001well good morning ladies and gentlemen we're ready to begin this morning's Schoolboard special meeting Sergeant in-arms has the lobby been attended to and are the doors open for Public Access thank you sir at this time we request all electronic devices to be turned off or to be put in silent mode also we ask that you please refrain from using a flash photography except during special presentations portions of any meeting I am pleas pleas to welcome you to the November 27th 2023 School Board special meeting the time is 10:02 a.m. and this meeting is now called to order pursuant to Florida statute 101.3 71 the superintendent acts his chairman until the organization of the board has been completed we would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the district's Mission which
002is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential and the district's Vision to be a world class school system as is the custom of the board Mr armor persons will lead us in the invocation the invocation is intended for the benefit of the school board members as they proceed with their work today it is not necessarily directed at the audience Those Who deliver the invocation May reference their religious Faith as you might refer to yours when offering a prayer we wish to emphasize however that members of all religious faiths are welcome not only in these meetings been our in our community as a whole staff and members of the audience are welcome to pray or not to pray after the invocation Mr Sam fiser will lead us in the Pledge of
003Allegiance will we please stand and Mr persons will you lead us in the invocation let us pray we come before you today with gratitude for the opportunity to gather as members of this school board entrusted with the important tasks of shaping the future of our educational Community grant us wisdom patience and understanding as we deliberate on matters that affect the lives of our students teachers and staff help us to make decisions that prioritize the well-being and growth of those under our care we ask for your guidance and promoting an environment of respect and inclusion within our schools where every student can and Thrive regardless of their background or circumstances bless our Educators with the strength and passion to impart knowledge and nurture the hearts and minds of our youth may they find fulfillment in their
004work knowing they make a profound difference in the lives of students we also seek your guidance for the parents Guardians and caregivers who entrust the children in their care help us to honor their trust and diligence and compassion as we engage in discussions and decision making may we always seek the common good putting the interest of our students first we recognize the challenges we face and the responsibilities we bear grant us courage to address these challenges with Grace and resilience we ask this in your name father that we have a harmonous and productive meeting amen to FL the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you and please be seated as stated earlier according to Florida stat the superintendent
005acts as chairman until the organization of the board takes place before continuing the meeting as is tradition I have the honor to present a plaque to the outgoing chairman in this case Mr armor persons and appreciation for his service over this past year Mr psons sure I'm I am sure that I align with our board members and thanking Mr armor persons for his leadership over the past year just sharing briefly what I said to him it's always interesting to have a change in leadership but I appreciate the fact that Mr persons has been consistent and fair in his leadership of this board and want to thank everyone who serves on this board for their efforts as well in just a moment I will begin to open and close the nominations for chair and vice chair
006each will be followed by a vote I will then make a recommendation with the establishment of dates and times for the board schedule of the regular school board meetings before we begin that process a reminder that I can only recognize once I've called for nominations so a doctor sorry at this time attorney depr Bruno will you please explain the nomination and voting process thank you Mr chairman in the nomination and voting process the board will follow the laws mandating open governance in addition School Board policy provides that the board follows Robert's Rules of Order thus the nomination and voting process is as follows the superintendent will call for nominations for the position of chairman of the board please raise your hand and wait until you are recognized by the superintendent verbal nominations without first being
007acknowledged will not be recognized once all of the nominations have been received he will close the nominations and the board secretary will take a roll call vote the vote will be taken in the order that the nominations were received each member will signify their vote by stating I or nay yes or no is acceptable we will continue this process until a nominee receives a majority vote of the board nominations do not require a second once the chairman has been elected we will move forward with the same process for the vice chairman thank you attorney dep Bruno at the this time please raise your hand and wait until I call upon you provide before providing your nomination I will now accept nominations for chairman of the board for the coming year Mr psons I nominate Sam
008Fischer there's a nomination for Sam fiser Miss Jordan I nominate myself thank Jordan any other nominations taking up the first nomination nominations are closed nominations are now closed M Thomas will take a roll call vote Miss Thomas at this time will please take the roll call vote the roll call vote is for yes no yes please mordan you v no thank you yes L yes Mr chair Mr superintendent Mr chairman we do have a chair that has been voted on it is Mr fiser with a vote of 5 to2 thank you Attorney D Bruno I will now accept nominations for the vice chairman of the board for the coming year Miss Jordan I would nominate myself for the vice chair thank you Mr persons I nominate J lford Fleming any other nominations at this time
009those nominations are considered closed closed Miss Thomas will you please take the roll call vote roll vote nominated by Miss Jordan Nomine board member Fisher how do you vote no board member J Benelli how do you vote yes p no thank you how do you vote Yes board member persons how do you vote no board member lford Fleming how do you vote no board member Morgan how do you vote no Mr chairman by a vote of 52 we do not have a vice chair we will will go to the next nominee Miss Thomas would you again please take the roll call Vote Yes sir Vice chair nominee Langford Fleming nominated by board member persons board member fiser how do you vote Yes board member giia vanelli how do you vote Yes board member Patria how
010do you vote yes please board member Jordan how do you vote no board member psons how do you vote Yes board member Langford Fleming how do you vote Yes board member Morgan how do you vote Yes Mr chairman by a vote of 6 to one we do have a vice chair Miss Langford Fleming thank you Attorney D Bruno congratulations to Sam fiser and J Langford Fleming please ATT the board secretary please attach the tally sheet and nominations to the minute thank you very much and congratulations Mr persons as outgoing chairman chairman is our tradition would you like to say anything before I turn over the gavel wow I didn't know I got to do this I just want to thank this board for being so Cooperative being a newbie and being chair was quite an
011experience and I also want to thank the previous board members other than the three new elected ones for all their wisdom and history that y'all provided during this help has helped me greatly so again thank you and it's been a good year thank you m chair former chairman person's appreciated I will now turn over the meeting and the gavel to Mr Sam fiser congratulations thank you sir wary luck okay everyone next item in the organization of the board is to establish dates and time for the schedule of regular school board meetings for the insuring year thank you as well Dr berer for running the beginning of this meeting it's appreciated now I'm going to ask for your recommendation Mr chairman our recommendation is my recommendation is the approval of the calendar establishing meeting dates and
