001[Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n n n n n n [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] w [Music] good evening if you could please join me in standing for the invocation with Miss fields and then the Pledge of Allegiance let us pray most Heavenly Father we thank you for this day and we thank you for life and for help and for strength father we thank you for the opportunity to serve we thank you for everyone who's present in this room today pray for them we pray for their families father we thank you for our leadership we thank you for the folks that are out in the trenches Lord God and doing everything that they can and make sure that our students get
002the best education possible we just thank you for them we pray for our students we pray for whatever their needs are that those needs will be met we pray for their families as well father there's so many people in need and whatever their needs are we know that you can do anything but fail we pray that you would bless this meeting that everything will be done in decency and in order and to the glory of your name we ask all these things in your son's name we pray amen amen thank you Miss fields and I'd now like to call brenley highy to lead us in the pr Pledge of Allegiance plge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
003liberty and justice for all you may be seated except for you brenley I just have some questions for you how's it going good good thanks for coming to lead us in the pledge tonight so I hear that you are six years old is that right and where do you go to school iot alus elementary alterus elementary and what grade are you in first grade first grade man so I hear that you have a pretty special PE coach who's your PE coach daddy I love it all right and do I hear that there's somebody else at another school that's pretty special mama your mom what do you know where your mommy works or what she Davenport Elementary Davenport Elementary man you have lots of teachers and educators in your family so what do you like to
004do play soccer nice and I what do you want to be when you grow up a teacher no surprise there that is awesome well now I need you to promise me something when you go be a teacher you're going to come back to P County to do it right no good job Mom and Dad don't make make promises with strangers very good advice well you let us know when you're ready to come back and be a teacher cuz I think you would be a great teacher in one of our schools so did you bring anybody with you tonight my grandma your grandma and I see somebody else in the front row do you have a little brother here what's your little brother's name Benjamin Benjamin well thank you mom dad and grandma and Benjamin for
005coming and bringing Miss brenley and brenley thank you so much for leading Us in the pledge of aliance one last question because I know you like you want to be a teacher which probably means you like school what's your favorite part about school I have recess recess I love it very nice very good well thank you so much for coming and leading Us in the pledge tonight you did an awesome job and you can sit down [Applause] now all right and we will now call this meeting to order for November 14th 2023 our first order of business is to accept the Schoolboard agenda superintendent Hy do you have any revisions Madam CH yes ma'am there areion I don't think I'm on there we go Madam chair excuse me there are five revisions item j3 joint
006us usage agreement between po County School District and City of Lake Wales an attachment was provided and updated item k number one instructional administrative Personnel actions the attachment was updated item K number two non-instructional Personnel actions an attachment was updated item 01 Berkeley accelerated Middle School charter contract modification an attachment was updated and finally item p number one to 2024 legislative platform the attachment was updated that concludes the changes for the board meeting thank you superintendent Hyde I'll now seek a motion to approve the Schoolboard agenda as revised so moved second Miss Cunningham and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed and the motion carries superintendent Hyde I'll now turn it over to you for special recognitions yes ma'am good evening Madam chair
007members of the board members of the committee and staff thank you for being here this evening at this time I'd like to ask Schoolboard member Mr Justin sharpas to please step down for this evening's special recognitions I'd also like to invite Miss Anne Everett to read the names for our students that we're recognizing this evening good evening everyone and I'm joined by Susan wil coxon our new assistant director for School counseling and John Miller um curriculum specialist for acceleration and Innovation and so thank you Mr Hyde um superintendent Hyde Schoolboard members and District staff for the opportunity to recognize some of of our outstanding High School seniors as part of the United States Department of Education presidential Scholars Program each state department of education is asked to select a limited number of current High School
008seniors to receive this National recognition in September the Florida Department of Education distributes guidelines for each School District to nominate two presidential nominees among other criteria one student is to be selected based on academic achievement including results of standardized assessments and one student is to be selected based on Career Technical education high schools are asked to nominate one student for each of the two presidential scholar categories in total 44 seniors were nominated this year the district curriculum team then reviewed each submission and selected two students to represent P County Public Schools at the state level we appreciate this opportunity to publicly recognize these students and a special congratulations goes out to all of our presidential scholar District finalists so students when your name is called please come on down to receive your certificate and pose
009for a photo from George Jenkins High School Emma [Applause] abdden and she was their nominee for academic achievement from Davenport high school we also have jakaria ahed for academic [Applause] achievement unable to join us this evening from hanne City IB is Abra Amin for academic achievement from Barto High School in Career Technical education we have Porter Brown from Harrison School of the Arts for academic achievement we have Anna [Applause] Chang in the area of Career Technical education from Kathleen High School patience culvin also in Career Technical education but unable to join us this evening from hanne City High School is Johanna Coro an academic achievement from malberry Senior High School we have Christian Cortez [Applause] daza also in the area of academic achievement from frost proof middle Senior High School Garrett Davis congratulations from Lake
010Region Senior High School in the area of Career Technical education we have anakah donu unable to join us from Discovery Academy High School but in the area of academic achievement we have Sam Duncan also oh Sam sorry come on in you came in late you got me Sam Duncan everybody sorry about that also in the area of Career Technical education I think unable to join us this evening from tenar high school is Clayton fuss in Career Technical education for pul virtual school we have Gage [Applause] Gilroy from from Auburn Senior High School in the area of academic achievement we have mateline [Applause] harbu also from AUB high school but unable to join us this evening in the area of Career Technical education is Celestial Harris here she's here good to have her [Applause] also from
011the Career Technical education category and malberry Senior High School unable to join us is Aubrey oh she's here too Aubrey [Applause] Jackson that one I got from Travis Technical College and Career in technical education we have Colin Jacobs congratulations also in Career Technical education from Winter Haven Senior High School Joel Johnson next we have zoer Lee from Kathleen Senior High School also in the Career Technical education [Applause] category from BTO and Summerland Academy we have Enrique maltos in the Career Technical education [Applause] category from George Jenkins High School in Career Technical education Tyson [Applause] mcla from Barto IB we have academic achievement category Abraham Medina [Applause] from Davenport High School in Career Technical education Alec Mosen [Applause] Berg unable to join us from ridg viw Global Studies Academy in the career in technical education category
012Thomas Nickel in the academic achievement category for Barto High School Jasmine [Applause] Perry also in the academic achievement category from Ridge Community High School florenta qualu from Lake Gibson Senior High School in Career Technical education we have Caitlyn [Applause] Robertson also in Career Technical education from Fort me middle Senior High School adamaris rero from pulk Virtual School in academic achievement we have Yoli [Applause] Rodriguez also an academic achievement from Lake Gibson Senior High School Candace sampy unable to join us this this evening from Discovery Academy High School Cena Sanger in the area of academic achievement for Barto Summerland Academy in the area of academic achievement we have Chris [Applause] simper also in the area of academic achievement from Lakeland senior high school we have Kenneth [Applause] shamblin from hanne City High School in the area
013of academic achievement we have Eden [Applause] Silva also in the area of academic achievement from Fort me middle Senior High School Jordan [Applause] Spradlin unable to join us from mckel Academy High School in the area of academic achievement alinaa Sullivan and from frost proof metal senior high school and the area of Career Technical education we have Willamina [Applause] olich also in the area of Career Technical education from mckel Academy High School Julie [Applause] urbina from har Harrison School of the Arts in the area of Career Technical education we have paa Val [Applause] yinz from ridg viw Global Studies Academy but unable to join us for acad MC achievement Jaden Washington and from Ridge Community Senior High School in the area of Career Technical education we have Ivy [Applause] Wilson and from Lake Region Senior High
014School in the area of academic achievement Isaac [Applause] winkl and finally representing P County public schools for academic achievement is Eric Brown from Winter Haven High [Applause] School and representing P County public schools for Career Technical education is Kendall Elizabeth King from BTO High [Applause] School congratulations to all of our presidential scholar nominees but we're going to have the two Representatives representing us at State take a photo together this evening and let's give our nominees one more round of applause congratulations again and thank you board members next I'd like to invite Susan Copeland executive director of the pulk Education Foundation to please come forward to recogn I'll wait thank you obviously I know how to clear a room and I said it was too bad that I wasn't after them so they could hear about
