001good afternoon board members the superintendent Trinity Liberto on behalf of chair Michelle Dr Michelle stork I'm happy to share the CSI fourth quarter work there were the way the CSI was organized this year they waited to make any recommendations to the board until after a full year of review that gave them the opportunity to analyze data have multiple presentations and dig deeper on some of these critical issues the two areas in the Strategic plan that they focused one was Workforce success and one was in the area of the academic increasing academic achievement for all students the committee yielded five recommendations to for in its closing meeting at the sum of here so the five recommendations that have been made the first is the committee recommended for the board to explore a third party or external
002Agency for exit interviews and other data for instructional staff leaving the district the second recommendation the committee made was recommending for the board to explore coding and theming the climate survey data for the benefit of developing a shared understanding of what that data what what those data are the third recommendation by the committee was to recommend that the district better operationalize the climate survey process to include response of what actions are being taken based on those data the final two recommendations were in the area of academic achievement the committee recommended the district look at reassessing the data collected from ell students to track program exit rates with a focus on English language proficiency and the final recommendation from the committee was the committee recommended to ask the board to ask the superintendent to explore different
003ways for ell students to achieve success and potentially put together an exploratory committee to support that effort such as summer programming reviewing what other districts are doing the effectiveness of existing paraprofessional support what is working and how do we know and those were the five recommendations that the CSI committee made for this calendar year thank you Dr Savage thank you next up will be curriculum advisory committee good afternoon Bethany Quisenberry staff liaison for community community curriculum advisory committee we met twice since our last presentation here March 27th at our March meeting the curriculum directors with Dr Spiro reviewed two processes the first topic addressed the edits to the challenge to instructional and or media materials process the process was approved by the curriculum advisory committee last school year the first edit was a parent permission
004form to be used to allow checkout for any books that was still in the challenge process the team noted however that pending legislation that may result in the removal of this permission form as the proposed legislation would require a challenged book to be removed from circulation within five days of the challenge until a decision by the ad hoc committee was rendered the second revision was to include a parent permission form for any book that was restricted as a result of the ad hoc committee's decision there was a lot of discussion around what constitutes literary merit and more information was requested from the committee about the Miller test the second process document that we reviewed is a new process involving the new legislation requirements for media purchases the committee asked that we follow up with a
005request for more information regarding the Miller test for the April meeting and there were many community members present and a full hour of public comment on those topics April 24th was our last meeting the committee met to receive more information about the Miller test that is used during the challenge to instructional and or media materials process the district's legal team Kathy depuperno and Corey Hoffman gave background information on the Miller's test and reviewed each specific component in addition we reviewed pending legislation and what it would mean to our current processes no action was taken as it was determined that we needed to wait until those legislative updates had been needed the second part of the meeting was to come to consensus on the media purchase process the curriculum directors and Dr Spiro Revisited those documents
006with the committee and the approval passed without any objection from the committee there were also many community members present in that meeting as well any questions thank you thank you oh oh sorry I don't have a question I just have a comment I've watched those meetings I think you're the liaison Ms giovannelli recommended that we do so and I was so impressed with staff and your ability and desire to do what's right for kids educationally and in addition I was really impressed with the chair he's he has like a soft Iron Fist if that makes sense you know like he keeps order but he does it in an incredibly nice way I wish I could be more like him when I grow up so thank you for your work thank you thank you next up
007is District advisory Council good afternoon Scott Hertz on behalf of the district advisory Council we have met twice since the last time we reported to you the first time actually I've met three times but two of them fall in the reporting period we met on March 29th unfortunately we were just short of a quorum for that meeting which is the first time that's happened to us in in some time but what we did in instead of having an official meeting is we still had the presentation and staff solicited comments from the membership to get ideas on what was going on we believe it or not that was our first opportunity to have someone from the county sorry school districts attorney's office present to us the Sunshine Law and that occurred obviously due to Hurricane Ian
008and the in the impact on having those meetings prior we then had a presentation on Naviance from Candice alvero and that was an excellent presentation where a lot of feedback was given in terms of opinions obviously no official recommendations but in how to best lay the this out and raise these issues to the interest of stakeholders both for students and parents and to talk about sort of the Dual track you have there of teaching our students what they need to do to be successful and also educating their parents and support givers in what's necessary for those children to be successful because let's face it they're children right they're not you know our children including my own are not all as they grow up the most reliable or steadfast and honoring their commitments and one of
009the great things about these tools is it helps the people supporting them understand what these students need to be successful and how to encourage their students to get there while still holding them accountable for doing that so we thought that was great we continued providing the feedback on that and suggestions were made on how to roll that out and also thoughts about and incorporating some sort of family nights at local schools and things like that to to show that because at all grade levels that's a wonderful tool to help prepare children for the steps that are coming next so that was the March 29th meaning in our April 26th meeting we had a presentation on the Strategic plan and upcoming thoughts and feedback was given from our various groups and it's interesting that because we
010break out into the three different breakout sessions of the elementary middle and high school you actually saw that those groups had different priorities and so I would encourage you to look at those minutes again as I've told you before are we have continued to meet by zoom and really use those tools for the collaboration we have we have a very large Council or committee and we solicit a lot of feedback that way and we always include in our minutes as part of both the sunshine law but just because it's it's useful and effective the jamboard tool that we use if you haven't seen the jamboard tool it's essentially like an electronic version of Post-it notes or a board that you would use in a facilitation meeting to capture ideas and that's all capture and attached
011to our minute so you can read each of the individual ideas that you got to see how they play into your strategic priorities the top priorities that you got from the elementary group was the top priority was retaining highly qualified teachers then providing engaging classroom instruction and ensuring Equitable learning environments from middle school again the first priority was retaining highly qualified teachers and engaging classroom instruction but then it moved to Preparing students for life after graduation instruction and student development courses and ironically when you got to high school that was the top issue the number one priority Was preparing students for life after graduation then retaining highly qualified teachers and providing engaging classroom discussion so it's interesting how you see all three sets have very similar goals but as their children get older they become
012more focused on what is next and there were some more detail provided that the district should focus on things like financial literacy as opposed to just the standard math classes we find our kids are taking algebra and precalc giving our kids an Ace and dual enrollment are doing these Advanced maths but they don't know how to balance a checkbook they don't understand what that is they don't they don't understand what will be required when they get their first job and they have to file their first tax return and things like that they don't understand credit cards and credit card interest and what the meaning of those things are and people are apparently not teaching their kids these things or parents are not teaching a lot of kids these things and so unfortunately I think the
013school district still has a duty in local parentis to continue to educate our children about that and so a lot of that information came forth I would really encourage you particularly for that second meeting to look at the to look at the jamboard notes as you go through your strategic planning because it gives you a direct feedback just like you would get when you hire Consultants to do a town hall for you're getting direct feedback from your constituents and stakeholders about what the important items are and you know that's what I think this committee helps bring to you or give to you it is with some sadness that I tell you this is probably the last time I will be officially in in front of you I've been on the committee for 12 years now
014I've been the chairperson I think for the last it's either four or five years I've I've been the chairperson now I've worked with a number of the existing I'll say not not do newer board members haven't haven't been at liaison of the committee since since I've been here Mr Pearson's and Miss Fleming but Miss Jordan miss Patricia Miss giovannelli had worked with Gwen getting so I've worked with Miss Morgan all of them as you rotate through the Committees in my years on the committee in my years on the executive I've worked with a lot of you and I'll just I want to leave you with the thought to to please don't let this committee go back to what it was when I first joined some of you newer board members haven't heard my little pitch
015so if you'll indulge me I'll take a minute and tell you when I first started coming 12 years ago and no disrespect to the staff that was doing it then in fact I want to specifically give a shout out to Dr Carlin Dr Spiro and Dr Cupid McCoy who's continuing to carry the banner forward these are not the folks that did what I'm about to talk about they all worked with me to make this a synergistic process but 12 years ago when I was with board member patrika when she back when she was just a parent sitting on the doc committee they would invite us to come to the DAC you would have no idea what the meeting was about you would show up staff would do like a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation and say any
016questions thanks for coming go tell people about this and that was it how did that in any way improve what the district was doing today presentations are sent out to all the members ahead of time many times they have the opportunity to share those with their sacs a lot of times they do it electronically and they get feedback and questions from their sacs that they bring to the to the DAC committee we have a list that's been provided to you I've talked about in previous ones of best practices that have been developed one of the ones I'm most proud of the sticks in my head was Google Classroom during the pandemic when we talked about how folks were using Google classroom and there were a lot of complaints from parents about this is terrible there
017are other people saying this is the best thing since sliced bread there's a clear agenda I know what the homework assignments are my child can find out what's going on gosh for it my child misses a day of school here's where things are this is done and it's because some teachers use the tool in a phenomenal fashion and what we did is we gave feedback on that enabled the district to say let's find the teachers who do this really well and at that time it was Dr Sparrow we worked with the staff and they worked with your teachers and principals to develop that best practices and laid that out and I know that schools are still using that right it doesn't matter that we're in person you still have this great tool which is prepping
018them for what happens when you go to college and all of your classes are in Canvas OR Blackboard that's where your syllabus is that's where your assignments are that's where your responsibility is and now we're starting to teach our middle schoolers and our high schoolers how to go forward so I hope you don't lose that I hope with you know with me moving on and the passion I have that I've tried to bring to this to work with the district and work with staff to keep bringing forth these new types of things I hope you maintain that synergistic back and forth that it's meaningful feedback and it continues to to help the district and I appreciate all the work I appreciate attorney Dupree Bruno working with us to enable us to comply with sunshine and
019still maintain the electronic forms forums we were using to capture all this data again you know if I was in a meeting with 10 people I'd rather be there in person I'd rather look at everybody 20 people I'd rather sit around a big table and talk about everything when you get 100 people and you're trying to get feedback from them sitting in person and trying to get a hundred people to all give you a comment obviously it's very difficult to do so I really appreciate that I would encourage you to keep doing those things I've certainly told Dr Coop and McCoy that she's got my contact information I'm moving on I won't have a child in the district my daughter is leaving she's going from North High School to a full-time dual enrollment at fsw
020to take advantage of those programs so I won't have a school to represent so I won't be on the committee but I'm still definitely an interested citizen I've devoted a lot of a lot of time along with a lot of you folks to doing that and I stand ready to answer any questions you might have and thank you for giving me the opportunity to have been involved in our district and hopefully I've we've all worked together to make it a better place board member comments questions go ahead Miss juvenile okay you're gonna have to come back periodically and say all that again or we got to use it as a your commercial and if permission to do use it because the Insight is like you couldn't put a price on it okay because the change
021and moving forward I just love your passions I just want to thank you for your service and there always is room at the table for you so thank you thank you very much Ms Jordan I was going to say similar but because I had heard this probably a month ago which I was hoping it wasn't true but and I was like well it hasn't said it yet so obviously he's not going anywhere but thank you for everything that you've done Ms Patrica so in a very timely happening of events I guess our last agenda item for today's briefing is all of the new policies that we will be adopting and I need to talk about Dak because the policy for Dak to be approved says that people show up and receive information that's it so
022I already I have it in my notes here to discuss today so that we can continue to do exactly what we have been doing you and I have worked together for three years I've already gushed about you Scott both to your face and behind your back but more importantly your colleagues on Deck had an awful lot of really nice really supportive things to say to you as did staff and you push staff hard as the chair of that committee you pushed staff hard but you were always respectful and it was always a productive kind of pushing it was never critical for the sake of being critical it was a real parent life experience that you brought to this committee and I am just beyond grateful to have major acquaintance into work as closely as I
023did with you thank you very much thank you thank you good afternoon everyone Chris Blakely I have the pleasure of serving as the chair of the equity diversity advisory committee since our last meeting we've had the opportunity to meet in April and in May our meetings in April really took the time to discuss potential legislative updates that impacted the district as related to diversity Equity inclusion and in May as it is our practice we met as a committee to discuss a review of the Academic Year and provide recommendations to the board so for this quarterly report for the fourth quarter I will be reading through the recommendations that were made by the committee during that May 8th session the first recommendation is based on the presentations we received throughout the academic year was related to
024small business Enterprise program edac recommends to the board to establish annual goals for Prime contracts for minority on bidding receiving a quarterly report from small business Enterprise that outlines training hours bidders bid recipients ongoing training of non-bid recipients the quarterly reports should include demographic indicators to identify outcomes of minority-owned businesses as well as to small business Enterprise program as it relates to the student code of conduct edac recommends to the board to synthesize the student code of conduct and establish a mechanism to ensure Equity by minimizing administrative discretion providing Clarity of infractions with sanction guidelines additionally edac recommends to the board to provide annual training on the student code of conduct for staff faculty students and families the student code of conduct should be made available both analog and digital with clear access considering landing
025pages on the website of the district focus and bulletin dependencies as otherwise noted in regards to the proximity plan edac made a statement that the term Grandfather Clause has roots in America's racial history linked to specific sets of 19th century laws regulating voting edot recommends the board re-evaluate language use in communicating the proximity plan to families and communities further edac recommends the board to produce an annual report of the proximity plan to include but not limited to financial implications including cost savings how funds will be redistributed within the district data on the propensity of re-segregation and provide opportunities for exceptions and extenuating circumstances following the review lastly the committee provided a recommendation related to legislative updates edac recommends to the board to provide the committee with legislative priorities as it relates to diversity inclusion before