012times for the regular school board meeting for the period of January 24 2024 through December 2024 as presented okay item B3 approval of the calendar establishing meeting dates and times for regular school board meetings for the period January 2024 through December 2024 is presented board members is there a motion to approve Mr persons is there oh go ahead sorry I make a motion to approve the calendar as presented to us is there a second I second okay motion by Mr person's inced by Jada Miss lenford Fleming do we have any discussion on the calendar go ahead Miss juvenile I thought we discussed that the July 2nd was I thought we were going to change that do I did I miss something on that it's not on here I'm looking at the old one then okay
013hold on I gra I clicked on the moment the two I'm looking at what the same Mr Dr berer the updated one that was provided in board dos that I'm looking at we do have the two meetings in June June 3rd and June 18th and based upon the board's input we did hold on the July 30th 2024 there's an aster following that special board meeting to adopt the 20242 25 tentative budget will be scheduled for 5:05 p.m. because that particular meeting in July statutory as it relates to budget what I also will recall for the board members is that we did hold the opportunity to potentially call a special meeting if by June 18th we had assistant principles or principles that needed to be nominated in order to ensure a smooth opening of school thank
014you I actually clicked on the other one that was on there so thank you the original any other discussion okay seeing none this will be a roll call vote please signify by saying I or nay when your name is called oh is it mhm okay well we'll vote electronically do we have the tally motion carries 7 Z moving on is approval of the agenda this morning's agenda includes public comment consent action items which include one item under Board office 16 items under academic Services seven items under Business Services two items under Human Resources 22 items under operations one item under public hearings and four items under other business board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda Miss Jordan I move to adopt the agenda as written is there a second Mr persons I
015second the motion moved by Miss Jordan and seconded by Mr persons please record your vote thank you motion carries 70 moving on to item F public comment the next item on the agenda is public comment attorney depri Bruno please address the item of public comment thank you Mr chairman School Board policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district please complete a public Comet card and put it in the basket provided if you need a public Comet card they are provided by our staff the rules concerning public comment are posted in the back and will be made from the podium in the front center aisle please be advised that the board
016will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers concerns will be addressed by the superintendent or his staff as necessary and the chair May comment as deemed appropriate at the conclusion of public comment the superintendent or board attorney may also comment if deemed appropriate the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on District issues such as duties responsibilities decisions and the general operation of the district the school board is Viewpoint neutral during public comment we ask that decorum be kept and respect be shown which is what is expected when a government agency conducts official business therefore abusive language such as cursing insults derogatory language levied against an individual or a class of people are prohibited further personal attacks such as name calling are prohibited in addition clapping hissing and booing or a
017display of temper during public comment is prohibited speakers who fail to follow Prov deorum in the chambers will be ruled out of the order out of order by the board chair or the parliamentarian any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 01691 and may be removed from the chambers by the Sergeant at Arms per board policy 01691 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 2 minutes if there are 30 and 1 minute if there are 31 speakers or more the maximum time allotted for public comment is 1 hour 60 speakers you'll find a countdown on the big screen in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will automatically shut off please state your name when you approach the
018microphone I will call your names five speakers at a time please follow staff's Direction when lining up Mr chairman there are 10 individuals that would like to address the board this morning 3 minutes per speaker thank you attorney depri Bruno please make sure you have completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comment the card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information to staff for followup these cards are located with staff in the hallway is there any anyone in the audience who wishes to address the board but did not fill out a comment card please raise your hand okay seeing none attorney debris Bruno please proceed with public comment thank you will the following individuals please sign up Marge Cox Robert roer Tara Jenner meline Stewart Sam
019Stewart good morning November is known Al for lots of holidays but one of the things we celebrate in November is the national Native American month and sometimes this kind of gets lost in the shuffle of Thanksgiving and other holidays so I went to the Orange County Public Library site and they have a whole listing of information about Native Americans in Florida and I just thought as as our children have celebrated so many things this month I would not want that to get lost in the shuffle because Native Americans have done so much and continue to do so much and sometimes the Thanksgiving kinds of things that are celebrated don't give full measure to the Native Americans that lived here long before the European explorers arrived so I sent you this morning a letter that expands
020on that a little bit and I brought in bookmarks where I took some of the information from this website so that you could see the different Florida tribes and then a website for each one of those tribes so if you want more information you have that as well and then because Native Americans were so dependent upon the land they lived in they ate certainly the seafood from around here but the plants too so I brought a snack in for you that is not totally Native American but it is think in terms terms of Publix or Costco and it is fruit vegetable kinds of things so I just I appreciate always that we're trying to be sure all of our students are seen in our school district and certainly our Native American children need to have
021that as well so I wouldn't ever give a concern that I didn't give a solution to and you will find an additional website there as well as a couple of Native American authors that I truly enjoy and I think you will too so as you think of all the great things that we have to celebrate in November please remember Native American month as well thank you good morning my name is Robert roer I'm here to discuss the proposed osed policy 8800 religious and patriotic ceremonies and observances my number one concern with this policy is that the Constitution guarantees us freedom of religion not freedom of worship which is given to us in this particular policy there is a significant difference and it doesn't mimic the wording of the Constitution Second concern I have with this
022policy is it allows for moment of silence and I would like to see us add a moment of silence or prayer it doesn't mandate it's not an establishment thing but it does recognize the fact that a person's faith in God being Rel reduced to a moment of silence is unnecessarily offensive to some people of Fate I had several other word ing suggestions and additions that's when I learned just today that my understanding of what Neola offered us was and is not what we got when we started the Neola process there was so many policies coming at us all at once that there was no way the general public could give sufficient input to them and we were told that if we did them in smaller increments that the policies would be expiring before we even
023adopted them that it was just necessary so a good faith gesture on our part was that we just took our hands off the process unless there was something very flagrant we just let the process go through thinking that when they came back through later they would come back through in smaller numbers of policies that could be digested better and that we could give our suggestions for revisions then there's 37 policies in this one that's that's still excessive but we worked with the board through the process we overlooked many policy suggestions because we were led to believe that the revisions would be the next step in the process most troubling to me is the reluctance to make changes or receive input for changes presented by parents taxpayers and stakeholders because we have a boiler plate or