015the scholarships we have to offer because obviously they're just the candidates we were looking for you just caught a lot of attention at the that are still in the back of the room wait what my kids you got a couple sticking around yeah yeah all right so hello board members and superintendent Hyde oh you want me to hang on introducing you oh oh I'm sorry so I'd like to reintroduce Miss Susan Copeland executive director of the P Education Foundation and she is here this evening to recognize scholarship donations and particip participants in participation thank you very much you're very welcome I think going through the crowd I I didn't hear it all so hello again everyone and yes I'm here to recognize some of our scholarship donors because we're getting ready to start scholarship season
016it really never ends but we are prep preparing our application to open after the first of the year so we really go into the official busy time for scholarship so last year we awarded $895,000 worth of scholarships and that's all thanks to businesses and Civic groups and individuals in our community we currently have 209 scholarships as we prepare for the new season and I just wanted to come here tonight to publicly thank all of our sponsors but I bought five of them with me tonight so that I could recognize them and tell you a little bit about some of the awards we offer so my group maybe if you'll just stand here with me and I'll call you up each individually and Mr sharpless has um School Board member sharpless has a certificate for you
017and we'll do a group picture at the end so first I have Emory Smith he's the Executive Vice President of benh Hill Griffin Incorporated and Ben Hill Griffin Inc uh scholarships were established in 1991 making them one of the longest standing scholarships at the foundation they offer $2,000 scholarships to a student at Frost prooof High School Lake Wales and Fort me high schools and each year they interview select candidates for those Awards so students are really working for that award I know Emory has personally done those interviews for the last 19 years because I've sat with him and and done them so he probably even did a few before that so and to thank you for your time and the generosity of Ben Hill Griffin Incorporated thank you [Applause] the Cricket Club of Barto is
018represented tonight by Ruth trainer come on up Ruth and the Cricket Club as you probably know has very deep roots in the Barto community and they offer their $500 scholarship only to students at a high school in Barto the club values community service and places an emphasis on that criteria they invite their recipient to a club meeting each year to meet their members which I think is very special and also very important and the club also works to select the recipient of the Gil Murray Memorial Scholarship that's done in memory of a former Cricket Club member so Ruth has always been a big help to us and the Cricket Club is generous in so many ways so thank you very [Applause] much next I'd like to introduce Andy Ray when Andy's wife passed away in
0192004 the Libby thle Ray Memorial Scholarship was endowed in her memory it is offered to students at Winter Haven High School where Libby graduated Li Libby was a former teacher for p County Public Schools and she was even a teacher of the year this will be the 20th year of this $11,000 scholarship and Andy and his family and co-workers at that time all worked very hard to raise the funds for this award so thank you Andy and your family for making this award possible to Winter Haven High School students you're welcome and Andy's the new police chief here in BTO if you don't know representing the Harrison family scholarship is Pam Harrison comr and her niece Caroline jro who you may know from here in the district this is another long-standing scholarship having been endowed
020in 1993 this 88 okay I look somewhere wrong I'm so sorry so so 88 which means you are officially one of the longest cuz we were started in 18 in ' 88 so uh let's see let's see it was started in memory of your father your grandfather doc Harrison who is the principal at Fort me Kathleen and mulbury Middle High School each year applicants buy for this $2500 scholarship the family offers and it's truly a family tradition because they bring grandchildren and sisters and everyone else to come and take part in this process so we thank you very very much for everything you've [Applause] done and last representing pulk Sheriff Charities is Captain Robert sessions and the heroes tribute scholarship provides $3,700 scholarships to help students who plan to major in criminal justice public administration
021so Social Work Communications or any business degree students from any High School in P County can apply this is a special award they all are but it Awards seven scholarships that are done in honor of P County deputies who gave their lives while serving to protect us all sheriff's deputies attend each of the recipients senior award ceremonies to honor the Fallen deputy and to honor the recipient so thank you to sheriff charities for sponsoring these scholarships we're proud to facilitate them for you thank you so in closing I would just say if there's anyone in the community that still wants to offer scholarships any school board member any District employee there's still time if you get with us by the middle of December before holiday break we can get you added to our 2024 scholarship
022application so thank you for allowing me to bring this group here tonight great job thank you before you leave the the podium Miss Copeland in case there are any seniors that are watching this how do they apply for these scholarships so our application will be found at pulk education foundation.org that is our website so just our name.org and all of the counselors and schools that are lucky enough to have scholarship contacts which they all should um they they'll have that information so they need to make sure their service hours are entered in now and hopefully we'll get something done with faspen if we don't just get those service hours entered for sure right now right now thank you and they open in February well that's we're waiting on fasta still because there's been changes by
023the end of January mid February I can say that safely yeah thank you thank you oh Madam chair that concludes special recognition for this evening thank you superintendent Hyde in the next section of our agenda will be public comments before we begin I would like to welcome the public and go over our public comment process and opportunities for this evening we will have two opportunities for public comment the first will be for items on this evening's agenda to be voted upon and the second will be at the end of our meeting um for items not on this evening's agenda we do not currently have anyone signed up to talk about evenings on this items on this evening's agenda so we will go on to our con approval of our minutes next we have the approval
024of our minutes and we have two sets of minutes this evening the first set is from the October 24th 2023 work session I'll hear a motion to approve the minutes for the October 24th 2023 work session meeting so move second Dr Allen and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed and the motion carries the next will be for the minutes from the October 24th 2023 Schoolboard meeting and I'll now seek a motion to approve those minutes from the October 24th 2023 school board meeting so moved second Miss fields and Mr shess any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed and the motion carries I will now turn the board meeting over to superintendent High
025to lead us through the reorganization of the board good evening it's a pleasure to welcome everyone to this evening's meeting the board chair has called this meeting in order to excuse me has called this meeting to order and pursuant to Florida statute 1000 1371 and I as a superintendent will act as a chair until the organization of the board has been completed at this time we will request all cell phones and other devices to be turned off or put in silent mode our next order of business is to elect a board chair I will use the following procedure in a moment I will open the floor for nominations after board members have had ample time to make all nominations they wish I will ask for a motion to close the nominations afterwards I will conduct
026a roll call vote by District beginning with the first candidate nominated if there is a majority for the first nominee the election of the board chair will be complete and we will move to the election of the vice chair if there is not a majority in favor of the first nominee there will be a roll call vote for the second nominee this process will continue until a board chair is elected by majority vote I will use the same method of in the election of the vice chair are there any questions board members will indicate their interest in nomination through a raising their hand Mrs um Winchester and IET will both assist me with identifying who the order in which your hands go up in case I missed them um so that we can make sure
027that we do this properly and in order no questions no Miss Cunningham I will now accept nominations for chairman nominations do not require a second I see Miss Cunningham's name hand are there no other nominations are we oh no I'm not nominating me I understand okay I'll come back to you I just want to make sure there's no other nominations it I think it probably depends on who she nominates right just who's your nominee uh superintendent Hyde uh it is my honor and pleasure this evening um to nominate Dr William Allen to serve as our chairman um for the next year uh I take that nomination very seriously and prayerfully and I feel that um Dr Allen has shown his leadership um and his ability through him being a vice chairman this year and um
028I think Miss Wyatt has done a wonderful job um and I would just like to see uh Dr Allen have the opportunity um to serve as our chair in his growth and leadership development as he moves along on our school board panel thank you are there any other nominations seeing none I will now entertain a motion that nominations are closed so moved second thank you at this time I will conduct a roll call vote in order of nomination the first nominee is Dr William Allen and I will call each member by District please indicate whether or not you support the first nominee by saying I or nay district one yay District Two I District three I District Four I District District Five District Six I District s Miss Miller is not with us this evening
029we have a majority in favor of the first nominee we will now move to the election of the vice chair I will now accept nominations for vice chair Mr Niti I would like to nominate and thank you superintendent Hy like to nominate the future Dr Justin sharpless as our vice chair are there any other nominations Miss Wyatt I'd like to nominate Lisa Miller are there any additional nominations seeing none I will now entertain a motion that nominations be closed so moved second we will now and conduct a roll call vote in order of the nomination the first nominee is Mr Justin sharpless I will call each member by District please indicate whether or not you support the first nominee by saying yay or nay district one yay District Two yay District three yay District Four
