001[Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening and welcome to the march 11th meeting of the st tammany parish school board ms coakley will you please call the roll mr harrell here mr green mr durman mr loop mr nation mrs richardson mr winkler mrs baker mr benton court mrs lamey here mr hershey mr bro mr kuzan mrs page real quick before we do the invocation and pledge i'd like to do a quick recognition of visitors i've invited the fifth ward parliamentary law team to come see some of the board meeting tonight we've got megan wicker cece fisher holly melton and julia jenkins and led by their teacher mr heartsong [Applause] i had the chance last year to see them compete in a parliamentary law meeting which is a meeting that's time that
002has to finish within 11 minutes is that correct julia i had been able to break it yet but [Laughter] but it's quick it's almost like an auction but uh julia is their vice president of parliamentary law and she is going to lead us in the invocation please bow your head in prayer dear heavenly father we thank you for the opportunity to gather this day may everything we do begin with your inspiration and continue with your help we ask your guidance throughout this meeting that all of our thoughts and actions would reflect your will and that you grant us the grace to love you and our day neighbors more perfectly we pray in jesus name amen amen please join us for the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and
003to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much girls but they didn't want to wait around all right do we any board members have a visitor they'd like to recognize mr durman thank you mr harold i'd like to recognize your wife is here tonight celeste wave [Applause] thank you for doing that she told me not to you did a lot mr jaby do you have an update for us yes sir very pleased tonight on you know give you my my meeting uh coveted numbers and i got tremendously great news today thank goodness um if if you keep up with the ldh numbers uh last week i reported that the numbers were six percent where they were re-calculated uh to 5.7 and for
004this past week they came down to 5.6 for the entire parish so that is a tremendous uh we continue to go downward but more important than that i'll receive the the coveted numbers for this past week from friday to today and last week we had 79 positives among students we're down this week to 50. we quarantined 899 kids last week this week only 378 so that is tremendous that our kids are in class which is unbelievable for our faculty staff we had 27 positives a week ago and this week only 12. so we are definitely headed in the right direction i can only just hope and pray that the community and the state and the country can continue on that track that way we can open things back up for our students and for this
005community and secondly i want to give you an update on the equity committee uh so i'm pleased to tell you in our first meeting back on february 23rd it's just it's a tremendously talented group of people that are just amazing to work with they're dedicated to helping us improve the school system and make everything we do better one of the first orders of business committee was to address the name uh just to call it the equity committee was not in line with what other institutions and what other communities call it so the group decided that we would be called the diversity equity and inclusion committee which i think is very fitting for what we're doing this group also decided on a mission statement that mission statement is to promote an educational environment and culture that
006maximizes the power of diversity equity and inclusion of students employees and community so i think that is a great start uh this group we looked at all the different uh buckets that we wanted to uh this group wanted to work on and uh the first group is going to be the employees the us all the employees of our school system then we'll move on to students and then we'll move on to how the community uh gets more involved in our school system so i'm really excited about the process and uh and where we're started um we'll be meeting again next week we're looking forward to that and uh we'll be reviewing data uh we've provided a ton of data for them to look at and we'll be going through that and moving forward uh monthly
007and i'll give you a report every month of how that's going okay thank you all very much thank you so much mr jack before you go would you like to go ahead and do the student of the year awards perfect so board members mr harold tonight i'm i'm just honored to introduce our district students of the year uh these three students were selected based on outstanding academic achievement leadership skills character and service to their schools and communities i'll start with the fifth grade category miss morgan clay from mayfield elementary is our district student of the year [Applause] let me tell you a little story about morgan so uh when i was doing my tours when i got to mayfield morgan was my tour guide so i i've honestly and i told her this and she's
008standing right there and she showed me around and we and we talked and we chatted about different things just to meet someone who is just so passionate about school committed loves her school committed to the students she knew all the kids she was introducing me she's so outgoing and i just i couldn't be happier for her and her accomplishments but we have a little video right now for morgan so if you'll please uh check out the video good morning from slato louisiana i'm morgan and i'm kaden today i think there's so many words i could use to describe morrigan um she is absolutely a positive student she is caring she is giving she's intelligent and just an all-around model student at mayfield i want to ask you how excited you are to be the fifth
009grade student of the year for st family parish mr javia surprised me saying i was the district student of the year my reaction like at first i was like oh yeah i'm very happy to be student of the year of my school but then i realized he said district and i'm like wait did he just say district and i was so happy the question was who are the characters i'm not surprised at all i knew in her interviewing and when she got to know everyone she would just shine like she does every day in the classroom i couldn't be more excited for her i couldn't be more blessed to have her in my classroom i love my school so much it's like my second home and i do a lot of stuff at school this
010morning we would like to recognize the following inspiring kids every morning before we go to our break time we watch broadcasts so we get a chance to see her tell us what the day is like introduce the weather the menu we're having we look forward to seeing her every morning and she does a great job i'm very happy to represent state tammy parrish and all the students of the fifth grade levels i'm so happy as you can see she's an amazing young lady so at this time miss morgan clay would her parents please stand and be recognized thank you all for being here and also her principal miss my ayanna carr rogers please thank you [Applause] next i'd like to recognize our middle school junior high category ms zoe derringer from madisonville junior high student
