001good evening ladies and gentlemen we or afternoon i'm so sorry good afternoon ladies and gentlemen we are going to begin this evening's special board meeting however the time is four o'clock we are having to recess the meeting until 4 30 because we are still in negotiation and that's the time that the attorney is going to need to make sure that we have everything finalized so i apologize that you all are here at this point in time but we will be closing this meeting and recessing it until 4 30. miss patrick may ask a question does that half hour give the board time to review the contract as well right we'll have it sent to everybody right but in baked into that half hour is it all attorney debris bruno work or will i have time
002to read the contract before i'm expected to approve it because i need time to read that contract so if we could bake some time for that into this break i'd really appreciate it okay so are you thinking that we need more time than 30 minutes how long is the contract it's a couple pages okay so yeah 15 minutes for a review and then whatever time attorney dupree bruno needs to finalize okay so we're going to look yes ma'am okay and as i mentioned this morning the crux of the superintendent contract is not substantially changing so i would suggest that we look at as a board look at the current contract if we can get a copy of that and then perhaps there's redlining or something that we can look at i don't believe according to
003what the attorney said this morning there's not substantive changes there was negotiation and some verbage had to be changed yes but not the whole thing so if we start by looking at the contract and then the changes that should not take us out okay well i will certainly get that to you miss vaughn yes i'm going to go on record as saying i do not want to see this part of the process devolve into stalling tactics by anybody on this board no miss vaughn the reason that we are we just we just finished actually speaking with dr savage and his attorney our attorney myself all of us we've been sitting in there having conversations ever since we've left this morning we just have to make sure that the contract is correct so that way for
004him and his his family and you know and for us as well so that is why we are and asking for this recess so we can have everything prepared so we can come in and do what we need to do yeah and just i appreciate that and i appreciate your extra time but without getting the people to the right and left of me saying things to each other i'm just on record that i don't want to see it go that way this is i'm just saying yes i don't want to see it happen thank you this is not gonna nothing is happening we are just making sure that we are doing our due dil diligence and making sure that everything is accurate so that when dr savage takes his place it's the way it needs
005to be perfect so at this time i will it's 404 and i will recess this meeting thank you guys for the delay negotiation took a bit longer than we had anticipated but everything is finalized and we are prepared to go so the special board meeting of june 14th is now called to order the time is 503. we would like to take this opportunity to remind the members of the public of the district mission which is to ensure that each student achieves his or her highest personal potential in the district's mission vision to be a world-class school system this afternoon's agenda includes public comments two items under board recommendation recommendation which one is good cause as chair the one good cause item is approval of the authorization for bank signatures continued use of superintendent's signature as
006presiding officer i find there is good cause to add these three items to the agenda board members is there a motion to adopt the agenda i need to adopt the agenda as listed thank you mr fisher thank you miss kittens and please record your vote i don't oh there we go yeah does everybody have the result no i don't i'll i'll do a verbal i'll hear this i didn't get it are you logged in and join meeting has everybody to be april too oh okay hold on one second thank you enjoy my meeting oh i know i did that before well i see it there yeah there you go perfect madam chair 7-0 motion carries thank you okay i have to apologize i need one second please okay i'd like to ask the board if
007i may adjust the agenda so that way we can move on with the employment contract those because we've had people sitting here for quite some time if that would be okay with the board for us to move to that particular recommendation which would be c may i did you repeat that again yes i would like for the to move to us item c the approval of the employment contract with the interim superintendent as discussed and presented yes ms kittens i'm confused about the as discussed and presented because we haven't discussed it we will just we will be discussing that okay so would you be in approval of moving that so we're moving public comment under yes miss morgan well i am a little concerned that there is a nuke there is a new section in
008the contract that we have not heard from the public about and so that would be my only reservation i think they ought to be able to speak to that section if they desire no problem oh miss kittens but i don't think they've even seen the contract yet have they it's on it's on board docs now we were having an issue getting everything up there so it seems like we people want to we want to go ahead and continue with the public comment going forward first so i'm sorry why don't you pull the board just because i offered my window and then miss kittens i believe we should hear from everyone before we i don't know before before discussion well actually i'm kind of torn between it because if they hear at least what we are
009thinking then they can respond to that is the only reason i'm saying to to move it but they won't have another opportunity after they hear what we're thinking right that's why i was trying to move it okay so i suggest we move it okay miss vaughn you could be okay with us moving the board recommendation yes and then public comments after that yes thank you miss giovanelli yes i'm sorry miss patricka i can live with the will of the board thank you and ms fisher yes thank you so i will go ahead then and move that so that way we can have conversation and then the public can your conversation is and then also be able to partake in that so the employment of contract with the interim superintendent as discussed and presented as we
010will you have heard the recommendation of the board approved the employment contract with the interim superintendent dr what's your name dr ken savage as discussed and presented is there a motion to approve this one i move to approve the contract thank you and second it a second bye miss giavanelli now may we have a discussion please miss kittens my only two concerns are eight and nine eight because i recall we had the discussion as to whether we could legally stop anyone from applying for a position and that attorney bruno had informed us that it was it would probably not be legal that we can restrict anyone we had that conversation on the dais so i am concerned about that's eight and then nine nine a and c sorry a you said a nine nine a
011and c i do not understand why we have we only give him 14 days notice and he has to give us 30. and in the previous contract for the superintendent it's 30. and i just want to make the statement in the beginning that we have said even as as recently as this morning the superintendent is the superintendent so i don't believe we should have so many different caveats so those are the two items that i'm concerned about and i really would like to see the law that says that we cannot allow anyone to apply for a position that wants to thank you and i'm going to have mrs dupree bruno okay the last part miss games if you said that you'd like to see the law that and i missed the last part of it
012the law that says what we discussed it on the desk a couple of times about you know we as a ward had talked about not having the person that's interim to be able to do the full-time position and the question came up is that legal and i thought that there was conversation that we can't legally tell someone you cannot apply for a position so you can contract terms and rights this is something that was negotiated and contracted based on the instructions that were given to the boards the board to meet previously that the board was very clear that they wanted they did not want the interim superintendent to apply for the permanent position now if the board at some later point decides that they would like to do that the contract you can have an
013addendum to the contract that will allow that to happen but this was based on the instructions that were given to me by the board now if the individual decides to go ahead and apply for the position anyhow it is really up to the board as to whether or not they're going to consider that application and if you do consider the application then obviously you're changing the terms of the agreement it will have to be a board decision well the concern i have is if it's part of the contract then you've got the contract and you've also got the consensus of the board so that's two reasons to keep someone from being able to apply for a position as opposed to if we said it and that's you know what we are living why does it
