copy to you May 5th or may sorry May 7th Excuse Me Miss gold is your microphone on I just want to sorry shut off so this legislative update has been made to the current code and for both the student code and the adult code it is the only change that you will see in the adult code and you will be presented that with the redline copy May 7th and this change is stating that if a student chooses to use a restroom designated for the opposite sex and

058the sex based at at Birth and refuses to leave then that student can face a level three consequence so we wanted to provide you with some metrics in regards to accessibility who's accessing the code of conduct how and so forth so on our district website this was about a month ago when I received this the form of data so 9,52 clicks on the code of conduct itself but it was identified that just over 5,000 individual users have done that so that's done through the IP address and those metrics behind the scenes and then when we take a look at our acknowledgment so at the beginning of the year our parents are asked asked to get on their focus accounts and acknowledge the code of conduct currently when we submitted this data it was 70.37% but

059currently we're at 74% for parents and at 70% for students and oftentimes we're asked why 74% and why is it not 100% because this is a forced option for parents it's not they can't skip out of that process this is the first year that we've done that last year it was included in the directory information and this year the board had asked us to move it where it was a forced option for them so there are a couple of reasons why it would be 74% for parents and we don't have 100% of our students with a parent connected or linked account for the focus portal so not 100% and then sometimes our parents will have a linked account but they never go on the linked account so they may instead ask their child to open

060their Chromebook and go on your focus account and show me what your grades are so often times our parents will do that so there's two reasons why our percentage is at 74% for students our current percent is 70% we have a very high rate at the high school level but a much lower rate at the elementary level so thinking about a kindergartener going on their focus account that my daughter-in-law is a kindergarten teacher that is definitely not something that she is doing with her kindergarten students so just to kind of give you a little bit of background as to why the percentages are the way they are and then last is you had asked last year for us to have some kind of data that indicates how many parents and students access the code of

061conduct through the focus portal so 2,647 parents and then almost doubled that amount for our students good afternoon board good afternoon board members Dr Savage attorney Cory Bruno and other District staff members as you heard from some of the groups that presented tonight the discipline team has been out and about if you will speaking to as many stakeholder groups as possible to provide a lot of information about where the code has come from what feedback we've gotten from other groups and maybe some recommendations that we've received from all of our stakeholder groups so this slide just kind of highlights what we've been able to do and again credit the district for allowing a discipline team made up of three members to go out and do this type of work is really essential to the success

062of our code of conduct so some of the groups that we've we've met with over the past years we the three of us are we have been divided by I work with high school Tammy works with middle school and R I'm sorry Tammy works with Elementary and Rachel works with middle school so we've been out we've been able to go out and meet administrators oneon-one just to have conversations with them about what they see in the code of conduct they do also have representative groups that we meet with on a regular basis and then we've also had virtual meetings as of late to get feedback on some of what they've seen so far as far as some of those recommendations we've had different community group meetings we had two so far I think the this

063community group were recommendations of of board members of people to serve on that group met with them in February and March we consistently meet with Deans to get their their feedback as many of our Deans in our buildings are the boots on the ground people that are really dealing with the code of conduct on a daily basis we heard from Dak on January 31st the conversations that and the feedback that we had from them equity and diversity also Mr Bradley and I met with them twice to talk about the code of conduct and get feedback from that group many of you we've seen at parent University I think we had five or six of those across the different sites throughout the district and got some great feedback from them during those meetings we use QR

064code so that people could give us feedback by logging onto the system and and giving us that feedback we probably one of the most fun groups not that they're all not fun but the fun groups that we got to meet with was student advisory and there again some boots on the ground folks that are directly affected by the code of conduct and they gave us some great suggestions at the student advisory committee strategic planning and accountability met with them on two occasions student services had Community conversations not just about the code of conduct but out and about within the Community within each Zone to talk about what services are provided through the student services department and of course the code of conduct is a part of that superintendent's cabinet we've met with on a regular

065basis to to keep them updated and informed on some of the feedback that we're getting we also were able this year to meet with teachers and so at each level high school middle school and Elementary we were able to have each building send representatives of teachers to those meetings and so again three different zones three different grade levels great conversations with our teachers and got some really good feedback about the code of conduct and how that works for them as well so after we met with all of those stakeholders we would like to now present you with some some proposed changes to the code of conduct for the upcoming school year one of the changes is with peer conflict we have some concerns that were raised by the groups who spoke about students engaging in

066conflicts in secluded areas like bathrooms because the state changed how a fight was defined last year schools have had to rely on peer conflict more this year and the change we are proposing allows administrators to recommend Success Academy with a sarc review and a sark is a Success Academy Review Committee and that would give a team of district and school-based administrators an opportunity to review the specifics of an incident to ensure that the most appropriate consequence is given for that student or the incident that happened we are also proposing to add a Lo a new local code which would be physical harm we want to add this local code mostly we heard a lot from a lot of Elementary School administrators and this would be a code that would address behaviors that are more serious

067than horl but less egregious than simple battery also a concern that came up unfortunately we saw an uptick in students using racial slurs towards other students and so again at the secondary level we want to give principals the opportunity to recommend Success Academy with the sarc review simple back battery with the new local code of physical harm we have adjusted the level for simple battery and we are proposing to remove major and minor and just changing it to First and repeated to a level two we have made this change with the understanding that principles will follow the definition of the code we also in this threat and intimidation with this code we are aligning it to the state definition and removing the word felt so now we'll read the victim reasonably believed that physical harm