026during and conclusion of legislative sessions additionally edac recommends the board be proactive in articulating proposed and passed enacted executive orders legislative updates laws related to diversity Equity inclusion this processing be established to articulate interpretation and implementation as it applies to Lee County Schools policies edac lastly resolves that the board's support in Word practice and in policy to ensure all students are granted Equitable environments for Learning and stand against any future proposed legislation that does not embody the principles of diversity equity and inclusion and that will conclude my report and I take any questions or comments board members comments questions Miss Jordan first of all Dr Blakely thank you for all you do and I know I sat in when we did the legislation had that conversation and the concerns that everyone had at that time
027and I will tell you that Miss Morgan being your liaison has brought these to us so I just wanted you to be aware of that I'm thinking Miss Patrica yeah and I want our board committee members to understand and that there's a process for these recommendations that you bring forward to us we're not going to respond to them and say yeah you're an a today we essentially hand it off to the superintendent and then his staff does some work on it and they bring it back to us for approval or denial based on the research staff has done so I just I want you to understand you're not getting a response from us but that doesn't mean we're not hearing you and we're not working on what it is you're recommending yes ma'am we're fully
028aware about the Data Tracking as far as the referrals and the recommendation that goes on track and so we want to make sure it's officially documented so we're aware thank you thank you Dr Blakely thank you next up is finance advisory committee please Daryl teblin chairman of the financial advisory committee the financial advisory committee has been having a very hard time making Quorum at our April meeting we were unable to make Quorum but instead of just calling the media the meeting we did have an informal presentation on impact fees and Mr novinski came forward with a few recommendations but we were unable to vote on those as well they're listed in here to have Dr Bernier and Dr Parsons have discussions with the Lee County Commissioners and the county manager where to go forward with
029impact fees for the district they'd like to have someone from the legal department or planning department work with the board and explain proportion at share and how we can use it to find land for new schools and request that the planning division report to the school board on a quarterly basis and identifying new developments and student growth and the ultimate possible need for new schools in may we had the same problem we were unable to make Quorum at the beginning of the meeting we worked again with the impact fees the process for impact fees was discussed as well as certain amounts and the amount collected at 55 percent of the rate at that point the committee discussed what the requirement is for Quorum for meetings to do business including just voting on minutes and recommendations
030to the board at this time this is going to be my last meeting as the chairman of the fac and a member of the board I did want to thank three people during my time I've been here for over seven years I'd like to thank Kelly leckler Mrs Jordan and miss Patricia all three of them have been available during meetings and anytime I've ever reached out to them I can't think of three more deserving people that looked out for the students the staff and the stakeholders and everyone is very lucky to have those three individuals if anybody has any questions I'm here but about it questions comments Ms Jordan I would just like to say thank you so much for your service as well as and I know serving on that committee as well how
031how hard it has been to make Quorum for years now and that is something that we keep trying to strive to get people to join and the importance of the advisory committees so I just want to thank you very much you and Miss Patrick have set a really high bar on attendance and it made a big difference when you were able to give such thorough representation to the board it's been unparallel for all the years I've been on there miss kittens did a really good job as well but she's not here to think thank you any other questions okay thank you for your service Mr tablum any other General board comments or questions before we move on okay just want to thank everyone especially the Committees for giving a voice to the community and thank
032you for your service to our district I truly appreciate that next up on the agenda is item number two social media litigation turn it over to attorney Dupree Bruno thank you Mr chairman we have two attorneys who are joining us today to review and discuss potential litigation with regarding social media Mr Cutler from Wagstaff and cartmel is here and I believe that Mr Kiefer is on Zoom oh wait there he is and we also have Mr Makwa from the mayor law firm as well if you want you can go up there if you want to come here thank you come on and these attorneys are going to talk to the board about social media litigation thanks and proceed whenever you're ready thank you for welcoming us here today Mike Butler from the blacks we just
033make sure you're on the microphones please you can you can sit down you're not in court you're fine thank you so again thank you for welcoming us here today I'm Michael Cutler from Wagstaff and cartmel joined by Matt malqua from the mayor law firm as you can see on the on the board there and then by Zoom whose face was on the screen to the right of the board it was it was John Kiefer also from Wagstaff and Carmel appearing remotely thank you all for for your time today I know we've got you know limited time so I'm not gonna be labor a lot of this presentation there's a lot of information here I kind of want to get through that so that we can answer any questions that you might have I'm also aware
034that the board I believe is already at least somewhat familiar with the social media litigation and kind of the well I guess the fact that it's going on and perhaps some of the claims and all that so again we'll kind of go through what we've got here and then if there are particular questions we can answer those so to start you know I think one of the things that's helpful as we look towards the social media litigation is kind of looking back at a litigation that's just wrapping up which was the jewel Labs litigation Lee County was part of that we've talked about that we represented the county in that litigation and you know I think we've had a good result there the social media litigation as you'll see kind of has similar theories and
035although you know it's a very different mechanism you know social media versus you know a vaping device the kind of the goal of the companies and the claims themselves I think end up being you know somewhat similar so you know that with that as I mentioned we did represent Lee County as you know we represented I think 21 school districts in Florida in the jewel litigation and so you know again that one's just wrapping up additionally you know our firm represented you know other large school districts across the country and here's a representative sample of of some of those you know going from LA Public Schools you know which has about 1.4 million students through you know we also represented school districts throughout the country that you know had I think fewer than 500 fewer
036than 200 students so you know school districts of all sizes and types but what we did find in this litigation the jewel litigation was that whether you're you know La New York City you know a rural School District in Kansas Indiana something like that it was a common issue a common problem that they all dealt with in the way that they had to deal with it is different depending on the school district but the problem itself presented itself in the same way and again I think you know I think that there are parallels with the social media litigation which we'll talk about again much like you know with with vaping devices where we had surgeon general's advisories in you know 2014 15 16. even just last month there's a Surgeon General advisory about social media
037and the impact on the mental health of of the country's Youth and adolescents you know I think it probably comes as no surprise to everybody you know the extent of usage of particularly Youth and adolescents on their devices you know I think we've all seen it probably I know I have with my own kids you know but it's you know it's a real issue and I think you know it's not just an issue that parents deal with it's an issue that's being being recognized you know even by the Surgeon General you know again this is just from May 24th so you know a few weeks ago the Surgeon General talking about profound risk of harm to the kids presented by social media okay and the need to take action to prevent future harm and addiction
038social media boom these are some numbers here so almost half of high school students report using social media daily which you know I actually kind of find surprising I think that seemed low to me but that's that report and one in four teens report being online almost constantly which that seems probably also to me seems a little bit low but I certainly believe that it's that it's at least that we're all familiar with Facebook now Facebook is obviously was its own website and app and social media but they you know Facebook also owns I guess the larger company also owns additional social networking sites so here Facebook for example largest family of social networking sites had 100 million users in 2008 and that's almost three billion users 13 years later the thing about these social
039networking sites you know obviously it's it's free to create an account and so what that means is that the companies that are you know putting the product out have to have a way to make money and that's going to be advertising and so you know I think we see here 115 billion dollars in ad Revenue in in 2021 98 about the total revenue for social media companies is going to be advertising so obviously with with all the money coming in through advertising the way that you make that time valuable is you got to keep the kids on the social media so you know they've devised ways to do that and we'll talk about that a little bit but again it's just drives you know attention eyeballs and that's going to drive advertising and Revenue so
040a couple years ago about a year and a half almost two years ago now there was a former Facebook employee who you know is kind of a whistleblower you know I think probably people this what she said probably doesn't come as a huge surprise to people but I think it's shocking to have somebody from inside of the company you know come out and kind of I you know acknowledge some of the strategies and some of the techniques and goals of you know of the social media companies again Francis Haugen she was a former Facebook employee you know what she said is that you know meta which is a company that owns Facebook and Instagram and various other things now identified psychological vulnerabilities they hire teams to exploit those vulnerabilities through technology driven behavioral behavioral manipulation
041meaning what they've devised algorithms that will attract kids and like we said keep them on the social media and if you've seen kids with their phones sometimes it can be disconcerting kind of the Endless scrolling and I mean it seems like it will just go on forever and that's because it will and it's designed to do that and it's designed to go on forever and to present something to them that they want to see to keep them engaged with with the application so right Miss Haugen you know acknowledged that meta or Facebook long knew of the impact on teens especially teen girls and you know still knowing all that kind of you know still went through with their plan and you know all of the programming and Technology manipulation to to to essentially addict or
042hook kids onto the social media platforms you know again here's some some numbers which are probably not surprising but are still no less I think you know infuriating maybe but internal documents from meta you know kind of show that they had a pretty good handle on the extent of the issue that kids were facing and again hadn't done anything to try to mitigate those effects from their platforms and instead again are able to sell more advertising because they're able to keep the eyeballs on the screen and on their platforms longer use of different media applications so 95 of children use YouTube I'm not surprised by that 67 of children use tick tock and 59 using SnapChat so vast majority of Youth are using these social media applications which again probably doesn't come as a huge
043surprise to everybody but you know when you kind of see it and think about it is a little bit staggering the amount of time that is spent with some of this so after you know following some of the revelations about the way that the companies are using their technology to manipulate and to hook people onto their you know social media there is litigation going on in California much like with the jewel litigation the social media litigation is Consolidated the federal litigation is Consolidated in the Northern District of California which is where the Dual litigation was as well although this mdl is in Oakland instead of San Francisco in any event that one is Consolidated there then there's another state court proceeding in California which is similar but it's in State Court rather than federal court
044we our lawyers are part of the leadership of of the Consolidated proceedings so we have people on committees John Kiefer who is with us virtually is on you know is on a committees Tom cartmel is who is you know the lead trial attorney for San Francisco Unified during that trial with Altria which just wrapped up he's on on the steering committee and so you know we're involved in the leadership and we will be taking a the you know substantial role again in the litigation much like with Jewel the defendants in the social media litigation again meta we talked about that they've got Facebook and Instagram Snapchat Tick Tock which is actually a company called bite dance and then Google which has YouTube again kind of alluded to it but the addiction I mean you know
045it's it may seem a little bit odd to to use addiction with you know looking at your phone and using a social media application but if you've seen kids using it and adults too I mean it's not just kids and adults too you can see it you know it is compulsive it feels compulsive you know any waking second that there's not something going on you see people often look at their phones you know they're they're scrolling through you see the kind of the endless scrolling motion there and it is you know that excessive compulsive behavior it is associated with mood alteration you know behavioral issues that type of thing so you know it looks like Addiction in all of its forms even though it might not be a traditional medium that we would associate with
046addiction again some of the symptoms that we see and that we've heard about you know we talk to school districts we talk to people you know mood modification salience tolerance withdrawal symptoms interpersonal problems you know these are some of the things that unfortunately kind of go along with that compulsive use of social media and it's not just it's not just the so it's not just the fact that you're scrolling through it's also what's being delivered to you as you're scrolling through and that's a big part of this which is it's the way that the technology is built the way that they develop it is to feed essentially kids or you know also older teens adults feed them kind of what would interest them and so a lot of times that's can can kind of get
047into the negative you know some of the subject matter and then you know it just kind of doubles down and you know kind of Builds on itself and the feed you know the social media feed just kind of keeps building that way some of the consequences of addiction you know academic performance sleep disruption anxiety depression you know I think some of these things are again probably not a huge surprise in terms of some of the consequences there are things that these platforms could have done differently you know if the goal were to protect youth rather than the goal being to drive as much advertising Revenue as possible to get you know as many eyeballs on your on your application on your platform for as long as possible as often as possible so if the goal
048were to protect youth there were things that they could do like you know simple things like limiting the number of hours that can be spent on the social media platform limiting notifications limited the targeted marketing right I mean that's part of the big part of the technology and part of the algorithms that they built was this targeted marketing to the miners you know there are things that they could do with social media influencers different limiting features that they could use with algorithms but there are a lot of things that could be done differently if the goal were to truly protect youth so again you know much like with the jewel litigation schools because schools is where you know youth spend the most most of their time that's not spent at home is spent at school
049and so schools unfortunately are going to Bear the brunt of some of these kind of new and novel issues that have come up like vaping like social media addiction all of that those behaviors and there's also I think some sense that you know students feel like they can kind of get away with things at school more there are more people there are peers around all of that than than perhaps at home for some of them and in addition you know to the extent that this is an addictive behavior you know you start to see that compulsory behavior in school even when it's not appropriate even when you're not supposed to be using it you know that type of thing so what happens with schools again much like even with vaping there's a negative impact to
050the educational process distraction and you know we found the distraction as we've talked to school district distraction is for everybody right it's for the teachers other students administrators it just kind of creates an issue where there used to be none so here's this new issue and now everybody has to deal with it's a drain of the resources it requires additional student Support Services it requires more intervention and policing investigation that type of thing and I think you know even more so with social media than with something like vaping you know I think the privacy concerns and all that in in part of the investigation I think that's all you know makes it very difficult to to deal with there is an economic impact you know I think again that kind of comes with a lot
051of the diversion of resources and distraction you know schools have spent money or reappropriated funds to help try to train people hire people you know come up with different ways to to deal with social media and with some of the issues that the students face because of the social media addiction you know monitoring there are you know things to keep students off certain sites During certain parts of the day that type of thing but you know I think it's you know much like with vaping it's just a it's a big problem it affects a lot of people and it is tough to deal with so what we've seen is there are this is starting to gain steam very quickly with school districts and it is you know something again when we started talking to school
052districts which we've already been talking to because of the jewel litigation we've started to talk to them a little bit about social media we've started to kind of really start to understand the scope of the problem because again school districts across the country are all you know are all dealing with it in different ways they're all dealing with it and so here you know here are some some schools that have joined the litigation against the social media companies the Bold ones there are obviously Florida school districts and as you can see you know as I mentioned there are school districts big and small you know spread throughout there so again it's a it's a problem that permeates throughout in the litigation the model is similar to to the jewel litigation I mean essentially it's like