024a template that Neola provides and any changes to that makes the revisions in the future much more difficult to track and implement we are now basically in my opinion we've traded in we've surrendered a superior system of nine Lum line numbered policies that better reflected the board and the community for a policy that's written by someone outside of our jurisdiction but is imposing us Tara Jenner I've been a long-standing advocate of more time being allocated to public comment given the one hour allotted for public comment I don't understand why there's still a time limit of an arbitrary one two and 3 minutes for the members of the public to speak based on an arbitrary number of people that are in the audience I propose that a maximum number allocated for speaking should be limited to
025five minutes unless the special request is otherwise made and approved up to the 60-minute time period that you're talking about if there are 12 or more speakers the number of speakers should be divided into the 60 minutes and each afforded a prated share of the time calculators are readily access ible to determine the per speaker time and the time clock is easily adjusted to meet this option today you have 10 speakers so you'll get 30 minutes to public comment but you've allocated an hour it seems unreasonable as to why you couldn't extend that to the 5 minutes for those people and then if there were more up to 5 minutes like I said and then prated at least three of the recently elected board members campaigned on the promise they'd be more receptive to public
026input this recommendation would Aid in meeting that promise in a more meaningful way the agenda today I counted the number of individual items it looks like it's more than 60 individual things many with multiple pages of attachments how is the current proposal and the prior proposal which I've advocated a change for before unre how is this one not unreasonable when we're looking at so much information I hearken back to what Pastor roer said how can meaningful public comment take place with such a nominal opportunity to address Myriad topics of import while I know that we can email and phone call the board and the superintendent sometimes the comments made during the meetings here in as as a member of the public are as much to edify those watching online as well as those in the
027audience as it is those that are board members our emails and calls to you don't have the same reach and impact to the community also they often go without acknowledgement and there's no guarantee there's even that they are even read I actually sent this recommendation out by email to all the board members and the superintendent with a request that there be a response and I haven't heard back from anybody except one board member Mr ju vanelli thank you for letting me know our Florida state constitution guarantees us the right to instruct our representatives and I believe the minor recommended change to appropriated time all allocation would be a step in the right direction I would like you to consider this and will the following individuals please line up Jamie Merchant Jaclyn Perez Jilly pis Christy
028dagil Ryan Kennedy good morning meline Stewart congratulations on the new Arrangement I'm here to talk about what's going on in our schools I guess that's why we really are all here so I want to start out if if you ever want to clear a room of Educators just say I'm from the state and I'm here to help I've been on both sides of that statement so how has the state been helping more Public Schools lately how are they supporting Lee County to become a worldclass school system do you know that there are 88,000 books that are still not available to our students as of late October how could this be aren't our library media Specialists doing their jobs well guess what we have 16 library media Specialists for the entire district and how long will
029it take them to go through and vet those 88,000 books this is another state mandate that goes that was unfunded so there is no way for the district to hire or even probably find enough library media specialist to be sure that our students have access to the educational materials they need so I want to ask you something to do something maybe you're going to think it's very naive but as my as the former speaker said you were our elected representatives and we can talk to people at the state but it's very very different I believe than if you talk with them so I would like you personally directly however you do it to go to our state legislature to our representatives there and tell them the kind of chaos and the kind of restrictions that
030the laws are that are coming out of Tallahassee are what's happening in our schools because of that you all wanted to insulate yourself from lawsuits which I understand we need to be sure that our teachers are insulated however we need to be sure that our students are getting educated and if they don't have access to materials the teachers hands are tied so please use your voices and go and tell people in Tallahassee what's actually happening in the district so that they can make changes that will really support education thank you I'm Sam Stewart at 87 it's easier to walk from there than from the back I'm here today to celebrate Educators I don't think there's a finer U profession that's fundamental to developing this country to educating people so that they can become what they
031want to be using the talents and abilities they have this has been a difficult years for teachers they've been B bombarded by cultural Wars they've been attacked for things that they never did such as grooming kids and the young gr I noticed that one of the counties just this morning announced that they've decided to close school early on Wednesdays to give teachers a little break and also to prevent those teachers from leaving we need to find ways to celebrate and appreciate the very difficult job that Educators have to do in schools now in the beginning our forefathers knew that it was very important to keep politics out of schools they knew politics would always be vicious just think of of M Hamilton and Jefferson or even more dramatically Hamilton and Burr those things went on
032but schools had to be a place where everybody could go learn and then be able to participate in the Democracy so anyway Sam it's I have a present for you that I brought this is a book called classroom instruction that works and if you look at it you'll just get an appreciation of the kind of exacting work our teachers need to do in order to be successful and they need help remember our children are not as achieving as well as they should in fact I think only one out of every four children in the third grade in Florida was above average or above so they need help it's hard work and also this H business of adding politics we made a mistake we're losing the superintendent because of the elected position don't make another mistake
033don't allow all of the school board members to be elected please keep some Independence come some protection for our schools and for the people who work in the schools thank you good morning my name is Jill pelis I'm a resident president here in Fort Meers for the past 12 years in in your opening you said you strive to put the interests of our students first we want our children to thrive in a global economy in a world not torn by political or religious extremism but in a world that's filled with love and respect and dignity for others tolerance and datadriven decision making we need them to learn real history we need them to be able to choose books of their choice because all children are different all children learn at different times and at different
034Paces in a world filled with blind obedience and followers I urge all of you as board members to be leaders in Lee County you know what's happening in other school districts I'm sure you're glued to the TV as I am you can be leaders you can stand out for standing up for what's right for children not what's popular in this world today I was a middle school principal for over 30 years and I'm still standing middle school I love those children they're just wild and I love that about them and I'm a grandmother my biggest honor in the whole world as a middle school principal we had many many ethnic cultural groups in our building I was both an inner city and a Suburban District number one schools in the country and rewarded by the
035princip by the president of the United States I take great honor in that we never had an issue we couldn't solve if it was a cultural issue about a child changing or going swimming in a bathing suit that was not allowed by her religion or her Customs we sat down with the Imam if it was about a group that had to go on a field trip and they wouldn't get back till after dark on on Sabbath we sat down with the rabbi and we worked out a solution we met with priests we met with pastors we met with everyone and we always came up on top why because we put the children first not our political beliefs not our own cultural beliefs but that child was the most important child in the whole world at