068could have occurred unauthorized area we reviewed that in Slide Five the student must use their designated restroom and again this is the only change to the adult code and then electronic use of electronic device so as technology changes our defin definitions need to keep up so we have included that electronic devices are not limited to cell phones but we also including watches earbuds those kinds of ancillary ancillary devices we also have included State prohibited websites in the code and the other suggestion that we are offering is to change the title from use of electronic devices to Simply electronic devices to make it clearer and easier to find in the code of conduct so we're going to go back one one slide and talk about some more proposed changes as you can see and we talked

069about earlier the change on the district website land landing page to make sure that you know directions as as where to go to to get the code in Spanish and creole will also be listed on the landing pages in those two languages we are proposing a little bit of a change in our search and seizure language and basically more of a housekeeping item I believe the our policy the code said use the term personnel and our policy uses the term Authority so more or less a housekeeping change there the range of corrective strategies based on feedback that we got from principles that because our code of conduct refers to some of those corrective strategies currently as plans and many of our administrators and Deans talk about the level of response to meet the level of

070the behavior because we F refer to the behaviors in levels and again as as you mentioned as the representative from Dak mentioned lots of conversations around cheating specifically with the use of AI currently we do have cheating in our code of conduct but we do want to propose that the misuse of AI would fall under cheating within our code of conduct and within that proposal there is a statement that says you know the district does understand that AI is part of the future and that we don't discourage students but we want to make sure that they use it in the right right way drug use and possession I'm going to go through that in the next couple slides but we're looking at a re a revision of school level responses again this is based on

071feedback from teachers administrators student groups all of them talking about the use of tobacco and drug use and how we handle those incidents insubordinate insubordination and disrespect a few few months ago we presented to the board some data on you know what some of our top code of conduct violations are and insubordinate insubordination disrespect is among the top when it comes to local codes so the conversations we've been having with our feedback groups is you know how do we really Define what insubordination and disrespect is so that we can provide Clarity to both teachers students administrators on what the expectation is around in subordination and disrespect and so we make an attempt within the code to further clarify that and provide Clarity for all of the stakeholders involved and lastly the off-campus felony is basically

072again more or less a housekeeping item to make sure that in the code of conduct we understand that official states attorney's offices must have charges filed in order for that and that's assessor code so that's another housekeeping item when it comes to off-campus felony so these are some the next couple slides are some proposed changes again when we're dealing with tobacco and drug use you know the main vehicles I guess that are used by students are vaping devices and so we have definitely seen an increase in the use of vaping in both drug use and tobacco use we've seen a larger increase at the high school level but we're also seeing it now down into the middle school level as well and so again based on feedback groups you know we did have some we

073have we have prevention for some of our students for firsttime use and then we do have some other levels of offenses for second and repeated offenses for students so you know we've heard from a lot of feedback groups that we'd like to see some consistency from building to building too on how we're handling these so this is would be you know really a proposed change that would give you some concrete more concrete responses to when students you know violate the both the tobacco and drug use so this slide here deals with tobacco so for a first offense is usually a level four and examples of that could be a detention in school suspensions any tobacc related offense has to be reported to law enforcement so whether it's first offense second or third it's all reported

074to law enforcement so on a second offense here's where we're tring to take a look at some consistency again across the district on what that looks like as as far as the level of of the consequence for that in relation to a second offense of tobacco but we're also trying to provide some alternatives for some of our students and our principles to be able to use a case by case basis and recommend to students some programming to to give to students so that they may be able to understand and educate themselves more you know on the effects of tobacco and why they shouldn't be using them so on a second offense that would that's where that would kick in there would still be consequences so you can have up to two days ISS and those

075and this is just an example of what a level three consequence might be but the administrator at that time might have some discretion to offer for that student and the family an opportunity to reduce that if they get educated using some of our programming that we would provide as a district and then on a third offense the again we're looking at currently we do have prevention but we've visited and got feedback from Marv our school districts on the use of prevention we'll be proposing a different type of solution for that which would include some extended school day maybe the possibility of having some after school programming which might be 90 minutes or so where the student might have to attend five and then the parent and the student would have to attend one one session

076of of the six total sessions and again that would be in lie of possibly a level two offense at that point so if parents are willing to sign off on that and make sure their kids participate at the completion of that that level of offense might be reduced if students wouldn't complete those requirements then whatever level would be proposed at the beginning would then kick in same kind of principles for the drug and alcohol use so typically our first defense you know we've we've also right now you know have have the level three of fence which could be up to three days out of school suspension if the kid if students are in possession and again this is different from distribution this is when students are in possession or use of of drugs or alcohol

077so on the first offense it would be a level three but again that could be could be a reduction as long as the parent and the student during the hearing would commit to some programming to educate students on the effects of those second offense is typically a level two up to 5 days out of school suspension all level twos can be a recommendation for this alternative placement center but again implementing implementing another completion of that extended school day option and we like the extended school Day Option all of our stakeholder groups are asking us to engage parents more in the discipline process so if we can get parents to commit to attending with their children education through an extended day format this is what we think is and many of our stakeholder groups have recommended

078and then the third offense obviously is a is level two Success Academy reassignment all of these again are required to be reported to law enforcement and then the last slide just talks a little bit about our timeline the discipline team came together really in late October and since October really until April we spent a lot of our time working with feedback groups and looking at the code of conduct and you know what our feedback groups are telling us what they like what they need to what we you know they feel needs to be changed or or tweaked a bit today obviously we're at our board pre-briefing we are looking at then getting feedback today and then providing you with the first draft of what you after what feedback we get from you for your first

