School Board Special Meeting: January 23, 2026

001Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We're ready to begin this afternoon's special board meeting. Sergeant-at-arms, has the lobby been cleared? Yes. Thank you. At this time, we request all electronic devices be turned off or put in silent mode. The order of business for the day is to start with the call to order. It says, "I'm pleased to welcome you to January 23rd, 2026 schoolboard special meeting. The time is 1:32 p.m. and this meeting is called to order. We'd like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the district's mission, which is to ensure each student achieves his or her highest personal potential. and the district's vision to be a world-class school system. This afternoon's agenda includes public comment, four items under board business, three items under good of the order, other business. Board

002members, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Mr. Mr. Fischer, motion to approve the agenda. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Rebel second. This will be a roll call vote. Mr. Fischer, I. Miss Giovenelli here. Yeah. Yes. Mr. Ribble. Hi, Miss Jordan. Present. I Miss Langford Fleming. I. And Miss Chaviano. I. Motion passes 70. Next on the agenda is public comment. Attorney Quick. Good to see everyone. Good afternoon. Hi. schoolboard policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matters on this meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district. Please complete a public comment card and put it in the basket provided. If you need a public comment card, they're provided by our staff. The rules concerning public comments

003are posted in the back and will be made from the podium in the front center aisle. Please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers. The purpose of public comment is to provide feedback on district issues such as duties, responsibilities, decisions, and the general operation of the district. Schoolboard is viewpoint neutral during the public comment. We ask that decorum be kept and respect be shown which is expected when a government agency conducts official business. Therefore, abuse of language defined as swearing, use of profanity or name calling is prohibited. In addition, clapping, hissing, booing, or a display of temper during public comment is prohibited. Speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order by the board chair or the board attorney.

004Any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 0169.1 and may be removed from the chambers by the sergeant-at-arms. Per board policy 0169.1, the time for per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 20 speakers, 2 minutes if there are 30 speakers, and 1 minute if there are 31 speakers or more. The maximum time allotted for public comment is 1 hour or 60 speakers. You will find a countdown on the big screens in the front room. Once your time has elapsed, the microphone will automatically shut off. Please state your name when you approach the microphone and we will call the names five speakers at a time. No public speakers and I don't have any public speakers signed up. Okay, we have none listed. Are there any in the

005audience that would like they did not fill out a card? Seeing none, we'll just move on. Thank you so much for that. Under board business, do we have any board members that would like to make a motion? Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion. Yes, Mr. Ribble. Yes, I'd like to make a motion today. But before I do, I want to make one thing perfectly clear. Kathy Depri Bruno has been an excellent attorney here for us. I consider her a friend. I think we all consider her a friend. She has made the decision to move on with her life and her career and take a position with another school district. and I applaud her for making that decision and I certainly wish her the best and hopefully I can help her along the way

006as she moves on to bigger better things after she leaves Broward County cuz she's she's pretty aggressive. but I found in my business career working for corporations when folks transition into other jobs it's time to move the business on hand employee. I've moved 13 times with my family and my two daughters. I got to tell you, when you do a relocation, there's a lot of things that take over your mind. You got to worry about selling your property. You got to worry about buying a new property. You got to worry about where your children are going to be enrolled in school and on and on. Your mind is very preoccupied. It's very difficult you to do both ta tasks. So, hereby I'm going to make this motion. And again, this isn't a personal decision. This

007is a business decision. The motion is as follows. I move to accept Kathy Dupri Bruno's resignation as board attorney and general counsel. The final date of employment with the school board of Lee County is effective at the close of business on January 23rd, 2026. Kathy Depri Bruno will receive her salary and benefits in accordance with her contract through March 13, 2026 or the first day of her employment at Broward County School District, whichever comes first. Okay. Is there a second Fischer? Second, Mr. Chair. Okay. Motion by Mr. Ribble, seconded by Mr. Fisher. Is there any discussion? Miss Jordan. So, we're not honoring her request to work to the third or the 13th, I'm sorry, what she had. Well, she's going to be on the payroll till then, but she's not going to report to the

008office after today except to remove her personal belongings. Okay. All right. That was my question. I'm sure of that. I personally would have liked to see her stay maybe another week so we could do something for a goodbye, something along those lines. Mr. Chairman, we can still do a goodbye. It has nothing to do with this motion. That's above and beyond. But you corporately, we have goodbye parties all the time for folks, but has nothing to do with this motion. It's not It's not appropriate. May I ask question? Yes, Mr. If I may. So, we would not want her to be here to help trans to give that information. So if we cut ties today, you're cutting ties today, which means that anything that she may be working on, she would not have the opportunity

009to share that with whoever would be coming in into that place for the transition. That's correct. Right. Any other discussion, Miss Janelli? I have to ask why so abrupt. I don't I was taken back by your motion. I haven't had a chance to speak to her to even see if that's she's wanting to do that. allowing her time to get things out of her office. I just don't see what the rush is to I mean you feel like that she's not going to do her job, but I'm confident that she will continue to do her job till the day she leaves here. In fact, I'm confident if I needed to talk to her about something, I could contact her and ask a question and she would she would respond and answer to me. So, I

010just don't understand the need to effective immediately. I would rather have a conversation with her to see if that's if that's something that she wants to do as well as superintendent. I have no idea what or staff. I would be curious what staff has to say about that. I mean, I'm surprised. Thank you, M. Let me let me respond to that, Mr. Chair. Okay. Suppose we have 10 people that take a position someplace else around the state or around the country for employment, you're going to be getting into musical jobs and musical responsibilities, and there's no accountability to get things done. I had a conversation with her the other day at my oneonone and she was sharing with me her concern about finding a home where she was going and I won't confide the other

011things she confided in me because I consider a friend but these are things that I know in my experience and in working for 35 years for a major corporation and being transferred 13 times. These are stresses that bring that comes onto the employee. So, for example, when I was in Atlanta and I did the Olympics for UPS, they sent me up to the east region in Pennsylvania because of the airport that's up there. Okay. So, now I'm living up there in a hotel. My wife's in Atlanta cuz my kid was a senior in high school and my daughter was a junior. That's a lot of stress. And I was the employee that had to do it. Can you imagine if it was it was my wife that had to transfer like that? She didn't. She

012rented an apartment and we and that's how we live for 6 months. Relocations are very, very stressful. We didn't make the decision for her to take the job in Broward County. That was her decision and I respect that decision, but I also respect our fiduciary responsibility as school board members to manage the operations here at the school district. M Miss Langford Fleming. Thank Thank you. I just I guess I want to also publicly comment that while I have greatly appreciated her service to the district and to the students of Lee County because that's who we put first, I concur and agree with Mr. Ribble. I also believe that we have incredibly talented staff that has been updated on these cases that we have had conversations with and I do believe that it would be a

013seamless transition. I think it would I think it would be a shame that we don't let these talented individuals step into that role in the meantime. I don't know if that's what our goal is. I don't know if that's what where we're going. I know that there's another motion that possibly will be made this afternoon. However, I do feel that we have Mr. Huffman, Mr. Dodig, and a handful of others that could easily transition into that. and it'd be a seamless transition that would keep us updated on our on anything that's going on, anything that we conversate with Kathy Deupe Bruno. we are getting those one-on- ones. Well, she's got other staff that's also working behind the scenes to give her that information. So, they also know what's going on as well. even though she's

014the facilitator of that. So, thank you. That's all. Any other discussion before I make mine? Good. And I appreciate what what Miss U Flemings has just mentioned. However, the attorneys that we have at hand and the staff, they are have been working in certain departments for the district. So, the overall issues and the outside counsel and everything else that we have that are working for different things keeping us out of trouble without us being sued and you know what we need here in the district. I just would be concerned. Do they have all the information? because I would hope that if they had all the information, this would not even be a worry to me. But not knowing has that information been disseminated to them in order for it to be seamless. That is my

015question, Mr. Chairman. I can respond to that. Thank you. Okay. I have a list. I got this from from HR. I was thinking about this last night. to your point, we have a list of 13 attorneys that we have some contracted with for each and every one of the issues and departments that we have. So, we have a big bench of legal support in our community here to support the school district on any issue that we may have. Miss Shaviano, if I may through the chair to the superintendent, since the remaining attorneys work under you, I'm sure with all everything kind of coming to light, they do not. That's not true. do they're they're not a board attorney. They are they work they work for the board attorney. They're assistant board attorneys. That is correct.

016But they do day-to-day work. Yes. Daytoday work for the district. Just going back. So give me a minute. I'm sure there's been conversations on your side behind the scenes with this transition. To Miss Langford Fleming's point, to Mr. Durable's point, do you know or have you had the conversation with them in regards to the additional work, the stepping behind those pieces if they're capable and confident in doing that work? So, thank you for the question. So, as superintendent of of the school district, and I understand the board attorney is a board hire, so I'm fully respectful of that. please understand that the day-to-day operations fall within my purview. I am responsible for everything that happens in terms of performance for our employees, right, which includes our legal team that it that does fall under me

017as well. I will tell you as superintendent, I've had several conversations to ensure that we are in a good position to be able to move forward. As Mr. Ribble stated, we do have numerous cases that have been outsourced to attorneys. we as a governance team have had access to numerous attorneys in those cases. so I will share with you we also have a very talented legal team that sits before us right here in this audience as well as the support staff. We have two parallegals. We have coordinators. We have administrative assistants. We have folks that stand at the ready to perform the legal services of this district. And I have absolute full faith and confidence in their abilities as attorneys and as a team. The really good news is, and I will share this, the

018attorneys function as a team in this district. That has always been the case. That will always be the case in this district as long as I am the superintendent of schools. And the reason I emphasize that is regardless of what decision is made today, when I look in the audience, I know that we have the right legal team in place and I have absolutely no concerns about their abilities to move on and to ensure that the legal needs of this district are met. So, I share the I'm I'm appreciate the question. It's something that I have pondered over since Mr. Bruno announced that she was leaving and I will tell you I couldn't be prouder of our team. They're ready to step in. I I still have one more. Okay. outside of that I support

019the day as today being last day I also coming from corporate understand once you give your resignation you can take your time your vacation all those pieces. Thank you very much. So that is very common practice. The only I think hangup I have in terms of the pay and final piece is 13th is the last day based on the official resignation letter that she provided. I don't see why we would have to pay any additional time outside of that cuz I think that was mentioned Mr. Rubble until she starts her other position. I think that's in her it's in her contract. Excuse me. Let me clarify what Mr. Ribble said. Mhm. It would stop before the 13th if she were to take a paying position with Broward. Okay. Not not past the 13th. Okay. Just

020sort of move that along. Yeah. Mr. Fischer. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I support Vice Chair Rules's motion on this and I agree this is fairly common practice not just in corporate in the legal arena. And I will tell you I appreciate everything Attorney Reuno has done. She's done a lot for this district and I appreciate her help from just a board member as an individual board member as well. she has set this up as a law firm and I have been in a law firm before and is not the cases and everything are not concentrated just in one person. They work as a team just like Superintendent Carlin says. So this is a fairly common practice in legal world. So I just want to give that perspective to my fellow board members. Thank you.

