001good evening ladies and gentlemen we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting the school board meeting of March 13 2008 een is now called to order the time is 6:02 p.m. at this time we request that all electronic devices be turned off or put be put in the silent mode also we ask that you please refrain from using flash photography except during the special presentations part of the meeting we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district's mission which is to ensure that each student reaches his or her highest personal potential and the district's vision to be a world-class school system prior to the start of this evening's board meeting we have been enjoying the vocal ensemble and lead cast of veteran Park Academy for the
002Arts first-ever full-scale ka production of Disney's The Lion King jr. under the direction of Loren forbus this is their first time putting on a production of this magnitude a hundred and twenty-five students out of the house they have had to leave their dancers behind as they knew there would not be much space so they look forward to seeing you in the audience at their next production for full effect at this time the vocal ensemble and cast will perform one more song at this time we'll take a brief pause to clear the performance area but I gotta say Wow some of the costumes and makeup you're seeing we're entertaining us earlier and I must say that if you have the opportunity to see this show you must see it the makeup the costumes the acting when
003is that one of the dates don't happen please preview it with us so that we can share it with the community that was awesome we are still expecting Jessica Casio a senior at Riverdale high school so when she makes her appearance we'll be sure to introduce her at the time this evenings agenda includes the invocation the Pledge of Allegiance two recognitions one acknowledgement public comment consent action items which include two items under executive services two items under academic services one item under business services four items under human resources two items under information services six items under operations as well as three items under superintendents recommendations one item for public hearing and four items under other business board members the surra motion to adopt the agenda so moved second move my mrs. la riviere seconded by
004mrs. Giovanelli all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye motion carries 6-0 mrs. Giovanelli will deliver the invocation after which mr. Tibor will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please rise for the invocation Lord we pray for hope and peace we seek blessings on the task before us bless our efforts with clear insight our deliberations with wisdom our work and our clarity and accuracy and our decisions with impartiality daily we live side-by-side sharing our community we take each other for granted living our lives going through our days seldom thinking of the community something stopping to think of the needs of our neighbors caught up in living and providing for ourselves and families community is just here there and we just take it for granted until disaster strikes or hardship comes or whether
005rages then we suddenly desperately need our community we need it to help us survive keep us keep hope alive to live it is community that provides the essential safety net protecting each other as in the face of loss and tragedy it is our community that brings out the neighbors in all of us it is our community that will fight to protect the rights of all let's promise that today and we will do something to build our own community and make it a stronger protecting all our families and friends and neighbors and ourselves for this is my prayer amen tonight's Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Lieutenant Colonel rich Livingston the senior army instructor at Cape Coral high school Lieutenant Colonel Livingston retired from military service in 2011 after 26 years of service he is
006a Desert Storm veteran and had the honor to serve as an associate professor at the United States Military Academy in West Point for three years prior to arriving in Cape Coral Lieutenant Colonel Livingston served as a GRT instructors G ROTC instructor at Madison Central High School in Richmond Kentucky for six years colonel thank you sir please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation with liberty and justice for all may be seated thank you sir I would like to invite mr. Marshall Bauer president and CEO of the foundation for Lee County Public Schools Miss Cindy McCurry Ross executive editor of the news press media group as well as miss Clara and Graham president of the League of
007Women Voters - please join me at the lectern an essay contest for high school juniors and seniors in the school district recently sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Lee County the news Press Media Group Florida southwestern State College the foundation for Lee County Public Schools career source of Southwest Florida and the school district of Lee County titled why is freedom of the press important to our democracy the essay topic was our founders considered freedom of the press so important to our democracy that they place the requirement in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights why did they accorded such prominent placement and why does it remain so crucial to preserving our system of government students were encouraged to submit a written essay or to develop a video presentation the school board and
008superintendent are pleased to recognize the following individuals tied for third place Carly Folger Cypress Lake High School and Lucy and Stanford Lee virtual school saij Williamson Cypress Lake High School is at a lacrosse game first place honey yang Cape Coral high school yes the Florida dance education organizations state performance assessment was held February 9th through 11th 2018 in st. Petersburg middle and high school students from the Lee County School District attended and earned all-state recognition and awards in various areas special studies must be learned and performed by dancers who are assessed by college professors the school board and superintendent are very pleased to recognize the students and staff at this time I would like the dancers from North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts principal dr. Thomas Mullins and teacher MS Laurie Madol to please