053I mentioned it's the same type of problem it's a public nuisance meaning that it's something that was created and now school districts have to deal with it they're dealing with it in a way that's different than you know just the general public because they have this captive audience and they have you know they have to monitor students they're responsible for student health and safety and all that throughout the school day which takes up a large chunk of the year and so you know the impact to schools fits with the same type of public nuisance legal theory that was utilized in The Vaping the opioid epidemic you know that was the legal Theory there in the 90s the fight the original tobacco companies which led to the master settlement agreement in 1998 this all kind of
054part and parcel of the same same Theory so again public nuisance litigation so details of school district litigation or representation in the litigation you know again about our firm and our group you know we've we've had a lot of experience with these in types of litigations this Mass multi-district litigations and you know we've got we've got the experience we have leadership we've got you know all the people to to handle all the parts of it for the school district there are no upfront costs or expenses the school district would just be required to pay expenses on the back end if there is a recovery and same with attorneys fees we work on a contingency basis and so the fees would be paid only if we obtain a recovery and that would be at the end
055and I think you know I think much like with the with the Dual litigation there's not a whole lot of you know after filing the lawsuit there may be you know typically there's a fact sheet you know kind of a informational sheet that the school district would need to fill out and typically that's about it except for a small handful that are kind of picked to go through a little bit more of the extensive Discovery process those would be the bellwethers you know and that's something that will be figured out later on throughout the litigation so I know it was quick I tried to buzz through it hopefully not too quick there but I didn't want to save some time for questions so hopefully there is some time for that thank you before I proceed
056the board comments and questions does attorney Dupree Bruno need to go over anything or outline anything before no Mr chairman okay questions comments board Miss Jordan I hear what you're saying and of course I think that kids should not be on Facebook as or Tick Tock or any of those as much as they are and that includes as adults as well but I don't how do we prevent that from happening in this suit well you know and John is on as well and I'd welcome his class as well but how do we prevent that from happening from this suit well I think the point I think for each School District would be a lot you know like with the vaping is so how do we develop do we develop programs you know to you know
057whether it's mental health programs or intervention programs you know there's a monetary recovery component which I think you know that's kind of self-explanatory that's for the school district right and so you know whatever programs you want to develop there and I think you know throughout the course of the litigation like with vaping for instance we worked with people to develop some of those you know options for dealing with the issue and so I think a similar thing there I think there's also the possibility for injunctive Relief you know and certainly something that we would want to see against the school district or against the on behalf of school this is against the social media companies you know again maybe it's putting into place you know certain limits or you know there are a lot of
058different things there was a lied about what could they have done differently you know to help protect the youth I think some of that could be an injunctive type of measure and then I think the other you know the other recovery potentially in a lawsuit like this would be punitive damages which would be a financial penalty you know in which you know hopefully would deter companies from doing something similar again and so I think it's going to be you know I think it's a difficult issue and it's difficult to prevent but I think education intervention you know and holding the companies accountable I think we'll we'll kind of Encompass that and again I don't know Matt or John if you have additional thoughts on that but I mean that's the that's the big question yes
059use of funds I'm good with that okay okay okay Miss Patrica thank you so you went through the costs and I know I asked this question last time but I'm forgetting the answer no cost to the district whatsoever if we lose to include that I keep forgetting the name of the fee that the court imposes in this kind of litigation the consolidation benefit thank you well there's right so the cost in a lawsuit would be the obviously the filing fees and then you mentioned in mdl's multi-district litigation they have what's called a common benefit assessment and that's usually a court ordered fee and that's correct there would be no common benefit assessment if there's no recovery and the the school district would not be on the hook for the I think it's probably a few
060hundred dollars for for filing fees in the event that there's no recovery okay that being said I don't I don't see any risk to us at all in joining the lawsuit I think we talked about this last time the potential benefit of recovering assets for us to use for our students mental health benefit is great I like the injunctive relief piece of as well but I think your problems of proof are significantly higher here than they were with Jewel if you go back to that slide you don't have to but if you go back to the slide that talks about the various things that social media does as parents we have the ability to remotely control a child's access to social media so with parental rights comes responsibilities and I don't know that we have
061that ability or have that ability to remotely control their access and use of a jewel but we do have if we're paying the bill we can control and limit or block their access to social media so I see that as a huge issue here that being said good luck I hope that you recover for our kids I think the next question FMA through the chair is for attorney to pre-bruno what what is the negative impact to the district for waiting two weeks to approve this and the reason why I asked the question you and I had this discussion in our one-on-one is I we have a process in place generally speaking where we're briefed on an item and two weeks later we vote on that item I'm always I'm very resistant to violating any procedure
062because I think procedures are in place to make good decisions and I also you know we've had two law firms come in front of us and I'd like I'd like the time to receive feedback from the public if they have any so what why the rush what is the negative impact to having this be placed on the agenda in two weeks I don't think it's a rush Miss Patrica the school board was actually briefed on the social media lawsuit before questions were answered and the board directed me to move forward with retaining actually retaining Council and in reviewing and talking to some of my sister districts and other councils I would recommend that we move forward with wax staff and cartel because Wagstaff is the firm that represented us successfully in the jewel litigation they
063are also the firm that has been on the front lines in terms of actually doing the litigation in front of the court so I don't think there's a rush this would be my recommendation I normally with contracts and other attorney recommendations we're not necessarily waiting for the public to tell us which law firm to choose is going to be based on the law firm's experience and what they have done for the district in the past and that's what I'm putting forward if you will in terms of my recommendation and also the other concern that I have is that some districts in the jewel litigation were kind of like the tagalong cases and some of those districts did not get the same amount of settlement in terms of the calculation it's my understanding could you guys
064please explain that a little bit because I know that some districts were later in terms of joining the litigation versus us who are one of the districts that was on the Forefront even though we weren't about weather but we were certainly part of the discussions and the negotiations can you address that please that's right so for the jewel for the jewel litigation there were I can't remember how many categories but essentially they categorized you know by when you filed you fit into one of three or four groups and that was one of the factors in the allocation of the overall settlement so later filed later filed school districts or government entities you know that were in that kind of category received a lower allocation than earlier filed having said that you know I don't know
065if not to deter anything but but in full disclosure you know I don't know that the two weeks here will make all that difference but it is true that you know as time goes on there is a potential that any further or not any future settlement allocation might be reduced that's all and the only I think that I would add to that per our Sunshine rules obviously when we're making recommendations there are contracts those have to be properly noticed and placed in advance on our agenda for the public to be able to review it so this was placed in advance so any member of the public can come tonight and make any type of comments that they want at the Action meeting okay if may I briefly okay thank you so hearing that there's no
066negative to the district I'm waiting two weeks I personally would feel more comfortable in waiting and it's not because I want the public to tell us who to hire I don't believe that public generally tells us what to do but I do think that it's important for us to give an opportunity for feedback so I would just ask that just if no harm no fall just wait two weeks and put this back on the agenda in two weeks that would be my request please and thank you those in my comments Mr persons yep I'm just saying we heard this before and I got a lot of feedback it was all positive that we should proceed from from the first one it was not public comment but through emails and calls you know I think we
067all realize that the social media to me is a bigger problem than the jewel and I think having the social workers and psychologists better funded and the program's better funded to me I just I want to proceed as soon as possible that's just where I'm at I think I'll stop there any other questions comments okay no I'm good I'm content with moving forward this moment I agree with what's being said I personally have a little bit of concern in regards to being able to prove the damages but that's your job and not mine so I agree with what's being said and unless there's anything else unless anyone has any other rejection I believe we should move forward so any other questions comments turning to free Bruno do you need anything from us just want to
068make sure I have clarification does the board want me to wait two weeks or the board wants me to bring it at the Action meeting this evening because it's already on there we're gonna wait then I'll pull it does anyone want the item pulled go ahead Miss juvenile we haven't really heard if any any if any public the public has a you know an opportunity to speak on it we I think we should certainly have that opportunity I'm on the fence so there's no penalty We're Not Gonna it's not gonna hurt us to wait two weeks that's what I want to make that clear we're not going to if we waited two weeks to vote on it would that be a detrimental to your case or our case I don't think so no I don't
069and again I know John Kiefer is on zoom and John I would invite you if you can hear me if you disagree to speak up but I you know you know obviously yeah look bottom line I think The Board needs to do what the board is comfortable doing based on their process from our standpoint two weeks isn't going to make a difference in how this litigation will end up in any recovery to the board we think the litigation has a lot of Merit I won't repeat the points Mike made before we are aware there are other law firms out there we think we're the best choice for a number of reasons we're leading this litigation as we did in the jewel case we would lead trial Council there negotiated the resolution and represented more Florida
070school districts and more large school districts Nationwide than than any law firm in the country it's the same situation here it was our absolute privilege to represent Lee County in that litigation you were one of the first school districts in the nation to step forward there and it would be our absolute privilege to represent you again but no two weeks if that's if that is makes folks more comfortable around to how you ordinarily you know reach decision on these it won't it won't have an impact in how the litigation turns out also this PowerPoint I don't I was looking through the information that I received I didn't see that and I wanted to see the list of those that are that you're already representing and it went real fast so yeah possible I'm happy to
071go back to that yes absolutely and I think we can probably share this I think Council has a has a copy now as well did I just skip it as I was talking yeah I did sorry and while Mike is pulling that up I might add it you know in the it and this is not a complete list but in the Dual litigation we represented Orange County Hillsboro Palm Beach Seminole Pinellas Lee and a number of others Orange County has voted to move forward with this litigation several other smaller districts have as well I don't want to get out specifically and publicly in front of my other clients but I can tell you all of the large Florida districts that we represented in the jewel litigation this is coming before their boards in the next
072anywhere from one week to six weeks and I cautiously optimistic I think they will all ultimately come on board in this case so that what the slide Mike has for you today are ones that have actually put it to a board vote as of today but there are a number of others upcoming thank you I just my opinion is I just think we need an opportunity for the public to be able to speak on it that at this point but I'm very supportive of it I just think we have to have follow-up processes and that would be one of them in allowing public to have comment if they don't that's fine too thank you yeah well I see no harm in proceeding immediately I also would not object to waiting two weeks either so I'm
073fine if we want to pull that okay so where is our board looking at do we want to do this tonight or do we want to do two weeks do you want to give a indication I guess if you want to go tonight should should we officially use this as a pulled item and vote on it tonight I think since we don't normally or is this just a recommendation so Mr chairman I would if the board is not inclined to move forward with this I mean again public can come and talk about it tonight I don't know what two weeks is going to make a difference on because this is not part of the consent agenda even this is an attorney recommendation so they can certainly talk about it but if the board is inclined
074to make it two weeks then you know I will take it off the agenda and we'll put it back on in two weeks I just need direction from the board okay and what do we want to do miss Patrica so for me it's a process issue at our board a value self-evaluation but one of the things you would have heard from me was issues about process I believe rules and processes are in place to lead to good results and I think it sets a risky precedent for us to hear a presentation and the subject matter is similar but to hear a presentation and vote on on the same day it's just not how we function as a board so from a comfort perspective and from a process perspective I would ask that we please have
075attorney Bruno pull it and then bring in front of us in two weeks I'm inclined to vote Yes but you never know what people are going to say to me in the next two weeks Miss Jordan we have already had a I mean I asked the question just to ask the question for you to say we're gonna get funds and as far as we have already had a presentation on this I think a month ago with all of with a different firm and we had asked for this to be done so in saying that I don't understand why I think we need to move because we have already asked for that to be done so we're not really violating any process because we've already seen the one we've asked for our second and we have
076received it so if I could just add normally this probably would have just gone under attorney recommendation without another briefing because the subject matter was already brought forth to the board and the board already directed me to move forward with it the attorneys wanted to come in and there were some other things they wanted to discuss so we took the opportunity to also brief the board but again it's to the board's discretion we'll do whatever you direct us to do I'm inclined to move forward tonight do we want to why don't we do a thumbs up if we want to move forward tonight for whoever wants to if you have your direction Madam attorney we'll move forward tonight thank you thank you okay moving on to item number three job descriptions with executive director dodic
077thank you Mr Carter thank you all appreciate it as Mr Doug Mr chair if I may yes as Mr dotig makes this transition and our lawyers an additional Law Firm takes its seat and take the opportunity to introduce Mr dotik he is here to really talk about three different job descriptions one is for the Healthy Living initiative specifically that will relate to the gardens that we're all very fond of we are getting bigger and more complicated as it relates to those Gardens and the support and there's a desire both with FGCU and with our local AG Outreach to expand those Garden initiatives we will need someone to take the lead we do not have anybody in mind but wanted to bring the coordinator to the Healthy Living initiatives to that to the board so you
078could review this as a draft and see whether there was a commitment potentially to move forward and turn it into a job description the other two are minor adjustments and revisions to the coordinator of Adult Ed and Career Education this was provided by members of The Adult Career and education staff specifically looking to find minimum calls that would help us better recruit and finally the director of Athletics and activities this one is very specific to a certification that we want all of our athletic directors to have but they cannot have it until they are an athletic director so if we put it in as a qualification prior to their employment in many cases we will eliminate lots of people who make a fine athletic director or suggesting and Rob will go over it in just
079two seconds we're suggesting as we put it in a different place that requires to get to get that certification within a period of time so I'll turn it over to Mr Doug so I can't really State much more about the first job description that Dr Bernier mentioned that is a new job description for Healthy Living initiatives that will be in academic Services the second job description we made changes to the coordinator the minimum quals and the preferred quals making the bachelor's degree from an accredited institution a minimum qualification and a master's degree a preferred qualification for that position and then the change to the athletic director Dr Bernier is correct the national interscholastic athletic administrator Association certificate will have to be obtained within three years currently to receive the appropriate certification one has to be