014have to be in black and white and signed off on the contract as well because that's the instruction that i was given by the board anyway i'm not going to belabor it but i just want it on record that i think that it's a little overkill to have it in the contract if it's a policy or something like that but i am concerned about the 14 days and the 30 days and why he only has to give us we give him 14 14 days but he has to give us 30. so the original term in this agreement which is based on prior interim superintendent contracts that we've had with the district was five days so we negotiated to 14 days well i think that it should be the same as the superintendent's contract either we're
015going to abide by the fact that the superintendent is the superintendent no matter how long or when he sits there then it should be the same but that's my opinion sorry okay and i if i may as well dr savage has been sitting all day he has read the contract so he is definitely aware of what is on the contract so i want you to all to be aware that he is he was okay with the contract perhaps i can share with the board what transpired between the meeting so dr savage did have counsel and i spoke to council and provided him with the original draft of the contract which was based on our prior interim superintendent contracts they read the contract went back and forth we had another meeting with the attorney and myself
016they told me their changes there were some changes that i did not feel would be beneficial to the board so we agreed not to have those there were some changes that i was okay with and there's some changes that the board would have to discuss to see if they want to obviously this is the board's contract and i take my direction from the board but this is where we are in terms of the points of negotiation that dr savage through his council has agreed to and this is what has been presented to the board at this point so and there is a difference between being an aware and being in you know accepting so i and i don't know i wasn't there but being aware of what's on the paper is one thing and agreeing
017to it because of necessity is another i just want to make sure on this piece then about being able to apply you're saying that legally we can change it if we choose to and legally does he have the opportunity to ask for it to be changed so if you look at number 15 it does allow for the contract can't be changed unless this is written by both parties so the board and dr savage always have the opportunity to do an amendment to the contract in addition when we're looking at the 14-day notice as well as the language in terms of being able to apply part of the negotiations was that he was going to have a position once that the permanent superintendent was chosen for at least a minimum of one year so that was
018part of the negotiations that was discussed when we came up with the 14 day notice as well as that language saying that you agree not to apply for the permanent position so that was part of our thought process and i know we got it this is my last thing honestly the i know we did get an updated with grammaticals but should there not be a comma when it says this contract number 15 this contract may not be changed modified or amended except should there be a comma after amended except by writing or sign of a book parties and this may be our english teacher's question but it just sounds like it is a caveat that needs to have a pause but i don't know for sure thank you and miss daprie bruno can you please
019dr savage is in agreement with this so like i said dr savage did have counsel and this is a contract that was negotiated between his council myself the board chair so yes he agreed to these terms i just wanted to make sure people everybody understood that for him to speak or no i'm sorry i'm sorry patricka she was shaking her hand so no i just i called on her i know i'm sorry go ahead the comment should have to actually be after modified and before or not before except i'm sorry i missed that i'm i don't have any issues with the 14 days 30 days we'll need 30 days to find a superintendent whereas dr savage steps right back into a position that is equal to what he holds right now congratulations by the way
020i'm going to get really legal here so i want to say congratulations first and be human first i have i have concerns about paragraph 17. it is a new paragraph i have not had time to research intellectual property which i would do for any other contract that came in front of me asking me to give intellectual property ownership rights to an employee which is incredibly unusual this doesn't happen in the real world very typically at all and i'm wondering whether a way to first of all intellectual property is not defined i don't know whether royalty-free license frees us from any compensation whatsoever which is where i'd like to see the school board be and in addition the word necessary royalty-free license to use any such intellectual property to the extent such use is necessary to
021conduct the ordinary business i believe is a little bit too restrictive so i'm wondering whether we could approve the contract without that clause with an understanding that we would quickly as quickly as humanly possible enter into a separate assignment document because typically when a patent is filed you can either have a separate assignment document on file or you can have the whole contract on file typically the separate assignment document is filed so as to avoid having the entire contract on file so i think we can protect whatever it is dr savage wants to protect while still protecting the district and the board giving me the opportunity i need to do some intellectual property research and get a level of comfort with whatever it is we're talking about here while still signing the contract and moving
022forward today those are my comments thank you miss vaughn i don't have dr atkins contract in front of me right now so i'll just ask is there a provision in dr atkins you know the fact about intellectual property no this is a completely new clause that was requested to be added in this contract okay okay i don't i don't have a problem with it considering this is academic world we're not talking about developing a new microchip or an you know something a tangible product well of course it is a tangible product but i know dr savage has in the past done speeches presentations and i'm wondering if that perhaps is what was being thought of at at that time and i'm wondering if in for instance in universities i do not believe that professors in
023universities who you know the old publisher perish that their articles in journals and their their speeches to other academic entities would be long so to speak to the to their institution of higher learning so if that's what we're talking about i don't have a problem with that thank you yes please so and that's part of the problem ms vaughn is intellectual property is not defined so i you know that's part of the issue that i have with this class is i don't i don't know what we're talking about either i would be agreeing to something when i don't understand what what it entails mr preet bruno did you want to add something to that so the contract says regarding original works of authorship or or otherwise conceive or develop intellectual property so it's for example
024the example that was given is if something is created for academic services for example and one of the concerns is this is an interim position limited to maybe six months or nine months and something is created and perhaps dr savage is not here afterwards he would like to be able to take whatever it is that was created and perhaps share it with another district he's not restricting this district's ability to use that information or that property but he would like to be able to share with others and would like to have the authorship or ownership of whatever it is that is developed that's the issue ms kittens they miss morgan and thank you attorney for that definition and if you look on page seven about halfway through the description of intellectual property which i think
025we all know the definition it does say with regard to if it was created or developed during the normal working hours and that type of thing in in discussions especially in higher learning i agree with what ms vaughn said the idea that if if dr savage is sitting in his office here in the district in writing a book about education on the time that he is contracted to work that's where intellectual property comes in because he's doing it on the time that he's getting paid to work so therefore he doesn't have you know the complete rights for it but and i think the difference is which is why we have contracts that relate to different people he's a prolific writer and and you know and you know resource person and the next person that we