009come forward kichaka dancers from Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts principal MS rolls teachers miss patty chair and Miss Nancy Burnham please come forward good job dancers from Lehigh senior high school principal mrs. Jackie Cory and teacher MS Lauren Gomez please come forward and since our student representative has been unable to join us at this point in time I'm going to ask Miss Mary Fisher who is our terrific adviser to that group to read the character word for the month thank you mrs Morgan the character word for the month of March is courage the personal strength to face difficulties obstacles and challenges having the determination to do the right thing even when others don't the quote for this month is courage is resistance to fear mastery of fear not absence of fear Mark
010Twain and the design that you see displayed on the screens was created by Eliezer Silva in the 11th grade student at Dunbar High School thank you at this time we'll take a brief recess so those who wish to leave may do so we're just having fun okay all right I'm giving you the eye now guys okay next item on the agenda is public comment mr. Martin please address the agenda item of public comment policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meetings agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district if you completed a card and submitted that to me before the meeting began you'll be called in the order of the cards submitted if you did not submit a
011card but still were to address the school board this evening the school board chair miss Morgan will provide you an opportunity in a moment to express that desire the rules concerning public comment to the school board are posted to the back of the room the board does not respond during public comment time to remarks made by speakers at the conclusion of public comment time the school board chair may address concerns raised by speakers or may assign responsibility to the superintendent to do so speakers are expected to act in a respectful manner those who fail to do so after being warned by the meeting chair may be required to leave the meeting disruptive attacks on individuals are prohibited the time opera speakers three minutes MS Morgan I have three cars this evening thank you is there
012anybody on the right side of the auditorium who wishes to address the board did not complete a card anybody on the left side do please state your name Charlie Fox I'm gonna just editorialize for a minute it's helpful to the parliamentarian and the secretary if you fill out a card I do appreciate you doing so because then we have the accurate spelling of the name and any other comments you wish to make I do recognize that it is some people do come after the cards have been submitted but anyway mr. Martin please call the first card Marvin gets members of the board dr. Atkins I want to bring to your attention a number of issues that have come to me as president of the substitute teachers of Lee County a number of people have questioned
013me over an issue that exists within our district and may exist in all districts I'm not sure because of what happened at Parkland and Douglas substitute teachers are asking are they covered if they get injured on the job yes they're covered by workman's comp but if it exceeds the workman's comp time and they still can't come back to work is there any form of district coverage in the form of some sort of insurance or payment I'm not sure they can't return to work because they've been told by the medical people that they cannot actually return it creates another issue and that is if they are absent 90 days or more then if they do return they have to start all over again with fingerprints and all of the necessary paperwork to be a substitute this
014also applies to Adult Edie and all part-time employees of the district so that's what we would like to know this leaves us with only one option we have to sue the school district each and every time and this is what seems to be creating a little bit of a shortage of substitutes they're not covered they don't want to work so that's what I can tell you and I hope you'll look into this and maybe we can work this out to bring it to a positive issue Thank You superintendent board Lou Navarra Cape Coral retired teacher when the buzzer sounded I was going to talk about teacher shortage I had made a 19 page report available to all of you only miss Giovanelli seemed interested in it so I left it in her mailbox but we
015have a real serious problem about you're talking about building schools but we have a serious problem about getting teachers in the classroom and between the problems besides pay and all that and now your life's in danger it's gonna be a real big problem I think the board needs to be aware of that I wonder dress I was disturbed to read in the news press today the protest that students want to walk out for parkland Douglass as the one month time I think they have a right to free speech and so do the teachers I don't think the board or the superintendent should threaten these people now we had a walkout in 1962 when I was at Sarasota high we walked out because our principal was fired there's a big difference between walking out for your
016principal and walking out nowadays because people are killing people in schools that's very sad in the end the board never did reinstate Howard Sherman but they did let him give us our diplomas so I just wanted to bring these things up to you okay lastly the Board says they're transparent I've been hearing rumors about this it never seems to go away Bonita high school did they ever get a south entrance is the contractor really gonna sue them I'd like the board to come out with a report on that I don't want to stir up trouble but it's true we mean we need to do this to put away all these rumors thank you thank you thar Jenner naintara Jenner there's a little over seven months between now and the vote and November on the sales