080a sitting athletic director to be able to take the coursework to do that so we as you know made the athletic directors administrators a year ago and had that as a minimum qual we've been able to work through the current athletic directors so they can work towards this certification but currently we're in a situation where we need to hire new athletic directors and they wouldn't be able to earn that unless they're a sitting athletic director so I'll take any questions you might have questions comments board Mr vanelli how many athlete directors are you needing to hire now like do we lose do we lose some not a whole bunch actually there's one opening that I'm aware of okay at Island Coast High School okay yes thank you Miss Langford Fleming that was actually I was
081going to ask Miss giovannelli and I am thankful that you clarified about the certification because I agree there are some amazing people out there that need to be able to give in this opportunity but don't have the certification so thank you for clarifying that was my only question when I was looking at this so thank you Miss Jordan thank you regarded the coordinator the adult and career Ed yes okay what did they what do they have right now that person who is in this is it a bachelor or is it a master's this position is vacant I believe currently it is Vegas yes this current this is the coordinator this would be the person who reported to the director he left prior to the announcement that our director was also leaving he took a position
082in a county just north of us Okay so okay so now I know who it is I put try to put people to to this so instead of a valid Florida certification is what that's the certification in Ed leadership that would become a preferred qualification not a minimum call okay because it's crossed off on the top of that right and it goes down below and then if you look at the service organizational chart when you look at that where is so the okay so the director that person's not under the director correct this position is under the director of Adult Ed but it's not on the correct it's not on the current chart in front of right okay the chart doesn't go down it only goes down for the you have a chart that does
083that's just not the chart attached here okay yeah I was just trying to put all of those that you have in connection with this and it wasn't making sense to me because half of it's done and half of it was not done it has to do with the level of chart that Mr donut excuse me Mr chair I apologize go ahead it's a great point it has to do with the level of charts it's been chosen if you'll notice that these are executive directors and above and directors that the position reporting to the director of career and Adult Ed would not be a director therefore no it wouldn't appear on this chart we'd have to go to the director of adult education and pull that specific organizational chart to see that structure all right thank
084you is that it Miss Jordan yes yes okay any other comments or questions same none okay I appreciate to see the expansion on the Healthy Living and the gardening program so I have some family that has some experience in that so thank you thank you next it's Mike next up on the agenda item number four Comprehensive Health instruction materials and I believe this is going to be Dr Spiro and Dr Quisenberry and whenever you're ready Mr superintendent if you want to introduce this you're happy to introduce the team Dr Spiro Chief academic officer Dr Beth Quisenberry director of Elementary curriculum and instruction Lori houchen the director of secondary curriculum and instruction for middle school and Candace alevedo the director of secondary curriculum instruction for high school these individuals have a massive task getting us ready
085for the new school year one of which is the Comprehensive Health instructional materials annual review I think you'll find this enlightening regarding that there's just a pretty straightforward approach today to make sure that you're informed and I'll let the team share that information thank you very much Dr Bernier with me today as Dr Bernier said I have the directors of curriculum and instruction with me our goal today is really to cover three topics with you one is to share with you the State Board rule as an outline for health education as well as our instructional materials for the K-12 Health instruction and finally our parent Garden communication regarding K-12 Health instruction and the reason we're with you here today is because annually we are required by Florida State Statute to share with you our materials
086around K-12 Health instruction the board has already adopted and approved the materials that we currently use for instruction there will be no new materials coming forth so what we're going to be talking about are materials that already have been board adopted but we're required annually in a public forum to share with you what those materials are at this time I'll turn it over to Candace elevator so in addition to what Dr Spiro just mentioned we talked about annually that we have to report and have our materials approved there's also two other pieces that come before and that's by December 1st of each year we have to submit our plans of how we plan on implementing those required instructional pieces so that has already happened for this school year and then at the end of the
087school year the traditional school year as we think about it by July 1st we have to submit what we actually did so the State Board of Education looks for us to utilize our materials put together our plan of what we intend to do and then we submit at the end of the school year what actually transpired so there are six pieces of legislation that guide all of our work around standards but specifically today we're going to talk about health instruction the second one is the one we're going to spend the most time with as that really dives into what's inside of the materials in which we use one note to make here is most recently there was a change in House Bill 1069 that added additional language in which we need to ensure is in
088our adopted materials and prescribed for teachers and how we teach components of health education we have already gone through all of our curriculum map scope and sequence to ensure we're in compliance with new house bill 1069 and when those resources are published for teachers after our materials are approved that will be outlined there as well those teachers will then be trained on those pieces when we do our back to school training on August 3rd so they are also aware of any changes to their scope and sequences so there are 14 components to the Comprehensive Health the 12 that you see here on the screen are common across K-12 so in elementary school middle school and high school these are the 12 areas in which we're all required to provide instruction around there are two additional
089components that are unique just to secondary education you'll notice the very first one is specific in grades 6 through 12 but then it delineates one piece further that teen Dating Violence that instruction cannot begin until seventh grade so when we think about the 12 components in which we saw on the slide prior plus these two components these are the 14 areas in which make up Comprehensive Health instruction and with that I'm going to turn it over to Dr Quisenberry who's going to share with you what materials are utilized for elementary school of the 12 required components with the exception of substance use and abuse we cover those all of those components in safe and smarter kids so safe and smarter kids there is a playlist provided for teachers inside of their launch pad it's very
090scripted for what teachers are going to be teaching the students and there are six to eight lessons there are around 20 to 30 minutes each for the substance use and abuse we use a district created for K to two and then generation RX for three to five those lessons are just one lesson per grade level and they're around 45 to 60 minutes inside of safe and smarter kids with each lesson there is a family letter that teachers are able to send out to the families that notify them of what will be included within those lessons we also send every September of every school year the school messenger that you see notifying families that we are going to begin safe and smarter kids and the substance and abuse use and abuse instruction and it also has
091links for them to be able to access those lessons in Middle School we currently use the Glencoe Teen Health edition book and that was published in 2014. and then for the courses that we offer we the board and District requires that sixth grade students take health and so schools can accomplish this by either offering a semester of Health if they have a certified health teacher or they can do peer counseling and cover the same standards but that is a year-long course we do have schools in addition who offer Health in 7th and 8th grade as an elective foreign so looking at the high school it's also called Glencoe Health but it's Florida Edition 2014. so there is a difference between the middle school textbook and the high school textbook this one as Dr Sparrow has
092mentioned is the same exact textbook in which has been board approved and was utilized this past school year for high school graduation it is a requirement that students graduating have one credit of physical education to include the integration of Health the two courses in which we offer for in Lee County to meet that requirement is the Hope Corps and the Hope PE variation the only difference is how the content is laid out for some it is a first semester of all health and second semester is PE and in some it's quarter one is Health integration Quarter Two is physical education then we go back to health and we complete with physical education so that's the difference between those courses content is exactly the same same in those pieces something unique to high school though is
093while it's a graduation requirement statutorily there are ways in which a student can waive taking the Hope course so the first two bullets you'll see there is if a student has two years of a JV or Varsity that waives the full hope requirement same to two years of JROTC that's going to waive the full health hope requirement the next two though you'll notice there's semesters because they're semesters they're only waving half of the requirement therefore the student would still need to complete half of that integration the other way a student can waive this requirement is by earning their International Baccalaureate or Ace Cambridge being a completer of those curriculum so this is also laid out in our student progression plan for families and the language details out for students exactly what the requirements are to
094waive those components part of the legislative requirements requires that parents have an opportunity to opt out of certain portions of health so at the secondary level if a parent does not want their child to learn about reproductive health and disease HIV AIDS its symptoms development and treatment there is an opt-out form in which they can fill out and they'll be given alternative assignments that do not cover those topics parents can find this form and our Curriculum maps they're linked throughout their many times so that they don't miss them but you can also just look in the parent portal under the help opt out form and in addition we train our teachers and we stay on top of it to ensure that about a month prior to that content being delivered that they give parents the
095message that we're about to cover these topics if you would like for your child to not learn those topics they provide the form again so we really try to ensure that we're compliance with that statute foreign materials we're using how we communicate with our parents and Guardians about the opportunity to opt out the next actions or our next steps will be on June 27th we will have a public hearing and then an opportunity for the board to vote on the approval of the instructional materials again there's no new materials these materials that already have been previously board approved and now we will have superintendent comments and board discussion thank you board members Mr chair there's really nothing to add I think the comp the presentation is very comprehensive very straightforward I thought the most important
096thing you needed to realize and the community needed to realize that we have no additional curriculum materials those that have been prepared that have been utilized in the past were the ones to be continued to be used this year so looking forward to your discussion thank you board member comments questions Miss Langford Fleming just a couple questions that I just personally don't know if a student gets to the end of their High School career and does not pass that I does not receive that IB diploma or that certification but they also haven't taken the Hope because they were relying on that what in turn happens then so for that one it's curriculum completers so and not necessarily having earned all of those but completed the curriculum there many of our students though especially in the
097advanced courses we encourage them to take that course going into ninth grade for that specific reason so we try not to wait because there are many times when we hit our junior year where we have decided maybe I don't want to continue down this pathway and now I have one more course so a lot of students will take it right now summer eighth going to ninth grade as an online credit okay all right thank you and then one more when regarding the letter that we send out I appreciated the I think it was Miss Gianelli that suggested back when we were talking about focus a couple weeks ago about some kind of a receipt read or something we can send out to parents so that way we aren't you know a parent's not calling or
098emailing say they never saw that letter I don't know if that's something that we could consider sending out so that way we have a receipt knowing that yes we have said the letter yes you have seen it or you know I'm I'm always open to an opt-in rather than opt out but I didn't know if there's a way to cover our basis making sure that parents definitely have seen the letter that in regards to what's going to be taught those are my only questions thank you I can get back with you specifically on the read receipt it was something we've looked into I've been working with Mr Alton as well as our Communications Department we do we currently perceive that there is an ability to get a read receipt we've not yet tested the system
099we need to test that and then we can we can come back with a definitive answer is that it missling for fun okay juvenile but I think it's more important that back to the read receipt it's the fact that it's something letting the parents know they re they saw it or they've seen it or it's back it you know that they have to check the box that they've seen it rather regardless if they've actually read it because that's what will be they may have seen it but they didn't read it how's that so and that extra step is to say click I saw it is I think is more thorough and versus having to have I.T look back and see if the if there was a read receipt in the system because I've had computer
100issues the last couple weeks and I can tell you that it's not always guaranteed that you're going to get the information or that your email went or or so forth because I've had that happen now with my own home computer and this computer here so some issues so I think that we I just want to be real thorough on that also just a real quick question regarding the waiver options so they could do two years on a varsity basketball team or or JV team and they would not have to take the hope class and they just have to be on the team for two years that I that's I just want a little Clarity on that please thank you yes so they do need to complete two years of a JV or Varsity Sport so
101they need to be part of that team in two years will satisfy that and that's outlined for us in legislation oh awesome thank you anything else I just want a clarification for that question because I think our community can now perceive that in a couple different ways so I'm going to take off superintendent happened on a dad hat does that mean if my child plays JV basketball and JV baseball that he's completed two years or must he complete JV basketball is freshman year and JV basketball again senior year in other words is there a congruency related to the sport or is it just participation in two JV Sports I just see the community asking me that question yep and I would like to pull the language and specify because in my brain I know what
102it says but I would like to pull it out and give you the exact statute on it so Candace is taking a play out of my playbook we will make sure that we get that answer we'll put it in the board update and Candace I'm sorry to put you on the spot like that but it was just a question that in no matter how many times I've seen this it was mischief and Ellie's question spark that question in my regard good I do too appreciate it okay thank you everyone before we proceed to item five we're going to take a five minute recess please thank you resuming our meeting our briefing we are now on item 5 2023 2024 code of conduct for adult students please proceed whenever you're ready morning board member superintendent Mrs
103deployment the adult code of conduct has not had any updates since our May 23rd board briefing Penn any comments from the superintendent or board discussion I don't have anything further to add at this time nothing from the superintendent Mr chair thank you any board members have any comments or questions at this point okay see none I have none next up then will be item 6 2023 2024 code of conduct for students briefing first reading so good afternoon just revisiting our conversation from last time we're going to start today with an overview of our first briefing we've also included some items for clarification we'll provide an opportunity for additional questions and then an opportunity for board discussion and feedback we appreciate the opportunity to to speak to you about the code of conduct again I at
104the last meeting I was remissing not sharing that Rachel gold in the audience has joined us as well she's not up here today with us but she was also instrumental in this so I wanted to thank her for her work on this all right so the last time we saw you for our pre pre-briefing was May 23rd where we reviewed our legislative update requirements our stakeholder input we talked about the various groups that we communicated with we use the guiding questions for feedback from all of our stakeholder groups areas to include are areas to minimize or delete so our pictures that took up a single all a whole page larger sections that could have served as a QR code or a link to our district website things of that nature we discussed and shared and
105our new internet landing page that we are looking forward to as well our proposed modifications rather than having a book for elementary and a book for secondary we are going to opt into the one single book but within that one single book there will be a section for elementary and a section for secondary and it will be separated out we also updated 14 of the 26 definitions of Sesser and that was a doe requirement we reversed our order of levels to closely align with the Florida doe assessor reporting levels so level five now is the least serious where one is the most serious we took all 45 infractions and alphabetized them and then within the glossary anything that was not clearly defined within the code in the section in which it pertained to we expanded