011of the year [Applause] some of you might remember zoe she was the district 5th grade student of the year uh i just a quick story about zoe so as you saw we did the zoom and i kind of surprised them uh they thought it was i told them it was going to be part of their interview that that's the reason i was calling that was kind of the finale of the interview and uh zoe that day uh now remember she's in eighth grade uh she was on the east coast doing college visits when i zoomed with her so she's way smarter than me i just wanna go ahead and clear the air with that right now very much smarter than me so at this time if you'll check out a little video about zoe please
012zoe is just a phenomenal student anybody that you talk to you know they have nothing but wonderful things to say about all of her accomplishments i love to be challenged and in my current classes i definitely am and i'm a kid that really enjoys learning i would like to go to harvard or yale major in either genetics or jurisprudence my mother is a lawyer and i've always looked up to her i would love to become a lawyer just like her hopefully i can become a supreme court justice or an international human rights lawyer and then while i'm at harvard dance in the harvard ballet company dance is helping me in school by instilling me with a sense of discipline you have to do the exercises you have to listen to the teacher and give them
013respect and that's something that applies to school as well music is an integral part of my life so playing flute and piano has helped me it's a nice release sometimes from my regaris schedule i was fortunate enough to be the state student of the year in 2017 and 18 for fifth grade and now i am even more fortunate to be a state finalist for eighth grade i am incredibly humbled and blessed to receive this opportunity so there's no doubt in my mind she will accomplish great things in her life whatever she wants to achieve it's it's there for the taking at this time is zoe derringer for us will our family please stand and be recognized please and our principal miss patty welch nelson would you please stand congratulations congratulations at this time i'd like
014to recognize our 12th grade student of the year mr rayden stevens from mandeville high school i am privileged to have raiden as one of my superintendent advisory committees and and of course from trey when he was here so i got to spend some time with raiden same thing when i went to zoom with him uh when it got time we had to wait for him to get out of his semester exam so he was a little bit exhausted uh but luckily the administration from uh from mandeville when i did the announcement they were able to play through stuff in the room and balloons and it was it was a wonderful experience wonderful experience but if you would uh take a moment to take a look at a video about rayton please how excited you to
015be the high school student of the year for saint tammany parish incredibly that's pretty that's pretty awesome it's surreal to think about how many students in st tammany to be picked to represent that many is much more than an honor raiden is wholly deserving of this honor he is really the top of the top we have some absurdly well-rounded and talented individuals as students and so to be in the running for that is a major compliment to be paid that this much trust and faith has been put in me to possibly represent the state my current plan is to major in computer science biomedical engineering and neuroscience and so the the meshing of those three is the organic interfacing of the brain with computer science and programming applications getting a 36 have been my goal
016since i was in like fifth grade just compete with my brothers i didn't know what that meant but it was cool sounded cool i wanted to do it and so finding out that i got that and fulfilling that long-term goal was amazing to know that the superintendent wants to hear feedback from the students i think is more reflective of the school system that i've been lucky enough to be in and so it means that the people that are in charge and the people that are helping to shape my life and the lives of all these students are listening and they want to do their best for us [Music] so manville high and saint county parish as a whole has lots of accoutrements to a normal education they have outside courses that they offer they have
017ap honors classes and all of these really i feel have prepared me academically for college and for the outside world and life beyond high school again congratulations will his family please stand and join us in a round of applause and principal mr bruce bundy if you'll please stand up thank you for this opportunity to highlight our district students of the year uh it's an absolute privilege to have them here and their family here they represent over 37 000 students in our district and i couldn't be any more proud of them and all of our students of the year from across this district board members thank you very much and i appreciate your time thank you [Applause] thank you mr javier we're going to take a short two three minute break to give everybody a chance
018to leave if they want to thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] up next we have the national board certified educators resolution miss lamey thank you i'm honored to read this resolution whereas the saint tammany parish school board appreciates the dedication and commitment of all employees who work to provide a high quality education for the students of the saint tammany parish public school system and whereas the national board for professional teaching standards was founded in 1987 with the mission of maintaining high and rigorous standards for what accomplished educators should know and be able to do in order to generate continuous improvement in the field of education and whereas national board certification is a demanding and rigorous process in which educators voluntarily engage in continuous learning collaboration and reflection on teaching practices in order to achieve national board
019certification and whereas the saint tammany parish school board is extremely proud of our school system employees including teachers guidance counselors psychologists social workers speech language pathologists and diagnosticians who have gone through the process of earning national board certification demonstrating their desire to continue their own education in order to serve our students and whereas we honor all of our national board certified educators for their strong commitment to education and commend them for attaining this certification now therefore be it resolved that the members of the saint tammany parish school board acknowledge and appreciate the dedication service dedicated service of all national board certified employees within our school system be it further resolve that this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of this board with a copy being sent to all schools and offices within the school