021All right. I have a couple concerns. Number one, I wouldn't want anyone coming in my office without any notice and saying because she's not even in town. And if her last day is today, that means whoever's takes her position or whatever will be in her office on at the latest Monday, you know? I mean, to me that worries me when you have personal items there. so I don't know if we can come up with something where I know everybody said, "Well, she can come get her stuff later." But it's just a little bit, you know, I mean, I know I've got a lot of personal stuff in my office. Bill, you have it in yours. And your if you were out of town, we said you got to be out, you know, we're putting someone

022else in there today. Mr. Chair, I'd like to respond to that comment. As I recall, when Mr. Baneer went on and moved on to Deval County, Mr. Savage replaced him and he didn't he didn't take that office. He stayed in his own office. Well, it wasn't until our superintendent came in, the office was cleaned out and moved ready to go. So, I don't see whoever replaces him needing to use that office until she can clean it out. That's fine. I just would like a time, you know, an understanding from the board, a time period there. The other thing is while this may be common, it's really not common to my knowledge that you say resign and while you're away, someone says, you know, we're replacing you tomorrow. You know, I mean, it's just it's just

023so abrupt and so quickly that's usually done when someone has done something. And I know y'all have said we really like Kathy, but it just seems too abrupt in in my opinion. I just would like a little time. I wanted I had some questions I was going to get from Kathy next week. One, I wanted to list and I guess we can get from whoever takes over. I wanted to know what all the litigation we have out there. Number one, what we have going and who is all the outside 14 attorneys or whatever, who's exactly in charge of each one. We've been lightly briefed on those, but I didn't concern because we had our board attorney over it, you know. But if you ask me right now, write down how many litigation you have out

024there and who's in charge of it. Bill, do you know? I mean, I don't think any of us know. We couldn't write a whole list. So, I would like to get that list from whoever does take over there. I would just simply ask one of our attorneys that are sitting here in the audience and I guarantee within an hour they can give you that information. And Mr. Chair, I do have that list so I can provide that for you. Thank you. And I had other questions too, but I mean I'm sure I can work with whatever we decide there, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to do it so abruptly there for no real cause other than just to move it along. because it wasn't like we didn't have somebody cuz

025she was working and I had full confidence that she would have kept working until her last day. But if there's no other discussion Oh, Melissa, go ahead. thank you, Mr. Persons. I would I actually agree with you. I just think that she should be allowed the time to come in here and say goodbye and clean out her office and give us any additional information or insight. I still have a one-on-one that's scheduled for her. Is somebody going to have who's going to take over the 101? I have next week. and I expect her I had a lot of questions. I was saving for the 101 next week. a as her outgoing. I think she should have had the opportunity to have the February meeting where she could have said goodbye officially to everyone instead of

026being a surprise up here. I mean, I I think this we probably should have discussed this la on the 13th if for something to give her that ability then if that's what was the intent of the board to terminate sooner than later. I out of respect for Miss Bruno, I would rather see her have that opportunity. and I would like to bring up just a few few little facts regarding a team. The legal team, the legal team is only has been in place through Kathy Bruno. the prior legal team did not work as a team. and it has nothing to do with anyone in this audience because they're still here. some of those employees are no longer here because they didn't want to be a team. So that is a big fear of mine going

027backwards to what was what was then and what is now. and our legal structure is important and they are working as a team now through her leadership and I really hesitate to start changing things when things aren't broken. They're I feel like they're finally fixed in comparison to what they were, but that's a conversation I'm waiting to have later. thank you. Okay. Any other discussion? Mr. Fischer, real quick, in regards to personal items, I'm sure from what I've seen previously, HR and safety and security have a protocol when this happens with any other employee. unless there's an objection from anyone that dies, I don't think it would be an issue if she obviously re-entered this building at some point. We could if we wanted to do something for her. So in regards to anything with

028moving up in time law firm it's common practice in fact if you give your date they will say hey time to move on we'll pay you out so that's not unusual in this world so and the other thing I just want to you know just reemphasize appreciate everything attorney Bruno has done but she made the decision to leave so this is not on us thank you m vanali actually through the chair to the superintendent will all her access computer everything be shut down today or as of the end of today. So, we will have that conversation. We are listening for the vote of the board. typically what we do is we communicate with the employee to let that person know the decision of the board and at that point we will have a conversation. Obviously,

029there needs to be some time for transition. So, we'll be happy to have that conversation with her just like we do with all of our employees. Okay. So, I really didn't So, it's I didn't really answer. Okay. Let me let me be very clear. Let me be very clear. We're listening for your conversation today. We will take direction from the board and then I will personally with the team have a conversation with her, the appropriate members of our team to make sure that we have the information we need to your point about the legal transition. The moment we have that information, then we will handle it in accordance like we do with every other employee. and those those those services would be discontinued. But this is exactly what we do with other employees when we

030have the information we need. For example, the chairman just asked, do we have the list of each and every case and what is who is the attorney in charge of that? That would obviously be in consultation with our attorneys because they work with those cases as well. We would not want to shut anything off until we had all of that information. So I know you're looking for a specific time or date when that would happen. My answer to you so I'm very clear is when the transition has occurred appropriately then those permissions would be discontinued. Okay. And so one more thing just historically when Mr. Dodic quit I know that we didn't ask him to leave. He worked through his resignation time period as well as other attorneys as as well. So we didn't ask

031them to leave that I'm aware of. Maybe I might not be aware of that, but I just want to clarify. I thought we allowed we've allowed every employee every attorney so far that's quit work through their time their termination of their I was not superintendent at the time. So I don't have that information my case. Well, my recollection and I do know that when Mr. equate he were cuz I he worked through his resignation time frame. then I would like to have the conversation regarding what would be an adequate time frame for if you're if the vote is today to to accept her termin terminate her today at at the end of this meeting then what what does that look like? What does this board want to agree to? because I don't want her I

032don't want her services cut off and that is something we can control right now through the superintendent. this board can make that decision. That's what she's just said. So I would like to hear that conversation. Thank you. M Jordan again I think we're kind of a little bit confused on what is happening here. This is our board attorney and I know we keep saying through the superintendent. No disrespect for the superintendent, but this is something that goes through the board. they are our employees and we need to make sure that when we were discussing this we are discussing it in that manner and also with and you're absolutely correct we've never done that she is in a conference right now representing Lee County and what does that look like you're going to get a phone

033call well you're in the conference right now but you no longer work for them that just to me is just is so wrong. And as far as legal is concerned, it is the Florida school board. It is this the board's it is our responsibility. The legal authority is the board's based on the statutes. So, I just want to make sure that we keep remembering all of that when we're moving forward with this conversation. The motion was made by board member and the board will be voting on it. So, it will be a board decision. so just it's not a superintendent decision on any of these things today. All right. any other discussion? I think we've sort of gone through that. Okay. This will be a roll call vote to Mr. Ribbles's motion and I'm going

034to read it one more time. Yes, that's why. Mr. Chair, I think we should open it up for for public comment based on Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Just it actually why don't we do it a little short. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to make public comment? All right. Seeing none, I think that covers us. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The motion is by Mr. Ribble moves to accept Kathy Dupe Bruno's resignation as board attorney and general counsel. The final date of employment with the school board of Lee County is effective to close of business on January 23rd, 2026. Kathy Dupe Bruno will receive her salary and benefits in accordance to her contract through March 13, 2026 or the first day of employment at the Broward County School District. That is a

035little bit ambiguous, Mr. Ribble. It sounds like through the 13th or until she gets employed. So that could be later. Would you like to amend that a little bit? No, I don't want to amend it. I think it reads perfectly the way it is. What's what's ambiguous about it? Okay. On March 14th, I am not employed by Broward County and according or if either one is true, I would continue to get my salary on the 14th. I mean, the way I read, I don't know. I'm not an attorney, so I'm letting Mr. quick glance at that I would say or could end before that Mr. Ribble if you're willing to amend that if she starts employment something along those lines not take it out just make it a little clear what you mean Mr. Quick

036I would just I'm taking a look at at the contract with Mr. Di Bruno and the contract says that if the board terminates her responsibilities before the 60 days that the board will be obligated to pay her salary and benefits as if she was a full-time employee up to the effective date of the termination. So it doesn't have the clause in there where if she takes employment before that that would shorten the time. So, I would recommend an amendment to the motion as I'm looking at the agreement to just specify that she would be paid through the effective date of the termination, which is that March 13th date just to make sure we're consistent with the contract. Okay. M Miss Janelli. So, we're going to pay her and we're going to pay another attorney at

037the same time. Is that No. Is that what I'm understanding? it I guess it depends on what you decide to do with the next the next attorney. If if there's somebody already on salary then then you would unless that their salary increase increased it would be the same. but yes it's there's the potential for that for that for that window. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Tribble, you willing to take that last part out being it's in conflict with her contract? I don't agree that it's in conflict with a contract. We had attorney look at this thing, you know, and that's the way it was written. If you take a look at the situation, she gets paid until the 13th of March. However, if she gets a she like she used an example the other

038day to me that she possibly might leave the February the 17th. That's how I went back and looked at this thing. Okay. So, if she if she starts her job on the 17th of February, then we stop paying her. That's how it works. That's exactly why I want to amend this. It's fine the way it is. I see legal ramifications on this. Just as a board member, Mr. Quick, I would just under the contract, it does and I'm looking at specifically section 16B little Roman numeral 2. it doesn't have the clause in there that that triggers a an earlier end date for the payment. It does specify that the salary and benefits she would be paid the salary and benefits as if she was a full-time employee up to the effective date of the termination.