036that moment in our building and that's why we were number one first and foremost our children in Lee deserve just as as much but unfortunately the Florida schools have become the laughing stock of our nation and I hate that because I moved here purposely to be in this in this state we should be encouraging and celebrating children's access to books and open discussions about books as a mother grandmother retired building administrator please I beg you to do what's right for Humanity not just our children in Lee County but for Humanity a parent can can bar his or her own child time is up ma'am good morning board a few years ago I had been in contact with Ed RS from the oig and he had given me a lot of advice about how to handle
037situations at the Lee County School District in reference to complaints one recommendation was to come and speak at school board meetings because then the board members cannot have the access of deniability when you're informed about certain instances and occurrences that are occurring without throughout the school district so that brings me to your board meeting on June 28 2022 when you approved $85,000 for their Taylor English investigation in that investigation on pages 24 through 27 7 a firsthand witness which is an employee of the Lee County School District reported seeing 15 female employees at Varsity Lakes that were there for no more than 10 to 15 minutes in this report now mind you all of you voted on accepting this investigation so you were all in agreement to what the findings were and this employee stated
038that they weren't there for more than 10 to 15 minutes all were women all spoke only Spanish so we paid that vendor $129,500 for 10 minutes of women standing around because the school apparently was already cleaned by the previous employees now these are the statements that was given by the vendor that I obtained through a public records there is not one Spanish person in here and actually out a coincidence one of the persons named in this warn statement happened to be an employee of Alfie Oaks how's that for for for an ironic coincidence so another concern I have is that I also have forign statements from employees stating that these statements that you received from this vendor that you're going to be voting on today are lies so I have sworn statements as well I
039also have text messages from your high individual that is mentioned throughout this entire investigation offering me and my husband contract work so we could leave the district alone and stop exposing the maintenance corruption so when you sit on your hands and you allow $129,500 plus multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars to go out the window like that and do absolutely nothing about it you're responsible you have no deniability because you've been told over and over again I'm not going to have the time for my other subjects but I have a concern about quadruple a where one Estero council member has reached out and informed me that there was a side deal made of selling that property that property by State Statute needs to be advertised properly because you have and I believe that was Miss
040Perez you didn't state your name but I believe sorry ja hello Jamie Merchant I've missed the last few board meetings because I've been out of the state but I wanted to address some issues or concerns that other people of the public are bringing up and I know I've said this probably individually to one or two of you and Dr berer as well there was a comment a few weeks ago about people challenging the books using booklook dog and saying that you know they're plagiarizing or whatever something else was said about it and publicly I know the owner of that website she is local to Florida we work together that is the purpose of her website is to post the content in the books for us to use for book challenges her website also has books
041that are 100% okay for students to have their hands on and they have a fair rating system so that is the purpose we're not plagiarizing anything also the challenge forms are following statute it is not our opinion whether or not we find anything reputable in these books if they contain sexual content which they do they are against the law so if other people want to allow sexual content in the hands of students they can do that on their own time not in public schools oh also I did have a u while I was traveling I did have a very successful meeting with the Florida Department of Education I brought up the curriculum that was being thrown away and while they looked into that and we've like I said had a very productive conversation thank you
042to whomever I'm sure it's Dr team and all of you for noticing that this content was out of date didn't follow state standards and just we're recycling the material to ensure you're following the law thank you 0133 when it comes to book challenge process currently counties are abusing this calling it cause a Judicial so thank you for making the right decision when it comes to that update in addition as been previously mentioned policies should be written and decided here locally the board has the power to not always take the exact language from niola or to even write different policy the board has made decisions in the past that has gone above and beyond what NE Neil has asked for or has suggested so I just would encourage all of you as you go through your
043process to always keep that in mind that this is a county it's done at the county level so County input's always great thank you good morning board Christy D.A jilli so I am here for a much different reason than all of my I everyone else I have been a parent in the Le County School District for over 18 years and I've heard a lot of people come up here today with a lot of things to say and opinions about teachers and about how classroom instruction should be and about what should be taught and these are people that probably haven't seen a classroom for as long as I've been alive and yet I have kids in this district and I'm here today to talk to you guys about one of those kids because I've already tried
044at the school level to handle this problem I've tried at the district level to handle this problem but this problem's not going to get handled unless I bring it out into the Public's eyes so my daughter's in 12th grade she's been gifted since she since you know they Elementary School and one of the best standards you know for for one of the best standards I little bit of an issue I'm having with right now is Ela 12 v13 which talks about vocab words and it talks about or no not 1 three it's one one but it talks about vocab words and about how they should be academic how they should be appropriate to the grade level appear across several subject areas for the grade level and Beyond vital comprehension critical for academic discussions and writing
045and usually requires explicit instruction well my daughter I looked over her Google Classroom because they're doing a a quar or two response paper and I'm taking issue with that response paper because my daughter goes to an art school an art I only have a minute left she goes to an art school that had that protested House Bill 1557 last year and her English teacher assigned a project and this project they were given four articles and to to choose and 27 students amongst this teachers four classes chose the first article in this which I am taking issue with which is entitled what is Hamas this is a school that has protested house 1557 it was a teacher sanctioned Administration approved rally and this is a teacher who I've had several issues with this year I've brought
046this to the district I plan on filing an Ethics violation against her today I have an a plethora of things because I then went through the entire Google classroom for the whole school year and I have a lot of concerns so our teachers are not all innocent we have good teachers out there and they need to start replacing the ones that teach crap like this to our kids thank you Mr chairman that concludes public comment thank you Dr berer or attorney depri Bruno would you like to follow up on any of the comments Mr Mr fiser thank you very much Mr chair thank you very much for the opportunity first and foremost I want to thank the speakers specifically who are focused mainly at directing to the board but as a superintendent I take your