026have may not be that so it's not necessary but as i have had you know to deal with the situation a job and if you write something while you're during working hours then it becomes intellectual property of your employer if you do it on the weekends or on your vacation it is yours and i think he is just trying to make sure that is taken care of and covered and this from what i have seen is pretty generic in that sense and the verbiage is pretty generic intellectual property is you know what comes out of his brain and ends up on paper so that's thank you miss morgan and then ms giavanelli well i have the same concern so for the audience who may or may not have read this it says without regard to
027whether the intellectual property was created or developed during interim superintendent normal working hours or whether the intellectual property was created or developed using district resources i mean this speaks to i own the work that i have done with my staff to create a better paradigm for the school district of lee county and i have a real problem with that i mean i think if if we're collaborating and the intellectual engagement of other people as part of that process i don't understand how one person becomes the owner author whatever so i do think i and maybe that's not the intent but the problem is that it's not clear and i would support removing this paragraph and negotiating that separately because i would like to move forward i would like to have this done but i'm very
028concerned about this clause thank you miss morgan ms gaines i'm going to have the ones who have not spoken yet speak right now miss giovanelli and then miss fisher thank you so i feel like he's just protecting himself you know in the integrity of his work so and should be allowed to have that i mean he his background is that he's a writer so i think that's important to note and understand where he's coming from with that request i too had the question regarding the 14 day termination versus 30. i'm all about equity and being fair and i understand that his attorney negotiated that but we as a district we technically our board meetings are every two weeks except for july and december typically so you know depending on the timing we may not meet
029if we terminated in a 14 day period we may not meet again so 30 days we know we would always meet so that's why the time the timing you know and i don't know if his attorney realized that but we don't always meet every two weeks there are you know there is down time certain times of the year so i think that's important to note in the you know my question is as a district this is for attorney bruno we are an equal opportunity employer so we have to allow for someone to apply if they choose to do so regardless of a contract or does that contract prohibit him completely from applying for the permanent position if the board wants him to apply or wants him to apply for the position the board if it
030accepts the terms of the contract as is can always do an amendment or if the board wants to remove that clause they can remove that clause this clause was added because of the instructions given by the board that they did not want the permanent person to be the interim person and he was and it was specifically requested that language be in the contract but if i take direction from the board if the board wants to remove that we can remove that but madam chair if i may before we continue may please see a poll from the board as to whether or not they want to change the 14 business days under 9a to 30 days how do you want us to which are if i could if you would like me to do that madam
031chair or do you want to do that's fine go ahead go if i may if you can say yes if you want it to be changed in 30 days and then no will indicate to leave it as is miss morgan willow the board ms fawn yeah i can live with let's say i can live with it either way miss kittens yes 30 days jordan i will live with it okay that's what's needed to get this across the finish line giovannelli well i'm a yes but i would prefer to ask dr savage i mean really it's i mean i don't know i think he's got the negotiations that we had before i think he would be fine with the 30 days yeah okay she'd be fine with either too okay well then i'm a yes thank
032you yes okay so i will go ahead and change that to build that for 30 days again i need direction from the board with regards to the language as to whether or not the interim can apply for the permanent position so i have clarification from the board if you like the language to stay as is please say yes and if you want it to change please say no and then we can discuss how you want it to change miss morgan no you want it to stay as is correct miss vaughn no miss kittens i would i'm staring about this because i'm not sure the actual laws and what we have to do i would like to see it change but if it's something that we can do as we go along then i can live
033with that okay as long as it's not you know signing off on this and then there's no re you know way to change it so you're saying that it could still reward if the board decides that a future date that it would like to change this clause it can do so by addendum okay if that's the case and where will that'll just be recorded as far as minutes oh there will be a contract negotiation just for that addendum if i'm instructed by the board to do so okay but i'm just saying in the future when we if we decide to do that we would go back to this meeting and see what we have said and it would be in the minutes that said we said we can change it in the future well the
034contract by by virtue of the contract says that if there's anything else you want to change you can do so in writing okay well in order to expedite it then since we can change it at a later date i say we just leave it to expedite the time it's jordan leave it because the fact we can do this at any time yes patricka as is please it's giovannelli the will of the board in i mean it gives allows opportunity for us to make a change if we choose to if we choose not to and then we have an opportunity to hire new superintendent mr fisher based on the conversations that we've had previously regarding this and my original vote not to include it i will say leave it now because we have the opportunity to
035change it as needed thank you and then one other question with regard to this intellectual property clause does the board want that removed if i can just hear from each board member i'm going to go down the line with fun unless you want to make a comment first question go ahead all right so if we were to lift out that whole section does that mean that i can i can see a problem with moving forward with the rest of the contract then because obviously since this was added and wasn't in dr atkins contract obviously it was something important to dr savage so lifting that out it would seem to me it would delay this whole process i don't have a problem with it because there is also the lines here the superintendent grants to the
036district non-exclusive royalty-free license to use such intellectual process etc i will say that this was a clause that was specifically requested to be in the contract and again the reason is this is a contemplated to be a short-term contract so he wants to be able to share his ideas but at the same token if he's not in this position in six months he wants to be able to use whatever that intellectual property is wherever he is be it at this district or another district the clause does say that the district can continue to use this intellectual property royalty-free doesn't say as necessary but it does allow the district to continue to use that he wants to protect his ability to have the ownership and the authorship and use it at another district if he decides
037to do that yeah and my point is i don't have a problem with it and we didn't when we initially were talking about it when it was brought up by other board members we're not citing that last part about royalty-free licenses etc that part and i will just add as well during the negotiations this language came from another superintendent contract so that's part of what the discussion was about okay well i want to see it remain in because i think if we pull it out there's going to be an issue that it significantly changes what was negotiated and what was important to dr savage and i see that as a big problem so i'm for keeping it the way it is and i trust that it will be carried out honestly from both the district
038perspective and dr savage's perspective and i think miss morgan had a question regarding that yeah i just have a comment i'd love to hear what his colleagues think about this i'm not asking i'm just putting that out there so i have two questions for the attorney does royalty free license protect us from having to pay any compensation at all i cannot say that right which is again why i can't approve this clause because there are unanswered questions and the other is the the example that i used with you in the back office dr atkins i'm sorry to use you as an example but dr atkins came to the district or to the position of superintendent with education revolution i think was the name of the paper and in there was the teacher ladder and so