017tax and if you're not seriously working on a plan B in case the referendum fails I implore you to do so why not make use of the time that you have now to plan for implementation and yet in that event reality what would it say about the school district if you were able to find a solution to the problem and not need a sell to sales tax after all now I know the argument for sales tax is allege that we need more schools due to increase population growth expected here in Lee County assuming for a moment that's truly where the money is intended to go rather than Chromebooks and a tract which I've heard about we have to acknowledge that people moving here won't just move to a single location so basically we're talking about
018multiple new schools and there has to be a better solution than just more and more schools and more taxes at infinitum so let me think out loud here for a moment if we're going to be a world-class school system why are we focusing on IB and AP classes when the success rate for the exams in those programs is somewhere around 30 percent or less meanwhile seventy percent of those who are dual enrolled are passing their college classes with a C or better is it not a better deal for our students and community could it not lead to a way to have the district with the highest number of graduates finishing high school with an AAA or a significant number of college credits if we shift people over to the dual enrollment program it would not
019only be setting a high standard it would be setting the standard currently the district has a number of dual enrolled students that are taking their college classes on the grounds of the public schools using up space they're also being instructed by high school teachers who are getting paid more and they're approved to teach those college classes if we were to take those particular students add in those who are currently in AP and IB classes and shift them to the brick and mortar structure of FS w's campus don't we immediately free up space and teachers this will give us more classroom space district-wide without needing new buildings and we already will have qualified teachers in place on staff with more high schoolers attending classes that F w we could shift the advanced middle schoolers to some
020of the high schoolers or we could co-locate some middle schools with the high schools in some areas like Gateway charter is currently doing in their building okay now I know that this is a simplistic plan but it's something to consider and evaluate shifting all dual enrollment classes to the College campus transitioning from the IB and ap programs to dual enrollment would result in higher number of students graduating with college credits or an a would free up space and the schools eliminating the need to build more schools and would solve the space issues across the district rather than in a single location all without increasing increasing taxes and it would be way faster to do than building new school and it could be a multi-level wind across the board also please recall that over the last
021year I've addressed the fact that dual enrolled students that are home educated don't have access to funding for their books I've given you guys an opportunity Mary Orthodox ooh Muriel's the doxa board superintendent a permission slip came home for my granddaughter to go on a field trip and in the permission slip there was a paragraph in there asking parents to give up their children's rights and their rights to sue the district if that child gets hurt I really was shocked to see that and I'm gonna challenge how lawful this is so what happens if a parent omits that paragraph out does that child not go on the field trip because of it I mean I have never seen anything so ridiculous also on the news right before I came there has been a data breach
022across Florida on all children's information this was our main concern with the Chromebooks you want the half cent sales tax but yet you want to spend how much money on Chromebooks for elementary school children learn better out of books and writing they're not retaining what they're doing on the Chromebooks the Chromebooks have been a big burden on top of our budget and I really don't see how you want to do it now with the younger children so please consider what you're doing because I'm working diligently to stop this half cent sales tax thank you George Fox more Plan B Wow there is no plan B if they don't get it don't build any more schools see what happens let them deal with it in Tallahassee well it's it's good to consider some of those ideas
023that they are good ideas they're just not actually feasible but anyways my message to the board tonight is you're not visible enough I mean I know Chris is out there working hard and I see your Facebook you've got a couple of events coming up but you have visible enough I mean go get a couple of multicolored sky lights put them up on the parking lot let them shine you know the bat-signal I guess or whatever you know so there's it's it's a matter of consciousness there's a lot going on in the in the world politics and in general out there and the half cent sales tax is not on anybody's mind nobody's debating once you challenge the state representatives to a debate you know publicly you know let them let them find a place let's
024debate you know tell us all this great things that you're doing for schools and they won't show up but you can and you know I mean you have to you have to raise the visibility of this issue and it's you're simply not doing it I mean this is the reality I'm out there you know listening for what's going on and there's no buzz there's no nothing people have already made up their mind or they don't even know you know they'll go in that ballot box not knowing what they want to do and that's just the reality that's that's the message that I have for the board tonight is you've got to raise visibility on this issue tenfold if not a hundred thank you Charlie Fox attendant Charla Fox thank you for this opportunity to speak
025to you this evening I just want to reiterate I know I've said it time and again but I want to thank you for having the courage to step up and do something which not everybody looks at favorably but which I know that you have done a lot of study behind I know that there has been a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that this is the best viable option and I am talking about the half cent sales tax there are so many needs that if we are going to be the best school system we can be if we are going to encourage people to come here and have a good economic foundation schools are the number one indicator of why people come and live in a certain County even if they don't