047comments seriously as well about policy Native Americans books Educators and the support and celebration of those Educators as well as all the support staff that make our world work every day there these comments are reinforcing especially after a time of Thanksgiving and prior to the winter holidays they're reinforcing to our purpose and to our work as Educators and as education policy makers so I wanted to say thank you for those words and know that we will continue to work to try to improve both in specific policies in other areas at the direction of this particular board to the last issue my Deputy superintendent Chief academic officer in the room I be more than happy to get with Mr sta Jilly my myself as well to help support whatever issues seem to be arising while that
048has been brought up at the district level has not come to my attention until this moment so thank you Mr fiser Mr chair appreciate you okay thank you Dr berer and thank you everyone for your public comment it truly truly is appreciated by all of us up here moving on now to item G through M consent items approval of consent items the documentation for Action items listed under consent is made available to board members seven business days prior to the board meeting we're expected to review all the material and we have an opportunity to speak with the superintendent with any questions we may have regarding the recommendations some of these items have also been briefed or workshop with the board in advance of appearing on the action agenda board members are there any un any
049agenda items you wish to pull for discussion Under The Unfinished Business table items portion of the agenda starting with Miss juvell yes I pulled item M15 thank you okay Miss Patria no thank you Miss Jordan no thank you Mr persons no thank you m lford Fleming I have none Miss Morgan I have none thank you and I have none is there a motion to approve the agenda's consent items with the exception of the pulled item M15 okay Miss Jordan I move to accept the board agenda with the exception of pulled item M15 as written is there a second Mr persons I second the motion okay move by Miss Jordan and seconded by Mr persons do we have any discussion okay okay now this now we'll be going to vote will this be a roll call
050vote okay so since this is roll call vote please signify by saying I or nay when your name is called Miss janelli yes Miss Patria yes please Miss Jordan I Mr persons I miss lenford Fleming I miss Morgan I and I'm an i motion carries 70 Dr berer please introduce any administrators in attendance with a new assignment that was approved under the consent agenda thank you Mr chair I would like to introduce Maria Cortez she'll be joining the dumbar community school as the new coordinator of adult and Career Education I didn't there she is sorry I didn't please stand and be recognized I was getting ready to comment with our shift and schedule last week I wasn't I'm sure if she was in attendance I appreciate you and again like we've always said to all
051of our administrators this is a symbol of trust from this board and the superintendent to you and please continue to do the work on behalf of our students that you do each and every day thank you as this is not a night meeting I can't repeat exactly what Mr person said but thank you for your service and you're dismissed if you want from the board meeting thank you okay moving on to unfinished business and table items we have item M15 to address Dr berer please read your recommendation for that item the recommended action regarding M15 is the approval to increase the previously board the board supplied amount of $2.8 Million by $750,000 up to $3.5 million with the American management resource Corporation in Fort Meers Fresh Air Solutions of Southwest Florida in Fort Meers legal
052Enterprises Inc doing business as Captain Steamer carpet cleaner Captain's complete restoration repairs and remodeling in Cape Coral Florida for a period of November 21st 2023 through November 25th 2024 pursuant to the same terms and conditions as pre previously approved by the board for this bid period there's been a higher volume of repair works such as but not limited to drywall repairs from Hurricane Ian carpet and floor dry outs due to water intrusion or broken water lines therefore the $750,000 increase is requested to allow the maintenance services to Department the ability to acquire Services Andor repairs as needed in the finalization of hurricane Ian work in the completion of our day-to-day tasks requested by districtwide facility usage Mr chair thank you Mr superintendent is there a motion to adopt Dr bernier's recommendation Miss Jordan I move
053to adopt Dr bernier's recommendation for M15 is there a second Mr persons I second motion okay item has been moved by Miss Jordan and second by Mr persons is there any discussion Miss juvell thank you I'm the one that pulled this my concern and I as a question for the superintendent through the chair is that did we verify that this work has been performed I want to make sure that we have quality control because we have had a history in the past of not knowing if the services were performed and we paid before they were the services were performed Miss janelli members of the board members of the public one of the biggest request that was made upon my swearing in as a superintendent was having a better handle on when repairs were made just
054prior to the holiday our coo and I had a another full day almost full day of meetings related to Hurricane repairs and other things we took pictures of specific items that we still question whether they've been repaired in full we've held invoices related to that additionally through your work you hired an outside company to help us based upon the volume of work in making all of these repairs there is now an outside company that works with our facilities and maintenance as well as our Construction Division to ensure that prior to paying any invoices that those physical inspections are made to ensure work is done but then also done to our specifications one more thing through the chair so also Dr berer can you please advise the community regarding this particular contract this is just an
055increase but this contract is up for Renewal or actually out forbid for up for for Renewal and we're given opportunity for other vendors to have that opportunity to have future business with the district that is correct board member G vanelli that when this item when this contract is finished an ITN would have to go out again for IND or quality environmental Consulting asbestos Le abatement microbial remediation and remodeling and painting it would go out as an ITN again thank you I am going to reluctantly support this because it is based on the hurricane issues however you know we spent $85,000 to tailor English for an investigation that was the information was founded and this board agreed to accept the entire findings and we voted to accept that last year so I think it's important that
056moving forward that we're making sure that work is being performed as well before paying a vendor and then making and you know and that we're doing quality control and making sure that we're spending the money wisely so at this point in time I will improve the increase the vendor in question I saw that they've already they only did one job and the rest was done by other vendors so I am going to support that this afternoon or this morning thank you any other comments or discussion okay seeing none this will be a roll call vote please signify by saying I or nay when your name is called Miss juven Elli yes Miss Patria yes please Miss Jordan I Mr persons I miss Langford Fleming yes Miss Morgan hi and I'm an i motion carries 70
057next up on the agenda is public hearings item R Dr berer please present your recommendation for this morning's public hearing item item R1 Mr chair is the approval to adopt new and revised board policies in compliance with the changes and related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be November 28th thank you Dr berer we will now recess the school board special meeting and open the public hearing the time is 10:59 a.m. as indicated the public hearing this morning is to consider Dr berner's recommendation as previously stated at this time the public will be invited to speak on this one item the time allowed for public comment is 3 minutes is there anyone in the audience who would like to address the
058board regarding the approval to adopt new and revised board policies in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and to promote transparency and accountability starting with the first item we would discuss would be board bylaws policy 133 0133 quasi judicial do we have any people wishing to make public com on that public comment on that item seeing none moving on to chapter 1000 policies Administration policy 01691 public participation at board meeting meetings do we have anyone wishing to make public comment on this said item seen none chapter 2000 program new policy 24101 mental health and well-being does anyone wish to address a specific po the specific policy in public comment seeing none chapter 5000 student policy 5121 to policy 5771 do we do we have anyone that wishes to