079reading hopefully on May 21st then we can take board action to implement these policies to get ready for all of our code of conduct to be presented to our community in July thank you I will ask the superintendent first if he has any comments no Madam chair I actually would just prefer to to hear what feedback comes from the board and then I'll try to be responsive to that okay board members comments or questions Miss ganelli thank you for this I do have a couple questions and I I just want to also note that I love the fact that the additional the heighten hiding the levels for to support this our staff and our teachers they many times we hear they're not being supported so I think this will counteract that and hopefully in the

080classroom they'll feel supported but I wanted I would be more curious as well as the students because the students are going to see that the respect to the Stu the parents I mean the parents excuse me the teachers the respect there should be at a certain level and we're not I mean we hear lots of complaints from teachers saying they're you know the difficulty in the classroom and manage managing the classroom with the students being disrespectful so holding some of the parents accountable for their students I think is going to be key I think that it'll they'll they'll start it the students will get it'll reflect at home and so I'm excited to see that information and the data so I would like to see maybe a survey at the end of the year after

081school starts like s like maybe December a survey for staff as well as students to see if they feel safer in the classroom if it's working this if this change really is going to affect the management of the classroom for the for the teachers and the support and feel more supported so that would be one one of my things I would like to see after this presentation will y'all be presenting to the student advisory did they have any input in this that was one of the other questions that I had just curious on that and that's really all I have I'm excited to see this implemented and and what happens after in the classroom after that so the student Advisory Group are done with their meetings right now but we did engage them a while

082back to get their feedback so we presented the changes from last year to this year and then asked them for feedback and they did actually give us some really good feedback on on numerous items about what should be the level of response and obviously you know that group was is very interested in having some more responses that are a little tougher than than what we had currently so that was nice to see from them as well great I was just curious about that cuz they always will have an opinion if you ask them so I was just curious and then yeah I just am excited about this accountability piece I think it's going to be important for parents to be accountable and they be a parent and so if they're going to have to you

083know step up when their children do something wrong like you know the laws are making it so that parents are being helpable for what countable for what kids are doing their child's doing so you know let's start in the classroom thank you board members anyone else Miss Patria thank you so I have a lot of questions comments about AI I'm wondering first of all if we shouldn't be treating it as a higher level offense because it's so difficult to detect also repeated incidents of cheating don't result in a higher level of discipline it doesn't seem to be you know third fourth fifth incident it's all treated as if it only happened once I can tell you that you know you know guys know I have kids in the schools two times I've been informed that

084one of my children cheated the first was by telephone the teacher called and said your child I don't want to identify which child it was your child looked at his or her notes during a quiz and so and the question it was presented to me as a question is it okay with you if I give your child a zero for the assignment and I'm like whether it's okay with me or not should be completely irrelevant what is your policy as as the teacher and that was what I said I said why does it matter if it's okay with me my child violated a policy near a classroom you need to do what you need to do as the teacher and I will support you at home now I know not every parent is going to

085have that response a lot of parents are going to say my kid would never cheat I believe teachers more than I believe my own kids but the H how consistent are we being in terms of how we treat cheating across schools and across classrooms in the same school if you look at our levels cheating is treated as severely as a second or third violation of dress code we are an educational institution and we are not treating cheating more seriously than we're cheating it when I first joined this board this was a problem for me Kathleen I don't know if you remember that but this gets you kicked out of college this kind of stuff literally get you kicked out of college and it's a level for offense in the school district of Lee County those

086things don't compute for me and AI just sort of puts this front and center for me because it is so incredibly difficult to detect the second time I was contacted about one of my children cheating it was AI I don't know how the teacher knew that it was AI because I don't think you can prove it but when I read the assignment I knew it was AI because I know my kid and I know my kid can't write like that so obviously I supported the teacher but the consequence was not really all that severe you know I had a conversation with the principal and the counselor and I was like what do we do oh my gosh this is so serious and they said well you know we'll just make sure it doesn't happen again

087and I'm like but but where's the consequence how does the child beond the zero which the kid didn't care about kid doesn't care if they get a zero so how does the zero help to deter it in the future I'm really concerned about a I the potential for cheating and that my next set of comments has nothing to do with the code of conduct it's more directed toward the superintendant which is what are we as a district doing to teach students how to use AI responsibly what are we doing to teach staff how to use AI to make their lives easier what are we doing are we offering certifications to staff members are we offering certifications to students we talk all the time about accelerated programs for students our AI certification is the possibility something

088we can offer to our students the question we need to ask ourselves is do we want to lead in this area and equip our students for the future through the chair to the superintendent you mentioned that earlier I that was one of your comments to one of our community members who gave their report or do we want to react we can react by by putting a clarified definition in our code of conduct or we can lead in this area and I guess my challenge to you as I roll off this board in November is to lead in this area because this is the future and if we're not producing graduates who have a very very very deep understanding of how to utilize AI as a tool than we're failing our kids that's it was a

089great presentation but I'm really worried about the cheating and more so with the AI those are my comments thank you I believe it was Mr fiser and then we'll go to Miss Morgan thank you Miss Langford Fleming so great presentation I agree with what everyone set up here I'm actually going to pck you back on Miss Patria what she said and I what I know Ms Morgan and I especially I think since about this last December have asked for a workshop in involving AI I think you know it's a good first step but I think we need to have some kind of Workshop you know just even just from students from teachers just to Encompass like you said we want to make sure we're leading on this and that's something that's kind of Fallen by