030sorry yay District Five District Six yay District Seven is not presid that is a major majority and so we will not continue with the roll call vote the next item is for the designation of time date and place for school board meetings I recommend that the board hold meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 5:00 p.m. with these meetings to be held in the school board auditorium at the administrative offices in BTO Florida I will now entertain a motion to that effect so move second second third can we have some discussion yes ma'am okay seeing that first of all congratulations to our new chair and our new Vice chair so excited for you all um to move up into leadership positions for our district I think you two are going to make a
031great team um furthermore I wanted to ask I know that both these gentlemen work in Academia and I'm wondering how does this is the time at which we set the date and times for our school board meetings and work sessions going forward does there need to be any modification to make it easier or better for the both of you I know we really haven't talked about it because we're not supposed to so I figured I would bring it up tonight uh because I think we're all flexible to a point if we know ahead of time I'm not sure if it's something we should think about maybe and discuss at the next meeting but I wanted to at least bring it up that I know there's been several times that it may have been an issue
032for one or both of you and uh in order to be successful for the next year I just wanted to bring it up to see if y'all had any comment regarding that tonight before we vote yeah I mean I I don't want my my position to you know really determine um but I would definitely express my opinion that the 9:00 a are definitely a challenge in regards to a class schedule and for me U I teach Monday Wednesday Friday so as long as it's on a Tuesday or Thursday I'm fine okay okay so there any further discussion I would like to make a comment please M Fields I think that accepting the leadership of the chair and the vice chair is something that uh might be sacrifices I mean I work at Girls Inc and
033there's sometimes that I would love to be at Girls Inc but my obligation is here vice versa uh and I know that I have to schedule those times and if I can't make it here then I can't make it uh I know we've had discussion about changing meetings for the benefit of the public especially our teachers who would love to be able to come to the meetings but they're still in school so if we were going to do anything I would uh pursue that rather than uh pursuing whether or not it's in alignment with the chair and the vice chair schedule that's just my my thought on it my comments were similar just in that I think when we all run for Schoolboard we we know that these are the times um so I would
034hope that if we're looking to change any times or um to make any changes that it would be more than a discussion at the dasis evening that that's something that we would have later on okay we will now have a vote all in favor of meetings being held on the fourth Tuesday each month beginning at 5:00 pm please indicate by saying I I I any opposed the eyes have it and we will come back with a proposed calendar so if any adjustments need to be made especially for workshops um because because of the expressed concerns about 9:00 a.m. we can definitely take those absolutely into additional consideration thank you um we are just for since it was brought up we have been looking into how could we possibly support um meetings being held in other
035locations because we because we do record and and produce essentially live stream our meeting that creates an incredible hardship for the equipment and our staff and so what we are looking at is the possibility of an alternative professional development center and additional boardroom in the Northeast portion of our school district um so I'll be bringing back more information about that in the near future the next item is the approval of resolution 2023 2024 d06 authorizing the banks of P County Florida as depositories of school funds to honoring cash warrants drawn against said funds when assigned by the board chair and Secretary of the board I will now entertain a motion to that effect so moved okay any discussion all in favor please indicate by saying I I any opposed who seconded that motion I didn't
036Dr the next item on today's reorganization agenda is my recommendation that proceedings of Schoolboard meetings be held held in accordance with Robert's Rules of orders revised and the rules of the administrative procedures act I will entertain a motion to that effect so moved second any discussion seeing none all in favor please indicate by saying I I I any opposed the item is approved that completes the reorganization of the board I will now turn the meeting over to the new chair Dr William Allen please join me ing congratulating sounds great this is It's a slight struggle because the technolog is in front of me but his computer's over there so we're gonna work we're talk team in a little bit all right so the next item is approval of today's consent agenda agenda the chair will
037entertain a motion to accept the November 14th 2023 consent agenda as printed do I have a motion and a second so moved second all right Miss Cunningham and Miss Wyatt any discussion seeing none I'd like to call for a vote those in favor signify by saying I and those opposed nay i i i motion carries all right next we come to our action agenda for this evening and our first item on the agenda is the final approval of the 2024 legislative platform do I have a motion and a second so moved all right perfect we have a motion and a second any [Music] discussion Miss Fields yeah you're going to have to take care of that sorry uh thank you we had a lot of discussion during the work session about the the platform and
038I want to uh commend uh the staff for uh bringing some some very valuable issues that we need to address uh this this this year and I also want to thank uh the superintendent and Miss Dodge for uh revisiting the uh comments about permission slips I think the way that you all crafted it was uh was very uh good and captur everybody's thoughts so I would say great job on it and hopefully we'll be able to move some of these things off of the pl for thank you any other discussion at this point all right seeing none I would like to call for a vote those in favor signify by saying I and all those opposed nay hi hi motion carries next on our agenda we have the school board members re districting uh do
039I have a motion and a second so moved second all right and any discussion by fellow board members we have Miss Cunningham you're recognized thank you sir um okay as we discussed at the last meeting um I am not in favor of this of doing this um as we talked about last time we are at 6 months by the the time we do this to when qualifying occurs in June of 2024 secondly there may be other people that currently reside in my district that may want to run for the seat coming up so the timeline is really really very small to get this done thirdly with the statute changes it was told to us that you could only do this every odd year but that statute has changed and we can do it this can
040be addressed shortly after the election this coming year more importantly um I made a call to our supervisor of elections like I had promised Lori Edwards and I'd like to take a minute to pass out the letter and I'm going to read it publicly so that everybody knows what she has said Miss Edwards wrote me dear Lori the end of December we expect to perform a big redistricting project on the database of PK's voters if the PK School Board is redistricting we would like to have your new districts before that so we don't have to change each voter's record Twice The Supervisor of Elections office doesn't have a preference as to whether you redistrict or not our simple request is that whatever districts are to be used for the 2024 elections are communicated to us
041before the end of the year best wishes Lori Edwards supervisor of elections in talking to her there is no mandate they they they don't have a dog in the hunt so to speak they just said if you're going to do it we would like to know by the end of the year so that they can take their PR get their stuff their voter ident in order so that they don't have to change voter districts Midstream so I told everybody that I would call and as you can see I did it the day after our board meeting but wanted to present it here to you publicly tonight there is no mandate they are not mandating from the superise of Elections and quite frankly she chuckled and agreed with me and she said yeah it is kind
042of funny to do this six months before an individual would qualify for their election had this been 2020 or 2021 I wouldn't be sitting here um not in agreement I would be in agreement we could have moved on but I just feel with people that are out there ones who have already decided to to um to announce their candidacy plus others to do this to people six months before they have to qualify I just don't think that's appropriate um appropriate way to to deal with this so I cannot support this um and as I've just shown you it there's no mandate to have to do this right now now after the next election I'll be the first one to ask the board chair superintendent to put it on the agenda and we can move forward
043that gives people four years if you choose to change to be able to do so and be in that District but not at this late juncture in the election process thank you Miss Cunningham next up we have Miss Wyatt thank you Dr Allan I will be supporting this tonight um this is again as we've discussed this is based on our 2020 um census most other districts many other districts including our County government were able to do this in 2021 at that point we said we were going to delay until 2023 while we don't have to wait until 25 if we don't do this now we do have to wait until December of 2024 um which is still just as close to the next cycle of Elections um part of what this does and what what
044statute requires is that once we have the new census data that we have districts that are of equal size based on the population currently our districts are not of equal size based on the population um not doing this I feel like makes it where we won't have necessarily someone living where our largest growth area is um to make sure that that area is represented based on the population um that's why we do the census every 10 years is to make sure that we have someone representing in the different areas of our population where the people are um I'm sure that 50 60 years ago the districts looked very very different than they do today um because growth changes all the time um which is nothing to be said of our previous decisions that's what it