039we have the teacher ladder in place now and is that teacher ladder necessary to conduct the ordinary business of the district no it's not necessary so he could take that with him and we could no longer use the teacher ladder so these these are the kinds of things that i think need to be fleshed out more i want to approve this contract i believe and i don't know if dr savage agrees that a separate assignment document will protect his rights i cannot approve this contract with this clause in here i want us to be seven thumb sideways i have said that from the beginning i ca i can't approve this with this with this with this class in the contract those are my comments and my questions thank you so madam chair if you can
040pull the board so i can have some direction please are you i thought you were doing it individually so you started off with miss morgan so miss morgan would like to see the claws removed miss fun i'm okay with it in there it's kittens i would like to see it stay for one and kind of contradicting what ms patricka just said that if the superintendent leaves he can take the information with him it clearly states in here that we still would have access to that intellectual property everyone knows we live in a litigious society not that dr savage would want to do that but why not just leave it in there to avoid future battles back and forth as to you know when it was done and you know all of that type of thing
041it's simpler to leave it in there and whatever has come up with we still as a district can use it the thing is can he take his intellectual property with him somewhere else to be used that's the bottom line that's why i want to leave it in there yes jordan thank you i am okay with the reason why he wants it in here it's patricka no i can't i can't approve the contract with this clause in there is giovannelli i would like to see it stay at this point i think that he has the right to that and i it's an interim position i think we let's go back to that so if we if he becomes permanent and we want to change the contract then at that time and see how things are then
042we can do that i think this is just a this is a short contract so let's just i'm good thank you miss fisher yes so based on the fact that a legal information institute definition says in general terms intellectual property is any product of the human intellect that the law protects from unauthorized use by others in this clause dr savage is saying this is his intellectual property but he grants the district the right to to have a non-exclusive royalty-free license to use any of that property to the extent necessary to conduct the ordinary business of the district or is otherwise a fair use under federal law which lets him leave the information here for us to use and allows him to take it to another location or share it with other school districts who may
043benefit for it so i say let's keep it in there thank you thank you guys based on the three issues that i've heard so far there's only one that needs to be changed which is the notice change that from 14 days to 30 days is there anything else in the contract so at this time madam chair can we have the vote but just know that we will change that 14 days to 30 days can we call for the vote okay but prior to the to the vote the discussion yes ma'am we were going to allow the public i know we're changing things today this is all new for all of us so we are going to allow the public to speak on this what we just our conversation so if there's anyone that would like
044to speak please come up to the and this will be speaking on the changes that has been made to the contract so if there's anybody that would like to speak please come up to the mic this is not with regards to normal public comment just with regards to the changes to the contract and madam chair wouldn't it be regards to the contract and you can also talk about her contract let's do the contract just please say who you are and is it i'm sorry and it's your time up there hon okay so i can you just clarify if it's just for the section that was amended or the entire contract because that was what we were trying to understand and it was a little hard to see with the amendments or what the request was
045for so it's going to be with regards to the contract the entire contract okay so i do have a request to make for the contract you guys have had a lot of discussions over the course of the term that we were requesting the interim superintendent since dr atkins put in his resignation and this position has evolved from somebody that's holding a baton to somebody that's going to implement changes that are going to save the district and i would actually request for you guys to take out the word interim and give dr savage the time to set a plan that is either a two-year plan or give him the actual time to make the changes that we need to see and want to see and have requested as all of these options including the fact that
046we now have this 100 plus page code of conduct that is yet to be enforced and that was brought up earlier there are a lot of changes that are happening this year that need to be implemented and a steady hand needs to see it all the way through so i would request that you actually review this to give him the time to do what he needs to do for the district i didn't think i would be saying that but i am asking you today for that as in the section one the last section says that the contract is in effect until there is a change that makes it agreed upon by the board so i would i'm not sure if it's going to delay the effect to actually take out that word interim today but
047i would appreciate it if you can consider that if we're looking at this district and its actions are for the children that is the best thing for the children and also for us taxpayers that we can actually stop this global search that we're doing for a nationwide search whatever you want to call it for the permanent superintendent it's more seamless to have somebody take the position on and just go through at least a school year and deal with this again later so those are my comments in regards to the contract thank you please mr dyne corey died i support the contract i think it's it's honorable of him one to try and protect what he rightfully has created and spent his lifetime building on and he was at least what it seems like on the
048contract respectable enough to the district to say hey look anything i create you guys use and continue to use i mean he put in it royalty free exclusive use i mean that's like a blanket release policy for creators and owners of intellectual property so i think that's very honorable of him i would also support the at least removal of the word interim as ms fisher pointed out to us he not only has the authority but is acting as a superintendent so at least as that time i think that we should refer to him as the superintendent and he should be held at the same respect and liability of a superintendent and not just seem like he's some temp worker thank you hi remy hall my question is also on the word interim i'm not sure
049what the legality is of that word in a contract so i would just like to ask the board was that in past interim contracts so to speak in the past i couldn't find any i couldn't find dr atkins interim contract on board docs today maybe i just wasn't good at looking i don't know but that's the question i think you all should ask is that word legal thank you are there is there anyone else out there that would like to speak on this cnn mr free bruno can you please respond to that because i know it's been like a crazy afternoon but i do know that so dr savage will be the superintendent so based on statute there is no such thing as interim superintendent the statute once you are a superintendent you are the
050superintendent the contract notes interim for based on our prior contracts which had used the word interim to designate that this is a temporary position the board's intent was to have an interim superintendent for six to nine months while they continue on with their permanent superintendent search so that's why that word is used in the contract okay thank you so miss kittens so after listening to the public comment and i'm i'm thinking to myself we have a caveat in the contract that says we can suspend it with 30 days and now he also can suspend it in 30 days so i feel that it's unnecessary and kind of redundant to say interim if that we do indeed still hold the ability to cancel it if we were to find someone else for the permanent it's kind