090the wayside we've all asked for so if we could have some follow up on that point Dr Savage at some point so like even the definition I you know I it's tough it's not easy for you like even look at this you know I asked myself what about artwork AI generated artwork how does that fall I mean I guess you know that kind of stuff so I'd like to have this broader discussion on that but I appreciate it I know it's you know this is not easy for you so I appreciate that as well as again I appreciate the consistency in this and moving towards that but that also comes down to the point that many of us have talked about how is the application how is the execution because we know from building to

091building it's not always the same and we hear that feedback from teachers and staff so we have some great tools and we have some great updates to that but how is this going to be enforced and how is it going to be consistent across the board so that's my comments thank you thank you Miss Morgan well yes as as has been said previously we have set no expectations for AI we've only set you know we've said no cheating but we haven't set expectations and AI is all about deep learning and deep learning is what we have an obligation to teach our children and that's that's where AI comes in and it seems to me that if you just say using AI is cheating and you're not looking at how the child is using AI then

092you've got a real problem so that's why I think it's really important that we go there I do want to compliment you all on the work that you've done and especially on all of the Outreach you've done I mean the fact that you've talked to all of these groups gathered their feedback they will see in the code of conduct that it is responsive to concerns responsive to suggestions made I hope will ameliorate some of concerns about how the code of conduct is being implemented across the district by both families and children so again you know this whole notion that we we as a group as a team collaborate before we put some push something out is terrific so I want to thank you for that and those are my comments thank you Miss Jordan thank

093you thank you for the presentation I've been to many of these and I know that the insubordination was in disrespect was very very huge with edak and the community members that were there because they were concerned of the language barriers and what does that mean to our students are they understanding what that means because when we were out in the community and we were asking kids what does you know this word mean or that word me meant they had no idea what it meant because it's not in their language so I know that was but I do like the fact that they changed it as deliberate I mean I think that's going in the right direction but I just wanted to to shed that light again cuz I know you've been there and you've heard

094it all also the the report to I was kind of questioning this the report to law enforcement for tobacco so if I'm a student and I am smoking a cigarette I don't smoke just FYI but I'm standing there smoking a cigarette I am now going to be reported to law enforcement what does that do other than now a child's going to have a record so I'm trying to how does this how is this helping a student when now we're contact in law enforcement what happens a student could get a citation and this then a student could get a second citation if they have a second V ape or a cigarette and then if they do that within a time period get a third citation then they could either lose if they're not 18 they could

095either lose their license or if they are a younger student they could not get their license when they become 16 okay so that's really something that we definitely need to emphasize because that to me is could potentially really hurt a child which is and even if a parent were to allow their kids to to do whatever I just wanted to say that and then the report of oh the earbuds so earbuds are permitted how do you know if earbuds are on or off are you looking for lights on the earbuds if they're permitted in the electronics we are not necessarily saying that they are permitted but we are including them as as as if it were a phone so we are including that in in instru so it's non-instructional time because there's no way of

096you knowing if the child is right so if they're in during if they're in class those airbuds need to be off and away and in their book bags just as a phone would be okay because it doesn't say that's why I was asking that question so thank you for that and then my last question is the search and seizure so the authorities is the principal for that one principal or assistant principal okay so thank you so now we have schools who may not have and I know I just found this out the other day I was not even aware of that may not have an assistant principal so they're one individual so if that person is not there who then becomes the authority because there is no other person that takes that roll over it

097would be their design so administrative before they leave the building they say I'm authorizing you now because from my understanding from what I was told that if they're not there they have no there is no other person so when I just seen that I was like what is that mean there would be an administrative design on the campus that's the way it always is through the chair to the superintendent we can try to get you more complete information but when you're dealing with small enrollment schools that don't have the Staffing footprint to generate the FTE for a larger administrative staff that administrative design it's it's not that's not a new practice that's a practice where a person who actually could step in that capacity and some years actually received a supplement as well so that

098they were taking on some additional duties as a result we're getting some additional supplement pay but in in of not wanting to speak anything in error of the current environment of how it's being deployed I would request that you allow us to compile some additional information make sure it's fully accurate of where our current status is with respect to that designate and get you a complete answer on that thank you I'd appreciate that because when I heard that I was a little bit concerned that was even taking place so thank you appreciate it thank you Miss patrique and then Mr persons then we're going to move on thank you one question I forgot to ask was are we tracking incidents of I cheating separately like can you tell me Dr Savage you know we had

09950 incidents of cheating in our schools last year 33 of which were AI I don't think you can but it's a question to consider thank you Dr Savage yes Madam chair just want to answer a few of the board member questions that have been proposed Miss janelli your question earlier on was collecting perceptual data of is it working both with our students as well as our staff that is actually when you all provide the leadership on the district strategic plan that is an expectation of having that I think we're going to continue to look at how we collect that information we have some new tools because it's important that it's valid we know that we get accreditation data that isn't always the most useful to us doesn't tell us the why so we have some

100new tools incidentally they also work with artificial intelligence to theme analyze things that would take human beings a very long time to do it does it in a matter of seconds and so you're able to ask students thousands of questions staff thousands of questions I'm sorry thousands of them then get immediate theme understanding and that is that's a powerful tool that we're just learning how to utilize the second piece because many board members commented on the artificial intelligence just wanted to reiterate that this obviously is a critical priority for us so much the evidence of that is that this Thursday we're actually meeting with Mii Dade because they're considered one of the leaders in this space presently and so we're going to learn from from them as well and then collaborate but it's they're not