045was when the when we had that data then um but as we receive new data we should be updating as quickly as possible um in my opinion it having someone run that would not be in where the new population is indicating it is um would be a disservice to our students and to the the community that's in that area so I will be supporting this thank you Miss Wyatt uh Mr Niti you are recognized thank you uh Dr enen um I agree with everything that Mrs Cunningham said uh all her background work and everything is excellent job and um I will definitely uh vote with Mrs Cunningham on this situation thank you Mr Niti thank you all right at this point point I do not see okay Miss Fields you're recognized thank you uh we've
046had a lot of discussion about this and we delayed it uh for a minute uh waiting for Mr Bridges to come back from being out of town to give us some thoughts as it relates to the statute and all of that so uh I I respect Miss uh Cunningham's uh opinion and I also respect Miss White's opinion and I will be in support of uh the redistricting thank you Miss Fields all right so uh I was just going to follow up on this as well um superintendent Hy do you know if the redistricting team um maybe consult it with our supervisor of election actually we did she contacted us initially and gave us a deadline by which we would have to give her any redistricting information so that she could make sure that they updated
047all their information for voters okay all right looks like we have no other um speakers so we'll go ahead and move forward on this vote so I'd like to call for a vote now uh those in favor signifi signify by saying I I I I and all those opposed nay nay all right motion carries I didn't hear Jus we jce V I didn't vote you have to you have to vote I I'm sorry I just didn't come out with it um I'm going to vote uh I don't know I guess I guess it just um I'll vote I'll vote yay I'll vote yay all right did you get the roll call on that thank you all right so the next item on our agenda is our superintendent's report superintendent hi do you have a report
048for us tonight I do and then because I will not steal anyone's Thunder about last week's event um I'll leave that to you all to disclose we had a f will say that we had a fabulous event last Thursday night to honor and recognize you know some amazing employees that were nominated as our educator of the year and our employee of the year um their stories were touching I would argue that every year when we watch the videos and we get to meet all of the candidates and finalists it's it's amazing to be continually impressed because the level of their performance and their involvement and their engagement and the way their students and and their colleagues respond to them and parents respond to them just continues to rise every single year they're just an exceptional
049group of individuals and as I shared they're all winners but I'll leave it to each of you to celebrate for your finalists who won um so the next work session and board meeting will be held on December 12th 2023 the work session will begin at 12:30 p.m. and the board meeting will begin at 5:00 p.m. the meetings will be held at the district office located at 1915 South Floral Avenue in Barto and if I may for one brief moment go back to the event our our Aspire Awards I I you know you don't get to see the team and and we were talking earlier that many board members would love to have a window there so we could see the team who's working behind the scenes here to make all the magic happen and quite
050frankly the amount of work that that team puts in as well as Susan Copeland and many of her staff to pull off an absolutely extraordinary event this year from the hallways and the banners that were personalized that every single one of the candidates received this will receive this week um to the awards the staging the lighting the speeches I mean everything was just done absolutely well um exceptionally well and so they they deserve a lot of credit I know they're not in here to be recognized but I would be remiss if I did not point out what an amazing job they do for us to help us celebrate and identify just these outstanding individuals who who serve each and every day the needs of our students and community so I i' I'd be remiss if
051I didn't acknowledge them as well and to each of you for being present last week it was great to see you all uh Miss Cunningham threw me I have to admit she walked off the stage shook my hand and said you know we got it and I thought she knew cuz they don't see you soon yes you did see you soon see you soon and she threw me cuz I thought how did she cuz I don't know who the winners are and I thought for sure she knew who her winner was but it threw me there for a moment and to our sponsors you know the event sponsors who helped make that possible and you know to the company at the end um uh Jared Jared Ford for them not only to provide a $10,000
052award for the teacher of the year but after sitting through the event and listening to the amazing stories of our employee of the year they made that special announcement at the end that they were going to give that individual $5,000 to recognize their hard work and dedication and that's a true Testament for all of again how touching it was to watch those videos and hear about how these staff work with students clearly resonated within the community as well so very pleased and I'd love to acknowledge them publicly again because I thought that was a very special Testament to our staff and and our community so with that that concludes the superintendent's report Madam chair or Mr Sir Mr chair thanks Dr chair it's the shared it's the shared microphone that's throwing me off here it's
053Dr chair to you Dr chair it is Dr chair to me yes oh thank you for that report superintendent Hyde you're welcome sir next we actually have an attorney report for us this evening thank you Mr chair Dr Allen and Mr sharpless I would extend my congratulations to both of you I believe that both of you understand the gravity and importance of bringing leadership to this board through the next year and I look forward to working with you um that said I would request authority to advertise a public hearing to be held on January 23rd 2024 during the regularly scheduled school board meeting uh to to address changes to the student progression plan so moved second all right any discussion at this point all right all those in favor I I anybody opposed and the
054motion passes thank you Mr Bridges thank you Mr chair uh we do not have an Auditor's report but I want to say thank you for being present with us as always and always being active in your work so thank you Miss Matthews um next we we come to the fun part of the evening as well so we get to hear from our fellow board members and how active they've been around the district so uh I would actually like to start with District Two Miss Cunningham okay we can do that let me first start off by saying um my best congratulations to Dr Allen as our new chairman and to Mr sharpless as our vice chairman um I think yall have big shoes to fill U Miss Sarah Beth Wyatt has done a wonderful job over
055the past several years chairing our board meetings and leading us to the point that we are um but I'm very excited for the new opportunity and the new phase um so I wish you both the very best and I'm always here if any of you need anything addition sunshine in the sunshine yes of course of course I also wanted uh to say congratulations um to our teacher of the year uh which is Elizabeth Ashmore from Edgar El padet Elementary and our um School related employee of the year is uh Richard from East area adult school and I would be remiss if I didn't give a huge congratulations to District 2's finalists Miss Sherry Blackwood at Citrus Ridge a Civics Academy and Alberto kosme from Shelly Boon Middle School all of our finalists no matter what
056school they are no matter where they reside all of you are winners every teacher that's a teacher of the year or School related employee of the year you have our hats off are to each of you cuz it takes a village to raise a child across our district and our teachers our PA of professionals our bus drivers our custodians our cafeteria everybody media Specialists the list goes on and on everybody takes a part in building our children and helping them to grow and be the best citizens that they can be so let me say thank you from the bottom botom of my heart to everyone additionally as all of my colleagues I'm sure um we go around the county to different events so here's some of mine um I attended the um uh Battle of
057the books at bethon Academy several weeks ago and um oh how fun I got to read uh to a wonderful second grade classroom and my favorite book always is anything um um that's got to do with uh one of my favorite authors and now his name escapes me um oh the Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss Dr Seuss and I usually wear my little Dr Seuss hat and I have fun in the classrooms with my children and it's to motivate them because oh my goodness the places you can go you have to put your thinking cap on you have to work hard make good choices and you can go any place that you want to go so it was a wonderful day that I spent at bethud Academy um and thank you for the wonderful
058invitation then uh we had a wonderful um celebration at Scenic Terrace um on October 11th um which we did to honor the um opening if you will of the school and we had a lot of different people from all over the county come and celebrate with us as we were a able to um welcome uh the school the administrators the children everything and several of my colleagues of course attended alongside me and it was just a great morning of celebration for a beautiful new school um in a public private partnership that we have with public school um development Solutions and building tomorrow's schools and I just want to thank them publicly for the work that you do uh you built that school in 10 month months which is record time um on budget uh and
059I love the outcome of this relationship so hopefully there'll be more of those to come so thank you additionally um wow it's play season around the county so I attended um at Harrison theater um the uh Cinderella oh my goodness the star of the show Miss Emma Armstrong is a little little munchkin that we met when she was at DSA Davenport School of the Arts and I'll never forget my daughter was one of the leads in The Wizard of Oz and right after the play little Emma walked up and looked at Christina and said I hope I can be like you someday she as a freshman was selected as the lead for Cinderella at Harrison as a freshman the end of her freshman year only the second time it's been done done in the history
060of Harrison she's phenomenal she's going places in arts um I was so blessed that we were invited to attend um and also uh Mr sagaki before he passed chose this group of students to be in this play it was his it was his play and I know he's looking down and he's very proud so kudos to um wow who do I say first of all Mr Levine as the principal um Miss Lambert um CC Ingram for costumes uh Rob Lambert for the orchestra um um Tyler Campbell for music I mean it's just it's an extraordinary group of teachers that work with those students um and we're so blessed so kudos to everybody at Harrison for doing such an extraordinary job during a very difficult time cuz during this week of production as most of you