020system to post a sign of respect and gratitude to our national board certified educators and i'd like to ask if we have any nationally board certified educators in the audience to please stand i'm gonna yay thank you so much do i have a motion unanimous second thank you very much any comments from the board members any comments from the public everyone please vote and the motion passes unanimously all right moving on for uh public comments five minutes we have miss rebecca hickman discussing background checks please come forward to state your name and city please hello my name is rebecca bleeker-hickman i'm originally from slidell i'm currently living in vancleaf mississippi children with disabilities are three times more likely to be victims of abuse and the likelihood is even higher for children with mental disabilities these
021children face many challenges in reporting the abuse and receiving vital services designed to meet their needs these children end up suffering with ptsd anxiety and depression special needs children are easier targets for predators a special needs child with a mental disability is much less likely to grasp inappropriate touches special needs children rarely report the abuse due to the lack of emotional intellectual understanding of wrongful acts that have happened to these special needs victims also they also tend not to want to come out for fear of being intimidated by the threats of harm they rarely want to discuss their abuse because of the fear of harm the amount of supervision in special education programs in public schools is inconsistent and not lacking it is lacking tremendously special needs children require a higher amount of safeguards and
022monitoring from the school district 67 of special needs children experience some form of violence or rape in their lifetime two-thirds of special needs boys are more likely to be abused than any other i have recited just some of the disturbing factors that affect our special needs children i want to say that for one that my son is one of these statistics justin has come a long way and struggles daily we need to protect our children all of them yet i feel tonight with the agenda and everything with the special education i felt it in my heart to stand up here and discuss this for babies that can't stand and talk for themselves so that being said i'm gonna get on to the reason we can't be eliminating these background checks you see some people think
023that it very well is not needed well i'm here to tell you they are because our special needs children need to have a voice and they don't have it so if you're not doing these background checks they can't talk i am sick and tired of standing here and i'm putting this down i'm not even looking at it okay i'm sick and tired of standing here and i get nobody looking here so i'm gonna put this down the bottom line is i've asked 2007 and 2008 the assistant superintendent and human resources failed to do their job those people are still employed here i have asked the superintendent to step up and to remove them they have yet to be removed you are his boss why have you not asked him to stand and do his job
024nobody's going to answer that you don't want to give me the results of background checks you don't want to show me dates you don't want to show this you don't want to give this to shelter you need to stand up and clean the house and get rid of the people that cannot do their jobs and don't don't sit here and play on your phones when speakers are up here don't give this facial expression like you don't care because guess what i care i forward messages today from my about a child that's possibly been raped on a school bus that they've come to me a special needs child we need to help these children we need background checks and we need them now thank you mr leaker or mrs hickman i'm sorry up next uh we
025have justin bleecker talking about background checks hello my name is justin justin bleecker i have a speech impairment and a reading difficulty please excuse my broken words one of the items i want to talk about tonight is background checks one of the board members stated that background checks were pointless that they would not protect anyone or protect any bad things from happening i want to say that is wrong background checks will do [Music] a lot background checks will lessen the chance of having someone with a criminal background from being hired without a background check you cannot tell me that a certain individual was never prosecuted for bodily harm of another a bodily home from anyone rape or anything so yes background checks are very well needed it is also the law it's also the state
026law to protect to to perform background checks before hiring no you cannot predict what someone will do in the future but with a background check you can know their past then you will have a better understanding of the type of person they are if you know they have a criminal background or a lot of restraining orders you know not to hire them the comment about background checks at the last meeting by a board member offended me because it hit home what i mean by that is you say background checks are not protecting anyone if background checks if the background check on the janitor had been done the right way i would have never been raped so yes i can say background checks are needed and they can do a lot of good if the assistant
027superintendent and the human resource employees had done their job then the janitor would have never been at the school by law if you hire someone knowing they have a criminal background no matter what it is it is you are responsible for that employee i am an owner of a company and i am responsible if any of my employees commit a crime while working on the job for me i will be held responsible so that also means if you if one of your employees commit a crime each and every one of you board members are legally responsible for that person the state law the state law that just because you may not know the law does not mean you are exempt from the law now for ids being scanned at the office every for every school
028before being allowed to enter the school that is not enforced i know this because i am an adult and i have i have walked on school grounds without anyone ever stopping me i have i have never had a badge on my shirt i was able to walk around and pull my little sister out of school whenever i wanted without being checked if i was able to do this how many others have been able to do this also this is not protecting our children not to i have taken my sister from school and no one ever knew she was missing the rule of id checks and cameras is a joke so the super intendent remark for id checks a angry me they surely do not do as it should be how also is the id checks