026have children in schools and so that is something that we need to keep in mind that we are doing the right thing and the best thing and I know I've looked into a lot of the things that you're doing to make sure you have all the information and so I appreciate that I have been talking with teachers and others and we appreciate what you all are doing for that and I wanted to carry that message to you tonight you often will hear those that are against something people that are for it don't always speak up quite so loud and that's one of the things I want to remind you that there are a lot of people out there that are for it people just in general have a tendency not to speak as loud when
027they're for something as they do when they're against something and so please keep that in mind thank you so mr. Getz is he still here oh there he is yeah I'm going to ask dr. Adkins to as someone to talk to you about district average and about the process for returning after an extended absence I'm also going to ask dr. Adkins at the end of this meeting to talk about the student walkout and the safety and security processes that we're working on as a district mr. de vara we are well aware it's right next to okay there is we are well aware of the teacher retention issue of the hiring and the retention issue we are well aware that there are external factors that we struggle with mightily to to manage I appreciate your comments
028thank you for being here Tara Jenner thank you for sharing your comments and if you have a plan I mean if you've done some real analysis would you please share it with the superintendent but we would appreciate that dr. Atkins if you'd have someone speak with mrs. Orthodox sue about the field trip permission slip matter and Thank You mr. and mrs. Fox for continuing to advocate maybe we'll have to find a way for you to participate in our outreach effort mr. Fox I'll have to think about that anyway thank you all for coming to speak with us we appreciate your comments next is the approval of action items oh I should I let you respond no I guess it's at the end that's right next is the approval of action items in the agenda under
029consent board members are there any agenda items we wish to pull for discussion under the unfinished business tabled items portion of the agenda miss Fisher no polls this evening mrs. Giovanelli and then mrs. patrika thank you mr. toberomi mrs. lariviere and I have none we have no pools to address so is there a doctor Adkins oh we need to approve the agenda the giggles have just you know it's perfectly fine it's really it's catching okay so is there a motion to prove the agendas consent action items so moved second move my mrs. Fisher seconded by mrs. Giovanelli all in favor please signify by saying aye aye motion carries 6-0 dr. Adkins please address any administrators or please introduce any administrators in attendance with a new assignment that were approved under the consent agenda absolutely any
030tonight we have Amy Clarke Psychological Services just promote the position of Assistant Director school Psychological Services okay next to superintendent recommendations dr. Atkins would you please read your first recommendation the first recommendation I recommend board approval the estimated expenditure of 1 million dollars for the bid for ear 8 network infrastructure equipment awarded to C DW government LLC for the period of March 22nd 2018 through March 21st 2019 pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the board approve authorizes superintendent to execute all related documents board members you heard the superintendent's recommendation is there a motion to approve so moved by Miss lariviere second by mr. Tibor any discussion seeing none all in favor please signify by saying aye the motion carries six zero I recommend board approval the estimated expenditure of 1
031million $250,000 for the RFP for a wide area network and Internet services awarded CenturyLink Communications CenturyLink Embarq Florida for the period of March 22nd 2018 through March 21st 2019 pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the board approval authorizes superintendent to execute all related documents board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation it's their motion to approve so moved by Miss Fisher second seconded by Ms lariviere any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye motion carries six zero last recommendation I recommend board approval to piggyback the city of Kansas City contract electric lighting data communications security products and related products services and solutions awarded to Graybar electrical company for the period of March 13th through March March 13 2018 through March 12 2019 as an estimated
032expenditure of 1 million two hundred and seventy thousand dollars with the option to cancel if deemed to be in the best interest of the district approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents as you've heard the superintendent's recommendation is their motion to approve so moved by mr. Tibor seconded by Ms lariviere any discussion seeing none all in favor please signify by saying aye before closing the dr. Atkins would you please present your recommendation for this evenings public hearing it's the recommendation for the public hearing I recommend the board conduct a public hearing to receive comment on the instructional materials proposed for the adoption in the 2018 2019 instructional materials plan so we will recess the regular school board meeting and open the public hearing has indicated the public hearing this evening is to receive
033comment on the proposed 2018 19 instructional materials plan at this time the public will be invited to speak on this one item the time allowed for comment is three minutes is there anyone on the right side of the auditorium who wishes to adjust address this item is there anybody on the left side who wishes to address this item seeing none I will now close this public hearing and reconvene the regular school board meeting of March 13 2008 eeen other business board member comments I'll start with mr. Coyer first no no no we're moving on to the next item we've closed the public hearing okay we will be voting on it at the next meeting March 27 would you like to start with the comments mr. Tibor no I was just my only concern was about