059make public comment on this set item okay seeing none I will now close the public hearing and reconvene the school board special meeting of November 27th 2023 the time is 11: a.m. Dr berer please restate your recommendation for this morning's public hearing item Mr chairman item R1 is the approval to adopt the new and revised board policies in compliance with changes and related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be November 28th 2023 thank you Dr berer you have heard the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved to adopt new and revised board policies in compliance with changes in related rules regulations and statutes to adopt best practices and promote transparency and accountability the effective date of this adoption shall be November 28th
0602023 board members is there a motion to approve Miss Jordan I move to approve the new and revise board policies as written do we have a second Miss Langford Fleming I second okay moved by Miss Jordan and seconded by Miss Langford Fleming is there any discussion board members okay seeing none please record your vote do we have a tally there we go motion carries 70 Dr berer attorney debris Bruno is there anything you'd like to address regarding this public hearing it them I have no comments sir I have no comments thank you Mr chairman thank you we'll now move on to other business which will be board comment and good of the order board members we will start with Miss juven Elli thank you it's a great meeting today and I can't believe her it's
06111:02 so I'm just that's awesome thank you y'all have I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving Miss Patria thank you I do have a couple of items to cover because I haven't been physically present I'll be quick curriculum advisory committee I am the board liaison reporting to you on the one meeting that we had of substance there was a discussion about the book challenge process I would be remiss if I didn't say just the high level of function Dr Spyro from your staff it is unbelievable how knowledgeable they are I feel stupid every time I sit in on one of those meetings seriously I mean there's not a question that can be presented to them that they are not off the top of their head able to address it's really it's very very impressive that
062team is very impressive so to to one of the members of the public a comment was made that there are 85 I thought it was 85,000 it may be 88,000 books that still have not been approved and that is a concern for me it is it's not that there's a concern about the content of the books it's that the new legislation requires us to approve to to vet all of these books before they can be placed on the shelves and libraries or in teachers classrooms it's my understand understanding that we did purchase 300 books through Scholastic for some classrooms but that's a district expenditure that we wouldn't have had to make if we could have had those 85,000 books approved so just the onerous nature of the requirements the legislative statutory requirements for this process
063is being felt by our teachers and ultimately by our children and I wanted to bring that to your attention because that was what was discussed there is significant interest by the committee in analyzing the data associated with the back to school form for Library access for parents they want to know how many people filled out the form how many people didn't what kinds of contacts have been made for those who didn't and whether there were any issues associated with the fact that the full Choice the text of the full Choice was not readable by parents on the on the phone it was it was readable on the computer but not on the phone until a few days after and whether that impacted the data and how many parents had to change their choice because of
064the lack of access to the full text in addition to that they discussed the topics for the entire year that will be discussed and I'm pleased to say that most of them are directly tied if not peripherally tied to goals in the Strategic plan so I'm super excited about that tonight we will be discussing learning losses as they are associated with the pandemic and Ian and other you know events that have caused learning loss for students what we're doing about it how to provide either intervention or enrichment based on where each student is we're also going to be discussing a portrait of a graduate which I think is very exciting so I will report to you obviously each month as that happens two more things I had opportunity to be interviewed by a student at
065Bonita Springs High School as name is Quinn kisac he's been here before for awards and he interviewed me as part of a class he's taking ju enrollment at FGCU to find out what I believe is the greatest impediment to learning for our students and he was surprised that I didn't say money he was surprised that I didn't say we need more money in order to make our system better my opinion and I was speaking as one of seven is keeping parents engaged in the education process and finding that hook you'll see when we get the superintendent's compiled evaluations that is a challenge for our Communications division as well you know our Littles have parents who are in the school and at the school and at PTO meetings and as our kids get older the parental
066involvement falls off so that's my biggest concern as a Schoolboard member is how to get parents engaged in actual learning to have open communication with teachers even if something goes wrong teachers want to know if a parent is not happy with something and they'd rather have that direct communication with the parents so that they can figure it out so anyways the reason why I bring that up is because whenever we have an opportunity to get with a student this kid is going to change the world at some point like honest to God and true he is that person who will change the world and it reminds me of why I sit here every other week and we do the work that we do because this kid thanks to our school system and obviously the support
067he has at home he's going to go on to change the world and reflect well on this school district and my final report is from ITF Insurance task force did you know that they do all kinds of employee Wellness things yeah so planksgiving you're supposed to do a certain amount of planks every day between now actually it's probably over and I took the little form and I do planks every day cuz I work out every day but I was not disciplined enough to write it down so I'm not going to win the cup but it's it's wonderful because it adds competition which I love the other thing that's really wonderful is they have this app called Walking spree I encourage you all to download the app on your phone and use it's connected directly to
068my watch and it tells me several times throughout the day how many steps I have in and there's a contest going on right now to get a certain number of steps in between now and Christmas and it's particularly difficult to get those steps in when you're in Freez and cold Rhode Island for Thanksgiving but darn it I did it so that I can beat everybody else so I just want you to know that how much time and effort goes into employee Wellness which keeps our insurance cost overall down and they just do a really really wonderful job and if you're not aware please engage in that those are my comments for today Mr oh wait a minute congratulations to you for becoming the new chair and to Mrs lford Fleming for becoming the vice chair
069those are my comments thank you thank you Miss Jordan yes congratulations Mr fiser and M Fleming Lang for Fleming and also Mr patrio you forgot one thing is that the incentives that they give yeah you doing that so that's another good point for any employee of the district who participates they have the opportunity to get some money as well so that's always a another addition which is really nice I met with edac and edak had via Zoom Dr Malloy did a presentation on the second proximity for middle school and of course there was quite a few questions regarding that and still still some concerns on what does that look like and I think we're still all hearing it and just you know tweaking it and coming to the final end of that but I thought