029ensuring everything to do with employees it's the law for vendors too i want change that i can be assured that children are safe thank you mr bleaker up next we have miss lee barrios mr bolique you're a brave young man and i'm sure your determination is going to help a lot of children in the future so i'm going to be picky again and speak to the subject of open meetings because it's my only opportunity to respond to publicly to mr harrison's public accusation last week that i quote did not read the law accurately and he said quote before this gets out of control there's been a lot of out out-of-order comments from the public first of all mr harrison was out of order when he rose to the podium to respond to mr durman's question
030and background on background checks but first took the opportunity to speak out of order and not to the agenda item so as to critique my public comment which was made prior to the opening of the agenda i also believe it's out of order for the school board attorney or in fact any member of the school board to publicly criticize a point of disagreement with comments made by a member of the public factual opinion or otherwise particularly during open comment period when the board can't respond at all because the comments don't address an item on the agenda to further respond to the facts of the matter to further respond to the facts of the matter that mr harrison addressed i did read the law correctly because i can read mr harrison just disagrees with my interpretation
031this board continues to violate open meetings law and appears to violate some of its own policies and procedures for instance superintendent jabia's reorganization plan was introduced and voted on at the full board meeting february 11th generally these kinds of items go before the committee as a whole first for consideration a week before the full board makes a final vote both mr bro and dr richardson expressed concerns with that process it's also very concerning that the agenda item only read simply reorganization plan the plan was not attached to give clarity as required by law and as mr bros stated it was given to the board only two days before the meeting and you were told to keep it confidential none of you seem to understand what is public record and what isn't then march the fourth
032the committee as a whole considered superintendent jabia's job description for the assistant superintendent of students with exceptionalities and made its preliminary vote during that meeting but i was surprised when a third meeting was tacked on when the full board met in a special meeting right after those first two meetings again for their final vote on that job description rather than moving it on to tonight's full board meeting for more discussion and public consumption both those accurate actions are the very least in violation of the spirit of the law and the need for the board and administration to be transparent i again suggested this board that they follow open meetings law and to truly be transparent and respectful of the public and all its employees thank you thank you miss barios moving on agenda item a
033announce oh three i'm sorry three minute speakers we have brant osborne good evening uh brian osborne slidell slatto high school go tigers uh just as a follow-up i told you last time that i had an appointment so i actually went to the oscar medical center in slidell it was fabulous i mean i don't think chick-fil-a could have run this thing better i mean it was so pleasant efficient and it just really gave me the sense that we're gonna turn the corner on this thing there were so many fellow teachers in there we talked shop and it just was really uh really positive so i would encourage those that are kind of sitting on the fence and i respect everybody who you know speaking to the public who might be waiting to see like my uh
034uncle wayne told my aunt's sharing i'm gonna wait to see first you go and i'll see if you grow at second head but you know i don't have a second head you know it's been a week out so i would encourage because that's going to be ultimately our ultimate line of defense and getting uh life back to normal um just like superintendent jaby i'm extraordinarily happy with that positivity rate i'm gonna have to get you my website man it's the 4.72 so it's even lower so it's at cdc they do it like right up to the minute using local numbers unfortunately we're still you know if you look at the map of louisiana we're still red but the rest of the state you start to see going yellow some blue so i think we're starting
035to move in the right direction it's just the uh the case is per hundred thousand so we're still risky i'm a hyper high risk at 142 above 100 but i think you know that positivity rate is going to drag that down um with that new cdc guidance i had mentioned the ventilation i still think that's something to look into i was going to try to get my hvac guy to come in and talk about you know possibilities there there was an interesting piece of the guidance it kind of seems counterintuitive and it has to do with the temperature temperature checks and the um daily symptom screening they actually no longer recommend that what they're saying is even in clinical scenarios it's just not very efficient and in fact you're exposing you know they're getting inside
036that physical distance so you're exposing the teacher and the kid potentially who might be asymptomatic could get the teacher six that might be something to consider it is a bessie regulation so it would be kind of like when those draconian quarantine rules were changed superintendents had to step forward and say hey can we make this adjustment based on these cdc guidelines i mean if it's putting people at risk and it's not working i bet you if you ask 100 teachers that i'll tell you it's really not that effective i mean i don't i never personally saw anybody catch somebody with covid using this method so just something to put out there i'm sure everybody would be relieved i mean it's so weird to just you know point that gun out of ken's head it's just
037it's just a strange experience so if we could do away with it because it's not effective then then i think that would be something that's helpful the insurance committee will convene next month i'm told so again i really would like to see that group take a look at the data i don't think there are a great number of people that were hospitalized but if we could help those individuals out i think it would be beneficial uh thank you all so much thank you so much uh mr osborne up next we have eric sacks eric will you please come to the podium state your name and city thank you eric sacks from slidell this timer is very intimidating for someone who likes to talk first of all i want you all to know number one how