101just talking about utilizing it as an instructional Aid and how to do proper ethical use and how to properly use it very similar to the ways calculators had to emerg and figure out how do we teach them how do we utilize these tools or robotics or anything else they're also deploying it organizationally in unique ways and so as a value ad to save time and energy so we are working on that piece as well and I look forward to Future updates I did hear very clearly that the board has requested a workshop I think we would be happy to schedule something because this is a very important not just for you all but for our community and for our students thank you those are the answers the questions I have this time Mr persons on

102the electronic telecommunications devices you said that like the airb bugs would have to be off during class time but the way I read this it would be all day it says school hours so and phones and everything else need to be off all day is that correct or that is a conversation that we are having with principles and then our code of can you turn your mic on please thank you that I think that is a discussion that we need to have further with the superintendent because of during lunchtime and those you know non-instructional time some principles were do allow students to use their cell phones during lunchtime and those kinds of activities all right I personally would like stay the Way's written here but that's for another discussion another time the other one is

103what is the consequences for having your cell phone on during class time or ear bugs or whatever I mean it doesn't really say or maybe I'm missing it here the levels is it a level four or whatever or is it just confid ation until the end of the day use of your cell phone is a level three infraction and it can also if that's the first use of your cell phone and then repeat it as a level three with a sarc review okay all right thank you I know you said to move on but please just all right Miss Patria thank you I think Mr psons I agree with you entirely when I read what's written in the student code of conduct versus the response that I receive from you they don't Jive so some

104principles allow kids to use it during lunch if the board approves a student code of conduct that says it cannot be out and it cannot be used during the school day that principal cannot allow it to be used during lunch I don't necessarily think that's the way it should be you know I've got three kids in high school and if they couldn't use them in the lunchroom I think they'd quit school so that fine let him but but we have to be consistent we can't have something in the student code of conduct that's not being enforced in our schools am I right Mr person is that kind of what you were getting at a little bit maybe yes I just thank you it just seemed a little bit not in sync with what was written

105here so at our May 7th meeting we will have those answers for you absolutely all right thank you I'll just make mine very brief so that we can move on I agree whereas when when it comes to electronic devices it needs to be consistent across the district while I know some principles allow it some principles don't they all have great reasonings why they do and they don't first of all it keeps the lunchroom quieter but on the negative side of that then there's not communication between students and they're not talking to their peers and socializing and we you know and that's a concern of mine but yes earbuds out of the ears I've walked through several high schools where the earbuds are in the ears phones are out some of our worst fights that we've

106seen are because students have a phone and they're recording them so I don't know I know that's a like you said a conversation for another time but I wanted to go back to slides 10 and 11 and I know that we're really getting short on time here but this is a huge concern of mine can you just very briefly explain to me two things one where it says on slide 10 a level four first offense and then a level three second offense so what's the difference between a level four and a level three and then you go to the next slide and then the first offense is level three right then level two can you just brief that sure I'd be happy to so on the on the slide with tobacco so we the the

107code is different so tobacco use is a specific Lo specific cessor code actually as well as drug use and alcohol so those are two separate codes typically our tobacco use has a lower is a lower level offense than a drug use or alcohol so that's why you see tobacco listed as the first offense as being a level four which includes a range of again those those consequences for that so our code of conduct at each level has some options for some of our administrators to refer to there they don't always have to be the same so as you can see on that slide to level four could include a detention or an in school suspension or referral to the Hanley Foundation those are all listed in our code of conduct as level four consequences for

108the first use of of tobacco offense I don't know if that clarifies that for you so second as you progress through Progressive kind of discipline for the repeated offenses then typically then the second offense if you get you know if you gone through the first offense and you're caught and you get detention now if you do it again obviously that consequence wasn't severe enough to deter that behavior from the students so typically at that point we rais the level of what the consequence is for that offense so then my second question is why is tobacco a less offense than a vape I mean they're both illegal substances at those are those are defined by the state access code so that's that's actually a code that is defined by the state so the definition of that

109is defined there you do have some flexibility in the in the level of offenses but typically that's that's the way it's treated and I'm not sure exactly why I'm I'm assuming you know the drug and alcohol use is considered more of a safety issue than tobacco is for our students okay and I know that unfortunately there have been incredibly creative ways to get these substances on our campuses in the forms of candy and brownies and all kinds of things so huge concern of mine but thank you thank you for the this is a very heavy lift thank you for all the work that you all have done thank you all right we're going to move on to public comment attorney dupay Bruno please address public comment thank you madam chair School Board policy provides the

110opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda if you completed a public comment card please provide it to staff public comment will be held at the podium and the center aisle in in front please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers however at the conclusion of public comment the chair or superintendent May respond SE speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone for board policy 01691 and may be removed from the chambers there will be one warning per board policy 01691 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 speakers or less you

111will find a countdown on the big screen in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the microphone and we will call you five speakers at a time Madame chair there are two individuals who would like to speak to the board regarding this briefing okay please continue well the following individuals please line up Robert rer Jamie Merchant good afternoon Robert rooper I'd like to address the minutes of the last curriculum advisory committee and apologize for some of the conduct at that meeting I think it was The Perfect Storm I've talked to some other people about it I don't think it's any one person's fault but last year the roles were reversed I never made an issue of it and neither