070that was a good meeting they did also do a presentation to try to figure out what they're going to do for the rest of the year which I don't have that information as of yet as soon as I get that information I will be sharing that out with you all so I don't have that I had the opportunity to also meet with councilman streets he's very concerned he's retiring U this will be his last year he's retiring because he really wants to get more active and motivated with the prison pipeline the school to prison Pipeline and he's really going to try to pull everybody together as he as many as he can with boys and girls club YMCA schools and just go back to the as he calls it the old time on how people
071were doing like the porch watching and making sure kids were doing what they were supposed to do and being expected and involving all the families as Mr rrio was speaking about too because that way when you have people who are engaged it's easier for our children and he's really trying to promote that so I'm sure we'll be seeing him come to the board meeting and share some information with us or reaching out to to speak to you as individuals and then I also want to say I too had the opportunity to speak to a student to interview and which is always a great opportunity because the questions that they ask you and just it's just a great conversation so and I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that is my report thank you Mr
072sorry and Mr pears thank you for last year did a great job Mr psons well I'm not going to steal the superintendent Thunder about the football game I'll let do this but what a game all I can say is I was watching the scores online and when I saw that the other team went ahead I thought the game was probably over but I'll let you elaborate on that's all Miss Langford Fleming I'll follow suit not say anything either even though it's written down so thank you Mr persons for running a very well organized last year for us appreciate all that you have done and congratulations to our new chair as well I did get to attend the health and wellness committee meeting which sort of ties in a lot of times with what Mrs Patria
073brings to the board from the insurance task force because they also talk about the challenges regarding Health Fitness some of the bonuses that teachers can make which I think is great you are right it keeps our insurance cost down but it also keeps our staff I believe healthy and happy because endorphins create happiness right so they are partnering with the collaboratory downtown they came and did a great PowerPoint presentation on how we are partnering with both and that's we're going to they're going to elaborate a little bit more on that I think the next meeting our school Gardens are thriving successful doing doing great hoping to add more gardens throughout the school district so that they're you know as many schools as they can possibly have them at and you know Miss Patria was just
074talking about the engagement and I've heard Miss Morgan also talks often about when we got together with the Strategic plan I think one of the things that really stood out was the engagement as the children are getting older in our schools and these Gardens as silly as you may think it is the children in middle and high school are so excited about what they're growing in these Gardens and they just it's creating a lot of I guess just self like ownership of seeing something successful happen and they're excited to come to school with projects like that going on so I appreciate all of that I think that is it I hope that our staff came back today ref freshed revived and ready to finish out this great year on a high note so and that
075is all I have thank you Ms Morgan yeah I first of all want to thanks the staff for being so AC being so accomodating about the change that we had to make at the last minute on this board meeting I want to congratulate the new chair Vice chair and thank Mr persons for his service as our previous chair I want people to notice that in the lengthy academic Services consent agenda today there were seven Dental assist there were seven dentists with whom we've signed to support our career in tech programs they provide opportunities for our students to participate as dental assistants with them we could not do the kinds of things that we're doing preparing our kids for life after school if we didn't have the collaboration that we have with so many of the
076Employers in our community and I also want to recognize boys club and Girls Club for the same reason they are doing awesome work with this District in so many ways but they were specifically recognized for work that they are doing with our kids after school I agree with Miss patrika I am concerned about the numbers and I think it is important as was suggested that we just compile some local data and provide it to the delegation and perhaps the superintendent Statewide ought to be providing that data because I don't think they have any clue what the financial impact has been what the impact has been on the workflow in schools as a result of the diversion of staff and how short we are in terms of learning materials so just throwing that out there I
077I do want to talk a little bit about process documents since policy was on the agenda today you know we've had we've had one major what's the word to use we were planning to move forward with a significant recommendation and based on errors in process we were required to step back and redo something and in talking to the in talking to board attorney de Bruno about the Neola process documents and where are we on process documentation her comment was to the effect that the Neola process documents are very weak and we know we have a documentation problem or I can't say we know we have a documentation problem we have in the past had a failure of leadership in certain instances to follow processes so I am a little concerned about where we are we've
078adopted all of these policies but there is some responsibility I believe not only on the part of the superintendent but also on the part of legal to ensure that particularly as as was the case with Hector cafeta when a new policy is adopted or a new practice is adopted that legal as well as the superintendent's office is reviewing the processes to ensure compliance with policy with State Statute with federal statute Etc so I would like at some point to have a conversation about what we are doing about processes now that we've adopted all of these policies I oh and I'm just out of nowhere listening to the comments about books today someone shared with us some research about children in reading that noted that children are far more likely to engage in reading material that
079is challenging than in reading material that is Pap and so it is really important to me that again that we figure out a way to get through some of these books and make sure that kids are reading having the opportunity to read things that are challenging and challenging in a way that they want to engage with adults and peers when they are reading so those are my comments thank you thank you I have a couple things attended the Trafalger middle sack meeting week and a half ago that was very good some of the issues with proximity came up which I've communicated with you guys and Dr berer that went well that was actually the original Garden school as well miss lford Fleming so that's they had a little bit of damage after the hurricane but
080they've rebuilt that part of it so it's going well also wanted to say many of us had the opportunity to go around right before Thanksgiving to celebrate the principal of the year the assistant principal the year and the staff member of the year Mr durky Miss Stevens and Miss Nora so that was an awesome day so and I really enjoyed that and I know many of you did it was a little bit like almost going around like Publishers Clearing House a bit of that kind of with the balloons and the presents but I know it was very much appreciated so Dr berer and I had a discussion we were invited to on Wednesday before Thanksgiving with the City of Cape Coral and some of the officials and some of the department heads to kind of
081go over where things are at with the K Coral Technical College and perhaps some interesting opportunities to maybe partner with them on some stuff but I'll leave that to Dr berer for later so last thing I want to say is thank you to this board we've been together here thank you thank you thank you to all of you especially for letting me bug the people that have been here as well as the staff out there so yep so thank you and Dr berer it's I've really enjoyed it up here and we have a really great group I'm looking forward to continuing that and you know special thanks to Mr persons's great job and you really really set a high bar so I appreciate that so that's all I have for my comments and hope everyone