039So from the legal end, I would encourage you just to pay her through the 13th because that's that's clear and in compliance with with the terms of the contract. Well, we had a problem when veneer left when we left it open like that and then everybody in the county went nuts that he was double dipping that he was collecting from Dool and collecting from Lee County. Are you sure we want to do that? First off, that did not happen. Two, we had an agreement with Berner that it would Right, Mr. Fischer. I would ask chair if we could take a brief recess so Mr. Ribble can confer with legal counsel. Okay. Thank you. We will take a brief recess for five minutes. The time is 204. We'll re reconvene at 2:10. The final date of

040employment with the school board of Lee County is effective at the close of business on January 23rd, 2026. Kathy Tupri Bruno will receive salary and benefits in accordance with their contract through March 13, 2026. Period. Thank you. All right. And Mr. Ribble, you're okay with that or Yes, I am. Okay. All right. And I don't know, we I don't remember who made the second, but whoever made Mr. Fischer. Yeah. You're okay with that amendment, too? Yes. Mr. Attorney, we will we're going to do a computer vote on this one. Yes. Okay. person. Okay, we'll do a roll call because actually mine didn't show up either. Okay, Mr. Fischer. Hi, Miss Giovenelli. No, Mr. Ribble. Hi, Miss Jordan. No, Miss Lifford Fleming. Hi, Miss Chaviano. I All right. And I am an I. The motion passes

04152. All right. We will now have a discussion on the legal structure. All discussions of the agenda will be facilitated by attorney John Quick, Dr. Ken Kenneth Savage, and Dr. Shana Johnson. And they're going to have a presentation, and then we can ask questions, and then we'll have our discussion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make my second motion at this time. I think it's very fitting to have this item addressed first. I mean, if there's a second, but I think we should have a discussion first, but would be a request to move the discussion on the interim board attorney to the next agenda item. That's correct. Okay, Mr. Fischer. I will second that motion, Mr. Chair. All right. And the motion is Mr. Ribble if you would like to well first off the motion is

042to move the agenda item first. Correct. Yeah. Change the agenda item. So we will have any discussion on switching from the structure to the interim. Mr. Sure. I prefer to do the structure based on the presentation that we are going to receive and then have the other after. Okay. Any other discussion? Do you have analyt? I would actually agree with that because I think we need to talk about the structure. I've got a lot of information that from my history that I'm can't wait to share. So, I would I'm don't want to make a decision yet. All right. Any other discussion? I can sort of go either way. Is there any public comment on this item? Seeing none, let's be a roll call vote to move the items here. Yes, sir. Okay. Mr. Fischer. I.

043Mr. Janelli. No. Mr. Fiser. I mean, Mr. Ribble, you don't get two votes. I Miss Jordan. No. Mr. Leford Fleming. I. Miss Javiano. I. And I'm a no. The motion carries 43. So now we will have a discussion on the interim board attorney. Well, I have the motion in place. Okay. Would you like to make a motion? You want me to read a motion? Correct, Mr. Chair? You may. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Motion. My second motion of the day. I move to appoint Mr. Robert Dodig as interboard attorney and general counsel effect at the close of business on January 20 23, 2026 until the school board of Lee County selects a new board attorney. All right. Is there a second, Mr. Fischer? Second, Mr. Chair. All right. Discussion. I guess it's just one way to

044get into our discussion of the interim position. Miss Jordan, the motion is asking us to vote on if this is the structure that we're keeping. Then that's not that's not what the motion that's not what the motion what let me explain this. Okay, so you look at my office and I got a picture of Kathy on on my wall and she is the inter she is the board attorney and general counsel. Correct. So now I take her picture off the wall and I put Mr. Dodic's picture up there. Okay? And underneath it, it's the same exact responsibility, same title. Now, if we decide to change that, if we decide to go with somebody different down the line, we do our interview or however we agree to do a search and we come up with a

045new a new person, then we could then we're going to talk about how that structure is going to be. But this is just to get us through this piece. So that we right now from this conversation on we have stability that how we're going to operate as of tonight. Follow me. It gives everybody conf confidence in what we're doing. Miss Jordan, Mr. Fisher. So thank you for saying that. So I understand what you're saying. However, the next topic it appears to be that they're looking at not what you just said about switching pictures and the names that will change and that those who come after that's how it seems like that is what how we're looking at it as well as looking at possible other structures. So that's why I felt that the structures that

046you were all speaking about should come first versus right this topic. Yep. that we've already passed that part though, so we're we're here. Mr. Fischer, just to clarify, we're not getting rid of the board attorney position today. So, it's one of our statutory employees. So, let's let's make this straight. No matter what happens in the structure, we're still going to have a board attorney. Whether it's a person or an entity, we're still having a board attorney. So, I am in agreement with this. I think Mr. Dodic has done this job before. I think he'll be able to do excellent job in the interim for this job. he will be able to step in right away without having any other issues. I think he also has disposal obviously we have some other great attorneys as well

047as if need be. I know we have Mr. Quick if we have any other issues on standby obviously for our contract to help out with that. So I would also mention may I ask Mr. Attorney through the chair a question? Yes. Since this would be a change of position, we would we would need to initiate some kind of contract. Correct. I would recommend that. Yeah. That you have an interim board attorney agreement to to spell it out. I mean, we have a framework to work with, but I would recommend that. Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I would not anticipate I'm sure that would not be, you know, laborious at least when it comes to that, but I just wanted to make sure the board members aware that I support this motion and

048having Mr. Dodig and I appreciate everything he's done for this district. Thank you. Yeah, I think the enter agreement is on page something like 2008, but anyway, Miss Chaviano. Yes. Thank you. and just answer to go back for Mrs. Jordan. again, it's not changing legal structure even on the intram board attorney. It's just saying if we're going to appoint an interrum or retain outside counsel. That's kind of the piece where we're going with that because we of course still have to hire whatever that structure is. It's just putting someone in the place currently because as of the first motion at end of daytoday we don't have someone. So it's just appointing that person from here. So, I also second that motion and support it with Mr. Dodic. I understand you've done this position already. and

049we do have a great legal team to support all the work that's been happening at the district and you guys are more familiar with it than any of us, of course. So, I'm good. Miss Janelli, I haven't had the opportunity to even know if Mr. Dodig wants the position. Okay. Thank you. That was going to be a question that I had. and you know the record, I loved having you as our board of attorney. So, this is nothing against you that my, you know, I just want people to understand. and I and I just need clarity. So, he his job obviously, so he's going to get more money again. Listen, I'm going to repeat that we're going to pay him and be paying Kathy Dupri Bruno until March 13th. so that I will tell you

050that if I was Mr. Mr. Dodig, I wouldn't work for the president's salary that he's working for being our board attorney. So, so we're going to pay him as a board attorney and general counsel. How does that work exactly? That's what the motion says. That is what Kathy Dupra's title was, general counsel and board. Okay, click the same position, right? Thank you. As Mr. Ribble would say, just changing the picture, right? There you go, Miss Jordan. And again, I if it is for that position, the entire position with general counsel, I would be okay with that. Well, I thought that's what we just said. No, I I just want to make sure changing the because the next conversation got a magical trick here. The next conversation is going to be different. So, yes, I with

051that defined as such. Is there any other comments before I make mine? Seeing none. Yeah. My only concern is we had four attorneys that were working daily on everything. We had Kathy Deay Bruner as attorney general counsel. Then we had three other attorneys working under her. So that was that was four. And legal staff under that. We had have one attorney resign. And if we move the other one up, we've gone from a staff of four to staff of two. And yes, we can use outside counsel, but to me that I just worry that something might slip through the cracks there a little bit, but I'm not totally against this. I just that's just the concern I want to voice out there. We're going to have to really watch that because we are a large

052district, you know, and we need a staff of attorneys. I mean, we've all been briefed on all the different things. We see all the consent items, all the contracts that I expect the board attorney to read and go over and it's just so much going on. All right, any other discussion before we do a roll call? All right, we'll do a roll call vote on this. You want to read Did we open it up for public comment? Oh, I'm sorry. is there anyone wish to make public comment? I seeing none. Thank you for the reminder. Okay, roll call vote. Mr. Fischer, I. Mr. Giovenelli, yes. Mr. Ribble, I. Miss Jordan, I. Mr. Lake Fleming, I. Miss Javiano, I. And I'm an I. All right. Very good. Chair. Yes. I'd like to make a motion that

053we appoint you, Mr. Chair, to negotiate the contract for Mr. Dodig for interim attorney. I'll second. I'll second. All right. So willing. We'll meet. No, never mind. yeah, I'd be willing to do that. we will have a discussion on that. Anyone? No. Okay. Any public comment on that? I know we like Mr. Toad, but some people may not like me. Seeing none, we'll have a roll call vote. Mr. Fischer, I. Miss Giovanelli, yes. Mr. Ribble, I. Miss Jordan, I. Langford Fleming, I. Miss Shaviano, I. And I guess I have to say an I. The motion carries 70. Okay, next up is our discussion on the legal department structure and this is where we'll have the presentations. So, how Mr. Quick you want to Yeah, I think it's actually going to be led by Dr. Savage.