034the academic plan we have not yet had the vote come in from the curriculum committee that is true so that was the reason why I thought probably dr. Atkins can handle it through a memo if we get them to vote so we can hear that okay thank you okay so I have thank you thank you mrs. Locke Riviere no I have no Patrika oh thank you mrs. Giovanelli and thank you mrs. Fisher and I have none and I have none mr. Martin do you have any comments on this evening thank you doctor Adkins had just a couple items on the on the follow-up I know that dr. Pruitt and get with mr. Getz we'll have dr. beau hatch reach out to Mary Orthodox soup and then the safety and security items so they want to
035mention just to give you and also to walk out like to address that at this time did make some comments at the briefing but just to bring everybody up to spear speed in our audience we do we have taken a number of different steps since the since the incident that occurred on the East Coast one of the things that we have done is we have a team that is has been already actively out there in our at our schools looking into hardening of each building a threat assessment team and then with plans to work with law enforcement in the future we did receive a call from Colonel Smith and I and we had a conversation yesterday and we are going to go ahead and have that conversation with the Sheriff's Department tomorrow and in that
036conversation we will be formulating a plan around the new legislation that was just recently passed in Tallahassee particularly relates to a number of items in that in that in Senate bill 77 t26 for example the co-chair and vice Guardian program that's one of the items that will be discussing the additional SROs etc so that something that we should be providing more information about in addition to that we are as I mentioned before gonna be deploying threat assessment teams with the help of the Sheriff's Department in terms of helping advise us along along those lines we have continued to survey schools in terms of their immediate needs and in addition to that I'll be working with the with DAC with mr. Demming tomorrow night to where schools can can speak to me directly on that particular
037issue in addition to that all just about every one of our schools has already undergone active shooter training with the rest of them to be completed by the end of the month that's that's important and then mr. Demming is already working with our schools in terms of implementing those renew those improved safety protocols as it relates to drills starting in April mr. cody is out in front of the issues that relates to buses I mean you're thinking as far as buses are concerned I think we're going to set the a good precedent along those lines and we have also been working with talc and spout and we do have a talc spout safety security task force that continues to meet on this particular issue speaking of the walk out in general with tomorrow is the
038anniversary and you see calls around the nation we did put out general guidance for our school principals to follow our stance in terms of the district is that this would be a normal business day and we would intend to to operate school as we normally do with the routines that are typically in place and we also have a code of conduct that would address any any concerns that would be different from that routine in addition to that I know our school principals have been working with their student populations in terms of they want to do something as a school to make a difference in safety and security and then what we did as a district we asked each one of our high schools to and us a representative and they send a couple of representatives
039from each one of our high schools that I met with along with staff and Laurie Brooks facilitated that I had an opportunity to address the group but the majority of that time was spent hearing directly from the students our students are absolutely amazing it just makes me very very very confident about the future when you see that the degree of articulation from these kids and you know we spent a good hour and a half talking about this particular issue they address their concerns what I got in a general sense from that group is rather than these things you know like these walk outs and so forth that we hear about this group wants to make a real difference in terms of safety and security that's a lasting has a lasting a positive effect on Lee
040County and so we're going to continue to meet with that group and I think that based on what I saw I think they're they're ready to do some amazing things that will help benefit our district in addition to that I also had a brief opportunity to meet with our Student Advisory Committee another amazing group of young people who also asked very very good questions and we are also going to come back to that group and follow up as well and I think you know again we're gonna get I think some good good feedback from from those students that we can use so not only are we going to have improved security but I think that these kids are learning that they're in engagement in the political process is a positive thing you know taking part
041in this democracy that they can truly change one of the things I said don't take it don't take I look into my our generation where we don't have as much participation as we'd like to see out there that they can make a change and participate in the democratic process and bring about positive change change for the better so it was a very great meeting and we continue we will continue to meet with those students good thank you very much the next scheduled meetings of the board on Tuesday March 27th there is a school board briefing meeting at 2 p.m. as well as a school board action meeting at 6 p.m. at this point having no other business to come before this body I will entertain a motion for adjournment so moved second moved by mrs.
042fisher's seconded by mrs. Giovanelli all in favor please signify by saying aye aye motion carries 6 0