038very pleased i am that we are working and looking forward i'm so tired i'm tired as a parent i have a special needs child who is a survivor who is a survivor he's 31 years old all three of my children all three of them graduated from schools in st tammy and my survivor son my special needs son was protected by the teachers and the administrators and you all and the superintendent i don't think there's anyone on this planet that absolutely wants to have bad things happen in schools and you know what i taught my son i taught him to advocate for himself he's special needs he's got a gene deletion he'll never be able to be out of our care but he advocates for himself and i don't want to go down anyone's path i
039don't want to carry anybody's sins that's up to them but i look in the mirror each day and i say to myself what can i do to affect positivity in this world that's what i do and i listen to some of the comments around the room and i'm i'm i'm listening to i was gonna you know be real calm here but i was listening to all kinds of negativity about things that are extremely important and i am a parent i am a teacher i am a school administrator who happens to be retired school administrator but i've never stopped being an educator and i love children and when i look in the mirror and i say to myself what am i going to do today the positivity is putting that stuff out there for our kids
040because our kids are watching how we interact with one another and if you start using terms like everybody this or never that are always that where everyone has their own path to follow and i'm a concerned citizen of saint tammany but i know that if mr jabia has high schoolers that like him then he deserves a chance to prove himself in his medal as a superintendent and he needs the backing of the public and and nothing ever gets done when you do all this nothing we need to look forward we need to work together and make changes there are changes to be made but we've got a lot of good things and i really do i started as principal whispering forest in 2005 anybody remember what happened in 2005 katrina and we pulled together we
041worked together we're in the middle of pandemic the rules change all the time how on earth can we expect perfection from a group of people like you if we don't even know the rules ourselves but i'll tell you this i was an administrator and i cared about background checks really seriously cared about it and i also cared about those that come on our campus and i know we put things in place it's not perfect but the only way to get to where we want to be is for all of us to be positive with one another to look in the mirror and decide why you're saying the things you're saying and who's backing you and why are they backing you do they have a hidden agenda or do they want what's best for kids and
042then call it a day but don't come in here and holler and scream and carry on i understand pain believe me my 31 year old has been through hell but i guarantee you this he was able to survive his experience because the positivity of the people in that school and we're not we should not tar anybody with the same brush thank you mr sanchez so much for your comments and thank you i appreciate it i was going to be i was going to be a lot more positive but just i have a special needs child and let me tell you something i understand what they're talking about but i also understand the positivity has to be there for things to get done so thank you sir all right moving on agenda item a uh to
043announce the res uh announce the paris school board of the parish st tammany state of louisiana plans to consider adopting a resolution ordering and calling a special election to be held in saint tammany parish uh parish wide school district number 12 of the saint of the parish saint tammany state louisiana to authorize the renewal of ad valorem taxes therein added meeting on thursday april 8 2021 at 7 pm at the robert c brooks educational complex 2544 sergeant alfred drive slidell louisiana um can we change that time real quick from seven to six okay well i'll change it as an amended motion then when it comes time thank you mr grant schluter thank you um and we're talking about changing uh the time from seven o'clock to six o'clock six o'clock and that is fine that's
044not a problem um this announcement it actually doesn't require legally board action but the announcement is a procedural matter that is required by state law now in order for you to call a tax renewal election you have to do it at two meetings of the school board at the first meeting you have to read into the minutes an announcement and i have the full announcement here and i'll be happy if you'd like to read it into the minutes to satisfy that requirement and there's also a requirement that it be published one time in the official journal and also be given to your legislative delegation this preserves your option to consider the election call renewal millage renewal resolution at your april board meeting mr harrell if you'd like i'll read the formal announcement into the minutes
045and reflect the six o'clock time announcement of public meeting notice is hereby given that at its meeting to be held on thursday april 8 2021 at 6 00 p.m at the robert c brooks junior educational complex 2544 sergeant alfred drive slidell louisiana the parish school board of the parish of saint tammany state of louisiana plans to consider adopting a resolution ordering and calling a special election to be held in saint tammany parish wide school district number 12 of the parish of saint tammany state of louisiana to authorize the renewal of ad valorem taxes therein and that completes the legal requirement of what you need to do tonight to preserve your option to consider that election call resolution at your april board meeting and just one comment please do not change the date time or location
046for that meeting because it may present a legal problem with calling the election for the october 9th election date thank you so much now we're moving on to item b to consider and take action with respect to adopting a resolution giving to consider and take action with respect to adopting a resolution giving preliminary approval to the issuance of general obligation school funding refunding bonds and one or more series of st tammany parish wide school district number 12 of the parish st tammany state of louisiana making application to the state bond commission for approval of said bonds and providing for other matters in connection there within that's what you just read mr schluter i'm sorry um well this would be the next item this would be the preliminary approval for the refunding of potential refunding of