061may know we got the text from superintendent Hyde that that young lady who was a junior and played in the orchestra that was going to open on Thursday night had passed away so those students that school it's it's it's been a week that whole week was very very difficult and I don't know how many people know but the mom of the young lady who had passed reached out to Mr Lambert and asked if the orchestra Department Orchestra kids could come and play at her funeral on Thursday morning and then opening night was Thursday night so keep Harrison theater Orchestra kids faculty and that family in your prayers as we go forward it's been a difficult time for a lot of families but they did an amazing job then last weekend um I was blessed to
062go to Davenport School of the Arts and see The Nutcracker amazing and I know Miss Winchester and I went on the same night so it was fun to see you there once again just you know Mrs Kain and Mr mosberg who was here earlier his son Alec received one of the um recipients of one of the awards tonight um we're so proud of both of you and what you do um and kudos to miss Brighton and her leadership team for allowing them to be creative have fun and do what they do so well um and to Barbara and Hubert uh who are always there backstage doing costumes and sets and you know doing everything to make those plays absolutely phenomenal for a K through 8 school so just want to say um thank you and
063congratulations on another great theater production at Davenport School of the Arts and in conclusion I just want to wish everybody a happy and blessed Thanksgiving and be sure to take some time to thank your family and to thank those around you and tell them you love them life is too short as we've witnessed here recently y'all be be blessed thank you thank you m Cunningham um Mr Niti uh thank you Dr alen and uh thank you superintendent Hyde and congratulations uh Dr alen and congratulations uh Justin sharpless for being elected and surth thank you for the great job you've done and uh I can't follow that act right there that was a great job Mrs Cunningham all those wonderful things you went to I uh can't uh top uh superintendent's Hyde uh in the congratulations
064for the Inspire Awards I thought it was something that was put on by Hollywood it was fabulous uh just everybody was uh well represented and uh I can't I can't thank uh all the employees in uh Pope County enough for all the great work they do I I wish we could uh give everybody across the board about a 25 35% pay raise but I know we're working on it um I guess uh there's so many good things going on in the uh pop County school system and uh just everybody if you get a chance to have any extra time spare time please volunteer at your local school read them some books read them some good books and um let's keep everybody active over the coming holiday I ran across an old Irish blessing I thought
065was pretty appr propo it says Happy Thanksgiving may love and laughter light your days and warm your heart and home May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you May Roam may peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures may all life's passing Seasons bring the best to you and yours so again uh may God bless pop County all its students its awesome families all our wonderful employees have a great holiday Happy Thanksgiving God bless thank you Mr Niti we're going to move to District 4 next and that would be Miss Wyatt thank you Dr Allen first want to say congratulations to Dr Allen and Mr sharpless have fun enjoy it um and you're going to do great I'm so excited for you um I do want to of course recognize I
066don't know if anybody realized this but um the teacher of the year and school related employee of the year were again from District Four and district 7 So Lisa and I'm are kind of rocking in she's not here so I'm gonna gonna give her some Kudos um but I want to give a huge shout out to both Elizabeth Ashmore and Richard re with East area adult um and then also my District Four teacher of the year I am still not really sure how he didn't win because Robert's pretty incredible um but I know that you can't give everything to District 4 so it's fine um in a season of thankfulness and in all seriousness we have a lot to be thankful for in P County Public Schools um one of the things that we have
067coming up this week and a couple schools have done theirs a couple days early but is Great American teaching um so business partners out there if you're thinking man I really have some extra time on Thursday contact your local school because I know that there are several of them that would still love to have some more businesses come out to talk to their students about what they can do in their futures um but I also just want to give a huge shout out to all of our our local businesses that have given of their time and talents to be able to inspire young minds because if you can't see it you can't be it and it's a great opportunity to show our students what all opportunities are out there and that will conclude my report
068thank you Miss Wyatt and District Five Miss Fields thank you Dr Allen I have a few items here first of all I want to thank you Sarah Beth for the amazing job that you did for two years that was not an easy lift so we want to thank you for your sacrifices and your family Sacrifice by allowing you to do that extra lift so great job and I want to uh congratulate Dr Allen and Mr sharess as well I'm sure that you guys would do a great job um last at our last board meeting I challenged each of the board members to uh make a contribution to the United Way campaign everyone should have received their form and it is easy to do doesn't take nothing but a minute and it is payroll deductible so
069you don't even miss it I don't miss mine so I'm encouraging you all to to do that because there are so many agencies and organizations that can benefit and that do benefit from all of the services that United Way provides in our community and we never know when we when we actually might need the services so I just encourage you all to uh consider doing that and then um I know that Dr Allen and I were at um Harrison for cerella last week we sat next to each other with our families and uh we had a great uh evening and the students are just phenomenal I mean they are just amazing all the talent that we have I want to congratulate them and and the leadership of the school and all the staff that was
070involved in such a great production and then I was out at Dr Annie Roberts a couple of weeks ago where Charlene Richardson Brinson was given the honor of having the media center named in her honor so now it is the Charlene Richardson bson media center and so we want to congratulate her for her accomplishments and and the staff for their hard work in making sure that that happened and then I think the highlight of the month for me was the renaming of the nin great Freshman Academy at Kathleen High School in memory of the late Johnny Jackson uh it was a great morning u Lisa Miller was there along with superintendent Hy and others and we uh were just in awe all of the young men that said such great things about uh Mr Jackson
071and so now the Freshman Academy is the Johnny Jackson night Academy and we want to thank Mr dord Jones and Miss Pauline summons Brown and the sack committee for making sure that this happened uh and uh and for a great event and then I just would uh did what everyone said about the teacher of the year event and superintendent Hyde I would I would uh appreciate it at some point in time that we can have the staff that was involved in that to come and be recognized uh cuz like you said nobody can see them behind those those walls but they do a lot of hard work we want to recognize them for that and congratulations to everyone that was selected as a teacher of the year of the employee related uh employee of the
072year even if they were not a finalist there were many people that were uh recognized uh in their school and they need to be honored and um the last thing that I would say w said something that I think is very important and I think that as we have our Retreat and some of the things we can be reminded of but I I hope that we all understand that we are always in the sunshine and when we're doing things we need to make be mindful of of that so I'll end my report with that thank you Miss fields and District Six Mr sharpless thank you uh thank you am I oh I'm sorry it's all good thank you uh chair Allen um I first want to start off by thanking uh Sarah Beth Wyatt for
073the leadership um you'll always be the board chair when I when I was you know brought onto this thing and I'll never I'll never forget that so I want to thank you for your leadership and um you know just what you've given this board for the last two years um I also want to thank all my fellow board members um for the uh vote of confidence you have in me to be Vice chair that means a lot um I truly I do not take that for granted and plan on working hard I'm looking forward to serving next to this man right here uh Dr Allen as our chair and so I'm always here to help support and what we need to do um to keep this board moving forward um want to just uh update
074you on a couple of my initiatives first My AG literacy initiative um I read I've I've read to eight different elementary schools um in fact one of Thee elementary schools dundy had me read to every student in the entire school that was really interesting normally I go into a classroom and I read to one classroom I was in the cafeteria and they brought grade levels in for me to read to and that was very uh yeah it was a lot but I I really enjoyed it um and so I'm taking a pause on that um for the rest of this semester and um uh also I'm going to switch over I was reading a book about Florida's dairy industry um the next book is going to be about uh Florida's uh apiary industry or our
075bees and our pollinators so Elementary School principles and teachers if you're interested in me reading to your classes um email me so we can start playing on starting in January me me me bringing that back um also Friday Night Lights I visited 10 different High School home football fields this season and man getting to go around and see the people um it was truly uh an enjoyment I love I love football it's my my favorite sport so it's and high school there's nothing better than high school football as far as Athletics in my opinion uh so it's great going out there um want to say uh good luck to both uh Lakeland High School as they host Barto as well as Barto and they we play this Friday night uh in the state tournament as
076well as Lakewell high school that will be uh playing Friday night as well um that's the Pope County teams that are left to continue um on toward the state championship in football uh I want to Echo the Inspire Awards remarks um I think it's appropriately named the Inspire Awards because if you do not come away from that event inspired then I don't think you have a heartbeat um you know it's it's truly to see to see the videos and I I hope we make those publicly available to see the videos and and the testimonies from the administration from the especially the students the student uh you know testimonies about their teachers about the school related employees is remarkable um and the impact they're making so um yeah this and also this Inspire Awards was especially