054So, I'll turn it over to him and we'll be available to answer any questions, too. Well, it's been wonderful for us to be able to listen to the conversation so far and I think there's a lot of overlap with kind of what what the board has already talked about with we really built this completely around when Mr. Personson sent out the agenda at the beginning of January. So, we really just tried to honor that structure. and so we've kind of laid it out accordingly. so, in the first item, I'm going to I'll allow Dr. Johnston to to speak up on this particular piece. All right. Good afternoon, chairpersons, board members, Superintendent Carlin. Oh, sorry. Can you hear me? Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. I won't go through all of that again. Still not working. Good afternoon.

055Is that good? Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. All right. To assist you in your decision regarding the legal department structure, we've provided you with many resources both this presentation job descriptions, current job descriptions and future job descriptions if needed. and also in in the admin content of the board doc's policies that pertain to this decision for your review prior to this meeting. to help clarify the decision before you today, I'd like to direct your attention to slides three and four in the presentation. We're going to go over the current structure and then another another proposed structure. So this is the current structure. A single school board attorney and general counsel that reports of course to you all to the school board. the entire legal count the legal staff all fall under this one office. That's basically

056how the structure is set up. We also have if I can go back linked in there I'm not sure if you've had time to look but organizational charts for the past 10 years. So there are it there's this structure that has been in place since Kathy Dupri Bruno has been here before that this is a very common structure that was in place before and in many districts around the state. you'll see the proposed split model where there's a school board attorney that would be the dedicated position of course reporting directly to you the school board focusing on your governance and legal needs and then the school the staff attorney's office would create a new chief staff attorney position who would then report directly to the superintendent. Then there would be staff realignment of course that

057would report to the chief staff attorney. Of course you can see the dotted line then working handinhand with the schoolboard attorney. This would allow for if there were ever a time needed for each the schoolboard attorney and chief staff attorney to serve their own client if ever needed. So this choice you know will determine the final job description that HR or which is another decision you all will make today whether HR advertises or we go with an external firm to advertise. That's why we're having this discussion today for the legal structure to determine how we're going to advertise and what job description we will advertise whether it will be a school board attorney and general counsel or school board attorney. So I open the floor for your discussion. All right. Four members. Mr. Quick, I

058just wanted to mention one thing cuz I do know you all do have a chief staff attorney that has just hasn't been filled but has been approved. so I just wanted to make sure because it wasn't on the chart. So I just wanted to remind you all that you do have that already approved by the by the board for from the legal end. Thank you. Discussion Mr. Ribble. So we are eliminating the term general counsel. Is that what I'm hear what I'm seeing here? Yeah, it appears that's the proposal being presented for your all consideration and it looks like it's moving what I would call the assistant schoolboard attorneys underneath the chief staff attorney and basically shifting from from the left side to the right side everything that's at the bottom part of the pyramid.

059Okay. Any other questions or discussion? Mr. Miss Jordan. Yes. First of all, u thank you for being here. But my question is who asked for this presentation because I don't think that I did not recall any of us having this conversation to bring this to us when we had already just had this couple months ago in our meeting when we decided what the structure would look like. And then prior to that, we approved the chief staff attorney as well. And as far as if there were a conflict by statute, that is always there to be given to a superintendent if the need ever arose for that. So I'm I'm just a little bit kind of confused and that's why I kept questioning when u Mr. Ribble said the title as such because of the fact

060that we just approved two seconds ago that Mr. Dodic would be that the interim for that position. So, this is just a little bit I'm I'm kind of confused on why we're even having this conversation. I don't know how I don't know how we're confused. He's the interimm under the structure. Mr. You have not been recognized. Correct. Would you under that structure? Can I Can I get Yes, you may. Thank you. That was very nice of you. I don't know how we could be confused. All we're doing is extending the position we have now since Kathy vacated it with Mr. do until we decide how we want to move forward. That's all it is. There's no confusion, Miss Jordan. I'm not confused with that part of it. I'm confused with this part of the organizational

061chart again that we're looking at when we I don't recall having a meeting where this was ever even brought up to have this conversation when we were strictly we knew we had our board attorney was leaving our board attorney general counsel was leaving and we needed to have this special meeting so we could have that conversation on where do we go? How are we going to do the hiring? who's going to be doing that and that is what we were supposed to be here for. Okay. Superintendent. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. so I may be able to assist Miss Jordan. So, when Mr. when Chair Personsons and I sat down and talked about and I know he did distribute the agenda ahead of time, there was an email that came from the chairman and I'll let

062the chairman speak to that because he's more than capable of doing that. But when we sat down and talked about how we would present each one of the items what there was a discussion with the chairman basically you know how can we help right so if there is going to be an advertisement do you want HR's help do we want to have that conversation so we agreed on what the agenda was going to be by statute the board chair and the superintendent consult on what the agenda is going to be and then Mr. persons, chair persons did indicate that yes, there would be a conversation about the legal structure and our staff is here to support that. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. May I clarify first? Yeah, I figured the more information y'all had, the

063better. I mean, that was my whole process in this. That's why you have some of y'all have a binder with 50 pages of information. I said 2008 the other day, but I was a little bit wrong there. But there are 50 pages in there. the discussion right now is really very simple. which which way do you want to go? I have concerns that I'll bring up a little bit later. because of the size and things of our district before we move on the structure. If if no one else says okay Minelli and then Mr. Ribble yeah I have Mr. Fischer I have several concerns over switching and changing to the back to the oldest structure. One's a million dollar payout to an employee that was over a million dollars actually to two employees. One was

064$750,000 and another one was $250,000 to under the old structure. That same case went to mediation without our board attorney being notified because the chief counsel at the time accepted subpoenas and didn't tell the board or the board attorney and therefore when the mediation was happening. The first we found out was at a mediation to approve a million dollars because they also got reinstatement of employment that was not heard of. That was all done under the old structure. Also, we lost and I don't know how much this cost us the public records case where public records wasn't supplied to the person that requested it and that cost us quite a bit of money as well. Again, the attorney that worked for the superintendent kept that from the board until it was too late. All of

065this is done prior prior administration. There's no one in this building at this point in time now or in a building in this room that was handling that. also during that old administration, which I'm going to go out here and be public about it, I believe this is why we lost our board attorney was during the watermarking that was done by prior administration. and we lost our board attorney at that time because it was a very stressful time in the district. Also, after the watermarking, we also got a notes case that all happened under the old an attorney that was not is no longer here as well that worked for the superintendent. And I'm confident that at that time the superintendent was well aware of everything that was going on in the district, but the

066board was not. Maybe certain board members were, but I can tell you that this board member was not. Also, we had numerous state auditor violations that resulted in us finally getting the whistleblower and lighthouse you know policy in place as well as that just for the record has been audited two times the new process and we have been doing our jobs on that and the present legal team has been doing a great job and the auditors had had no findings. So I think that's important that's under this regime, not the old regime. So that's the pluses. the other thing that I really want to bring to this board is a really that's really important is Broward County had a grand jury report and finding that resulted in four board members being removed by the governor.

067This board member is not going to be removed by the governor for not doing being dare of my duties and job and it was due to the structure, the process and the governance and the little oversight. It only left one board member in place and that and that board member still is working for Broward and everybody else is new. But four was removed by the super I mean by the Can we wrap it up here a little bit? Pardon me. Can we wrap it up a little bit? Yes. But I think those are important notes to have as a board to keep the structure that we have in place and not go backwards. Unless you can show me otherwise and it and show me because I believe our we have a lots of savings going

068on now versus paying employees over a million dollars for our negligence not theirs being a whistleblower. Thank you. Thank you. How about if I yield to Mr. Fischer? I think he wants to rebut what was being said and then I'll take my Okay, that's fine. Fisher, thank you. I want to set something up. We talked about why are we here? The majority of this board a few months ago decided to put the legal structure in attorney Bruno's contract. So now that contract has been fulfilled, it's time to discuss where we are as a legal structure. I think that is vital at this point and that is what our duty is. So in regard to things in the past, it's a new district, a new day, and it's new people. It's still incumbent upon us to

069make sure we do watch over, you know, our oversight. That doesn't mean with, let's say, structure B, which I will support structure B. I have observed since the change when we first brought it up of what goes on within the legal department, what needs to happen and watching so much as well as looking at other districts, how much of that work does occur under the operational side. I think it's important we do that. That does not take away our employee of having a board attorney or if they want to have an assistant board attorney. That does not take away any of our power. and the way it's operated with this elected superintendent, we have set the framework that we have had a very open and honest relationship that we have both shared in things where

070other elected superintendents times or other boards have had the opposite and I think we have shown a great model here and we have set a great precedent for this county as well the rest of the state. I'd like to ask a question Mr. Chair to deputy superintendent Savage. Option B, has that happen? Is that in process in anywhere else in the state and any other school district? yes, it is actually a very consistent process. I actually reached out to all the largest elected systems because obviously having served as superintendent here twice under the general counsel model both times. I had to familiarize myself with that general counsel model. but the model that had been in place in our district prior to that time period, which was really the only model that I had had any

071prior exposure to as an employee of the district for that period of time, was the type of model that you have there before you. The difference that you'll find is that depending on the size and scale of the different districts, that's where that starts to vary. The larger the organization becomes, often the more that the scale of the support, the more attorneys they may have. Like for example, Pasco, which is the next largest elected system, they have a board attorney that serves through a third party council, much like Mr. Quick is here today. that board attorney for Pasco, which again is not terribly smaller than we are, has a board attorney that works three days a week. they work predominantly remote. They are present for the fifth for the meetings and any genuine legal questions