112did anyone at the district but I was called a terrorist an extremist a Puritan book banner and the pastor of Darkness one meeting I was surrounded by a bunch of people that were not sharing my point of view and one followed me to my car by far the most egregious display of aggression that I personally witnessed at this last meeting was from a member of the committee toward a member of the public the Hallmark of the current media process is the default is to protect the child and honor the role of the parent to advocate for their own child contrary to popular accusation this does not ban censor restrict in any way any student's ability to access any material that is approved by the parent we have not nor do we desire to challenge any

113of the classics and even if we did the process would would protect that book this current process is very transparent airs on the side of both the communications with the parent and it honors the right of each parent to advocate for their own child while not imposing their own ideology on any other parent or child can you name the book that has this quote I kept begging him to stop but he just smiled and said he was going to f me up my ass anybody name that book that was a book that got a Stonewall award that's an lgbtq award sounds a lot like under age forcible sodomy someone would call it rape is it fair to say that not all parents would want their children exposed to this kind of material there are other

114quotes in that book that are much worse I challenged that book two years ago the ad hoc committee determined at that time that it would remain available to all students nth grade and up not every parent would object to this material and I understand that and I advocate for them but I do think that the current media process protects those parents and children that would not want to have their child have access to that kind of material there's a meme going around on social media right now it says when you give your child access to the internet you're not giving your child access to the world you are in fact giving the world access to your child I would say it's the same for some of these more objectionable books thank you good afternoon board

115members and superintendent my name is Jamie Merchant and I wanted to use my time to also discuss the media access form mentioned in the curriculum advisory report Lee count is the first County in Florida to implement implement this permission slip in just this one school year that it's been implemented five other school districts across Florida are working with their school boards to also adopt this permission slip in addition I have n networked with school board members and parents in other states like New Mexico California Colorado Arizona Ohio and Oklahoma who have expressed their interest in implementing this same permission slip in their school districts it's nonpartisan and it puts parents in the driver's seat when it comes to the content they wish for their minor child to have access to the concerns brought up about

116how many families haven't yet filled this out the answer at this point in the school year should be zero this form is part of the regular documents needed to be completed in order to have access to your students focus portal the other forms this was attached to include emergency contact forms and the medical release form so if there's any family that hasn't filled out the media access form they also haven't filled out these emergency forms it's the responsibility of each school to ensure these documents are completed in a timely fashion and with a little more than a month left of school there should be no family in this District that hasn't yet filled out these forms the default if this form isn't filled out is the students still having full access to their media center

117with the exception of challenged books just this year there are only three books that have been challenged but still remain after ad hoc committee review so families that haven't fill out the form potentially don't have access to three books depending on the age group of their child three books there's nothing wrong with this form and a majority of the complaints about this form are coming from people who don't even have to fill it out Lee County set a precedent with this permission slip how would it look to the other counties and the other states if you just pulled it leave the form alone parents are the solution and you should always protect the children first thank you madam chair that concludes public comment thank you superintendent would you like to address any of the public

118comment well I do want to specifically address Miss Merchant brings up a very important point I think in terms of the data reporting of completion and whatnot I just want to make sure we're very clear on the record you know obviously data is a very big thing to me and the data can only be as valid as when you're describing exactly what's being collected and when a district of our size you will find people who report our enrollment over 100,000 under 100,000 there's a lot of different things that can occur and a lot of it comes down to are Charter Schools included are you including pre students are you including adult education are you including special centers are you including schools with media centers are you doing that without of the so for me I

119did get some initial reporting but rather than sharing that because that was a board member question and staff went hard to work on it very quickly I saw it I had a chance to review it today just to make sure but but I have a follow-up question just to ensure that it's disaggregated in such a way that we can say transparently this is what was collected these are the grade levels is corrected once we have that additional information then I look forward to sharing that to answer because multiple board members had that question and I just think Miss Merchant gave the perfect opportunity to explain that to the public as well so they know it is a it is a valid question and there should be all students accounted for All Families accounted for and

120if not then we have to be able to be accountable for why that is not the case thank you thank you at this time we are going to move on to good of the order and board m comments I'm going to start with Mr fiser I have to go first now so thank you quick followup just on the committee I had a CSI Spa committee about a week and a half ago I think I know Mr Ribble had pointed it out they were in for a treat because instead of leaon they had the superintendent of the school district there so it was a little bit of a different opportunity for them so I know they really enjoyed that and Dr Savage is a great great job I promised them I would read their motions into

121the record they're a little longer so forgive me for this so the two motions were as follows recommend to the board that Finance should include direct budget funding to establish an integrated information analytics capability with appropriate Staffing and Technology tools to enable staff to have the ability to improve overall reporting intelligence and insights to various internal and external stakeholders so mouthful there the second one is recommend to the board to direct staff to develop a program with specific objectives and timelines to collect collate and Report information to the public on the district's website on various topics that include but are not limited to Capital plan projects student Behavior student teacher ratio metrics and District financial reporting funding spends so they're really just wanting to look at how we're how we're reporting stuff how arriving at

122data and expansion of that so just so as well so we make better informed decisions as well as the public they pointed out different school districts that do in go into some more data U I believe we talk I think Dr Savage mentioned some more even interactive in other school districts so that was kind of some of the basis for this I can let Dr Savage if he wants later up later on to to Filly on this I just wanted to say was a good meeting I appreciate that board so and that's all I have for the moment thank you thank you Miss Gianelli I have not I mean I said stuff earlier thank you thank you Miss Patria thank you yeah so you've got two weeks or two meetings worth from me me today