051of a given so i tend to agree with the fact especially the conversations we previously previously had that did say the superintendent is the superintendent so i would agree with public comment and i'm chair yes please so again statute says superintendent superintendent however the prior contracts all indicated interim as a designation so that it's clear that it's a temporary position however i would ask that we pull the board to see if they want to remove the word interim from the contract thank you miss morgan i don't want to remove the term and frankly i'm very very concerned by this discussion because i think it signals that we are going to have a failure when it comes to the superintendent search miss vaughn i'm for keeping it in i'm not sure which way the question is
052yeah thank you for keeping interim in and miss kittens remover yeah thank you miss patricka as is please thank you mr giavanelli if the law i'm going to go with the law if the law is that there's no such thing as an interim then i'm going to go with superintendent thank you miss fisher i say that we leave it in because dr savage we advertised for an interim superintendent nationwide first of all and that advertisement clearly stated that anyone who applied for that would not be able to apply for the permanent superintendency at that time that precluded other people from applying so that concerns me a little bit and this contract was negotiated in good faith by our board attorney dr savage and his counsel and i think that we should respect the work that
053they did in negotiating this contract and for this period of time leave it the way it is and i'm going to definitely agree with you on that one as well because i know that there was a lot of back and forth on that so it appears that it would stay in there at this time thank you madam chair that concludes public comment okay so at this time then i'm gonna go ahead and call for the votes which is to approve the employment contract with the interim superintendent as discussed and presented so if you could please record your vote presented with the caveat that i'm going to change the 14 days to 30 days i just said with yes thank you mr primer thank you madam chair i would like a final comment before i vote
054so i regret that i can't support this i am i was all prepared to go yes i wanted to see a 7-0 vote on this board i can't accept that clause so i just wanted you to understand that it's not about you and my willingness to approve you for this position it is because i cannot accept that petite that particular part of the contract so thank you i'm sorry excuse me excuse me excuse me please please no can i have conversation okay so can i please go ahead and call for the vote and it's there on your screen so can you please record it i meant i'm sure if i could just respond and clarify about the 209 thousand and while you're voting so the 209 000 is the salary the difference is the benefits
055that come along with that motion carry madame chair five two okay five two motion carries thank you so much congratulations dr savage i may go off script again i would love to have judge carlin come up dr savage come up his family come up and have him sworn in you did get a bible right yes we found one okay thank you bring the bible over mom if you could hold the bible for me please i'm going to place my left hand on the bible be dead all right please are you ready here's your right hand repeat after me i do solemnly swear i do solemnly swear i will support protect and defend that i support protect and defend the constitution and government the constitution and government of the united states of the united states into
056the state of florida and of the state of florida i am duly qualified i am duly qualified to hold office to hold office under the constitution of the state under the constitution of the state i will well and faithfully perform i will well and faithfully perform the duties the duties of lee county superintendent of schools of lee county superintendent of schools on which i am now about to enter of which i am now about to enter so help me god so help me god congratulations i'm gonna have i'm gonna ask that our new superintendent please join us up here thank you very much and dr atkins is retiring he's going to be here to help you through the rest of the month thank you very much thank you please so now we are gonna are
057you good chair jordan esteemed board members students families our lee county schools team and the community of lee county it is with great honor and a servant's heart that i accept your nomination to lead the school district of lee county here with my family i believe that there is no greater honor than to serve my home the community of lee county and serve it well here now for all of us in lee county and all over the world coming out of this past year we are up against tremendous odds we have the challenge of supporting our entire community and each other through what has been and continues to be a singular and traumatic defining event of our lifetime the covet pandemic along with what often appears to be a divided society that struggles to find
058common ground it is my job and our job to make sense of these challenges and to commit to overcoming them together for those that reached out to me these last weeks to express their support i cannot possibly express to you how much your encouragement means to me for those of you that are skeptical of this board's decision today i will continue to strive to earn your support as well i am not here to serve any one of you i am here to serve all of you for those who are supportive of me today please know that i am confident that i will very likely let you down possibly even as soon as this week i simply cannot promise you that i will not make mistakes however i can promise you that i will not stop
059looking within and expecting more of myself to give you the very best i have within me i also promise not to try and do it alone i will continue to hold the highest expectations for all of our leaders and expect a culture of service above all if there is one thing i hope to impart today to anyone who may listen or hear these remarks i want to continue to nurture a district leadership culture of service everything we do in every position across our district begins and ends with service secondly i hope that during this interim period to help all of our employees focus on renewal and sustainability we work so very hard it is vital that we take the time for reflection and be fair to ourselves and our families as we undertake this important
060work the great coach bobby bowden once said i'm not too proud to change i like to win too much he also said the greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake on our path to success through unity in order to win together we must be brave enough to be honest with each other and strong enough in ourselves to do the vulnerable work of one great community our community together this will require clear and authentic two-way paths of communication for our whole community we as a district must be responsible for an ongoing dialogue on the issues that support our school system most successfully serving the needs of our children families and community this will be my primary goal during the interim period in this time of necessary healing and in order to pave the pathway
061for success together we must seek to find common ground as well as be true to our individual selves and needs along the way we must also be able to voice those needs and be provided paths to do the hard work of problem solving together and with the common goal of continuing to shape the school district we all want and are proud of the one that our children and community deserve the school district of lee county god bless the school district of lee county oh thank you so much so now for your first task we will have public comments mr free bruno could you please address the item of public comment thank you madam chair school board policy provides the opportunity at this point of the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this
062meeting's agenda or any other matter relevant to the operation of the school district if you completed a blue card please make sure it's in the basket if you need a card they're located outside in the hallway the rules concerning public comment are posted in the back of the room and public comment will me be made from the central microphone in the back please be advised that the board does not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers at the end of the public comment period the board chair miss jordan may address concerns or the assignment of any concerns or requests to the superintendent speakers and those attending the meeting are expected to act in a respectful manner the purpose of public comment is to provide feedback personal attacks on individuals or abusive language are
063prohibited in addition clapping hissing and blowing unreasonably loud and or offensive language swearing cursing or display of temper are prohibited please be mindful that we do have young children here today speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone for board policy 1.11 and may be removed from the chambers there will only be one warning for board policy 1.11 the time per speaker is 3 minutes if there are 22 if there are 30 and one if there are 31 or more bird policy 1.11 allows a maximum amount of time of one hour you will find a countdown on the big screens in the front of the room once your time has elapsed the microphone will