047three of your outstanding uh general obligation bond issues as we discussed at uh committee of as a whole you've completed a number of refinancing you've refinanced 12 bond issues to date all of the refinancings had no extension of the debt reduced the payments each year and all of the savings accrued to the benefit of the property taxpayers of the parish uh and that amount is over 13 million now we have three additional bond issues the 2015 and the refunding 2015. all of which are potential candidates for refinancing on the same basic terms in other words no extension of the debt simply reducing the payments the property taxpayers make each year all the benefits of this will accrue to them just as it has an all year prior refinancings the purpose of this resolution is to
048permit us to file with the state bond commission so we can get their approval assuming the market continues to be favorable at that point in time will complete the refinancing if not it will be put on hold until such time as market conditions as such that there are sufficient savings to the property taxpayers to proceed but in any event we will have positioned ourselves to do the refinancing and we'll be approximately two months ahead of the game and ready to take advantage of the market conditions if so warranted and stephanie ferry with raymond james is here also if you have questions thank you so much do i have a motion a second miss lamey all right any questions besides it's not really a question it's a comment i'd like to thank you for keeping an
049eye on this for us and helping us to save our taxpayers money by doing the um refunding of these bonds and um you know we've been successful in the past and we appreciate it as to say you keeping an eye on this for us and uh getting the opportunity to do this thank you you make actually make it easy for us too also with your your high bond rating and your financial fiscal handling of your finances it's helped a tremendous amount in getting extremely attractive interest rates when we seek to do these refinancing so a lot of credit goes to the board and and finance department and terry and superintendent because it all works together and uh you have been very very successful in refinancing your various bond issues and doing these refinancing uh helps
050with our bond rating i would think because you know it's well it's and it's actually helped you not only with passage of bond issues over the years over the last two or three decades that i've i've worked with you with no increases in the tax rate and actually you've reduced the tax rate significantly while at the same time the voters have authorized additional capital spending so it's helped with security uh building construction and uh technology so it's it's quite a success story thank you so much thank you miss ferry for being here too appreciate it any additional questions from board members seeing none any questions from the public seeing none everyone please vote the motion passes unanimously right item c approval of the minutes for the regular meeting held february 11th 2021. do i have
051a motion mr luke have a second miss lamey any questions from the board any comments by the public saying none everyone please vote the motion passes unanimously item d appropriate retirement resolutions for the the following certificated personnel subsequent february 11 2021. mr cossay thank you president harrell superintendent javia board members uh first item is appropriate retirement resolutions on the following certificated personnel subsequent to the february 11th 2021 meeting donna m grant carolyn park middle 25.04 years 3.97 years in saint tammany parish jamie r crochet cypress cove elementary 14.68 years all in saint tammany parish and sherry g hill harrison curriculum center 27.27 years all in saint tammany parish do i have a second miss lamy any questions from the board any comments from the public seeing none please vote so and the motion passes unanimously
052uh mr kosei thank you mr harold my second item is the appropriate retirement resolutions on the following non-certificated personnel subsequent to the february 11 2021 meeting patrick e cypos fountain blue junior high 12.46 years all in st tammany parish tammy v dakoti mayfield elementary 24.12 years all in saint tammany parish carol m webb slidell annex 30.45 years all in saint germany parish cynthia m bradford transportation center 29.56 years all in saint tammany parish kenneth f fusell transportation center 30.37 years all in saint tammany parish and carolyn seed the lot wood lake elementary 15.80 years 13.38 years in saint tammany parish do i have a motion miss heinz do i have a second miss like me any questions from the board any comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously
053all right moving on to item f approval of a new job description director of students with exceptionalities do i have a motion miss page do i have a second miss lamey thank you any questions from the board miss heinz mr jabia i i noticed on several of the job descriptions under the part that says leadership you have um recommends employment of teachers specialists and auxiliary personnel to work with students with exceptionalities or on the next ones coming up it would say you know elementary teachers or secondary teachers i just wanted to some clarification that our principles are still going to be the main ones that hire these people interview and hire but then um it'll work its way up the ladder then through the director to the but their their staff besides their staff that
054we hire whether it be teachers that itinerants that service multiple schools so we always consult the principal but we have to take into account the entire program so if they're going to bounce around and service in different schools we have to give everyone a fair shot so those directors will help with the employment of that person because they service multiple schools so one principle it might be good for their school but that person may not be able to handle another situation so we have to look for the perfect fit for those certain situations as perfect as we can you know for that situation so that gives those directors the ability to work with ancillary you know whether it be itinerants for special ed it could be diagnosticians just dif people that work inside of the
055school system but don't aren't necessarily housed at one facility but always the principal is part of the equation at all times well i just wanted to make sure that you know we weren't taking that out still in the bible all right and my uh other question is oh it's not a question it's the uh pay salary for these people is uh as described in the reorganization correct it'll be 180 of their salary and it's always based on years of experience and their degree correct right yes thank you no problem you approved that at the board meeting last month yes yes ma'am thank you thank you ms page thank you mr harold um i just wanted to share mr hale with you and also to the public how much positive feedback that i've been getting from