123so I'm sorry I went to the lcac Lee County Athletic Conference Hall of Fame induction dinner which was as always absolutely phenomenal the role that Sports and other extracurriculars play in changing the lives of our students was clearly evident that evening but for me the real highlight of the evening was seeing Dr dore's daughter Kera inducted into the Hall of Fame she was one heck of a basketball player in her day and I mean really her induction was what made me say yes to the RSVP because I've been to that event several times but it was very very special and what was super impactful was principal burnside's introduction so it was sort of a family moment come full circle because Dr dore's father was a member of the last class of dumbar high school in

1241969 when it was closed for desegregation through the bll loock decision and then his the school reopened and principal bernside was named the principal and then his granddaughter ended up going to that school and winning a state the very first ever state championship in Lee County for girls basketball so it was a wonderful historic moment I thought the way that it was presented by Mr bur side so that was an awesome event next I want to talk for the millionth time about flag football I believe the season is over if Riverdale is not still alive I'm not exactly sure where we are in terms of playoffs do you know they're alive they're playing out of town I forget where it is but yes so is Riverdale the only Lee County school that's still alive I

125believe so okay so Riverdale is the only Leon school that's still alive I will say that I watched just about when I wasn't here on a Tuesday night for meetings or out of town for funerals I was watching Bonita Springs High School play various schools across the district Mr Maguire their coach told the refs the rules I cannot tell you how many times there was a question about and it wasn't like I would do as a coach where I'd get in the ref's space and be like you're wrong he literally was explaining the game to the refs and they were open to that explanation because it's a new sport so I saw Bonita Springs go from really they weren't very good to a very what I thought was a very good team until they played

126Riverdale and then I was like whoa Riverdale is really a good team Riverdale could go could go really deep in the playoffs they were really really really good so that's it you won't have to hear about flag football from me ever again well I won't say ever accreditation many of us were on the call for accreditation the change in culture was highlighted by whoever it was that gave that presentation and I wanted to highlight that public public because I think it's fantastic that we as a leadership team have decided that a change in culture is important and that clearly was evidenced in the results of the accreditation process and I believe that Mr Gall breth was this he spearheaded the project for the district and he did a phenomenal job so thank you to Mr

127gbre for his efforts and congratulations to all staff on the results of accreditation since our last meeting I have attended an insurance task force meeting and unfortunately I don't have a lot of fun data to give you it was just sort of a ho hum meeting where we had a couple updates so there's my update for you on ITF parent University I went to parent University at pinewood's Elementary School and there were a total of three parents in the room the parents were far outnumbered by the number of Staff members in the room I was deeply deeply deeply disappointed but I also get it I understand why you know as I was driving down my street my neighborhood is right next to pinewoods there's a there's a gate that you can go from my neighborhood

128into the campus so I'm driving down my street to get to pinewoods and I passed several parents who were in their yards hanging out with their kids and I was like why aren't they at parent University the reason why they weren't at parent University is cuz we didn't give them a reason to go we didn't give them them a hook there was nothing on that agenda that appealed to the parents at that school and so I just I feel like we need to if we're if we're going to use staff's time like we did that night we need to give parents a better reason to show up and to leave their kids I mean I'd rather kick a soccer ball with my kid than go to parent University wouldn't you cuz you can only kick

129a Sher ball with a kid for like 18 years and then they're gone so we just we need to do a better job of figuring out what works in different parts of the district what works in Lehi is not going to work in Estero what works in Estero is not going to work in Fort Meers and I just feel like we need to do a better job and then finally what are we doing to track these recommendations by board advisory committees please I know that we used to have a process in place are we still utilizing that process and can I be confident that after Mr fiser reads recommendations from his committee that staff is acting on them and that we will be updated as to what next steps are please and thank you thank

130you Miss Jordan thank you and thank you Miss Patrick because you took half of my stuff away so thank I appreciate that it's been a busy couple weeks I've been busy traveling around Lee County I was at the Lee County Middle School and High School ban where we had nine middle schools participating 12 high schools participating they all come together together not knowing each other and Performing and they've just did an amazing job you would think that they have played together all their lives but that was really great and they they appreciate it getting the opportunity to to learn about each other I also I did a walkth through to of Franklin Park Elementary it's like coming along and it's really exciting to see that when you walk in there you can visualize the kids

131on the stairwell and it just it sidewalks are in there playgrounds are going to be coming in and they're going to be ready to you know start accepting these kids and it's going to be amazing so I'm really thankful for that I was at East Lee they did the top chef the our culinary students they shined they received three scholarships anywhere from 2500 on down and they had a box and it's like okay figure out what you're going to do with coton candy pretzels this that you had to add into the ingredients of your box and they did an amazing job as well I went by Fort Meers Technical College I did a walk through there with with Joe and the walk-in is still I wish we could get our walk-in cooler up for the

132culinary students we have a lot of culinary students and they're going to have U many more coming in and because of the fire that's still damaged from that but they're making do and I know they're going to do a grand opening so they're really excited about us all being there and seeing what has transpired and he had shared also that the new program the RN program 900 hours that Lee County is looking at doing that and we would be the first in the state to offer that which is really nice instead of bridging into a a college so that's a great opportunity for us and what's he's what he's envisioning for that area it's it's a it's very it's it's going to be great for us we did Healthy Living collaborative at Island Coast looked

133at the gardens the culinary program over there took the fish because they have the aquaponics they cleaned them cooked them made tacos out of them I know you like that Miss ganelli and that was again we had a lot of people throughout the community that were there to share what is happening and all the vegetables and everything that they are sharing with our students in our schools so that was amazing Golden Apple was already mentioned The Lion King of course is always phenomenal Janelle does a phenomenal job over there at North Fort Meyers high school and then this morning I was at the career advisory meeting which was at Island coast and I didn't realize this until today that we have the only Astronaut training in the State of Florida and they you know all