064automatically shut off we encourage you to address the board as a whole versus individual board members as they act as a collective board please state your name prior to making your comment and i will call you five speakers at a time do we are there any blue cards okay if you have not filled out a blue card please do so if you can go ahead and come up and speak say your name and then just make sure you fill out the blue card and make sure that we get it for to miss thomas please thank you madam speaker we have seven speakers denise nystrom please line up doug santini tara jenner jerry ware and daniela dye mr santini dr santini good afternoon board i came this morning and it got mixed up i didn't get
065to speak but you made a great decision today and i'll tell you why during my tenure here at the school district here at in the in this center i was the head of turn around schools we had 12 turnaround schools and ken savage was at james stevens and he was one of the 12 at that point he worked with me i was his direct supervisor coincidence i was also dr atkins direct supervisor so i've been here for 57 years as far as with the school district dr savage did a wonderful job at the school he was he worked with me carefully and took suggestions and also lent his talents to thais and manatee and some of the other schools with me and also gave me the opportunity to use some of his instructional leaders at
066his school and i thought this was very good and he's a very loyal a very intelligent a very human he believes in loyalty he supports his the people that supported him in the past you have a fantastic leader to me he did a wonderful job of what's happening today the meeting this morning the board came together with consensus and did a great job with it i was hoping for a seven to nothing support but i understand the couple the passage in there what what it was but you did a great job with it the community is going to benefit from it i have a feeling you're going to be so proud as time goes on what dr savage will do with the district thanks again for everything you did today thank you will the following
067individuals also line up i see corey dice lined up daniella dye and chrissy divijelli corey die dr savage i want to start with the honey before the hatchet congratulations all right on to the hatchet no just messing with you i have a high respect for you in this opportunity and ask that you not forget the fire and ambition that brought you to this moment today today be renewed by the idea of another peak overcome on your path to the summit i ask that going forward you remember yourself of you remind yourself of those that did not have faith and always look for those who just need somebody to believe in them to value not what you do when all can see but what you can do where no one wants to look see your son
068and your daughter in my children and others children as they all will one day have to make this work out without us remember we do not know who will be tomorrow's leaders so let's just make as many of them as we can to your wife we thank you for supporting him and we know behind every strong man is a stronger woman and without them we are without cause i support letting dr savage create a district plan and have a minimum of two years to fulfill his duties lastly with my time let me pray for you your family your role in the and this district god i ask you to come before us and bless this board bless dr savage in his process uplift his wife and his children as he embarks in this and takes
069on more time i ask that you empower him to empower his staff there is hundreds of people here working for this process and many times we tend to forget those those soldiers out there as we only look to generals so i just ask that you continue to bless him and his pathway this district in our pathway us as parents our children bring all of us to a clear mind and an open heart at a renewed vision of what this district can grow to be thank you and amen amen jenner congratulations dr savage hold on based on your history i expect you to hit the ground running and because of that i'd like to give you a few suggested marching orders first there appears to be a serious appearance of impropriety with the board attorney sitting
070next to the superintendent she is the board's attorney not your attorney this needs to be changed as soon as possible secondly the mass mandatory signs need to be removed in this building and throughout the school district and it must also be removed from the student dress code the first district court of appeals opinion on government mass mandates has unequivocally evaluated government mandatory masking as unconstitutional since it violates the privacy clause of both the u.s and florida state constitutions further the court noted that even the mass mandates even though the mass mandates have been revoked their opinion is still binding in the event there is a future effort to reinstate them article 9 of the florida state constitution guarantees a uniform efficient safe secure and high quality system of free public education forcing people to relinquish
071their right to either the free education or their privacy rights is unconscionable the two cannot coexist as such the mass mandates on the students must be removed from the dress code it circumvents the law through a nefarious machination that infringes on the rights of the students the teachers the staff and the general public since the constitution is our supreme law of the land the mou provisions that are subsequent to the talc agreement mandatory mandating mass usage are null and void and immediate notification that master optional must be sent out to the families in the district and published in the state in the county website additionally policy board 1.181 needs to be modified or rescinded accordingly as it cannot be legally invoked as written and i call on you to do is what captain picard would
072say make it so future issues raised by the board involving equality florida and fsba should have mary fisher and chris patrick recuse themselves due to the vote during the vote due to a conflict of interest dr savage i have already personally contacted chris ann hall who's the florida attorney i spoke to about earlier and if you were willing to meet with me right after this i will get you the point of contact so you can contact her for that free constitutional training finally i'm for the district to hold meetings at times that are more conducive to public involvement and attendance this may require looking at possible flex schedules for your staff and or community volunteers to help out contact us we will help if the volunteer route is the way that you need to go
073to augment your personnel needs thank you very much my name is daniela dye i'm so glad to have three minutes again but i have nothing to say congratulations on your appointment i wanted to clarify that my two-year my reason for the two-year because i have been so adamant about somebody not being in the district being appointed to the to the position and also for that person being an interim is we've there's been a lot of things that have changed across the course of time for this evaluation and i really appreciate miss morgan staying true to the original course and for holding all of those values true i don't feel like the rest of the board is going to go that way with you i believe that they have changed over time and that is where
074we are so that is my suggestion to give the time for the most success and i truly appreciate everything and what you've done in the process for each of the people up there i think that you have done your homework i think that everybody's come to a conclusion for their for their own personal beliefs and that's what you were elected to do and what was the best thing for the district appreciate you and i can echo everything that corey said it's very important for you to keep that fire i want you to be savage not average i want you to keep going through with this like savage mentality where we're gonna take this on and we're gonna go through and and be that person so i truly look forward to that i know that we
075have a lot of things on our plate right now what would be hot button items that was one of the things that denise wanted to say but because this was delayed she had to go to a prior appointment one of the things with the delays is that more people could have come if they knew that it was later and the people that scheduled accordingly weren't able to speak so denise wanted to say that there are some hot button items and those are some things that we really count on you for taking head on it doesn't mean that you have to agree with us on and do what we say it just means that to listen to all the voices that are in the room and not just the loudest one which may or may not