056employees and administrators about just mr jabia's complete reorganization particularly these director positions it frees up the supervisors so they can spend more time in the schools and when questions come up there's a there's a direct line of command that can occur so i received a lot of positive feedback mr harrell from from parents from teachers from administrators and they really like really like this just wanted to share that with the public and with the board thank you miss page i know the military likes that line of command so i appreciate that any additional comments from the board any comments from the public seeing none please vote and that motion passes unanimously item g approval of a new job description director of federal funds do i have a motion miss baker do i have a second
057mr bettencourt any questions from the board any comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item h approval of a new job description director of instruction elementary pre-k through sixth do i have a motion miss baker miss heinz is at a second thank you so much any questions from the board any comments from the public yes ma'am so this really applies to all of your your descriptions except maybe the federal funds employee mrs baker offered comment at the past meeting when you all considered superintendent javi's reorganization plan she pointed out that there's a problem with the difficulty of hiring and retaining special ed teachers and how important it is to have certified educators in the feel of the expertise teaching students superintendent javi agreed and spoke about his plan
058to do in-house training for non-certificated prospective sped teachers teachers and teachers in other areas of certification if the supervisory administration are not themselves certified and experienced as mentors to these teachers in training what kind of example does that set i supported superintendent javi's reorganization plan based on the precept that it would provide more support for teachers i compared the state department of education which reorganized at the beginning of john white's turmoil i mean tenure as superintendent and replaced he replaced almost all certificated experienced personnel real teachers with non-certificate teach for america friends now you're leaving the door open for the same thing to happen here i really ask that you simply include in these descriptions the requirement for certification and experience in the fields they will supervise for instance elementary or secondary having administration having
059administrative certification is just not sufficient even though it does meet the letter of the law thank you thank you ms barrios any additional comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item i approval of the new job description director of instructions secondary 7th through 12th do i have a motion miss page do i have a second thank you mr luke for the second do i have any questions from the board any comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously moving on item j acceptance of the low base bid submitted by brunt construction incorporated in the amount of one million nine hundred and thirty four thousand seven hundred dollars for the infrastructure upgrades and kitchen renovations at florida avenue elementary school st tammany parish
060school board project number 1936. thank you mr kuzan miss tipton thank you as i mentioned last week we were bringing these bids to you tonight we did receive those bids on february the 25th and we uploaded to board docs our recommendation that you just read and the bid tab from that from those bids that we received and we are recommending that work this is the first project of two for the bond issue work for florida avenue elementary school thank you so much miss tempted um miss kuzan made the motion and the second was mr bro did we have any questions from the board from the simpton any comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously thank you so much mr tipton i'm moving on to the approval of recommendations
061from committee as a whole meeting for business affairs administrative held on february 4th 2021 item a recommends acceptance to allow 12 month employees to roll over their unused vacation days from the 2021 fiscal year to the 21 22 fiscal year i'm sorry you are correct march 4th um do i have a motion mr green in a second for mr bro any questions from the board would you like to reread that no questions here mr all right i'll take number b though all right we'll get there in a second or you want to run will you take the rest of it any comments from the public saying none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously mr green the committee recommends acceptance of the load-based bid submitted by rikers construction llc in the amount of 280
062385 dollars for the re-roofing phase three at slidell junior high school stpsb project number r0087 mr bro would you like to make that motion and mr kuzan's ii any questions from the board any comments from the public saying none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously mr green item c thank you mr harold the committee recommends acceptance of the low-based bid submitted by nikans painting and waterproofing inc in the amount of two hundred fifty nine thousand nine hundred dollars for the waterproofing phase one at salmon high school stpsb project number r zero zero seven eight miss lamey thank you for making that motion and a second by mr kuzan any questions from the board any comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously mr green item d thank
063you mr el the committee recommends rejection of all the bids submitted for the site improvements phase ii miscellaneous renovations and gymnasium roofing at pearl river high school stpsb project number p0246 mr link winkler would you like to make that motion thank you can i get a second mr durman any questions from the board any comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote good evening board members um on this next item what one second um so sorry and that motion passes unanimously item e yep and i just wanted to say each board member received a memo from hammond's uh discussing what we're going to talk about i presume we'll talk about the bidding process but also what our options are for adjusting the agenda item but yeah that's correct okay so apologize for interrupting earlier
064uh my name is paul harrison um what has come up and i'll defer to co-counsel on this matter is there has an issue with regards to the licensure of the contractor listed here in item e and so um we have two issues to deal with one is a matter of public bid law and then the other matter is a matter of opens meetings law so title 42 regarding opens meeting law notice to the public how you advertise your plan and course of action a given meeting and then the open bid law so basically this board needs to do a motion uh to substitute the current motion to accept the recommendation and i would recommend emotion to table so that's a two-step process i believe the cleanest way to make it clear to the public what