106on that language so we were able to eliminate the glossary since it was a repetition and then based on our conversation from last time we added some additional clarification to the school search section so in our last conversation attorney Jeffrey Bruno discussed the two-prong test so while we didn't specifically talk about that what we did was add a statement on that says using Reasonable Suspicion School administrators must believe the search will produce evidence that the student has or is violating the code of conduct for students or the law the search must be limited to the scope of Suspicion to that meeting the prong of believing that the search will result in what you're looking for and only looking for what you're looking for so not looking in an area where you wouldn't reasonably find either
107an item you're looking for and then for additional clarifications we went through if there were any minor things that were highlighted many of those were very minor throughout but if you see any highlighted areas those are the minor edits from our last conversation and then we also talked about parental notification so the recommendation was made to somehow get parents more involved in this process so we were able to work with our technology department and we will be having a link in the back to school Forum so parents can access the code right from their forms they will be able to click that link look at the code we'll send out a school messenger with a which will have links and that will have a read receipt and we'll be able to tell if the email
108was open and if the licks the links were clicked in that and then we'll keep a record of that in our office so we will have that as a way to make it easier for parents to access the code and also be more engaged in that process of looking at the code as they're signing their back to school forms there may be a need in the future to come back to this board and add additional information to the code of conduct in regard to Athletics recent house bill 225 was passed into a law but we are working to gain a further understanding of that Mr LaRosa is working with the FHSAA as well as District staffers collaborating to make sure we have that understanding because if we do need to bring additions or changes to
109the code of conduct we will follow the same process that we are undergoing right now for the annual review and approval of the code of conduct if the code conduct does happen to change pass the initial approval of it then the most recent and approved versions will exist on the website for folks to reference as we start looking into the next school year we are going to begin our process this perennial process in October we will definitely be working with our existing Community groups and partners that we have in the past but we are looking to expand not only to new members and stakeholders but also into Community for feedback on the code of conduct and one of the guidelines we've received also is that when we do bring things to the board we'll work
110to make sure that they are presented not only in the English but in the Creole and Spanish versions in the draft form steps this is our second briefing this document will come before the board for at the board Action meeting on the 27th from that point we will continue to work on our translations and then taking those approvals forward for the final formatting by mid-july we will have a print ready version and by end of July we will have the ADA Compliant version that will be ready for web publishing and then in the beginning of August we'll have the printed versions to schools and that's a small number of printed versions for parents who may need them and ask for them most parents will be getting them through the parent portal through the link and
111on the they can also always access this code on the website so that's all we have for today so I'd like to open it to the superintendent good morning Mr chair there's no comments for me the team's on a nice top of presenting the changes of the things that were required in the last meeting we look forward to any continued discussion and any revisions that might be necessary prior to bringing it to the board thank you board member comments questions it's Jordan I'd just like to say thank you for making those changes because that was really important and to make sure that you know that it is getting into the hands of the parents and to welcome Mr Magnum back to the district so thank you okay like to thank you all as well in
112regards to looking at next year's one I would just like to put my voice out there again what you did this year of just continuing to streamline it so thank you for your hard work so we're now moving on to item number seven policy review briefing first reading and whenever you're ready attorney to free Bruno if you could go over that thank you Mr chairman this is the first reading to repeal our current board policies as you know we've been working with Neola to do the conversion and in order to completely adopt neola's policies we have to repeal our current policy and that of course has to be done through the rulemaking process so this is just to repeal the crown policies through the first reading board member comments questions in regards to these policies
113go ahead Miss Jordan do we are repealing before we are approving it's going together so you're going to have the first reading to repeal the first reading of the Neola policies on the 27th you'll have the final repeal of the current policies and then of course the adoption so they're simultaneous okay only because if there were changes then that would have to be okay thank you thank you anything on the repeal okay item number eight which will be the policy review in regards to this briefing first reading for the adoption of the new policies thank you Mr chairman the board have been reviewing these policies from Neola since August of last year they've had pretty much every month since January very consistently reviewing the different books or chapters in the Neola policies in May the
114board gave a consensus to move forward with the policies after a few thorough discussion one-on-one briefings with staff me answering questions Neola coming here to review and answer questions to go ahead and move forward now the policies in their entirety for first reading this will be the first step in the full adoption of the Neola policies the Second Step will be on June 27th when it comes to the board for the second meeting comments questions Miss Patrica yes thank you policy zero one six four point one is that even a policy that's what my notes say I just want to give you all a second to pull it up so you can could you repeat the number zero one zero one six four point one it's called meeting location and board member participation I just
115want to give you all a second pull it up okay my questions are what about closed sessions okay let me just get there miss Patricia please sure zero one six one zero one six four points oh sorry six four okay so the statute does not so are you specifically asking about attorney closed sessions or executive sessions which either one okay because we have decided as a group that we would use the same thing and I'm not like I don't remember talking about it but in preparation for today I'm not clear on why it wouldn't be in our policy if we have agreed to do the same thing for attorney-client and executive session as what we're doing for an action meeting right I'm not sure so a couple things one quote attorney close sessions do you
116have a requirement for notice because we have to actually publicly open and close the meeting but executive sessions do not so I'm just trying to understand are we explain to me a little bit more so I can understand so this Pro this policy tells us as board members when we need to be physically present and when we don't have to be physically present right is that what this policy does let me pull it up myself I made the notes a little while ago board members May participate in school board action meetings and special meetings through an interactive video and or telephonic system as long as physical form of board members is present should we add attorney client and executive session there because I believe that the board has agreed that we will allow members to
117participate telephonically or yeah good question Miss Patrica because that is exactly what the board did discuss if you give me an opportunity I do believe there is a policy that specifically addresses that so let me see if I can find it foreign if you want to go to the next question so because it's going to take me a little time to try to but I do believe that we did indicate in one of these policies about the board's ability to participate via telephonic for all of these meetings I think I think it's there but I got to find it okay thank you my next question I think I have three in the next section is policy 9140 oh tell me when you all are ready paragraph f under committee meetings which is page two of
118four yes thank you second or third sentence it says the chair will meet with the board member assigned as liaison to the committee in advance of each committee meeting that's not real that's not what we do or at least that's not what I do and I think that might be unnecessarily prohibitive because frequently we meet once maybe twice a year and my experience has been that if there's something the board knows is brewing then we'll say to the chair please make sure that this item makes it onto an agenda but we also want to give them as volunteers the opportunity to to decide on their own what they want the agenda to be at several of the meetings so meeting before every meeting I don't think is how we do it so I'd like to
119suggest a change there go ahead so I was going to say there has been some discussion with staff that a lot of times the Committees are the ones that are actually creating the agenda yeah so we can change that language if you want if the board gives me consensus to do that we can do that because I know that's something that staff has discussed it's a little bit I think I can read your mind Miss Jordan it's a little different than that question but this is specifically in terms of board members meeting with the chair of the committee to talk about the agenda is that's your question for that sentence that is my question so we can change it this remember this policy a lot of it was based on your current policy and that's
120how I was drafted but you have the opportunity at this point to change it so I'd like to recommend to the board that we just I mean we can just eliminate that sentence or we could say the chair may meet with the board member Miss Patrica yeah I actually had that question I think it was about a month ago I actually went through that I would be supportive of that so I don't know if we wanna which one of going to May yeah yeah so excuse me Tammy can you jot that down for me I'm trying to find my track changes and I'm not able to find it so I just don't want to forget to make that correction or if you can make that correction are you able to Tammy or did they lock
121it looks like they locked it oh let me get out of it we may we may not be able to you know how in the past we've been able to do the track changes we may not be able to do this because this is active and live and the public can see it so I just don't want to forget that change though so Tammy if you can help me with that and also the assistant school board attorneys in the audience if you can help me with that too please all right so we just want to take out that sentence I think just changing the will to May yeah would be sufficient we have a I think that's the consensus consensus on that I just have a question because I know that I've asked numerous time
122on this advisory committee when we because it also states that if we are to me then we have to advertise with advertise it the board member and the chair of any advisory committee is going to be meeting to even discuss what their roles are so to me I think that needs to just be done because we know we're there we're not part of that committee we're there as the liaison for the advisory committee but this puts us as like we don't vote we're just there to to give feedback we're there to bring back feedback from them but now it's put and that's why I was hoping that the liaise the staff Liaisons had more input on this too because this affects what they do as well and I know that you've been having conversations with
123them also but I don't that right there was just scary because if they were to call us we're just like I'm sorry you can't talk to us you have to stop that conversation so I think how we can fix that Miss Jordan is if we clarify that language that says my recommendation would be that the committee creates this agenda it can consult not necessarily on the agenda or creating the agenda but it can talk to any of the staff Liaisons that are assigned to it and then maybe we'll pull out the board and put that same language that we did for staff Liaisons and note that the board is not a member of the advisory committee that will resolve that one question we just want to make sure that we're careful that the board member
124is not part of that decision-making process or having any influence in terms of the direction that the committee is going so if we clean that language up and say that it's the committee that's going to be creating its own agenda and then that the board liaison serves in an advisory capacity like the staff liaison I think that will Rectify that problem because I have heard from board members that there is a concern with that and then not only that if I if I may it one sweet and as well as the advisory committees you know what is the role of the advisory committee is it for them to figure out what they want to work on or is it for us to have them as our advisory committee and say Hey you know we really
125need help in this and giving it to them you know to have something to take on to come back with ideas that we may need you know and that helps us out so where does that lie at so what is supposed to happen is that there's supposed to be some topics provided to The Advisory committees for them to work on and then come back with recommendations to both the board and the superintendent and then the superintendent comes back to the board and says you know here's where we are what we can do what we think we are able or not able to do that's what's supposed to happen and they each advisory committee also has its own mission within the policy in terms of what their parameters are right okay so why don't we do
126this then I'll come back to miss Patricia to finish up why don't we unless there's objection as legal then to go ahead and come up with some language then come back to us with it is that good with everyone is there anything else you want in this particular side from that those two points go ahead Miss Patrica yeah so the so we'll be removing the sunshine requirement in terms of board member discussions with chairs correct is that what I heard you say if I made through the chair too attorney to prove or not so I'm gonna change the language so there's no concern about sunshine because if I leave it the way it is my recommendation to the board is that you need to be careful about sunshine violations now if I change it to
127say that it's the committee that's creating their own agenda and that the board member is serving in an advisory capacity and we take some language to ensure that the board member is serving not as a member or part of the committee then I think I can tweak it so that we avoid it the concern is that if a board member is participating actively in directing the committee's work and the fact that the board members going back and forth and serving as a I mean I have to tell you it's very concerning specifically with school board advisory committees which is a little different than what you will encounter some of the other municipalities because the school board advisory committees are almost deemed as another arm of the board so if the board is serving as back
128and forth late Amazon's helping to direct the work of the committee and things of that nature I get a little concerned in terms of protecting you from Sunshine violations but if you want me to again this is the language that you had before I can tweak it to remove the board member and just make the board member just a liaison that is not a member of the committee and is not directing or setting agendas Etc I think that's what I think that's how we function already so I think that language makes it I do have two more in this policy and then I'm done I promise in the next paragraph of f so we're still on page two I believe yes page 204 all advisory committee meeting shall or will be conducted with a professional
129decorum that is supportive of the board's mission to provide a quality education that is not the board's mission the board's Mission should we should we change it to be the actual board's mission to ensure that each child achieve says or her yep or should we change the word Mission because I'm not sure that the board's Mission fits in that paragraph the boards perhaps have it be in line with the boards value of professionalism that might be more appropriate I don't know I'm asking the board but clearly that is not our mission which came into clear Focus for me after our strategy planning refresh meetings expectations of professional meetings so maybe just all advisory committee meetings will be conducted with a professional decorum period is that what the board wants it sounds like that's what the
130board wants okay all right and then my final question if I may under District advisory Council to sort of get to what Ms Jordan was just talking about the purpose of the district advisory Council is not has has morphed from what we used to do it here it says the purpose of such information sharing wait a minute let me go back the purpose of the district advisory Council shall be to disseminate information concerning the operation of the school district to school staff students and parents that is no longer the purpose of the district advisory Council the purpose of the district advisory council is to provide actionable feedback to staff and or recommendations for change to the school board they do receive information but it used to be literally what Dr Hurt said at the microphone
131today we used to sit out in that room right there and they would feed us information and we would be like what are you what are you talking about and then we would go home and share that information with our sacks but it had no meaning now we have District advisory Council meetings where staff can walk away it could be a process issue like you know we need to communicate better or like he said with the you guys understand what I'm saying I don't need to keep talking so could we change the purpose to include dissemination of information and the provision of actionable feedback for the staff and or the school board in essence that's what they're doing so yes let's change it I mean that's and I think that's well worded so we're going
132to add actionable feedback to that one so to receive information as well as take actionable feedback now there's one thing I do want to double check is because sack is a creature statue correct and that stack obviously is made up of sex so I want to just double check the statute to make sure we have that language you know correct and then I don't see any other statutory prohibitions in terms of actionable feedback so okay so the language that I have written and I can email this to you is their purpose is to receive information and provide actionable feedback to improve the experience of our stakeholders in our schools on our buses and at the district so I can copy that and send that to you thank you I think those are my only comments