072that the board has get answered by that board attorney. They still can work with administration as they often do, but all the rest of the ad all the rest of the legal services because they are day-to-day functions such as custody situations, employee situations, all those other factors, those are all things that fall very much in that structure. And again, if you go down the list, for all the largest elected systems, of course, we are elected now. We are the largest elected system. Some of those drop off in terms of size, but I reached out to every single one of them at the top group just to find out exactly what structure they had in preparation for this meeting. When you get to some of the largest districts in our state, such as a Miami Dade,

073Broward, that's typically where you'll see the general counsel model. And again, that's because they have an appointed superintendent and an appointed board all working in in in that way. And that's where it becomes at that time some you see more common aspects such as a general counsel type of model. So, I hope that answers a board member's question. Thank you, Dr. Savage. And let's let me continue one more moment, chair, if that's all right. So, as I said, we need to look at this from a governance standpoint and we not need we don't need to govern in fear. We need to govern in what making sure what is in the best interest of the kids and this district. And I think going with that model how it is. Again, we how we handle things as

074superintendent, our power is our vote. And if we say this doesn't work six pounds down the line, we have to find four votes and we change it. I think we forget that. Need to remember that. So, at this point, I'm going to make a motion that we follow proposal B. I hereby make a motion that we go to continue using a board attorney. The superintendent has a chief staff attorney and that we move the assistant board attorneys underneath of the structure as assistant staff attorneys under the chief staff attorney. I second. All right. Discussion on the motion. Mr. Chaviano, I thought I had a chance. Oh, go ahead. Okay. Or you can go. No, I was I was going to make the same point that Sam made when we negotiated Kathy's to pre Bruno's contract.

075The whole the whole model was set up the way it was. And I and I as you know, I fought very strongly for that because I didn't want to disrupt what she was doing in the structure. But then when when she stepped down, that changed the picture. Then I went to take a look at this thing and I talked to a a person and a lot of you folks know the person. I'm not going to embarrass if I say their name. They have over 50 years experience in Cer Lee County and throughout the state on this exact topic and I spent two hours with him on a Saturday morning in a coffee shop and we went through this whole structure. So, I totally support moving the option to be I have all the confidence in

076the world on our new superintendent and I totally support her. So, I'm I'm on board with Mr. Fischer's recommendation. Mr. Chaviano. Thank you. as one of the newest board members, I will say along with Mr. Rubble, I don't have the history as you do, Miss Ganelli. So when this came up last year and we all took our vote, I also agreed to delay it. We could further review it should it come down, we could bring it back to the board since then and reviewing issues that have come before the board where I've said on this dis that we've kicked the can and keep kicking the can. I have frustration because there were issues or situations and I'm not going to name the specifics where there were legal agreements made by our attorney trying to support

077the board and the superintendent. You can't serve two masters. And there is there is agreements that were made that did not behoove us as a board that put us in situations that we are in today. So with this structure I understand now where we look at who do you answer to we need someone that has our back 100%. And in this one example that's coming to my mind we are still addressing these issues from 2 3 years ago because of an agreement that was made that there wasn't an out clause. There's different things that come up legally that are just standard practice as an attorney. I'm not going to speak as an attorney because I'm not. But in conversations with past attorneys, there were agreements made that put us in the situation that we're in

078because she was trying to do both sides. So that did not have our best interest as a board in that instance. So for me, I support the structure again not having that history. But again, this is a new superintendent. This is a new board. There are new leaders. There's new leadership in our district throughout for the changes that we've made to steer the ship in the right direction. This is a structure that was embraced previously that worked for this district regardless of the people that may have been in place at that time. We can't change process because of people. It may have to been we didn't have the best people. But if the process is there and it works and in this one example that comes to mind light at bright that we are still

079dealing with that was an instance that I would have loved just to have our own board attorney that had our back 100%. So in this I support the structure and that's all. Okay. I'd like to make a few comments if no one else has one. I go up to you. Okay. the problem I have is the duties that the schoolboard attorney has one you just mentioned. Where on the new structure would she have been involved in that agreement? See what I mean? I mean she has to negotiate with the people. Okay. and there and we have many contracts come before us. from the operations. The attorney is going to have to review should review every single contract that we have to sign. That's one of their duties. All the litigation, we've had several big cases

080come up. Even if it's farmed out, she is responsible for overseeing it and coordinating it. And then she's also in charge the school by statute the school board attorneys in charge of making sure we keep the correct public records like you mentioned before. someone made a public records request. That's us when they sued the attorney does not get sued. I mean the superintendent is the school board the district and we are the district we are the entity of the of the district. So every time the school board I mean the district is sued we all are sued on this das you know so my problem with the structure is it's just way too much for this a schoolboard attorney without an assistant attorney. I'd like to see that added to it. she's also going to

081have to have some staff. I mean there's no legal parallegal. There's no secretary. There's there's not where there is under all the others. They have the you know assistance and legal services and parallegals. I just think it's too incomplete for me to say yes that's what I want. And one one moment we also on there this she has to advise us as Miss Juvenelli knows on purchases of real estate or selling of real estate or actually selling any property because we have to okay all that or disposing of any property like old buses and things like that. So whatever's that kind of stuff our schoolboard attorney is responsible for letting us know that. That's a lot. so it worries me that it's just in a in a school district our size that we have one

082person to handle all our stuff, all that stuff, you know, and I know that, you know, like I say, the legal part I'm not too worried because they can go to outside, but we were handling a lot of issues in house. And that is no way for her to do that now. And yet she's responsible for all that. So that means every little broken arm, little crash with a bus, we're going to have to outsource that because she's she's in charge of litigation. I mean by statute because we're the ones being sued. Does that make sense, Mr. Fischer? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Person. So, according to the org chart, it's still a shared staff and there's nothing prohibiting us as a board from hiring another attorney. I would wait for that until we get whoever

083our permanent board attorney is to to figure that out. But how is your your logic any different than the than we currently have the assistant board attorneys, but the superintendent utilize them? It's it's the same thing in reverse. How would it be any different? may I ask a question to the superintendent through the chair? Yes, madame superintendent, with the board attorney, in any way would you ensure that no obstruction occurs in the daily process of their duties? Absolutely. And let me add to that. First of all, you're right. All of the staff are pulled. What this is an attempt to do, and I'll add one thing to what Dr. Johnson talked about is to align job duties with the title. For example, assistant board attorney. Mr. Huffman works primarily with academics. I would ask the

084question, if he is an assistant board attorney, then that means there should be a tremendous amount of interaction with the board. His primary job is to assist schools with legal custody issues, with anything that might come up with special education, anything that has to do with any of anything academics. But I would argue, especially when the first line of the job description says provide guidance and support to the superintendent and staff, that's the job description of the assistant board attorney. Provide guidance and assistance, legal assistance to the superintendent and staff. I want to be very clear because I've heard this criticism. This is a power play on behalf of the elected superintendent and I want to be abundantly clear with my conversation here. I have shared with this board. I did not run for this

085position about power has nothing to do with it. This position to me is about getting systems in place that make sense. When I see our assistant attorneys spending 99% of their time working with staff on staff related issues, it does not make sense to me for their title to be assistant board attorney. That's the logic behind this. And I totally agree, Mr. Persons. This is a very large district. And I agree with you. No question. the board is the one that gets sued. No question about it except when I'm sued personally. We've had three lawsuits on that personally and as superintendent. So those would be the three cases I would say where I have been sued both in my capacity and as an individual. So I just put a little asterct that next to the

086board's only one to be sued because we have three active cases where I've been sued. So what we're trying to do is not usurp the power of the board. I want to be abundantly clear on that. This is about aligning systems and job titles with what these folks actually do. Day-to-day operations is what they do. And as to contracts, contracts are with the board. No question about it. They are with the school board of Lee County, not with me. Although I do sign as the secretary, the board chair and I sign, but they are with the board. Let me be very clear. The staff review those contracts. My staff reviews them. The parallegal reviews them. The assistant staff at excuse me, assistant board attorney reviews them. And then finally, as to form, you're right. The

087board attorney does sign off as the last signature. But I want to be clear, the assistant board attorneys, the parillegals, the staff, and that's why I said before, I have the utmost of respect and confidence in this staff that they will continue to operate in the way that they have operated. I have no qualms about anybody that's in the current seat at all. They do a magnanimous job. The question is, are we aligning job descriptions and titles with what people actually do. Thank you. Of course, right now we're just talking on structure, not job descriptions. but taking the one case Miss Chaviano brought up. Who would have crafted that? you know, under looks under this system, it would have been crafted by the superintendent side and then reviewed by the school board attorney. but she

088would have had, you know, possibly had almost no input into it until she looked at it and said, "Oh, there needs to be an out clause." You know, hopefully she would do that. and that could work. There there are both of these structures all throughout the state, general counsel and also the both ways and they work both times. I think we're large. I think we do need to have a chief staff attorney with with attorneys under her. I have I have no problem with that. I just am worried that we also have a school board and we need a schoolboard attorney with attorneys under them. I mean, it's just there's going to have to be a staff there because I just expect way too much. I mean, I didn't even mention the labor negotiations with

089the union, our schoolboard attorney, even though we have someone doing that. We they meet with us, but it's our attorney that's really sort of over that and they have to work closely with the superintendent making recommendations and things on those. But the staff attorney and from what I've read everywhere and I've made several calls around to have staff attorneys, they are not actually doing the heading the negotiations type thing. You know, we're making sure the contracts written correctly and everything else. That's always been the board attorney reviewing that, make sure it's legal. But there's cooperation and as long as there's cooperation, it's going to work. But I just worry I mean when I look at that chart I say oh we got one person wonderful and has to do all all the stuff that we