082had a great Thanksgiving now we're on to attorney dpri Bruno thank you congratulations Mr fiser as being our elected chairman and Miss Langford Fleming in terms of our vice chairman and thank you Mr persons for your year service it's been a pleasure I do have one question I want to clarify from Miss Morgan if I may in terms of process documents because normally process documents are operational in nature so I just want to clarify in terms of what the instruction is in terms of process documents as it relates to Legal okay so it's not an instruction it's a request that the board consider the responsibilities and specifically with respect to for example the hector caffara contract that was a new process it was a new way of doing work it seems to me that there
083is an opportunity for legal to weigh in in the creation of the process document that goes with that and and it's cannot be solely the responsibility of the administration to create a process document without the advice of legal now maybe I'm wrong but the point was to for the board to have a conversation about what our expectation is with respect to process document creation oversight Etc because historically that has been a huge problem in this District we've squared away the policy problem I would like to have more confidence that I have a lot of confidence in the administration but I sometimes worry that they're being asked to do some of the work that would benefit from professional oversight from legal I don't know how else to put it other than that thank you thank you
084m Morgan Mr Fisher Dr berer if there's many things to be thankful for and we normally would have this meeting just prior to Thanksgiving so a reminder to all that appreciation can make anybody's day it can even change a life and your willingness to just put it in words is all that's necessary in the last several Town Halls we've been talking with parents about appreciating our Educators our support professionals and all of our employees it doesn't have to be a big thing it really doesn't it doesn't have to be a least car it's great to see our assistant principal principal and support professional of the year who will be recognized here and then hopefully move forward with the Florida Department of Education Awards but it's a note it's an email so often the way we
085are all wired is to write to someone when when we are dissatisfied and to accept the satisfaction and just leave it there so I would encourage all of us to challenge each other moving forward in the next weeks before the winter holidays to take the time when you see something right to just take a second whether you use I saw something great today card or the cards that you've been provided or that I've been provided just take that time to recognize those individuals for the work that they do each and every day because it takes everyone incl ining our community to really make this system work I'm also thankful for Mr person's leadership over the past year as well as Vice chair at the time Mr fiser and this entire board over the course of
086the last year this board has acted professionally in the best interest of children and has kept the main job the main job if you think about what our core work is it's about the education of children and so many things can take us away and take us down certain rabbit holes or in different directions and I'm proud of this board for allowing this superintendent to continue to focus on the main work congratulations to our new chairman and to our new Vice chair I'm thankful and looking forward to continuing to work with all of you as we move forward we'll be moving forward this week some of you will be leaving as soon as tomorrow please travel safely to Tampa for the Florida school boards Association in joint meeting with the superintendant to the community we
087keep reminding you December 16th the high School open house here at the here at the Colonial office the district Leadership Center the high school openhouse will be begin at 8:00 a.m. that's an opportunity for all parents 6th sth and eth grade thank you to the academic Services team and our Communications team for targeting sixth seventh and eighth graders it's never too early to be thinking about what your choice is for high school and the opportunity to have all of our high schools under one roofs for parents to peruse see what each high school offers for our community to come in meet our leaders and our great our great Educators who work at our high schools that High School open house again December 16th at 8:00 a.m. one other great opportunity is a site visit coming
088up in February I believe it's the 20th and 21st but I will confirm those dates and make another announcement from the Das we have confirmed that the state Florida Department of Education will be visiting Lee County not to come look at us but they'll be hosting their Statewide meeting here in Lee County because of the work our academic Services Department along with our amazing School principles have been doing in CSI schools they there's just incredible work going on and the state is recognizing that work and using us as an opportunity to show the rest of the state what really focused leadership from a board and a superintendent through academic services and with great principles what it looks like and how it can change the trajectory of students outcomes so we look forward to that visit
089coming up and we'll get more details to you December I have to come back to December remind everybody that December 5 is currently on your schedules don't move it everything at Fort Meers Beach is still a go Furniture got moved in over the holidays it's really coming together and we're looking forward to cutting a new ribbon at that new school building before I go to the event that two other board members passed on thank you just want to say thank you to the staff this past Sunday morning I got up and was going through my email and I received several people soft messages saying that my mandatory learning we call it mandatory fund sometimes the mandatory learning that I had completed I needed to go back and recomplete as this district is aware we've gone
090through a people soft reboot over the Thanksgiving holiday and that created some error messages that were at least disconcerting to a superintendent and I would imagine many faculty members who woke up on Sunday morning to say that their required training they needed to take again we got a message out as quickly as possible but just in case somebody missed it and somehow is watching this meeting I want them to be aware that that meeting was that message was received in error and we will get that cleaned up we will be following up with people however who didn't complete their training but you can ignore those messages that are currently in your inbox finally you know there's many joys to a superintendency but Friday night standing on the sideline out at Naples High School when Naples
091drove the field in a little controversy on the one yard line when the clock was stopped multiple times in order to spot a ball not that I'm complaining cuz our referees do amazing work and they want it to be right but that led to about 10 seconds left with Naples pushing the ball across the line and our team from Dunbar going down to a point where they knew they needed to score and you know I guess Yogi Barrett it's not over till it's over right yet no heads dropped on the dunar sideline they rallied around their coaches their coaches decided what the play was going to be on the kickoff and thank God I was at the far end of The End Zone because when the ball got kicked off it got kicked off towards
092the sideline and I leaned over to Deborah and said they should just let it go and right take the ball on the 25 thank God they couldn't hear me cuz they caught the ball they proceeded to the center they faked a handoff and that young man went 95 yards for a touchdown with no time remaining and I will tell you as much fun as it was to watch our kids celebrate my heart also breaks slightly for the team on the other side cuz they were devastated a home crowd went completely silent and I've never seen home bleachers empty so fast but the good news is dunar continues they will be in St Augustine this coming weekend if you want to join the road trip it's a little bit far away but well worth the travel
093and I will let the board members know that I plan to be in attendance in St Augustine Friday night so looking forward to that opportunity and go Tigers thank you thank you Dr reneer I also forgot to thank my fellow board members for their support with the vote today and I want to congratulate Miss lenford leming as well so next up our next scheduled meeting is Tuesday December 5th there will be a board briefing meeting at 1:00 p.m. followed by a board Action meeting at 6:00 p.m. at this point having no other business to come before this body and seeing no objection this meeting is adjourned the time is 11:30 a.m. enjoy the rest of your day everyone