133just let me confirm it is thank you for your and then let me look at the one that you were asking about in terms of the executive sessions and the closed sessions oops I just got out of board doc so hold on one second please yeah board members are going to direct you to policy I apologize real quick I just want to make sure I scroll down we'll direct you to policy um0166 it's refer it's referred to as exempt meetings I believe the passage that was to pre-bruno while answering questions and responding to all of you was also looking for at the same time is at the very bottom of page one with the ex it says any other meetings permitted to be exempt under Florida law and it speaks to the exception of attorney
134Sage census board members and how board members May participate I offer that as a place to begin to read the very bottom of the page before you see Neola 2021 thank you and I just sent that email with no hello or goodbye or anything just the language please don't think that was rude so thank you Dr Bernier zero one six six and that is the language that's very specific with regards to the ability to use a video or a telephone system to participate in executive sessions the only reason shade sessions are turning close sessions are not included is because of our notice requirement and it's very very specific per statute that we have to list who's going to be present so if somebody calls out sick they won't be able to just participate by Zoom
135if we don't properly notice that if there's an emergency so that's why that is not there so attorney closed sessions we would like for all the board members to be present but cyber security sessions bargaining session anything else that is an executive session that's covered you can participate electronically could you repeat the part about the shade session is the is does it is it statute that prevents us from so the issue with issue with both of them both the executive session and the attorney closed sessions is if you're participating by Zoom we don't know who's in the room with you right and so there may be somebody that's there and that there's a concern so there was some latitude with regards to executive sessions they don't have to be noticed and the statute's pretty clear
136but the attorney closed sessions have additional requirements where we're actually noticing physically who is going to be present plus you see me when we have our attorney closed sessions I put it on the record who's there so if somebody's participating by phone or video I don't want to go on the record said these are the only people that are there because we may have people that you know are in the room and then second of all again because of the notice requirement if if somebody if we are noticing that these people will be there at the at the meeting and somebody says I'm not available to come or can I call and say I have not noticed that as the person will be participating by Zoom etc those things have to go out timely and
137that's what my concern is does that make sense yeah but I mean if I couldn't come tonight because I'm sick we haven't noticed that I'm going to be on the phone tonight that's different because it's a public meeting so it doesn't matter if you have somebody with you while you're driving up somewhere or if in your house because these are Open Notice publicly I understand that but the I'm trying to digest the public notice part you indicated that public notice was important to say that who was going to be there and who wasn't going to be there the same is true for an action meaning public notice is important right we've given public notice the way I attend I'm not clear how that impacts public notice two different things because the public notice in the
138attorney-client session is very specific as to who can attend the statutes very very clear and there's attorney general opinions on that and that has to be put in the newspaper to say here's who's going to be there the statute also requires us to do the opening and for the board to say who's going to be there and then you see when we have our sessions I actually put on the record who's going to be there because once that case is done you know somebody may want to see the transcript or something like that whereas your these meetings they're open to the public the board has already designated in its policy how you're going to handle somebody's out I think a lot of districts do it the same way so I'm that's anybody can attend you
139can have somebody in your car you can it doesn't matter because it's open to the public I don't know if I'm answering the question no no I don't think you are because attendance doesn't have to be physical right so I thought the board had agreed that the shade sessions and the executive sessions we were permitted my concern is this my concern is we've been through a pandemic where we're encouraging people if they like I used to go to work with the flu I would never go to the work with the flu now physically I would never go to work with the flu but I will work through the flu and if I'm home with the flu and I'm capable of participating in a meeting I don't think I should be excluded because I have a
140an illness that other people can catch I'm being respectful to you by not coming and sitting at this Deus but I shouldn't be included from the work just because I'm sick I get I get the piece about you know there could be other people in the room we are adults and we have to behave ethically and if you ask me is there anyone else in the room and I say no I mean you can ask me to scan the room of the camera if you want if they you want to make that part of the policy but I don't I don't know it just it feels weird to exclude board members because they're doing the right thing for the people around them I think it's just because of the nature of the attorney-client shade sessions
141and how very restrictive it is in terms of who can part I mean all of them are the same but this one really has additional legal parameters in there but if the board wants me to change that I will change that I will say that when we're having those attorney-client sessions don't think I'm cross-examining you because I will ask questions in terms of where are you what are you doing why are you out you know what's the excuse and who's with you Etc I have to put that on the record that makes sense I just don't like to be excluded real quick I know Miss Jordan wanted to go ahead on this topic well thank you I just had a question back on the 9140 because I really appreciate the fact that purpose is definitely
142something that for the advisory committee they have to have a purpose or there's no sense in even having them but also with in saying that there's six meetings essentially six meetings for us to say three you're allowed to miss three meetings and then work does not get done I think that is I think we should decrease the amount of from at least two meetings versus missing three meetings which is half the meetings and change that number because that way we can try to find people to fill that seat that really want to be there because I know when I speak to the people I always tell them you have six meetings before they even sign up for it and I make sure they understand what their you know what they're signing up for so and
143the work that is they're responsible for so that's what I would just ask about what you all think about changing that three missing allowing people to miss half versus two meetings thank you okay Mr persons I believe some of the Committees don't even meet six times maybe we don't want them to but if they don't meet six times and you know they could they could miss they may only meet three times so I don't I mean percentage-wise we're having such a hard time filling the Committees which is a whole other discussion of why that is which I believe is being on film and everything else like that I'm not sure a number you know if you say three is fifty percent because some some I mean have talked about meeting more than six times okay
144I don't think we do we have a statutory they only can meet six times I mean so the policy requires them to meet from September through April so seven months however there are some committees that continue to meet on their own volition during the summer time but it's not a statutory requirement this is your board policy so I'm not sure how to come up with the number if they all met I agree with they all met exactly six times but maybe we could come up with a different number but if they were only meeting three times for some reason because of a pandemic or something and we have on there you can miss whatever it's could be tough you can go ahead and Miss Jordan then thanks Patrick after that and the reason I bring
145that up too because if in fact someone has missed three meetings and you can see Finance is one of those so they have not been able to do any work for what three months however if you missed two that gives us the ability to go out and try to replace that person so they can do the work that we're asking them to do and the and the reason that they're there that is the only reason I'm bringing up it unties our hands and it allows us to bring other people in or even go out and look for those people that we could bring possibly bring into that seat and that's all I'm gonna say about thank you so much so I agree two meetings I think that's appropriate the other thing to your point and
146to the point that was made during our board discussion that I was absent on the phone kind of for committee meetings a page one going on to page two it says all committee meeting shall be videotaped I recommend that we remove that from policy because I do think it I think one of the reasons why we're seeing such low participation in finance in particular is because they don't want to be on videotape discussing some controversial issues and have it be used against them when it's cut and pasted and thrown on social media so I recommend we remove that sentence altogether and then each committee can decide at the beginning of each year whether they want to be videotaped or not Mr persons I just want to make comment the fact that it's not videotaped doesn't
147mean it's not open to the public correct the public is always able to attend the meeting such as I want to make clarification there okay first off let's just go back to the number of meetings we talked before we go into the next part we're talking about two do we want to are we on board with that or do we want to come back on that or what's the consensus up here two yeah two I can go along with it so that would be under membership section D we're going to try remove three input two so we'll read members who miss two meetings of the committee during the school year shall be removed from membership now going back to miss patrica's second comment I just wanted to make sure we're keeping everything in order so
148in regards to videotaping where is that directly again under which comment me all committee meetings shall be videotape what would be your proposed amendment to the language and then the beginning of each year can advise the committee it's up to you whether you want these videotaped and placed on YouTube or not and then you put it to a vote of the committee and that's how they conduct themselves each year go ahead Miss Jordan originally it was just recorded So that way if anybody wanted to go back they could listen to what was said it became an issue when all of a sudden now I am being I'm on camera that's when I think we started losing people from what I noticed because people don't they really don't want to have their faces up there where
149you know who they are and you're gonna you have the ability to go after them listening to them gives you the same ability to hear what is taking place in the meeting even though they are open to the public anyone can of course come into those meetings because they are open but I think that was the issue was the actual videoing of the meetings okay board Miss Langford Fleming I'm in favor of removing just that statement I like the idea of each committee being able to decide at the beginning of the year I mean we have like chairperson said all the minis are committees meetings are open to the public and there are minutes taken at the meeting so if you want to go back and review what was being said at the meeting isn't
150there a way to post the minutes so that way they can go back and just review what was discussed and kind of catch themselves up I just don't see why it needs to be videoed or recorded I mean these are volunteers that are giving their time and we're having a hard enough time as it is so those are just some of my thoughts about the videotaping and the recording well the reason it was it was actually voted in to begin with it was for public transport transparency for the public and then the ability to see what's going on in the Committees and have a better understanding and if they have the time to participate even you miss Patricia just said how valuable it was to watch the curriculum advisory meetings and what happens in those
151meetings and I found value in it I also found value in edac as well because it allows the community to see what's going on and what the work of the district is you know the works of the district and the works of the Committees Finance is the only one that has not been able to meet the Quorum and that seems to be an issue within Finance so I you know I'm not opposed to the idea of them deciding but I thought I found value in going back and watching construction advisory I found value in going back and looking at the curriculum and watching the public speak because it was important for others to hear their voices at curriculum advisory and I think that's what's important is the community having the ability to voice their voice
152their opinion and advocate for what they feel is what's needed at a school district and what's our kids are receiving the information they're receiving so I'm having a hard time with that one thank you I'm along the lines of Miss juvenile in her comments I am I would be on board with still keeping it but I'm open to other suggestions board Miss Patrica okay I would say that when this was adopted by the board we could not have anticipated that it would be weaponized and used against volunteers and that's the problem we are elected officials we put ourselves out there to be Trident and insulted and sworn at and treated very very badly our volunteers should not be subjected to that and our volunteers are subjected to that when people go in and they cut
153a YouTube video of an advisory committee meeting and they take it out of context and put them out on social media out of context and that's I seek to protect our Volunteers in that regard is it valuable yes but does the chilling effect on participation by volunteers outweigh the value in my opinion yes it does so I that's why I'd like to see the sentence removed okay why don't we go I have one more Mr persons go ahead even if we're not videoing as you said they used to do we just record it I think that's a nice option there to just be able to have the recordings accessible at a minimum you know maybe all meetings will be recorded or if voted on by the committee videotaped or whatever something along those lines so
154we're giving it a little more transparency but also protecting you know the volunteers okay I would be I don't know I'm just a thought I would be on board with that at least having recording and re-referring to let's be specific audio or video recording it would be an audio recording I mean minutes are nice but they're not specific enough correct so I think you need to go another step and I would be on board with going to the audio recording I think that would be the that would probably be the best compromise at the moment can I hear my fellow board members on that I would completely agree thank you Mr persons for making that recommendation I think the audio is sufficient it allows someone to go back and listen you we don't need to
155be watching and looking at someone I think that makes that might come might make them even more com more comfortable in speaking up without having to be on TV so thank you thank you for Miss Jordan for that suggestion are we gonna are we good going to audio recording only at the moment for these meetings okay returning to pre-bruno so we will remove under committee meetings a where it says all committee meetings shall be videotaped and it will now say all committee meetings shall be audio recorded thank you okay do we have any other comments and questions in regards to any of the new policies at this moment I do need clarification from the board going back to miss patrica's I think zero one six six do you want to add attorney closed sessions to
156the list of those that board members can participate via phone or videotape Mr person I'm sorry not videotape video conference I don't have a problem with that but I'd be for the record you're going to have to be asked if you're alone and then it's up to you type thing so don't be offended but I think that's would be a nice compromise on that one also just to realize that's the will be the process of it Miss Jordan and I believe we already had this conversation I can't remember that when we had the conversation that we would allow this to take place except for security except for shade sessions not all the executive sessions are already there yeah the security ones we're not going to do anything that dealt with security we could not do
157that so now that you've raised that much Jordan I need to make sure I have clear direction from the board because cyber security sessions are different than Safety and Security sessions and executive sessions for cyber security require a court reporter to be present executive sections for Safety and Security do not and nor do any of the other executive session meetings such as bargaining usually Safety and Security and bargaining they're the main ones now attorney closed sessions are the ones that's very very unique and specific to the statute and is actually in a whole another section of the statute and that also requires a court reporter to be present so I want clear direction as to what the board would like me to do Mr persons I would think cyber security still needs to be in
158person only I think that's the one that we just can't because if they're if they're good enough to be able to hack our computers they can hack our phone systems as we call it I mean I hate to say something like that but that's of like the utmost importance but I think all the others we should be able to phone in I don't see a problem there and participate as long as we go on record that we are alone but that's again that's my thoughts if anyone else has any I'm flexible for me I'd personally like to perhaps explore a little bit further and maybe with this and come up in our one-on-ones first I have a couple questions in regards to policies and statutes for regards to that and when you say phone in
159owning ends well no that's the method of you know in regards to this we're the rest of the board thinking right there it's here yeah spend a little more time yeah okay so let's if you could look into some of that and maybe go over it some of our one-on-ones then miss Dupree Bruno six six we will discuss further in another one-on-one to discuss all of the executive sessions attorney sessions and what the statute specifically says correct any other clarifications from anything that's previously been said this the pre-runo no Mr chairman okay comments questions policies Mr persons yeah just want to say that these policies are our framework the process documents and everything else is still being worked on as as we speak you're not to me how this all works together but you got
160to have the policies first in order to create the process that goes with it so I just wanted the public to sort of know that I don't have any problem with these policies except for the what small things we're doing okay anyone else Miss Jordan thank you on policy two five two two I just wanted to to ask about that one please as regard to where it says oh my goodness where is that at we how do we know or do they know and know in the challenge in its entirety how do we and that's to Mr free Bruno if I may you're referring to the person who's objecting right so right it the questions on that is have you read it have you read everything in its entirety in how do you know if