065we're doing is someone would make a motion to first substitute the listed motion which is a motion to accept into a um a motion to table and i would like to replace it replace it with a motion to table item that didn't die to me thank you that's correct mr green with the second thanks any any questions from the board any comments from the public okay mr durman are we going to actually take any further action on this item tonight venus we're tabling it so it's going to go to what means it's a good question but what we have to do is change do we have to re-advertise the entire process we can what we're doing this evening is tabling well you've substituted a motion for tabling then presume you're going to vote on the
066motion of the table that way the public gets the maximum notice about a potential new motion which will appear on the future change to the agenda yes a new ocean which will appear on a future agenda to reconsider the public bid law in this area and reconsider um some of the other bidders on this project so i guess my question again to you is that the current bids that have been received are still valid yeah yes so we'll just go to the next qualified bid within that bid package yes the the the recommendation will be to uh reject because of a licensure issue that came about with since the committee of the whole meeting and actually disqualified that would disqualify your your lowest monetary bidder and the recommendation would be a war to award to
067the next bidder all right the next meeting that you'll have or a special okay so mr german board members we we're we're in a in a tough spot here uh with this situation so uh i would ask that you give me some leeway to meet mr harold and and everyone involved that we could possibly hold a special meeting for this uh because we we are running out of time and to have this ready for the start of the school year next year is a serious time issue so um i'm going to turn it back over these guys i just that's going to need to be addressed very soon so thank you all right and again just under title 42 we wanted to make sure the public got the most notice about the bidders and the
068change not only in a potential name in the amount so that's why on airing on the side of caution we felt the best table this item thank you so much mr harrison again just as a matter of parliamentary matter i guess you will then eventually vote on the motion table okay thank you so much mr bro i thought we substitute in the agenda item we're table where the motion is to table the agenda item no we would probably need to make the first motion and then substitute so then what's the first motion you instead of going through the process just hanging got it all right i think what miss lamey wanted to say is maybe substitute the listed agenda item motion and table the motion the table is totally fine the extra step was to
069change the actual agenda item to reflect the vote but believe me um board member is totally correct just do a motion a table that will work as well okay like to make a motion to table do i have a second mr bro are you the second thank you any additional questions from the board any yes sir not lumber prices thank you mr why wouldn't we recommend changing uh item e recommend rejection of the low base bid for whatever reason and and then table our future business with with the next lowest bidder because right now we're investigating the um licensure of this uh company we since the last meeting when there was a recommendation to accept it a legal issue under the public bid law has come up that requires investigation so if you table it
070gives us more time to fully understand everything to analyze the other bidders and then hopefully achieve the goal of the superintendent to get this thing um lined up to be actually accomplished and done by the next lowest and responsible bidder and it will it will provide they'll be noticed to these bidders of the action that's going to be recommended as well all right thank you for the explanation thank you thank you mr button court any additional questions from the board any comments from the public miss barrios so i just appreciate and i think the public would too for clarity an explanation of really what has happened um are you saying that it was found that this particular person doesn't have a valid license to do the work is that simply what the issue is i
071think that's what they're investigating this this week or between next week or so all right okay please come forward um these coed rules are getting me um the issue is the project was classified with both a major classification and a sub classification so the way it was classified by the designer of record required both that the any interested contractor to hold both the major license and the sub specialty license it has come to our attention that that because of that that the lowest bidder does not have both they just have the major classification and therefore we we contacted the licensing board this morning and i got from both the head of the licensing board and another employee at the licensing board for uh direction directives that they were not allowed to bid this project based
072upon the fact that they did not have both the required licenses under the big dot that's a clear answer thank you thank you miss barrios any additional comments from the public seeing none everyone please vote motion to table it says recommends acceptance but but the bottom motion says motion to table it's kind of small and that motion passes unanimously moving on for uh for my announcements but first mr loop you had something you'd like to say i just want to remind board members that from the past conference this weekend uh you will be receiving something in your email from janet pope letting you know when the information will be on the uh the site and so on for you to work on it yourself and get your hours uh that way so uh a terrific
073conference there miss paige and irene georgie got a lot out of it and i think you will when you check into it thank you thank you mr luke for going in thank you miss page for taking care of it for us mr darman thank you mr harold i'm stealing your thunder on this but uh last week we had the passing of mr phillip sharp who was one of the the oldest resident of st tammany parish in the state of louisiana last week at 111 years old and i just wanted to make mention of that and his entire family and and our condolences to them and our community so he was well loved by everyone and uh he was surely be missed i just want to make mention of it thank you for the opportunity mr
074harold thank you mr dharman and condolences to his family the next committee as a whole meeting will be held on thursday april 1st and uh just reminder to hold your applause uh the april 8th board meeting will be held at 6 00 p.m at the brooks educational conference complex inside l the schools will be closed april 2nd through 6th for spring break and the office sites will be closed april 2nd through 5th and i declare this meeting adjourned [Music] you