076be my husband prince patricka so we just asked for you to take all of the opinions into consideration and come to the best conclusion for the district as a whole and again we support your family because we know the amount of work that goes into being a member of the team so welcome you guys all have your hands full and cut your work cut out for you and i hope that because you are familiar with dr savage it makes the process of interim a little bit more familiar and comfortable because it is something that was a little bit rocky at first so hopefully this does ease that transition and hopefully we can just really get to work in all of this so good luck christine divajilla here first i'd like to start off by saying
077congratulations dr savage i'm eager to see the contents of your moral fiber as you serve the families of our district as superintendent i hope you'll make yourself overly available to the public and i look forward to seeing how you will choose to partner with parents in regards to their children's education with the ultimate goal of becoming a world-class education system hashtag be savage not average now this is for a board member but they left today so i'm going to say it anyway since this is going to be my last time for public comments until you know next week ms vaughn in last week's briefing meeting you stated and i quote i'll share my political beliefs i'm a democrat i'm a liberal i believe the critical race theory is very important and if we lose sight
078of that as educators we can't be a world-class education system school board policy 1.05 clearly states the following number one board members must avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof miss von's admittance of democratic political or party affiliation and liberal political viewpoints is a direct conflict of interest number two board members must vote on all matters presented to the board for action except when a conflict of interest as defined by the statute arises mrs vaughn violates board policy every time she votes based on the fact that she is guided by communist socialistic ideals and she stated that herself last week number three refrain from using board position to person for personal benefit it's no secret that lack of transparency is an issue with this board so how can we be certain that miss vaughn
079has never used her position to further herself her self-admitted liberal agenda i would end by saying elizabeth bond i find you'd be in direct violation of school board policy 1.05 and i hereby request that you resign from your elected position as school board member effective immediately in the event you choose not to resign i urge the board move to terminate her term effective immediately thank you okay is there anyone else who would wish to speak so you know public comments thank you all for being here again i apologize for the late evening and dr savage is not new to the hot topics or concerns or any of that he sits in here with us frequently and so he does take that in so you'll be amazingly you will know that he knows quite a bit
080of what has happened in the board room and so we all look forward to moving forward with him but i do want to thank you for that the next on the board recommendation is the approval of the authorization for bank signatures continued use of superintendent signature and do i have a motion to approve i'll move that we approve the authorization for bank signatures and the continued use of the superintendent's signature one second thank you any discussion seeing no discussion could you please record your vote thank you and i just want to say miss vaughn had to leave the meeting because she had a committee meeting to attend it's up there okay motion carries six zero and so the next thing that i would like to bring forward is we had a request from the construction
081department given us permission of including we will be doing a ribbon cutting for lambs july 15th and we have had the construction department request permission to include dr atkins on the mm middle school commemorative plaque even though dr atkins will have officially retired which is june the 30th prior to the ribbon cutting ceremony anticipated for july of 2021 they would request that we allow this to take place i know that dr savage has knowledge of this and is you are in favor of it as well is that correct dr savage that is correct okay and so if i could could i get an approval to i move that we allow dr adkin's name to be reflected on the plaque at lambs i'll second that thank you okay so lotion by miss patricka seconded by mrs
082fisher and discussion and discussion and the reason i'm bringing this up because we have a policy stating that whoever sitting at the time would be their name would be on there even if they were there one day so does the motion need to include language to suspend the policy let me take a look at the policy real fast that question was for attorney yes and then mr vanilla i'll call on you in one second or actually go ahead while she's looking so well if our policy states that it's a sitting superintendent will we have both of their names on there then i'm happy to to try to help clarify thank you this actually policy is leave some room for interpretation the way it reads and i think mr p bruno will be able to you
083know potentially read it exactly but is about specific board members who are seated at that time as it gets to the superintendent layer that's in the subsequent the following paragraph rather so it wasn't 100 clear how we would interpret it because the life of a construction project may be the beginning all the way to the end knowing that this would have carried us through this interim period just in kind of recognition of dr atkins just six years of nearly six years of service as superintendent we felt that this was an appropriate recommendation from the construction department to allow his name to be engraved on that plaque as well even though technically by the time we open the school and commemorate that plaque he will no longer be in the position so it's more a matter
084of it's not exactly easily to be interpreted from the policy beyond the board members but does it does say that the board members the superintendent the construction manager the year in which the project was completed is what the policy says a year yeah because the it's a policy 9.06 commemorative plaque and building name the following procedures shall be filed to establish uniform criteria with regards to design content layout placements of commemorative plaques for capital projects the capital construction project shall be identified with suitable commemorative plaques and then number three is where it states the plaque shall identify the names of the board members seated at the time of the completion of the project the superint and then it says the superintendent the architect architectural firm the construction manager and the year in which the project
085was completed that's where that came in so when they went to because they're in the process they need to go ahead and move forward with getting this plaque started because it takes time and to have it up on the building prior to the ribbon cutting this was asked of me to bring before the board madam chair so this project will be completed this year july 15th is the ribbon cutting which will be 15 days after dr atkins would have would retire so that is what i'm asking so do we have the question the question that ms patricka had asked you so again i think it's a matter of interpretation in terms of completion at the time because all that needs to be done at this point is the ribbon cutting that the project is pretty
086much completed the project is completed from my understanding so in that right doctor that's right dr savage it's precisely the issue you're speaking of what what determines completion so we have achieved substantial completion of the project at this point we're working just to get folks moved in and so forth and so it's really at what point do we consider it done and because it's happening during the course of the year where there will have been two superintendents it just appeared to be the recommendation of our of our team was that dr atkins name be reflected on that engraving right at this point the project is pretty substantially completed so i don't think we need to suspend the rules i think if the project is pretty substantially completed then we can move forward with the motion
087so then do we need a motion if it is completed it's just other than the fact because it doesn't say anything about ribbon cutting on here it doesn't say anything about ribbon cutting but for clarification purposes and to make sure that it's well documented i would move forward with the motion that was made by miss patricka thank you mr patrick could you please repeat that i move that dr adkin's name up here on the plaque to be placed at lambs okay then miss miss fisher seconded that so then we're still in the conversation mr evanelli you had it my question was more answered thank you okay thank you and then miss fisher do you have any questions no i have no questions okay nope well then if we could take a this would be a