161they actually have if and also if the form is not filled out completely does now the staff have to they send that back because they're not going to work on it unless it's filled out completely as asked correct so I know that in July because I don't want to step over what staff's going to present in July there's going to be a full discussion in terms of everything that deals with books what I can tell you is that when you're filling out the form the school district is hoping that you're being honest and filling it out with appropriately and that you're putting all of the information in there that needs to be put in there so hopefully the individual has read the book that's one of the things that we asked have you looked at
162the totality of the book as well as for the appeal form it says the same thing so that's the only thing I can say now I will say that the Department of Education has been instructed through House Bill 1069 to create a form we do not have that or the state board has been directed to create a form we do not have that form yet so I can't I will not be able to advise as to what's going to be on that form and whether or not there will still be a requirement that you read the entire book because we don't have the form yet and then it's so then the other question when it comes to Excuse Me Miss Jordan looks like we're having some technical difficulties with board docs I'm having some problems
163I've completely lost boy docs you just need to walk back in log back in will work the same thing happen to me thank you I'm Sorry Miss Jordan okay and then the form if it is not completed as as required it gets sent back to the to the individual We're Not Gonna Mr chair there was an expectation from the superintendent after I first came on board regarding a particular challenge where I believe staff was trying to accommodate the request we made sure at that point through your direction through the superintendent to staff the expectation was that each book has to be individually challenged and those processes and forms that are associated with that must be filled out completely thank you in those cases if if they're challenged for a reason and the reason isn't appropriate
164in the book then we would send it back to them and say you might want to think about you know there is no pornography in the book there is however you may want to challenge them in a different category so we will make sure that we follow policies and we will procedures that align to that particular policy fact staff is already doing that now into Kathy Dupree Bruno's point we are doing work sessions in July to make sure that we're covering this material and giving the community additional input and providing opportunities for the community to continue to address this matter well thank you I appreciate that but I know right now we're working on policies before the July meeting so thank you for that and the only other thing that if I may Mr chairman
165proceed add is that even though we have because because we've done this whole meal of process we also have new laws that are coming into play July 1. some of those new laws were Incorporated already in these new policies however I will tell you there's going to be new policies that will be coming forward or updates to policies and we're planning on bringing all of those to the board by August so we have all of the legislative changes so I just wanted the board to be aware and the public also to be aware of that thank you any other comments or questions at this point Miss juvenile regarding making sure that someone that's challenging the book has read the book by its entirety I think we have to cautious because if I know as a
166parent if I started reading a book that was some vulgar information in it that I don't personally want to my put in my head I might not continue to read that book however I'm going to bring it to the attention of the of the school and I would probably have never taken it to the challenging I would probably gone to the actual principle but or the teacher in the classroom that suggested that book if that's the way it went but I think we have to be careful on our expectations of what we expect from someone if they feel that the book is inappropriate for a child at a certain age and I think that they have that right to do so and I think that we're going to have laws that support that so I
167think we just need to be careful and it's and it's the same route that if it doesn't pass you know when it's challenged and it's not felt that it should be pulled and removed from the shelf that re respect the process so I think I think just be careful about how we get to make someone do something I think making someone do something and making sure that they did that and we're talking adults here and if they said they read it and they read enough that they don't want to read anymore and they challenged it that should be sufficient my opinion thank you just for reference I'm still having issues with board docs right now go ahead so I hear you Miss giovannelli however the process or the steps through which the committee will look
168at the book is in its entirety yeah so it would be important for the person challenging the book to have read it in its entirety because any any phrase taken out of context without looking at the eternity of a work could be considered offensive so we could be wasting staff's time if we're not requiring you know if that if the end result is going to be looking at it in its entirety then I think it makes sense for the Challenger to have also looked at it in its entirety is that it miss Patricia that's it Mr persons I think the Forum has very specific things you can put on it and the only disadvantage of the Challenger not reading it through its entirety it won't change any of the things they're objecting to all it
169will do is maybe have a lot more things to back up there you know their claim that it should be removed or or flagged or whatever I had I don't think it needs to I think the committee to make there but Declaration of the book there are synopsis of it needs to read it in its entirety but not necessarily the Challenger the Challenger just needs to have enough on their form there to bring it before the committee I mean I don't think anyone's going to bring one sentence and say I'm challenging this book but maybe I'm wrong okay anything else anyone comments questions Mr chair I just want to clarify one thing too as we're going through this process and reviewing and we'll be updating policies further we have to remember that house bill 1069
170goes a little bit more deeper in terms of the definitions as to what the school district has to remove which does impact whether or not somebody has to completely read Etc because we may not be applying the Miller test to all situations some yes definitely but some not because of the new language in HP thank you anybody else okay I appreciate everyone's hard work on that for the public we're it's been a long process it's been interesting process and we're going to continue working on it next up will be item C public comment attorney Dupree Bruno if we can address public comment please Mr chairman just clearly we do not have an internet connectivity problem that appears we have a board docs issue so I mean I just Googled dogs and I got all sorts
171of little fuzzy pictures so Mr Alton is currently in contact with our with the diligent brand trying to make some determinations on board docs and what's what's transpiring with their program thank you Mr superintendent thank you before we start with the Republic thank the board the work that will prove to get these Neola policies done because I know that there was a lot of reading and there was a lot of questions and examinations so I'm glad that we're moving forward to the second reading Mr chairman if you could please just find out from the board with the exception of 9140 and 0166 at the remaining policies can move forward to the second reading okay is there any objection to moving forward on the remaining policies we haven't discussed no objection and then with regards to
172four zero I think the corrections were very clear so we will make those Corrections with the track changes may we move that with those changes to Second reading any objection to moving forward no objection and then zero one six six that depends on what the changes are so I think I'll bring that back to the board so the board can review that yeah that was one okay we'd like to follow up on one-on-ones please thank you thank you is that it that's it thank you when we move forward with public comment please proceed thank you very much School Board policy provides the opportunity 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 the basket in the
173back of the room or to staff and public comment will be held at the podium in the center aisle and in the front please be advised that the board will not respond during public commentary remarks made by speakers speakers who fail to follow Prophet 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 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers there will be one warning per board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is three minutes you will find a countdown on the big screens in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the microphone there is one change based on the board's discussion
174that they would like to have any responses from the superintendent if he is able to respond to any public comments so I wanted to make sure that the public was aware of that as well at this time Mr chairman there were six speakers that would like to address the board thank you is there anyone else anyone else in the audience that has not signed up for public comment that wishes to make said comment okay just to be aware for briefing meeting public comment she'll be on the topics that were addressed in the briefing meeting any general school board comments shall be addressed at the Action meeting tonight whenever you're ready please proceed with the names I'm turning to pre Bruno thank you Mr chairman will the following individuals please line up Marge Cox Bobby de
175Lisandro Robert Roper Sharon McGill Madeline Stewart Tara Jenner thank you so much for the opportunity to share ideas with you this afternoon my name is Marge Cox I'm a retired library media specialist I spent 40 years in the public school system and treasure the time I spent there what you're doing on behalf of students as well if you can just give me one second because we're having some technical difficulties the timer's not on the screen so I'm going to go ahead and time it with my phone so if you give me one second and I'll set that up thank you okay Miss Cox I'm sorry I didn't realize I needed to wait I'm Marge Cox I'm years I loved my time in my job I appreciate so much what you're doing on behalf of children
176in Lee County I live in Bonita Springs I come today to support your library media Specialists and teachers who have classroom libraries because I think that's critically important for students and I have research that will support that it's not just my idea but that it is several professional organizations that believe students need to have access to books one is from the United States Department of Education research that showed access to reading materials was critically important for students I am not going to read it to you but I have sent it to you so that you can read it as you have time another one was from the educational and career news access to books is critical to ending illiteracy thank you there's also one from the international reading Association providing books and other print materials
177for classroom and school libraries the position statement of the international reading Association run from the American Library Association empowered by reading the benefits of giving youth access to a wide variety of reading materials and last but not least from Scholastic publishing kids and family reading report the readings impact on kids Mental Health all of those organizations believe that it's important for students to have access to a wide variety of books and I come in what you're trying to do to work within what the state has expected of you for getting books into kids hands and I appreciate what you're trying to do to make it so that they will have access to Books thank you for your time this afternoon thank you okay Ms delisandre good afternoon attorney Bruno Dr Bernier and board my name
178is Bobby D'Alessandro I'm a resident here at Fort Myers and I'm very interested citizen former superintendent here in Cambridge Mass I'm here to speak today about the policy 2522 and the processes that are being developed to implement that I first want to comment about your staff under the leadership of Jeff Spyro they have had to listen to many voices and many opinions about this procedure and I have to say I have in our purple Group which is just a group of people that care deeply about children as you do they've listened to us they've given us access the curriculum advisor committee so I can't thank them enough and they have really diligently tried to adhere to the statute now we have read and know that any County can develop their processes the way they want
179to and we have read many of these these policies throughout Florida and there's a variance let me tell you but I may be prejudiced a bit but I think Lee County's policy is fair and just and one of the best I've read and I've tried to read them all we strongly believe that Lee County has has to have a sound educational process done by Educators with input from the community we also believe in parental rights absolutely but it's amazing to me that most of the book challenges don't come from parents but they come from community members which is part of the statue I understand one situation that I want to bring forward to you that you might have heard of or not but you know as the book is challenged you have to go through
180a process of going to the committee if you don't like that decision go to the board if you don't like the decision go to the state now if that state still overturns that and says it goes back to the library this group would like to have that book flagged forever as a challenge book now that seems to be an outrageous situation and very manipulative so if this comes before I like to think about it and consider it and all I'm asking you is just make a good decision for the kids as you always do thank you very much for your attention have a good evening I'll be here good afternoon everybody I have to applaud you all for your stamina it's amazing hours of very good discussion I'm Madeline Stewart and I appreciate the opportunity
181to talk with all of you today first of all I want to thank you the administration the staff attorney Bruno and particularly Dr Spiro and his curriculum coordinators who who are thoughtful professionals who have done a wonderful job I believe in crafting this policy and I also want to thank you the board for supporting them to do this work because it's going to have far-reaching effects on the education of students in Lee County what you do here and what this what we do with children in our schools has a huge impact on the future of all of us the policy policy as everyone has said adheres to the law as it should and importantly I believe it provides a solid framework for the book challenge process that the staff will be crafting I want to
182read one particular sentence in the policy no challenged material may be removed solely because it presents ideas that may be unpopular or offensive to some I think that is a very important statement and I applaud its inclusion in your policy all of us are joined in this community all of us even if we don't agree on everything in the goal of providing an education for students that will prepare them to participate actively in our democracy and live fulfilled positive lives we are a pluralistic Nation we live in an interconnected world for each of us at any age books of all kinds provide inspiration new ideas new ways of seeing and learning about ourselves and others and they provide us aspiration for a better world I'd like to end with a quote from John Dewey he
183said all true learning begins when our comfortable ideas turn out to be inadequate so I ask you to consider that and I thank you so much for your time foreign my name is Sharon Mcgill and I'd first like to thank the board and everyone else in the district who was involved in working on these policies it was no small task and that is acknowledged and appreciated to try to develop the policies for the districts that still have to be in alignment with the state statutes is a major task because those policies not only affect every child in the district they affect every employee in The District in some way shape or form so thank you again for all of your efforts and your continued efforts I would like to address first of all policy 9140
184the citizens advisory committees questions that were brought up by the board were ones I had written down number one being movie changing the number of missed meetings from three to two if you look at the seven meetings that most of the Committees have three meetings missed is 40 percent of the meetings I mean I said that's not an expo that's not a reasonable expectation from anybody and when you sign up for a committee you need to understand that and accept those responsibilities so I appreciated the fact that it was being considered to be moved from three to two the other thing was the terms for committee meetings for committee members board members have term limits superintendents have term limits why shouldn't the committee members have term limits what you want to do with committees is
185reach out to as many people in the public as you can to get as diverse opinions as you can to try to come to come some consensus that's in the best interest of all students and by allowing the same person to stay on a committee term after term after term after term does not do that you get the same opinions over and over again so I would like you to consider some kind of term limits on committee members and the other thing is that committee members may only serve on one committee and or District advisory council at a time so if somebody's on DAC they shouldn't be allowed to sit on another District advisory committee or if they're on a district advisory committee if they're on a board advisory committee they shouldn't at the same
186time be able to sit on Deck again you're trying to reach as many different people as you can and get all the diverse ideas that you can and you know just allow them if they're inadvertently assigned to to accept the one they would prefer to stay on but they want to stay on deck or would they rather stay on the thank you Miss thank you Miss Miguel that's your time thank you Robert Roper sporting some new colors today because amazingly enough we have a lot in common and it's not just the color of our shirts on the core issues we could agree on a lot of things we should actually get together and meet sometime I think it'll be good concerning the way the challenge policy is written right now there's very few elements of
187the policy that I would disagree with I think it's well written I think it's well thought out it complies with the law what I do disagree with is the order in which you put the solution at the very end where it's labor intensive for the entire board for the ad hoc committee for the person making the challenge for the public attending these public hearings instead of putting the solution at the beginning and avoiding all that it's possible to do and I really think we should take a take a step back and look at it the way the policy is written today my understanding of it and the process documents it's a train wreck getting ready to happen please consider a fresh look at putting the solution at the beginning as opposed to the end if