077uh impressed impressive for me um memorable because um my father uh was a teacher of the year he was not a district finalist but he was teacher of the year for Roosevelt Academy in Lake Wales so getting to attend an event like that and being U the presence of your father is is is is heartwarming to say the least um I also want to mention a couple more things I was at on November 2nd I went to the Poke County Public Schools learning Support Division Town Hall at Lake Region High School um you know there's still a couple more of those coming up uh so make sure that if if you interested in in learning more about our learning Support Division that you that you attend those and ask questions um I would like to
078see a little more attendance from the public there at those those so make sure you come out and and learn more about our learning Support Division um two more things first um earlier this since last board meeting I attended um the dedication ceremony for the Rosevelt Academy welding program um I want to say thank you to the gasset and Garcia family for donating the funds and the generosity to start that program um you know I'm a big advocate for Career Technical education and our students learning uh career skills and I think a welding uh program like that at a school like Roosevelt is something that can be a GameChanger for some of those students and employment and finally um on a more somber note I want I'm asking everyone could keep Lake Region High School
079the community um the students faculty in their in your thoughts and prayers um we lost a student this past week to an altercation um not at the school site but it was one of our students there at Lake Region High School um so please uh you know keep them in your thoughts and prayers and that's all I have all right thank you Mr Shas and I'll just finish with a couple comments as well uh first of all Miss Wyatt thank you thank you for your service I was reflecting um just thinking this this evening um you went through a lot of changes within the two years I think so I think your name even changed during the day I took over that's right um so you know you you've had some big Life Changes in
080the midst of your service and you didn't miss a beat uh you gave your whole heart so for that we are very appreciative so thank you so much for your leadership um and just a a few things here uh as well I get to serve alongside this guy so thank you um for what you're going to bring to this board as well and I appreciate that uh board members thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve and I look forward to doing that as well I I did want to just say thanks to Mr Miller and Miss Everett I was really excited to see that many students in the boardroom tonight um just that energy um it's it really changes uh the boardroom so I really appreciate the work I mean just think about
081how many parents were out and gave their time as well this evening uh in support of their their children um the Inspire Awards yes I mean we we've said so much about that and and the videos and I I'll say this every time uh the market value on one video just one that we saw is at least 30 to $50,000 um if you were to go out to Market and have a little short mini dock like that produce and we had so many of those that we saw that night and then that's just to produce it but you think about the impact of that you know we had well over 800 people in the audience probably the most uh some of the most educated in uh our Workforce uh within P County as well and
082I I said a comment at the um stage that they were the best dressed Workforce as well so just the impact in the contribution of Jarrett Ford and them hearing those stories so not only the value of the work itself but then how that work impacted and it's obviously the individuals that are in those films um that really made the lasting impression on all of our Lives to inspire us as well um so I just want to say congrats to all of the Inspire award honores and then our winners as well um I did want to say thanks to the learning support staff we're spending a time as they moved all around our County during their Town Hall series I did have a chance to step into Sleepy Hill um and just hear a little
083bit about some of those things as it relates to our behavioral our mental health and the ese needs of P County's Youth I know we had one last night as well um so that's been a a a great um around the around the board and around the clock and their work and their time outside of their normal day-to-day uh to share some of those things with our community also want to say thanks to Lakeland leads um had a chance to just hear from a diverse educational uh group of leaders that came from all over the United States to really bring some best practices and then really get to compare and hear some of those things I wanted to just send a really deep appreciation to Dr Melanie Ryder for for building that panel of experts
084I think it was entitled panel of experts and empowering through engagement um and just a couple things that I was really drawn to was the youth apprenticeship initiatives uh this this idea of social capital and this sense of what a gap and what gaps lie with our within a community as it relates to social gap or social capital and how you can fill that and close that um some other thing around Community competencies and then Pathways to to Mobility um so it's really good to churn on some data from all around the United States and some of these best practices and really critically evaluate and maybe with the hopes of that we can uh bring some of that uh within P County as well um in the ancient world music and literature were indistinguishable and
085then it like moved to music as theatrical and I was thinking about that in the context of history of music and how that really impacts and shapes our students uh had a chance to stop over at the all count marching band assessments uh that was uh quite quite fun to see um 50 yard line at the very very top uh you can see our judges curating doing play byplay as the performance is going on it was just such an artistic expression and music just sort of unifies in in a big way and you can really see the audience just really come alive as certain genres of music would play based on error and so forth and almost like this big massive singalong and it was led by our students it was so cool um so
086great to celebrate music and culture at that event our our students were incredible and that really dovetailed into what um what we heard about some of the other performances happening had a chance to sit with Miss Fields um and her husband for that night and what was really cool we were just coming off of National principal month and lo and behold this gentleman comes up behind me and grabs my arm and he's like Mr Allen and it was my high school principal from 30 years ago um because I just celebrated my 30th year from Barto high school and there he was Ernie Cooper um to see him in person oh my goodness I did have to go to the principal's office a few times just so you know uh so he knew me pretty well
087um but it it's cool to see our Educators still um pour into our students and love what happens in P County Schools so Mr Cooper thank you thank you thank you um so with that I think that's how I'm going to wrap up some of my comments so as we move down to that next item on our agenda is public comments uh addressing items not on our agenda tonight so I have a list of individuals who have signed up to speak today so if you could please come forward when I call your name and I'll have you state your name and address for the record uh and you'll have three minutes to speak and first of all uh we have Bernard Wells if you can come on up and on Deck we have Lisa Santana
088greetings to each of you my name is Bernard Wells from wter Haven since the initial town hall meeting of the learning Support Division there has consistently been an extremely low turnout among parents I take that as poor planning the majority of the attendees of are Schoolboard employees to include board members uh when you consider the total salaries of the District staff and state employees requested to attend these Town Hall meetings there is not a justifiable return on the investment as the salary total well over $20,000 per night not including travel reimbursements when you think about the five total townhouse meeting that equates to approximately $100,000 with less than five parents attending per meeting to date although I'm sure Mr will disagree with that number and have different numbers to share with you furthermore it is
089in disheartening to hear that Mr Hyde uh will continue to share misinformation about the evaluation timeline he is consistently he is inconsistent with the information to parents uh presenting this information he tries to make the parents believe that the law is the culprate when it comes from the district's inability to evaluate students in a timely manner the law is not the issue it is the people that's Distributing information incorrectly about the law which is continuing to buy excuses for the district not implementing the law correctly Mr Hyde you are the face of the district parents should be able to trust what you say as accurate and true the truth starts with you sir I attended the very first town hall meeting held at Roosevelt Academy I submitted cards several cards with my questions as requested
090I was very disappointed to hear I was very disappointed that Mr Gary did not present the questions to the panel as they was written on the card this further speaks to the deceptive practices with misinformation to the public this is the prime example of the lack of transparency when it comes to the issues appearing in the district rather than using this as an opportunity to address recurrent issue you chose to control the narrative and paint a rose-colored picture to the public as usual in the words of Miss Cunningham everything can't be perfect as you portray them it's unrealistic it is also Unbecoming to have the assistant superintendent of learning support reading everything from her notes or slides during the town hall meeting it appears that she is incompetent and lacks the confidence and knowledge based
091to deliver information uh in a pertinent to the that is pertinent to the succcess of the of the division this could be true if you were to consider her record coming from Sarasota County Public Schools it is the direct correlation Wells thank you next up is Lisa Santana and on Deck would be Stephanie Yokum hello guys um my name is elza Santana and you said you needed my address or did I miss please like my home address City will be fine uh hanne city thank you so my name is Liza Santana and I teach fifth grade ELA and I come before you a teacher who loves her job but is extremely frustrated I found out today that um I would be only getting paid $400 a month which is an insane unlivable wage um and