134the stimulators there which they were trying to get me to fly which I would not be able to be sitting here if I had and that was a lot of the community members came and participated in that and looking at all theems that we have there at that school as well so they're really trying to to Pump It Up at Island Coast to to fight for the students you know they know that we need to to keep going and then of course Tak stock today and that's it and now we're here and there's also a $2,500 scholarship that they an organization is trying to give out for our CT CTE programs for the kids and they really want to give this money away so I have a flyer they're go disseminated into all the schools

135and they don't want to keep their money they want to give it so whoever's out there listening that's are in these programs that seniors that are part of the CTE programs ask your school counselors and apply for this scholarship because they want the money to go away so they can get more money for next year thank you very much Mr persons I gave my update on the advanced Finance Forum earlier but miss Patria they are in the semifinals the Lady Raiders and they're playing in St Pete tonight at 7 can I be excus I wish them the most luck but they have a lot of skill also so they are really good that's all Miss Morgan oh dear I have I have several things first of all thank you Mrs Patria for mentioning the accreditation

136process that was quite quite a statement she made about us so that's great just some shoutouts to school counseling and Mental Health Services because some of the district high schools are in fafs of Fridays one time is an opportunity for parents and students to meet with their Stu schools College and Career specialist and get one-on-one help completing the FAFSA which as everybody knows this year is an extraordinarily difficult process so thank you to them for doing that Psychological Services which continues to do their evaluation clinics on Saturdays to address the ongoing demand for comprehensive psycho education evaluations that's asking a lot of Staff but they're doing it and I just wanted to shout out to them a shout out to HR the total number of employees funded through Esser was 258 we keep asking what's

137happening with those employees 150 have been retained at their location I mean that's huge so there's another 92 or so to go but we've got we've got some time so a lot of effort there and that's I know that was a tough carry or continues to be a tough carry I went to the ja Inspire career Expo and I just want to show you this I know you can't see it but this is this is put out by scansa which is a construction firm and it talks about career paths and construction and it has 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 about 20 roles R ranging from project management down to supplier down to legal it has job descriptions for each of those areas it has Preferred education for each of those areas and it

138has career path for each of those areas the whole point is that you don't stop by scansa just to talk about construction you stop by scansa to talk about if you're into doing Digital Arts or whatever it's called they're may very well be a job there for you and I think actually was showing this to someone at a different booth and he was going to run over and get it for his kid who's in high school because she didn't want to come because she didn't see any job job she didn't see any Industries or companies there that were specifically geared to her interest and he said but but your interest is covered in in these other Industries and so you have to look at that so just a shout out to them because we're running

139short on time I do want to bring up again surveying or figure out a way to survey committee members there has been dissatisfaction with Finance advisory for several years now and the fact that people are not participating is not good and so we really do need to figure out what it is that we're we're we're doing that is failing to attract and engage community members and I want to bring up again for board discussion along some of these other recommendations this business of a facilities committee I don't know that we need another committee but I do understand the frustration of people in the community who say I don't hear about something coming to my area until it's it's in the budget for the First Step I would like to know what's going on so I

140throw that out and Sam that's sort of a long oh your comment which I did not I have to say I did not understand at all that first comment you read but I got a little piece out of it which had to do with finance and I do believe and I've had these conversations with Dr berer in the past we need to do a much better job with our finance reporting on the website I've I've I know we need to work with Communications to do that but but there there needs to be some work done there those are my comments thank you very much thank you superintendent do you have any comments Madam chair I shared my comments but I just want to make sure I answer the board member questions that were directed for

141this and so just very quickly U for Miss Patria the question about staff acting upon the board member advisory we will reconvene with our team that is across set and ensure we have proper action and answers to that question thank you for for raising it as for the Sesser employees the tracking piece Miss Morgan will continue to provide that update in in the board weekly or any other method we have that the board would like just to track how we are closing down on retaining employees wherever possible also as far as the survey committee members who are who were failing to attract or engage that's definitely something I'll bring to that same committee when we reconvene about the board advisory plus the just the facilities committee I understand when we have a construction committee that

142is really important that folks understand prior to it ever getting to construction it starts with planning and part of planning is how we engage and so I really appreciate the push for us I think maybe that's something we think about is perhaps if we were to rename our committee a facilities committee that represents a totality of the front end of sharing the growth data of showing all the things that go into that process which occurs in some cases years before it even gets into the budget but it helps to I think we learn we constantly want to improve our process and engagement and that doesn't mean everyone will be happy either way it just means at least it's transparent there's opportunities for engagement opportunities to share data and you can have a balanced Rich discussion

143in those settings far before it ever gets to shovel in the ground or even design drawings and so we just really appreciate apprciate that I just want to level set with the board that is a sentiment that because I did hear that from one member but if that's something you want us to continue to look at I'll certainly mention raise the issue with them if that has the board's support behind it okay I'm seeing nod so I'll take that we does mean we'll move forward but we'll bring you additional information on on what we recommend for that thank you so much thank you and I apologize attorney depay Bruno do you have any comments I do not thank you madam chair we will have a student performance tonight at 5:45 followed by a board Action

144meeting at 6: p.m. at this point having no other business to come before this body and seeing no objection this meeting is adjourned the time is 4:30 p.m.