188I have any time left I want to talk about the fact that we just repealed 205 policies and added 586. it's like taking a drink of water out of a fire hose yeah one minute in 32 seconds thank you very much so one of the things that I noticed is missing right away is red strikes red strike throughs with red lettering that denotes changes now it's shadowed and highlighted and it's really hard to figure out what's what I missed the line numbering that used to be there but the biggest thing is that the process documents are not Linked In the policies that is huge because you're you're the devil is in the details it's okay to have the framework and I get it and I get why you're doing so many at one time I'm
189not even objecting to that I I know it's got to be done it will take you forever you guys would all retire before it got done if you did it at the regular rate but but the way we're missing the pro the process documents linked into the policies just leaves it for anybody to come up with a way to comply with the policy without public oversight or input and I think I think we're missing something very important there thank you foreign ER what he just said today you had code of conduct over 200 policies considered for repeal and almost 600 policies proposed for adoption the better part of the past few days have been scrutinizing these documents and had difficulty also being able to compare them because they weren't side to side I'm not sure
190how advisable it is to jam so much into one meeting but it is what it is I would personally like to see an archive system for previous documents so that you can see where we've processed and changed things from the past to the present or at least from the present to the Future so that we don't end up washing rinsing repeating and making the same mistakes that you've theoretically fixed this time around but since there's so much on the agenda I'm going to focus only on one policy and you guys probably know that's my favorite policy board policy 1.11 the new policy is not making a whole lot of changes except possibly if anything it's more restrictive when it comes to public policy it's sad that many of the board campaigned for more transparency in
191our action with the community I don't see where that's translated to a change in this policy let me address a few points to consider there's one hour for public comment and still there's an arbitrary three minute two minute and one minute time cut off based on the number of people that sign up to speak why not cap the comments to three minutes and then take the 60 minutes and divide it by the number of members of the community that want to speak so for example if there's 24 speakers they get two and a half minutes rather than two minutes we'd have calculators and we have a countdown clock usually so it wouldn't take rocket scientists to do that speakers take time to walk from the back of the room to the front of the room
192so why not allow clapping during the transition time it won't delay or disrupt anything but will most certainly give you additional feedback from those in attendance especially those who maybe choose not to speak or are limited because of the number of speakers allocated also why just disallow placards as long as they don't impede Ingress and egress or interfere with anyone's view of the board and speakers how would this not be beneficial to give you some non-verbal communication on how people feel about topics being presented unless of course you're afraid of paper cuts as for the specific language added to preclude public comment prior to the election of the board chair and the vice chair I encourage you to consider holding off for that right now for obvious reasons I will be delving into other policy
193proposals in more depth and reach out to some of you via email if anything draws my attention that I feel really needs to be addressed in detail the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results when my employees come to me with a reasonable proposal that's different from what I originally envisioned I'll always try to hear them out and look for a way to say yes when possible if they totally disregard disregard me as an employer that I see is a problem this approach should be applied even more when it's the community reaching out to the thank you Miss Jenner Mr chairman that concludes public comment thank you Mr superintendent do you wish to make any comment at this moment my comments will be brief when
194I think they're worth addressing and I thank this community for the opportunity to put this in place there will be opportunities we'll have very specific answers based upon very specific problems there'll be other opportunities where we will have to follow up there'll be other opportunities for those of you've not noticed that is people have particular personal issues with students and Educators I'm very proud of the staff gathered in the room who then meets those families outside the chamber and begins to work immediately at a board meeting so I don't think everybody who watches a board meeting or briefing gets an opportunity to say that specifically to Ms Jenner we will certainly look into all of your recommendations I appreciate you your focus in making sure that the public has that opportunity to comment for my
195individuals who are trying to get closer together in terms of the color so that they're wearing I appreciate that sentiment and I appreciate the aspect of what I do believe is you have much more in common than you have have differences I have read some of the articles that were sent earlier today and have forwarded those on to staff to help inform their decision as we continue to develop develop the procedures related to this policy books are important to children reading is definitely the skill that all people need in order to be successful adults I don't believe no matter what the diversity in the room includes that anyone precludes the fact that reading is important and children need to have access to good quality text and materials I think that's our place to start the
196question becomes how do you comply with the law and how do you leave opportunity for parents to exercise their right and what I believe is a parent's responsibility so we will continue to use the information provided here today to continue to inform us as to how we will continue to develop the procedures because Pastor Roper is correct procedures are the backbone of a policy the board knows that and we will begin that work is already underway but we will continue to use public input through our committees and the other discussions we had today very specifically around some of the board advisory committees it is important for the public to participate and I will tell you on this particular issue we've had great participation I will also Echo the sentiments of a board member was unable
197to get to that specific those specific meetings but I did watch them I will tell everyone in this particular room who's represented behave with amazing decorum and I credit the staff for putting together a great input process that will inform our procedures moving forward thank you Mr chair thank you Mr superintendent thank you everyone for your comments today they are appreciated at this point we're going to move on to item d and e go to the order and board comment I think we will start on the far end Miss Morgan if that's all right I have none and I shared my comments with you in writing so thank you it's Langford Fleming if not I'll wait till this evening thank you Mr persons I just want to say books are important one of the things
198we're doing is every Elementary teacher throughout the whole district is getting 250 new books this year through the state and to add to their in class Library so I mean that's that's a good start right there Ms Jordan I don't have anything at this moment Miss Patrica so I'm gonna give my most of my almost my entire full board report now so you don't have to stay here and listen to it tonight where do I start changes because of 1069 if I may through the chair and turning to pre Bruno and superintendent Bernier you mentioned some changes that staff is working on right now I'd like to request that we as a board be fully briefed because this is obviously an issue that is important to the public and I'd like to be able to
199converse intelligently on the subject so if so Mr chair I can address that immediately we are planning both workshops and briefings regarding all things books and books related this team is fully prepared we've been vetting the Powerpoints and getting prepared for those presentations this was not a procedural event today this was a policy event on our in your one-on-ones we've been sharing information and sharing what's been transpiring we'll continue to do so but we'll bring that information forward to the public as well because the public input will be incredibly important Mr chairman proceed and I will also be briefing the board during our one-on-one and some of the highlights from the legislative session to include HB 1069 so I think next week is our next one-on-one so that's on the list and I think I
200failed earlier to recognize you and attorney Huffman in your presentation of the law surrounding this issue at curriculum advisory it was outstanding it was really really good okay next is graduation at for Island Park Coronado and North Nicholas two of my colleagues were there it was phenomenal the speaker the commencement speaker was just so I mean he got up there and like jeans and a t-shirt and I was like oh no what are we looking at here but he was so incredibly inspiring I think and you know we all love graduation so enough said there I have attended my very last fhsa board meeting that is why I wasn't able to be physically present here I served six years on that board and I don't think I've ever said it in Lee County but I
201used to say it in Gainesville all the time that was my favorite part about being a school board member sorry techno offense but it was it was my favorite part about being a school board member because there was no politics at the table at all there was no politics coming from the public speakers there was no politics coming well there's some some politics sometimes came from our stakeholders but we were able to resist it as a board until about two years ago when the board membership changed a little bit and politics started to creep in in but before that period of time what we had was we had superintendents and we had heads of school for private schools and we had athletic directors and we had people who were experts in athletics in the State
202of Florida who sat around and really grappled with issues that were going to impact student athletes and did their best to to make decisions that were fair to all kids taking into consideration student athletes individual circumstances that was what I loved about being on that board there was no politics over the past couple years the politics has creeped in and I fear that the change is being made at the FHSAA in terms of the board membership are going to to mean that student athletes in Florida are now dictated by politics that's my fear My Hope and my continued prayer will be that expertise rules the day and that student athletes are always placed first that being said honest to God and true the most fun I've had on a school board is serving on that
203board I want to apologize to my colleagues about the communication from me in the car on the ride home I did not join that meeting until 12 30. I believe it started at 12. so when you said Mrs Patricia do you have any comments I had just called into the meeting so I didn't have any comments because I didn't know what you guys were talking about that being said I've gone back and watched the meeting and I'd like to recommend two things I want to say number one I love working with this board the level of profession this is what I would have said if I was sitting here that day the level of professionalism has increased significantly since November and I'm very very grateful that we are focused on our work we do our
204work and we leave that being said there was some discussion about what what we can do to improve upon some of the lower points and I'd like to recommend fsba Master board training that was touted several times while we were up in Gainesville I'm sorry up in Tampa last week as being incredibly successful and something that's wonderful so if I may pause here and ask whether we can ask the board whether it's something that you're interested in pursuing so we can give that direction to the superintendo or to the chair you can proceed to ask so is there interest yes no maybe yes I mean I learned something every time I go there so great and we have to work in our schedule that's the hard part I'd be interested in hearing more I want
205to get a better idea of what it is but I'm open to it okay so who would pursue that go ahead I think it's part of our one of our policies as well okay I can't remember the number but it's one something that it's policy one something that we do Master board training it's also in your protocol manual yeah so I mean it's it's there so it's saying that's what we so we're asking that question but we already have it in writing that's what we do just as an FYI okay so do we ask the superintendent to pursue that or do we ask the chair to pursue that I don't know I'm asking do you need permission yes sir I'd be more than happy to pursue that as we look towards the annual evaluation of
206the board and working in the Strategic plan format I think we have an opportunity for it Dr Salvage and I will work together to make some contacts get more information to the board so that they can be better informed and then in one-on-ones and in another public meeting we can have a discussion about formally adopting a schedule if that's the direction and pleasure of the board great thank you okay moving on the communication survey do you know that a communication survey went out to your families Dr Bernier through the chair so it was great but ironically I was on social media and I saw a meme that said quote my last child graduates from high school tomorrow and I am excited about never receiving another school email ever again so that is your that is
207what I said in my in my response to the to the thing I just thought it was really funny okay I went to Avid College and Career week at sunshine Elementary last week I spoke to three different classrooms about my career and how I got to where where I am I really focused a lot on my time out of the workforce when I took the time out of the full-time Workforce to raise my children because to me that's the most important work that I've done in my career was raising my children so I focused still out on that with the kids and I downplayed the rest of the stuff Insurance task force the number of urban Rollies is down now the number of overall enrollees is up why because of the family coverage which has
208been very well received but the number of initial enrollees and I'm probably using the incorrect vocabulary but the number of initial and release is down why because the number of employees we are bleeding and that was you know I know that we're having difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers and staff but to see it on piece of paper in an insurance perspective just really drove the point home for me so I wanted to bring that to the board's attention I would like to recognize our chair for his recognition in Tampa last week he received the pineapple report award for Community engagement is that correct it was Community engagement family and Community engagement I wanted to recognize you for that I thought that was awesome I would have been there to celebrate if I wasn't out of
209required dinner last thing I want to talk about I do have two things that I need to talk about tonight but the last thing I'll talk about today is Mike Martin retired from FGCU and he has not been recognized at this table and Mike Martin was such an amazingly stronger supporter of our kids our staff and our mission our vision everything we did he supported and I love that guy and he's still here he's working at the collaboratory right now but seeing him step away from FGCU made me a little bit sad and I just want I wanted to recognize him publicly at the table those are my comments for now thank you Miss juvenile thank you will I'm trying to think how many times we've done Master board training do we do it with
210this second we did the first one I know I've done it once the way I think we yeah so I'm game because I think it's a good team building so but real quick thank you Miss Morgan for your update you sent us regarding fsba apparently we must have been on the off because I don't think you took the same class as I took I guess but there was different times so I think you were in we went opposite but so just thank you for that update I appreciate it and just real quick regarding the book challenge I do believe all books are important and I think they're I think it has to be age appropriate and I will support the law that has required of us on how they're presented to Children I also want
211to be real clear about my whole thing about the book challenging the Challenger has to read the book by the entirety I don't know who's going to police that and that was my concern is like you know someone's gonna say they read it are we going to police that they did or didn't are we going to give them a test I mean so I just think that we have to be careful about how or what our expectation is because is I mean the Challenger could be a group of people so are we going to make sure that all 10 of those people have read it I mean I think I think just we're taking that to the little bit of extreme when someone challenges a book they really have a good reason I would think
212and if not then the process will pretty much determine that won't it so I just I'm I'm very happy with the policy and all the work that curriculum and Dr Spiro's staff did worked on that I was in that in that process or got to watch it unfold to the community and got to hear the community and I so that's how I think the value of hearing those individuals and being recorded was important because other people got to hear it too that choose to go and listen to to the books and so I just appreciate the speakers that came and spoke regarding the books and the challenge process and their their passion in that because we have to value that and I find Value in that so thank you that's it thank you I'm reserving
213my comments until tonight do we have anything from Dr Bernier the only thing Mr chair that I have would have is we're currently experiencing an outage from the platform we are working on it at the minute and hope to have it operational soon we will continue to go to diligent status page for updates and we appreciate not only your patience but the Public's patients as we attempt to resolve this matter it is definitely a problem with the diligent brand and board docs it is not an internet connection process thank you go ahead Miss juvenile I'm sorry so what does that mean for to see me it means we're working on it and trying to get it okay good luck this is a transitional and developmental processary okay so we have a couple of paper copies
214of the agenda ready and the event were not up and running in time for the public please and thank you and Mr superintendent we can we confirm we can still search for dogs on Google I can before the meeting is out okay thank you attorney Dupree Bruno do you have any report no thank you okay thank you we will have a parent University reception at 5 PM followed by our Action meeting at 6 o'clock see another no other business to come before this board this meeting is adjourned at 4 19. thank you everyone