092since I've been hired I feel like there's been nothing but issues with my payroll the first problem was I contacted my district multiple times to tell them I needed to up my bank account and they did not get back to me um when somebody did respond back to me she only responded back to tell me that it was no longer her issue basically that it had to go to somebody else so I emailed that person they never responded I emailed her again to say hey that person you told me to tell did not respond um and then my first check went to a closed bank account and when I went to my pay officer she had told me she forwarded me an email from the district saying while payroll was processed we can't cut a
093check for her it's been done that's it it's over and I feel like the only reason I did get paid timely was because I demanded that they pay me I told them I do not work for free the same way none of you work for free um I love what I do my kids scores have gone up I have the kids that they told me were the worst of the worst they were unmanageable maybe it's the Puerto Rican New Yorker and me I don't know what it is but these kids love me and I love them back but I can't do it off of $1,400 a month guys um I was told to pass my FTC uh subject exam which I did and this is an exam that I was told people have taken nine
094times eight times seven times I did it on my second time I'm not an education major but I did study literature and I have $58,000 in school debt to prove it and for some reason I did not qualify for a teacher salary so I feel like even after um sending in all my paperwork telling them it's been three or four days my district has not contacted me back I need my district to ride for me the way I ride for them if I have to jump through obstacles for you to to prove that I want to be here you should jump through obstacles to prove that you want to keep me because before I even knew this meeting was going to happen I had walked into my representative's office and said I think I'm going
095to quit I made more money doing customer service I didn't get into teaching for the money but I can't live off of this and I feel like if I don't have a district that wants to communicate with me why do I want to communicate with them why do I have to keep proving to my district that I deserve to be paid something that I deserve to not have to choose between feeding my cats or washing laundry and maybe you guys think these are not your concerns but somebody set up these rules somebody said I only qualified for $15 an hour that then gets reduced to around uh 700 by weekly because they take out a portion to cover days that I can't work as of holidays I want to be here I want to be
096with my students I need my district to have my back the same way I have my students back thank you Miss s thank you Miss Yokum uh and on Deck we have Josie ARA scouting Stephanie okum president of the pul Education Association uh at aarto Florida um it's kind of a similar vein uh with payroll Personnel uh and races um communication has to improve um we were we were given tentative timelines for into November for raises and it's not happening it's going to be end in December now um which more than two months after you guys have ratified and we have ratified it's unacceptable um our teachers our pair Educators our secretaries show up every day and put all students first we're on the front lines doing the work and we expect our district to
097have our back and prioritize us getting the money that we've already earned and we need communication to improve um the fact that we learned that it was going to be end December in a public meeting last work session is unacceptable and you see the the tears and they're not tears of weakness they're tears of anger because we deserve better we deserve to have a district that cares about us just as much as we care about kids and to get raises after the holidays essentially just a couple days before we return back to work is unacceptable we have to have communication be better and to have this process run smoother we can cannot continue to present and have our units vote on raises and then have you all vote on raises and not see them for
098more than two months there has to be a better way to do this and we are asking for a better way to do this and so if there's a middle ground that we can reach for December 15th before we leave for win our break we are asking for that so that we can get some kind of money in people's hands before they go on Christmas break and on winter holiday and so while the end of November may not be realistic at this point we need to collaborate and communicate and get some money into people's hands December 15th before we go on winter holiday thank you thank you Miss Yokum Jos arus gouty and Robert Goodman you're on Deck I am Josie Aras gouty I am from Lakeland this is my 18th year teaching for pole
099County Schools I am sorry that you have to sit here month after month listening to the lies that have happening in our classrooms if all of those individuals would volunteer they would have a different opinion of what's happening in our schools I'm here today not only speaking for myself but on behalf of all the teachers that live too far are at the second jobs or fear retaliation for speaking up parents who aren't able to be here because they have busy providing for their families aren't aware they can attend or simply don't speak English I am here because the State of Florida continues to make decisions that are negatively affecting public education as a result we have lost our beloved Class Dojo I was able to send individual or group messages post pictures which help parents
100feel connected to our class and receive instant feedback from parents School messenger is the method of communication we are using now some teachers had no idea until they they saw a Facebook post some parents have been unable to connect I don't get alerts so if I'm not on the actual website I can't see the message I know parents that have tried to log on they can't one parent tried to send a private message it went to the whole group and said and some messages are even posting the following day as you know effective communication which seems to be a Hot Topic today between parents and teachers is essential for the overall well-being and success of our students neglecting this vital element can have a significant and negative impact on their education and the relationships we
101strive to build engaged and informed parents are more likely to be involved in their child's education parents now feel detached from the school environment and are less likely to participate in their childic learning or school activities I urge the PO County School Board to consider the significance of parent teacher communication and take measures to ensure that it remains a central pillar of the our education system open and effective channels of communication help create and collaborate collaborative and supportive learning environment that benefits our students in the entire School Community I've been looking into other communication apps and I noticed that talking points is approved on the pure list which by the way School messenger is still under review can we look into blooms blooms has won awards for their privacy and security and is similar to
102class SoJO thank you thank you Robert Goodman you're up next thank you board the first thing I want to say is I want to congratulate you Dr Allen and you Mr sharpless for your new positions and I want to thank the rest of the board for unanimously supporting to find members of the board to step up to those positions we look forward to working with you um also thank you for your service for the last two years Miss Wyatt tonight I wanted to briefly bring up some corrections to some emails that were sent out about book challenges after our last meeting uh two books that were in the P County School seems to have been removed from the libraries I'm not upset about that I think it's thankful I'm glad I took screenshots that I
103that showed where they were but pushed by Sapphire was at George Jenkins and Ridge Community High School now it appears that it's gone Jesus Land by Julia shears was showing at Lake Gibson High and it's no longer there I don't know who removed those books but I want to thank them whether it was the board whether it was the superintendent whether it was the media center specialist at those schools thank you because those books have a lot of pornographic and harmful content and it it makes me feel good that we see that they're not there I know no one wants to get the public who is against pornography in schools to have a public win but the fact that these books are no longer there is something that is gives me some hope in for
104in the month of November something to be thankful for um one thing that I hope the board will address coming in the new year is that none of the book challenges in schools have been done according with your own policy 2522 there are some very specific things that happen in that policy I won't take time to discuss it tonight I would like to discuss it with some of you oneon-one but no book challenge es in our County since I've lived here have been done according to the policy in place at the time and hopefully we're going to see some changes with that I'd like I'd like for you to follow your own policies um other than that I just want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and especially the two of you that
105have new members at your Thanksgiving table for the first time this year congratulations to both of you again and I hope the board has a great holiday we look forward to working with all of you in the future thank you Mr Goodman that concludes our speakers uh who've signed up to speak this evening Mr chair if I may um we do have Brian Warren here so he can address the concerns expressed by the young lady in back as it relates to her salary and payroll issues I'm not quite sure I followed what the actual issue was but Mr Warren is here but I do have Mr pittz and Mrs Pasco here there seems to be when we talk about communication we talk about the pay raises this board was told on October 24th that we
106needed to approve backto back so that we could issue these payments in December not in November but in December and so the team has been adamant that while they said they would strive to get payroll done in November there was never a commitment to that effect we remain committed to try and process payroll as quickly as we can the problems that we've run into in the past however when we've tried to do this expeditiously is we end up issuing over payments or under payments to staff which frustrates him even f further and so the amount of time and you look at thanks you look at November and you look at December that are both very much abbreviated work months with only two weeks available in December and only three weeks available in November the amount