090need done and in this size that might work in Klay County or somewhere but which one has like one school I mean they have more board members than they have schools but I would like to ask Mr. quick what he thinks could be may possibly amended or something if he has any because he has worked for several districts and both small and large. Yeah, I've worked in districts with with both structures and it really depends and like you said both small and large. So, it doesn't it really depends on the what works for each individual district and what the school boards are comfortable with. I would recommend I do agree that if if if you are going to shift that you do at least have an assistant for your schoolboard attorney and I would I

091would recommend having a second if you're going to go fully inhouse then I would recommend having a second attorney as an assistant schoolboard attorney as well. if you if you end up outsourcing it obviously that gets alleviated because it can you can work through a firm for that. But if you're going to have it fully in house, I would recommend having more than just one attorney for for the various reasons that have been mentioned on the days. Mr. Janelli, so my concern over plan B is the collaboration and team that I feel like right now they've been a great team. They are a great team. I when I think of the old structure, I remember when we had one attorney that refused to work with the rest of the attorneys with the dissension. They were

092they were they drove off other employees, a parillegal they were also talking to other employees. our one of our secretaries actually there was just so much dissension and divisiveness that was going on. it that was part of that. So how how can I be assured that we're going to collaborate? This is going to still be one team effort and work for not us versus them kind of thing. I'm I'm I am concerned over that. I need assurance. I mean we just had something over the summer where the superintendent didn't know anything about it till I told them and it was to me it was fraud and I tell the superintendent. I didn't even tell the board attorney until a one-on-one which was almost a month later. they weren't aware of it. and it was quite

093concerning and I still waiting to see that those things have been corrected. and that was in a department that used company vehicles to move company you know, and I'm saying company, but district vehicles and district property and moved it to their home. So that all is illegal and it still for me the outcome was not what it should have been. But so I just don't have quite I'm not com I'm not there yet. I don't have the confidence that if if it changes back to the old way that we're not going to have staff running things in their own silos as they have in the past cuz it happened this summer and that was even with even that department being moved to another department and I'm very confident where it's at right now but he

094was in place at that time and that still had the outcome that it did. So there's still a lots of things that staff is not there yet. There's still lots of training that needs to be had and the superintendent can only do so much. And I'm worried about the collaboration and I don't want us versus them. I we are the entity. We are the ultimate oversight, not the superintendent. They're only oversight over the operations. Thank you. want to call a question. Mr. Fischer, then Mr. George. Just briefly, let's be clear, the board attorney is not law enforcement or investigator. I just want to make sure we have that on the record. Thank you, Miss Jordan. This is just to me option B is very concerning for everything that Miss Juvenately has said because we have

095definitely lived through this and I appreciate Dr. Savage sharing what he has researched, but I also did my research too. And the bigger counties, regardless if they're appointed superintendent or not, they have the structure that we have currently that exists. And so when I spoke with them, this is what they recommended. And these are, as I said, larger counties, but with appointed. And we just heard a few seconds ago that's not what is important here whether it's appointed versus elected and I truly I don't have the confidence or the trust because of what what I hear even on the outside. So to me I want to make sure that I am being able to get all the information that I need as well as a board member and then also with the as they were

096mentioning the contracts the entities. Yes, the superintendent is the secretary. She makes recommendations. However, nothing goes unless the board signs off on the contracts and everything that u Mr. Person has already mentioned. And I just think that we would be going backwards when we have worked with this system for six years now. And I'm not sure why all of a sudden we have to change it when we know that it has been working and there is an out on the one that was mentioned earlier. Okay. Mr. Lford Plumbing. Thank you, chairpersons. I support option B, but I want to tell you why. so when you look at option A, that is a one team, one side. When you look at option B, you've got the board, you've got the superintendent, and it is clear and

097forgive me, but I'm such a team player that I have confidence in the superintendent and whoever the chief of staff attorney would be to be cohesively working with the schoolboard attorney. And as you can see, that is all I guess like what I would say a big family right there. One is talking to the other. Communication is happening. the staff attorney is dealing with the day-to-day business of staff, which is not in my lane as a board member. unless it's something that's brought to my attention by my attorney, my schoolboard attorney, which has been communicated through the chief of staff attorney. I also continue to hear about the things of 10 years ago. This is a completely new board, a completely new, we're what, four superintendent later. and I really think it's time that we

098move forward in a positive light. And I understand there are scars left, but at some point we've got to move on because living in that and I and I am very sorry for the experiences that some of you have gone through. I was not a part of this board during that time. our superintendent wasn't here during that time. Many of our staff was in the place they were at that time. And I guess in my nature it's to move on into a positive light. Let's go forward. Stop looking back. this seems to work with with districts that are the size of our district. And I think moving forward we just have to have the confidence that we have an amazing superintendent that has proven over and over again that she's here for the students. which

099is the number one goal of the entire organization. and also Mr. Fischer pointed out earlier that should something change and we realize that this is not working, we can come back to this table thankfully and have a conversation and say, "Hey, we need to pivot a little and maybe we need this assistant s school board attorney. Maybe we need to add this position. Maybe we need to shift gears." And we have the right as a board to be able to have that conversation again, come back to the table and then and then revote on the way that our structure looks. But right now I feel that the thing that is best for students and staff is one vision, one team with the school board working handinand with the superintendent and I have the confidence in

100her team and in this board to be able to do that. Thank you. I'm I'm going to make one clarification there. The current option A current structure is not correct. Correct. We if you just took option B and made it a solid line from school board to schoolboard attorney and then made a dotted line from chief staff attorney to everybody. That's actually the current one now. So it's just flip-flopping, you know. I mean I know option A looks like yeah they don't you know they have not hired a chaff staff attorney but we have okayed that. So that's really not quite exactly there. I could support option B with a if we added an assistant board attorney because I just know we're going to need one and some either a paralle legal or a or

101a u you know someone else to coordinator type thing. if someone would amend maybe their motion. Mr. Fischer, I don't think it's necessary. There's nothing that stops our ability as a board to contract with another attorney. So, I don't see why we need to add that to it. Plus, I think we should leave that up to whoever the next board attorney is, not the interim. So, well, I would assume that they don't have to fill it. I'm just saying we're doing an org chart right now, and I think the position should be there. It's a lot harder to claw something back or change something later. I'd rather address it now and have the option just like they had the option for the chief staff attorney and they had and the superintendent hadn't filled it yet.

102I mean, but it's there. So, I just think it would be good to have it to have it on there and then if the new one decided they needed it and I and I'm just looking at everything they do. It's just too much for one person and I've talked to several attorneys on that if they're going to do a good job. Mr. Fischer, may I ask through you to the Mr. Board attorney? I if we go with option B, there's there's nothing under that option that would restrict us from hiring another assistant board attorney. Correct. Because they're by contract. They're not an actual employee, per se. you would you would need to adopt a new organizational chart to add that the that position into your approved positions, but you could. Yes, you could. that's within

103your that's within your control. I mean you if you look at the organization chart right now under the option A I know we recognize that it's it's incomplete. You have the board basically has control over everything because you control the board attorney and so if if the people below the board attorney aren't doing well you can lean on the board attorney and then you know the board attorney will make the decision or or not but you can make the decision with the board attorney. So when it moves over to the staff attorney, obviously you lose that control, but you could you do retain control under the the silo of the schoolboard attorney. So you could add or if you would add now, you could obviously subtract later as well, too. Sorry, it was a little

104longwinded. I apologize. I still think we need to leave it up to when the whenever the next board attorney comes in and what they want for that, but that's me. Mr. Chief Vanelli through the chair to the superintendent. So superintendent, how can you give me confidence that collaboration will continue as a team with the with the president legal counsel? If I had confidence in that, I c I could I could swing over to option B. I just I just know h how that Kathy Berner worked so hard to get information to us and I felt I always felt like she gave us the information as as she received it. And I worry that because of the past, I have those scars. You know, I believe in learning from our mistakes. And those were some huge

105mistakes 10 years ago. And they really weren't 10 years ago. Some of them were 5 years ago. So, you know, how can I be assured that because I do have confidence in you? You I know you and I know your heart and I know what you want. I don't I there's no question about that. your the integrity is genuine and I know what you want but it you can't control as we you can you can only control so much and so how do we get that message out there? How do we make sure that the team stays strong and continued? I mean I can't wait to have a conversation with you Mr. Dodic. you know, I my meetings with the with the team is always professional. It's always with the interest the best interest of

106the entity. And I don't want to lose that. And I'm not saying that we are. I'm just saying how do you get me there to feel confident in that that we want the same thing. I know that we do, but I'm I'm worried about the old outcomes because I know what the outcomes were back in the olden days. And so my yeah my question is how do you get there? If I may thank you for the question I really appreciate it. So this is my 34th year in the school district of Lee County. So I've had the opportunity to see many structures in place for 80% of my time in the school district of Lee County as well as the rest of the employees. We operated under the proposed model. We had a staff attorney.