088hand vote oh we have to that's right public comments i was just going to say same thing still early tara jenner i don't have a public comment but i thank you for acknowledging the fact that we have the right to have a public comment because that is often fudged thank you thank you appreciate it anyone okay see a nun i will call for the vote and it will be a hand vote miss morgan yes miss kittens yes miss jordan yes hi thank you mischievounelli yes and miss fisher yes and thank you so much ladies really appreciate that so i will we will inform mr rockenbacker i can never say his name and we'll move forward with that then or our new superintendent could you please make that happen yes we'll take that thank you okay
089and so now we are at other business miss giovannelli do you have anything i have none thank you congratulations i want to congratulate or thank all the candidates that applied for the interim position position and i look forward to the work that we're going to do together thank you ms patricka i too am very sad that i couldn't approve the contract i really did want this to be a 7-0 but i'm on process i'm about the law i did not understand the legal consequences of that paragraph so please don't take that as a signal of lack of support for you dr savage i'm i'm looking forward to working with you i think that your energy is going to exceed mine which is sometimes a rare thing your children are unbelievably adorable and unbelievably unbelievably well
090behaved and i just this family moment is very very touching you are an education rockstar family as you know your younger brother has had a tremendous positive impact on my own daughter in in the classroom with math and on the math team and so that special place in my heart there i do have a question for you when is our first one-on-one because i am very excited to to really get to work so that is a serious question you don't have to answer it right now but i would like you to consider scheduling those as soon as humanly possible and you've got your work cut out for you this is this tough team you've you've just joined and i'm hopeful that we can bring it all together and really move things forward so congratulations attorney
091dupree bruno i have a question for you if you could produce a memorandum for or answer the question legally what is a conflict of interest i frequently hear the public referring to conflict of interest without a real understanding of the legal consequences of that term or what it is legally so if you could help the board to understand what that means so that perhaps we could dispel some of the lack of understanding of the public with regard to that term that's a very broad question is there a specific scenario to address because there's all kinds of different types of conflicts conflict of interest for a board member in voting on i mean you can the two specific questions that were brought today can ms fisher vote on any issues surrounding lgbt given her affiliation with
092equality florida can i vote on any issues regarding fsba given my affiliation with even though my affiliation is really no different from anybody else is at the table i know the answers i know the legal answers i just think it will be helpful for all of us to have that information in front of us as we move forward and those are my comments thank you thank you miss fisher yes thank you so first of all i want to thank dr atkins for his nearly six years of service as superintendent and i want to welcome dr savage as a member of our amazing governance team and know that we appreciate your family being here today because that is what we're all about the community kids and family and i want to say that my expectations are
093high and i am so looking forward to your servant leadership and thank you thank you mrs fisher and miss kittens okay i love the savage not average piece though you may get a plaque thank you to i want to say thank you to dr atkins as well and i can imagine all this time working in the district is kind of bittersweet but we thank him for all the time and effort and working with this governance team in the time that i have been here i also want to thank the family that support is just he's gonna need you so you know find a seat anytime to come and sit to give him a smiling face even over the top of a mask just to know that he has support and our public comment area back
094there thank you guys for being so what can i what is the word for just faithful you are just always here on doing what you do and saying what you're saying i appreciate the fact that and i mentioned that at one of the board meetings i said i really do hope when there's not a hot button issue that we see the room full of people just because we need to have help educating children so i just hope that continues thank you to my colleagues for going through this process and we have to do it again oh it's coming up again and we made it through this one so we can make it through another one i have no other comments but let's get to work and miss patricka i beat you i already asked him
095for a meeting so thank you miss morgan congratulations dr savage and i am looking forward to working with you so thank you okay and i as well would like to thank dr atkins for the time that i've gotten to know him in the past two years he's helped me out tremendously but i am so looking forward to working with dr savage we work pretty close together all the time as as it is now dr carlin dr judge carlin thank you so much for being here in a moment's notice to take care i thank the staff ladies in the office thank you so much i'm sorry that we put you through that at the last minute you guys rock you're rock stars i was happy to take a walk outside so i appreciate what you were
096doing for me and you know to make sure that this process you know went through but i do appreciate each and every one of you and my colleagues here thank you for sticking with me going through this we did it and i will move to mr pre-bruno do you have any comments congratulations dr savage i do look forward to working with you and i think i'll clarify one conflict of interest piece that i heard during public comment today as the board attorney i do advise the board but i also advise the district and the administration as required and if there is a conflict and usually that happens when there is contract negotiations for employment then the superintendent will go ahead and get his own attorney which is what happened today but for the most part
097the board and the administration should be working hand in hand together and we really should not have too many conflicts but when that does arise that's why we have conflict counsel and the superintendent can't have his attorney but otherwise we will work closer together and i'm more looking forward to doing that as well as working with you with the board and then the next would be the superintendent's comments do you have any comments to share well i did have my prepared comments earlier so i think that states most of the messaging i had for our community and our staff i just wanted to thank everyone again one more time for everyone who is here today specifically also judge carlin thank you for being available for the swearing in today all the staff who are some
098of which are required to be here thank you for for all the hustling around we did to pull off today then thank you also to the staff who just chose to be here as well as all the folks who came out today in support as well as all the folks who who came here today just to share their public comment we really value this opportunity for free speech it's what makes democracy work it's my privilege to be a part of this process now in this in this new capacity and i hope you continue to be vocal and participatory i do have to and we typically do not want to create a dialogue where we're responding directly to a comment but there was one piece if you'll indulge me that i must say and that is
099the mention was made that potentially there's a much greater woman behind a man i can assure you in that case it is absolutely true if you wonder how the children are as they are and just how how i'm able to function every day i couldn't do without loving support of my wife and all my family who came out here to support me as well i know i try to be worthy of their love and support every day and i will really kind of take that same servant approach to everyone else who's here and everyone who is watching and everyone who isn't watching it's my job to surf that's why i'm here so thank you for giving me this tremendous opportunity and thank you to this board for giving me this opportunity as well so thank
100you no thank you and that was probably a very wise comment to make that was good for you see she even knows it our next special meetings of the board is on monday june 21st there will be a board workshop at 9 00 a.m on tuesday june 22nd there will be a board briefing at 1 pm and an action meeting at 6 pm at this point having no further business to come before this body and seeing no objections this meeting is adjourned thank you and have a great evening you