107of programming that has to take place for over 14,000 employees to ensure that their payroll is done accurately and that they get their retroactive pay it's a it's a heavy task and one that needs to be done correctly and so we appreciate the frustration by PE a and let's be very candid about the fact that this board and this superintendent have been more aggressive at negotiating pay raisers than ever before and so to have someone stand here and make those comments and aod the confidence and trust and the relationship that we've built based on that the fact that we are focused on our employees we've given three pay raises in less than 24 months to these groups because their pay has been suppressed and this board has supported that each and every time but I
108won't have the team thrown to the Wolves because someone else overc committed or over promised something so I remain committed to trying to find a solution if we can issue payroll by December 15th absolutely if we can do a partial payment by December 15th absolutely and I'll give the board an update but I want to be clear here on the public record we stated when we could issue those pay that payroll and the board asked I Believe Miss fields and other asked me the question when we were in workshop and in the board meeting if we don't approve this back toback what does that mean I said we would not be able to process payroll until January or February and so the board took action to allow us to process this as quickly as we
109could so Mr pittz Mr Warren Miss Pasco are here to address the concerns that were that were brought up today about payroll if the board has any specific questions yeah there there were many things that were mentioned by a previous public speaker um that was that was a per perfect example of miscommunication and we'll be able to provide you some information so you understand sure let me start over let me say that there was some miscommunication presented tonight from a previous public speaker um and we have all the communication that has taken place we have the video of the last work session where I clearly stated that it would be the end of the month payroll in December for which pises would be processed one of the reasons um that it was December 30 it's
110actually December 29th will be the payday um had to do with a new process we're instituting this year where employees will be able to see their uh pay raise ahead of time and can then ask questions and talk to HR staff EXP explaining how they were placed on the new salary schedule we've never done that before um the other thing that that does is is give us extra time to ensure that Fidelity was done in processing these paychecks um so I'd like to provide that information to you um and so that that there is a full commitment uh that you see from our side in communicating this information after I made that statement uh during the last work session that December 29th would be the pay date I have received no question from pea about
111that and as and as recent as yesterday PA was still sending out um information that paychecks would arrive in November so we'll be doing a lot of work to clear up the communication um and so employees know know what the the real story is um I have other staff here that can can respond if I haven't responded uh correctly or anything that they would want to add but that's all I have to say tonight thank you sir Mr y I want to say superintendent H and I have not agreed on a lot of things and it is what it is but I will say from my experience whenever there's been a concern and I've gone to the superintendent he has listened and nine times out of 10 he's addressed the issue so I I believe
112that if this can be resolved in some way a partial uh payment for the middle of December and if it can't then as quickly as possible I remember when we had previous folks in payroll Dana uh they would work almost 24 hours a day trying to meet the obligations that we committed to so I know it's a heavy LIF and we're going to do the best that we can but I just want the public to understand that you do listen again we don't always agree and we're not but that's okay but you do listen and I think ultimately you want what's best for the for the uh employees and your team I believe that now communication is an issue and we talked about that too uh and I know that you're working on that thank
113you Dr Allen yes Miss Miss Fields anybody else want to contribute to this Miss Cunningham you're recognized thank you Dr Ellen um just want to say golly it's so hard I am so proud of the teamwork that our district and our Union have done to get to the point of raises um I'm shocked to hear Miss y come come up to the podium after never mentioning anything or discussing anything with our team that's that's so frustrating to me if you have a problem don't come before us in a public setting please if the communication lines are open between both reach out but I did clearly hear superintendent because even I went oh gosh darn I wish you know everybody could get their paychecks whatever end of November was kind of what I think people were
114thinking but we were told it can't work for whatever reasons um I mean it is what it is we're a growing District I mean there's programming there's just so much that go into this um that I hate to taint the fact that we're issuing raises across all bodies this is unbelievable in the times in which we live and we need to consider ourselves blessed that our two groups work together for the common good to help folks the fact that it might be 4 days after Christmas we're talking 4 days 25 to 29 is what I think Mr P pit said um I know it's Christmas I get it our family celebrates and for those of you that celebrate other holidays I understand but I think doing this to to taint what all the good work
115that's gone into this from both sides over 4 days is it's a little bit hard for me to understand when we were told at our last board meeting when we approved it and ratified it as Miss Wyatt as chair did a backto back so that we could in fact get it done as quick as possible so I just hope we can come to some resolution and if we can't do it till the 29th of December then we can't we're doing the best that we can given what we have um and you know I'm not going to sit here and say I think staff should work 24/7 to get the I think that's crazy people have lives they have obligations people have whatever going on just like our teachers and everyone else so let's be humble
116let's be gracious let's step back and and let's not get ugly at this time of year when we're trying so hard to do the right thing thank you thank you Miss Cunningham Miss Pasco yes sir you're recognized yes sir thank you so for those listening from home my name is Ann Pasco I'm the assistant superintendent of it and we're all arguing about what my team can do so I'd like to give some explanation first of all I'd like to recognize that I have two members that have just walked in I have Rob laach who was recognized a few weeks ago as the senior director of business process services and it is what time 6:55 at night Mr lawback got here this morning at 6:30 he is not required to attend board meetings he also has
117with him the director of software development Diane Rivera she is trying to leave the country to attend a family event and she is staying here tonight to address this issue none of that was done because they knew what public comment was going to be the reality is this we are a small it shop we have 110 staff members our business process Services which is under Mr lawback has five six six toal six total staff members in order to accomplish what we have asked we must reconfigure sap and we have two choices we can do that and follow the path that Mr pittz has laid out where we let staff see their paycheck and weigh in before they get paid on what might be an error so that while we're out for holidays people have confidence
118in their check and feel good about paying their bills or if the board and Mr Hyo request we can push that up earlier however if it is pushed up earlier we cannot give you any confidence that we would have had time to do error checking now I feel some responsibility about this because I was asked outside of negotiations and that is my lesson learned could we have this system ready by Thanksgiving and I said yes and I stand by that we met today including Mr pittz Mr Warren multiple other people of the staff we at P County are extremely committed to trying to make sure our staff are paid correctly it takes time to do these things I would love nothing more than to tell you I can snap my fingers and I can give
119you a new system that will do everything the way we want it to do but that is not reality everyone has to get paid and we get paid based upon systems and systems take time and Personnel to implement so I think we have a choice we have a choice to decide how we're going to problem solve together collaboratively without throwing each other under the bus amen and recognize that there are very hard people working on both sides of the fence the IT department is happy to do what you request but Miss Cunningham I greatly appreciate your statement because Mr lawback personally including someone else from Miss jenkin's team worked all last weekend on this Mr Warren has a staff member who also worked on the weekend we have met daily on this we are not
120sitting around twiddling our thumbs but we all know and Mr Hyde is 100% correct overpayment situations do not benefit this District once you overpay someone in any situation it's hard to get that money back our money needs to go for what students need in order to learn and we need to streamline those systems so that people have Fidelity and Trust in what we're doing that is what we're trying to do you will hear from us in a couple weeks about a sap upgrade the reality is that system has not been upgraded since 2011 that is causing some of the problems as well I understand that can be hard for people to hear I understand it can be hard for them to understand but you do have a committed group of people working very very hard
121to try to make this happen and I think that's evidenced by the fact I had no idea this was going to come up tonight and neither did two of my staff members and they happen to be here working on it we are 100% happy to share as much as we can about what we're doing without giving away information that would put us into a negative situation that someone could come in and know things about us they shouldn't know but one thing I will say we need to learn how to do this together none of us as humans deserve this type of vitriol it does not benefit the students it does not benefit the board it does not benefit us the last thing I will say is I chose to come to P County I am
122really hoping that my colleagues including pea can be the kind of people I know we can be to provide the kind of service the P County kids deserve Mr Hyde I will leave that up to you and the board to decide we can Mr lawback provide config no okay so you let us know what you want thank you m Pasco will address superintendent hi do you want to have any last comments here no board members at this point uh our our next order of business is adjournment um there being no further business uh this meeting of the pole County School Board is is now adjourned