107Mr. Dodic served a number of years in that capacity. And then we had a board attorney. You may remember Keith Martin. When I look at how those attorneys operated, full of integrity, incredibly bright, you could take the legal advice that they gave us to the bank. I did not work in the office between them that separated them. So I don't have intimate knowledge of this, but I can tell you in my roles as a assistant principal, a principal, multiple directorships, executive director, and chief, in all of those roles, and this is just my 34 years of experience minus the last five or six. Every one of those experiences, I felt like I got the right answer. I would call Mr. Dodic if he was out I would call Mr. Martin and I received reliable information

108they were transparent they didn't know something they call you back and they communicated with us as leaders whether it was principles what have you. Now we move on to your current day question which is how do we how do we ensure that if you had an opportunity to look at the schoolboard attorney's job description which was attached you will see multiple references to the expectation that they work together and if you read the bulleted items you will see that numerous times you can see the dotted line. I see things a little differently with with all due respect. when we put the dotted line there, it is my expectation that they are working like hand and glove. It's not a dotted line just because we didn't know what to do. If I truly felt like there

109was no support for that board attorney, we would have left that dotted line off. So the board attorney is over here and all the staff is over to the staff attorney. We were intentional with that dotted line. The reason for that is hand and glove. We just made a change in the professional standards department in this district and we have a dotted line to HR. Why? Not because again it was a mistake. It was because the expectation is Mr. Nulan and his team in professional standards. I expect them to work with Dr. Johnston and her team in HR, they cannot function without each other. That's the same here. So the dotted line is one thing, but if you review the job description, it is abundantly clear they are to share information with you, with me,

110regardless of their position. And they are most importantly are to continue working together. And I will share something. I too, Miss Ganelli, you and I have had conversations offline. is not right what was done to you. It was not right in terms of how some things have occurred in the past and you are absolutely right. All we can do is move forward. Our administration is so committed to transparency and accountability. I think I've shown in my actions that I am very willing and eager to partner with the board. We have accomplished some amazing things together. We are handinand glove. We may not always agree and that's okay. I'm from a large family. We don't always agree, but at the end of the day, we're all here for student achievement and to move that forward. So,

111the assurance I give to you is embedded in that job description. When we take a look at the chief staff attorney new updated position, the job description as well as the assistant staff attorney job descriptions, you will see collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. That is essential because we need to make sure that the legal needs of this district and this board are met. And that's what I'm committed to. One moment. I was wondering if it would be possible to ask Mr. Dodic a question if he could come to the podium. Hi there. Hey, you have been in the position as a board attorney before the board was district was much smaller then. Do you think one person with no staff at all could handle everything the board attorney supposed to do? I say this knowing that the

112work that's done on the operations side, certainly currently with employment law, labor law being myself, all of the academic services work done by Mr. Huffman, our previous attorney handling operations. I do think that the questions and legal work that the seven of you require the answer is yes. However, the other things have to be handled by those attorneys. So that's but currently I plan on being able to advise HR still on labor and employment law during this interim period because we don't have an expert doing that. So but long term I think Mr. Quick is right that person probably needs at least one attorney, but I also agree with Dr. Carlin that the collaboration is necessary and I have said and I'll repeat to you all. It's not about the positions and what they're called.

113It's about the people in them. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. I appreciate I want to point out one thing. Okay. And Mr. quick. this is his job in a way today, but there is a board policy that will need to be changed if you're going to take a step to change this. 0156 is the policy and it refers to the current way we do business. So, I just wanted to give you that advice. So, Mr. Huffman was having a cow back here. And the same thing, Mr. quick there. Do you think one person could do everything that's expected of a board with with no help whatsoever? I mean, I just like I say, I have no problem with option B other than it's just with one person. I just feel they're going to be overwhelmed and

114we're not going to get what we need from our board attorney. I think it's too much if they're trying to follow litigation. And I mean just the one thing that you brought up, Mr. Aviano, how much time does that did that take just cuz she's whoever our board attorney is, that's going to be down there trying to straighten that out and there's so much other stuff that needs to be done. I just think it's we I just think we just need to add another attorney under board attorney. That's all. U Mr. Well, first off, Mr. quick if you'll I know you said something but just yeah I mean I would reiterate I mean my experience you know having u another attorney to assist at a with a district of this size because I mean you

115all have grown exponentially really over the last five to six years maybe more but but it's been an exponential growth for for Lee County so I think at a district of of that size I would recommend having another school board attorney there to work with with your school board attorney and I would agree with with Mr. Dodig there there are a number of things including policies that will need to be changed. This I this is kind of the first step. If you guys say go this direction, there's a lot of things that are going to have to come in place that you'll see in the in the coming coming meetings. Absolutely. And that would be done by the new school board attorney having to bring that for us with no help. But but right now

116he's got all his staff. He's got he's general counsel. He's got, you know, he's got other people to help him. But can you imagine if he had to do something like that with no help? I mean, it's it's difficult. Mr. Fischer, you had your hand up. Yeah, I think we can discuss the further details of that. We have the direction. That's I'm going to call the question, Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Fischer's called the question means discussion. Oh, we have to get a second on the call the question, don't we? Is there a second to that? Okay. Y Thank you. All right. We will have is there any public comment before we do a roll call vote on whether to go with option B? Seeing none. Mr. Fiser. Hi, M. Ganelli. I Mr. Ribble. Hi,

117Janelli. I'm Jordan. Nay. Thank you. Miss Lford Fleming I Miss Javiano I and I'm a no. So all right that's our new proposed structure. All right. Next on our agenda I believe is the search process. This is we're going to have a dis discussion whether we do it in-house or try to get a outside firm to come in there. do we have any motions or anything now? We just need to have a discussion. Commissioner, I'll make a motion to direct the superintendent to direct her staff to begin a internal search for an external candidate. Thank you. External outside council, excuse me. Okay. Can be internal obviously. Okay. Javiano is the second. Mr. Fischer makes a motion we use inhouse to do this search. Okay. Discussion. Miss Jordan. That's what we did the last time and

118I believe I know Shannon has the information and I believe I did share that information as well because that was what we had done. Any other discussion? I mean yes, Mr. Jordan. What are we got your name right? Yeah. Thank you. when we're asking them to put this out there, what are we hiring for now? Because we just two seconds ago. Yeah. It'll be it'll be a board attorney only even though just approved you all just approved until until we bring it back you know they come in it's I mean they can apply that they can apply you know and it's just but that's the job description should not show supervision or anything. There's not going to be any. according to this org chart, but capable maybe we can word it and no staff of

119any kind. I mean, I just I'm already on there, so I'm not going to beat that dead horse because I was just voted down. any other discussion? Yes, Mr. Fischer. Again, it's a poolled staff. Just let's clarify. We have staff in our office, but they're employees of the superintendent, so it's not going to be any different. Mr. person. I think there's a big difference. Yeah, that's our board of attorney and we're elected officials. She's not. And we're, you know, I just But you're you're saying you feel that she can just grab one of those attorneys members she wants to do legal work. I mean, don't you need a parillegal to sort of do something like that? I would think or works in reverse right now. Yeah. I mean, that's right. It's sharing concept. I'm just

120I I just think well I'm come back and do this but we can do that later. any other discussion? Okay. Do we have any board I mean any comment from the public? Seeing none we'll do a roll call vote. Mr. Fischer I. Miss Juvenelli. Yes. Mr. Ribble. Hi. Miss Jordan. Hi. The job description. Blanker Fleming. I miss Chabiano I and I'm an I. Motion carries 70. All right. Now the last one for today is we're just going to discuss a tenative timeline. Thank you for waiting over there. And why don't you explain to us what you have in mind? It's right. Okay. So there is an attachment that you all have and basically this document was requested and Susette Rivera put this together for us. It serves as a pretty much a master action plan

121for the recruitment cycle and we can initiate this now today with with the job description of school board attorney. so there's several Yes. Yes, sir. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Yes. I think we need to adopt that job description. Yes, we do. So, I'm going to make a motion to adopt the job description of schoolboard attorney that was amended listed under the agenda. Good catch. Correct. Thank you, All right. Can we pull up the job description or does everybody have it? Number one, I'll second that. Okay, I'll second his motion. Well, right now it's discussion on the job description, is it not? So, we need to find that look at it. Can you pull it up for us or not? if not, I can get on my computer. Yeah. I can pull it up. See doesn't last

122long. It's also attached to number one if you want to look. Yeah. They skipped over it. I don't know if it'll let me get into board. It'll be public. Yeah. Just board docs. Okay. I won't have to sign in. Nope. You don't have to because Okay, I got it. Oh, so does she. Yeah, I'll take I'll take the salad. tickle. Okay. Does anyone have any questions on the job description? And I noticed it has the same thing that the chief staff had in there working. We did that. Yes, Miss Jordan. In the past, we I know it says preferred the Florida Bar board certification in education law. It was we expected them to have that and to put complete that in order to be our schoolboard attorney. And I know that it says preferred, but

123that was something that we had required our attorney to have so that way we understood that they understood everything as well when it comes to education. I just wanted to share that. Yeah, I know it was in the contract for know that she had a certain amount of time. I don't know if it was in the Yeah. job description. I don't think it needs to be there. It's that's something we let them know. I asked what a proper time period would be for that. I'd asked and I heard like two years would be at least. It's not easy. It's not, you know, takes. So, I think preferred right now and then we when we actually do the contract, that's where I would say we put that in there and they have to agree to that.

124Mr. Quick, do you have any I would say that'll give you some flexibility, too, in terms of interviewing. If there's if there's somebody that you find that is an excellent candidate and they don't have it yet, but you can get they can get it within the next couple years, that'll give you guys some flexibility in the process, too. Yeah. Okay. Do we have any other questions or discussions? All right. Yeah, I had read that. I think it's it's fine. and I just put it next to the staff attorney and I thought that works well. A lot of the same language in there. So, so I can go with that. All right. no other discussion. Any public com Well, don't Yeah. Any public comment on the job description? Seeing none, then we'll have a roll call

125vote whether to accept it or not. Mr. Fischer, I. Mr. Janelli, yes. Mr. Ribble, hi. Miss Jordan, I had I had a question. Oh, okay. Sorry. Do they not have to have that they have to do the regarding the legal I know it says legal guidance but does overseeing the contracts and everything that is in the chief's staff attorney because we need to make sure that they do that for us. So would we not want that information on their job summary as well? I think it's sort of it's broadly I think everything on there is if I can interject it's on under essential job functions draft review and provide yeah on resolutions contracts oh I can't see that you can you pull it down we can't see that slide the second page if you'll hit

126that for us she's walking cuz she's been through this I know I' seen oh there you go essential job There you go. In the middle of the vote. That's where it gets a little more specific. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I Okay. Miss Jordan is an I. Miss. Langford Fleming. I. M. Chaviano. I. And I'm an I. All right. Now that we know what you're going to be advertising, tell us how you're going to do it by tomorrow. Yes. we actually have a plan. All right. So, there's several key milestones. it is this plan as is, although it can be adjusted. So, just know that is a 64-day plan. so immediate action upon your approval today we can immediately begin drafting and posting the vacancy on the national and state platforms such as the

127National School Board Association, the Florida Bar Association, Indeed People, a lot lots of different organizations. We can advertise candidate screening. We would do that throughout the month of February. We'll we will HR will conduct the initial resume screenings and there the whole process is laid out. I won't read it to you. You all have you've had this timeline on and then we have we would then recommend as part of the process. This is another key milestone is a special meeting date for the board to hold panel interviews for the finalists and then negotiations. We would we would like to recommend a negotiation discussion to be held around March 10th if we use this timeline. so all of this would then lead up to a date of I believe the board meeting is May 10th. May

12810th is the board meeting date that the it would be approved. the school board attorney would then be approved. So, if these dates align with your schedule, we will do what we can to stay on track with this timeline, but it's up for your discussion. Yeah. I'm sorry. Let's see. March 10th would be the negotiations and then we would be on track for May 10th. So, we would like to have the selection done by May 4th, the week before May 10th board meeting. Miss Jordan, you have a question or Yeah, I do. my question is if why we are looking and all the dates that you have given us now that everybody just approved all of this taking place the Mr. Rodic title that was given to him earlier really doesn't exist because now we

129have a staff attorney that they just we just approved and we have the other. So what where are we at with this? And then who is actually the school board attorney at this time? Is will it be Mr. Dodic? But we did clarification. What we approved was an interim about that earlier. We approved an interim attorney through the hiring. So this new structure will all take effect upon the new hiring of the board attorney. Correct. Does that because that was not stated? Well, yeah, because we did give in the motion it would be until we hired somebody. I just wanted if I'm correct. Nope. I don't think so. No. Okay. Mr. Fischer, maybe I'm not. This would this would take effect immediately and we hired a board attorney. That's still the position says schoolboard attorney

130on there. So, that is our Well, no. I know that. I'm just saying if it takes effect immediately, that means Dudig is not chief counsel. He's he's board attorney interim. Right. And all those others have no one supervising. Okay. I mean, see what I mean? We have to stay stay the ship until we hire somebody. And that's how I understood it. That's how it was. Mr. Quick, did we I would recommend making a motion to clarify to make sure that's clear. That's fine. especially because also to point out, you know, the chief staff attorney hasn't filled yet anyway either. So, the reality is you don't have that. But I would recommend making a motion to clarify as to when that structure will start. Yeah, I would make a motion that we keep the current I

131mean I would entertain a motion because I'm the chair. I don't make motions from someone to keep the current structure until the hiring of the board attorney and a chief staff attorney. I would put that in there so both positions are filled and then we switch to the new structure. If someone wants to make a motion, I Yes, Mr. Fischer. I will make said motion that the structure remains until we hire our permanent board attorney and chief of staff is also been hired as well. Officer of what? Mali, just one clarification. He said chief of staff, but it's just chief staff attorney attorney. Yeah. Sorry, it's a cold today, but I know I just want to make sure when it's in the minutes, we've got Thank you. So, corrected. Okay, Mr. Janelle, you said second.

132I have a second. Okay. And it's the new structure we just discussion Jordan want to know exactly which structure is the new structure that we had just passed as far as unless someone I'm wrong. Okay. any other discussion on that? A point of clarification if I may. Yes. there's another job description also that would need to be approved, but we can do that in February if the structure stands as is. And that would be the associate staff attorney or the assistant staff attorney, I'm sorry. Okay. I just thought we'd do that at a regular board meeting. Yeah. Okay. Great. So we don't have to do that tonight. Right. That's correct. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion? Any comment from the public? Seeing none, roll call vote. Mr. Fischer, I. Mr. Jvenelli, yes. Mr. Ribble,

133I. Miss. Jordan. I. Mr. Langford Fleming. I. Mr. Chaviano. Hi. And I'm an I. The motion carries 70. All right. Well, everyone seeing no other, we will go to the good of the order and other business. Mr. Fischer, do you have anything? Just want to reiterate appreciation for everything for attorney Bruno has done for this district. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay, Miss Janelli, and I will ditto that. she's going to be missed. She made great strides with the district. we went through a lot of history together and I'm I'm hopeful that tides have turned and that we will move in the right direction as long as this board is in place. I do worry about the future of things slipping back. So I'm gonna really look to the superintendent that doesn't happen. I

134real quick I just wanted to give a little quick old history since I was here when Mr. Dodic was staff attorney. I'm not sure the or general I don't even know general counsel at the time. I don't know the names have changed and so has the seats periodically and attorney Martin and that was a different time. education climate has totally changed and shifted since then. I'll never forget the day I came in here in 2016 and met with Mr. Dodig and he told me his his vision was to have a team of attorneys and you know that has happened and a team a legal team that has happened. Regardless, she does leave a legacy of that and the transition and the changes. And we've came a long way, baby. I don't know whether that wasn't

135that an old slogan and we have. I'm excited for the future of the district. and and how this works. I will support it. Although it I do have scars and I will struggle. I will be the first to admit it, but I also will be the first one to bring it up when there is a struggle. I will not stay silent. but I want to I voted for that today because I want to support the district and the superintendent, especially the superintendent and the district staff that's in place because I know how hard they're working. The new HR, everyone is working very hard and I want to give the utmost credit to that. That is how come I changed my thought process today and I am hopeful. I can't wait to talk to the legal

136team now because I have not spoken to them since Attorney Bruno gave her a resignation. I would love that opportunity through the superintendent to see their vision and how this is going to go and how I can support that. even the change because I do want what's best for our students and I believe that our superintendent and our and her present staff and administration does have that at heart. So I look forward to the future. Thank you Mr. Ribble. Yeah, I just want to refer back to what the Jay Lang for Plumbing said. It's time to move on. It's time to get the past behind us. It's time to get behind our new superintendent and our board that's really done a great job today, the seven of us doing the right thing. So, I think

137all the things are in place to make us have a phenomenal year and let's move those proficiency numbers and be the best district in the state of Florida. That's all I have, Miss Jordan. And thank you, Mr. Janelli, for what you said. I did over your comments and same with you Mr. Ribble. And I do believe that we need to make sure that we're supporting all of us, all seven of us, because we are all part of this board, inside or outside in this community. And that's where I, my trust is lost a lot of times. And Kathy has, she really worked hard for this district. And I just really want to, you know, wish her the very, very best. And Mr. Dodic, thank you so much for stepping up for us. You're the first

138person I met when I got here. And so I'm glad to have you again, Miss Liper Fleming. Yes. I just want to extend my well wishes and blessings to Kathy Dupe Brun and her family and her children. This a huge change to not just move Jaws at a move complete location. So I wish her all the best. and thank you for her service. with that being said though, congratulations and thank you Mr. Dodig and this entire team for sticking through this with us. I I'm so appreciative of the time that you spend not just here but at nights on the weekends and I know that any one of you are available at any time for us. So I appreciate that. I look forward to our partnership moving forward. And thank you to this board for

139continuing to keep these meetings professional and to be able to have real conversations and as transparent as we can possibly be to the public because that's what the children of Lee County deserve. Thank you. Javiano. So, echoing everyone's sentiments for for best wishes for Mrs. Puno and her family, especially again mirroring that cuz the first thing I thought was changing school for her kids. So, that's a big deal. so, of course, best wishes and yes, thank you to our legal team for everything that you continue to do in front and behind the scenes. you're greatly appreciated. So, thank you for everything. That's all I have. All right, people don't hate me. I'm going to have to make a motion, I believe, but I'm going to ask Mr. Quick. We appointed Mr. Dodie, interim board attorney,

140but we have not negotiated a contract with him. Did Should I make a motion that whatever terms we come to is retroactive to his appointment today or something along those lines? Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't necessarily think you have to do it today. It can be built into the contract. That was how I envisioned it would be built in the contract would be retroactive. I just didn't want to leave that open there. Yeah. Otherwise, I'd just take maybe a month or two to negotiate. All right. again, I'm glad we got through this. We are one board. So, whatever we agree, I'm on board with and that's the way it needs to be done. So, I'm excited we got this done and we're moving forward with the finding a new board attorney and it

141should be a great day. superintendent. Are you are you good? Yes, I'm good. Go ahead. so first of all, just to echo the sentiments of the entire board and our entire staff. Just full appreciation for Miss Dree Bruno and all that she has done in her tenure here. just really appreciate the time and the effort that she has given and I think our colleagues on the board have have expressed that. So, just want to add to that. Also, just tremendous appreciation to our entire legal team. I see you every single day. I see what you do and just want to thank you for everything that you're doing for children, for our schools, and for our staff. so, thank you for that. And of course, Mr. Dodic, thank you. I look forward to working with you

142in your capacity. so, thank you all and just to the board. I appreciate all the conversation today. like we said, we may not always agree, but I know what we share is our commitment to children and to the success of this district. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Quick. You have any you would like to add? Just thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to be to be out here. It's it's a it's a welcome Friday afternoon. So, thank you for having me and it's a pleasure seeing everybody. Thank you. We're happy to have you on retainer and you do a great job. Thank you. All right. Seeing no Other business before us, our next scheduled meeting is February 10th. We'll have a workshop at 1 p.m. followed by board action meeting at

1436 PM. And having no other business, Mr. Fischer moves we have journ. And Mr. Rible seconds it I saw it on the legislature. I like that.