001foreign [Music] good evening I would like to ask Reverend Harris to come lead us in our invocation and then if you all will join me in the pledge if everyone would please stand pray together but your kingdom come Lord let you will be done on Earth as it is in heaven as we meet today come be with us come dwell with us guide us guide our thoughts our ideas guide our discussions thank you for creating all of us in your image giving us all intrinsic worth and value thank you once again for another day and we pray this all in your son's name amen and I will now ask Addie Pila to come and lead us in the pledge if you want to come right up to the microphone right there if you can pull
002it down just a little bit yeah perfect I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all may be seated hey Addie I have some questions for you can you come back up to the microphone how's it going good did you have a good day at school today yes were you excited to be back yes what grade are you in third third and where do you go to school nice so what is your favorite subject in school math what do you like most about math um adding and subtracting very good so I hear that you show livestock can you tell us a little bit about that what do you do when you go
003show livestock uh we compete against other animals and the the judge picks who who he thinks is the best very nice and what type of animal do you show I show a main and a cemeter and that is awesome that is super exciting and what sport do you play softball what position um first first very nice man you must be a good catch well thank you so much for joining us this evening did you bring anybody with you um your mom thank you Mom for bringing her to come and do the pledge for us tonight ask them well I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your school year thank you and we will see you next time [Applause] all right this meeting is now called to order for Tuesday September 5th 2023. our
004first order of business is to accept the school board agenda for this evening superintendent hi do we have any revisions sorry madam chair item F number one new administrators updated description and an attachment was provided item J number three demolition of security trailer at 205 15th Street Northeast Winter Haven has been removed item j4 project c00325 Elbert Elementary campus modernization construction manager selection and contract and pre-construction service fee of 78 399 item was also removed superintendent Hyde and to accept the September 5th 2023 school board agenda with revisions as presented second Miss Cunningham and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries the next order of business is public comments for items on the agenda to be voted upon as adopted
005at the start of this meeting as a reminder we will have two Opera sorry three opportunities for public comment this evening the first will be for items on this evening's agenda to be voted upon the second will be during Pub during the public hearing for our public hearing topics and then at the end of the meeting we will have an additional opportunity for public comments on items that are not on this evening's agenda to be voted upon to register to speak community members must fill out a speaker card in the lobby prior to the meeting all speakers will be given three minutes the light will turn yellow when you have one minute left and will you will hear a beep when your time is concluded all comments should be directed to myself as the board
006chair as a reminder public comments are an opportunity for us to hear your thoughts and comments and this is not a question and answer session however if you are seeking additional information I encourage you to contact any of us or the superintendent's office outside of board meetings and we'd be happy to have deeper conversations so the first I have for on agenda items is Donna Windsor and on Deck is Pam loose foreign thank you for being here this evening also thank you to the officers here to keep us safe I wanted to just speak on the and I'll be brief I don't have much but um the first agenda item the education of homeless children youth project I really just wanted to express my support of anything and everything that you can do to to
007reach out to at-risk youth particularly the homeless among us all the way through even their um you know their 18th year where some of them are still seniors in high school it is important they're a part of our community whether you know you're comfortable with it or not they're a part of our community there's a lot more homeless youth than most statistics report and I just think it's imperative that we do everything we can to reach out to them to help them break that cycle for themselves thank you so much and next is Pam loose well good evening I've given you a handout in reference to the five-year capital and and work plan which is item j3 on the consent agenda one is a copy of last year's actual work plan the other is the
008documents placed on the agenda as if they were part of the 2023-24 work plan please read the notes on each when you have time this item should not be on the consent agenda nor should it be on the agenda at all at this time the state requirements for educational facilities state that the five-year work plan should be submitted to Doe by October 1st of every year however the legislature has been late every year for the last several years in completing the state budget for doe and has not ndoe has not been able to load the budget into the ifas software system that leaves school districts unable to enter their data into the system and balance the plan you've heard that from Mr McLemore I contacted Doe and the plan will not be open for about
009two weeks the OE is aware that it is not the fault of the districts and has not held any District accountable for not having the plans submitted by October 1st but for some reason Polk County staff over the last few years has tried to do kind of a bait and switch and has given you an internal Capital plan well the the 2023 document in your hand is what the plan should look like the five-year work plan is on the agenda today is not the plan which will be submitted to doe how could it be the plan's not open in the software yet we don't have budget numbers to work with and we don't have revenues especially to work with and you'll see that that's not on your agenda item there's no Revenue um the reason
010that this cannot be on the consent agenda and there's some there's some dispute on that and and we'll get it straightened down but according to doe Florida Statutes state that provision shall be made for public comment concerning the district educational facilities plan if it's on the consent agenda there's not an opportunity for the public to comment it also states that five-year District facilities work program shall be counted as zero capacity at the time the work program is adopted and approved by the school board that means you have to have the completed work plan that is balanced through the revenue and expenditures and this can't be done prior to the opening of the work plan plan at ifas and according to one thousand point one thousand one point forty two Florida Statutes it is the responsibility
011of the school board to take steps to assure that students have adequate educational facilities next on the agenda will be the approval of the minutes first we'll look at the August 22nd 2023 school board meeting and I'll now seek a motion to approve the minutes from the August 22nd 2023 school board meeting second Miss Miller and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion carries and next we'll look at the August 22nd 2023 work session so I'll now seek a motion to approve the minutes from the August 22nd 2023 work session move to approve second Miss Miller and Dr sharpless Mr sharpless sorry any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion
012carries next will be approval of the consent agenda so I'll now seek a motion to approve the September 5th 2023 consent agenda move to approve second Dr Allen and Mr sharpless any discussion Ms Fields superintendent can you respond to the uh come as it would make concerning the capital plan actually Mr Fix addressed some of that during the workshop today um if Mr Fix is available I'd prefer to have him or Mr McLemore come forward and address that we can find them and bring him back in here okay thank you thanks Mindy did you want us to wait for him to address those comments yes ma'am if you would he should be close if you recall too you were provided with the revenue page um Mr Fix also showed that today during the workshop you'd
013received that that Excel spreadsheet previously I just think it needs to be yes ma'am absolutely yeah well I was going to say as we're waiting I want to draw attention to in two which is the universal access Services agreement with Colts and that would be Citrus connection so if you have a high school student in grades 9 through 12 you have the benefit of using unlimited access to our public transit system Mr Thomas Phillips leads that organization and does a great job as well as Neil Ward a great individual within that organization so it's really a continuation and I'm excited to bring that forward there was discussion also to maybe pilot that within Middle School 6th through 8th and look forward to that conversation in days ahead Alan looked like Wendy stepped out there he
014is there he is welcome back I was actually in my office I was gonna say did you run here made pretty good time oh yes thank you board members for allowing me to come in and address some of the issues Miss loose rays as I said in the workshop that is correct those the the state has not fully put all the information in we're trying to get this plan to you ahead of time so that you can see what we're working on and doing now bear in mind that because we're going to be bringing it back to you for you to look at is to amend by then hopefully the state will have all that information and you'll be able to have that second excuse me around look at it with all that information that
015is fully put in there one of the reasons though that we try and get this plan done in mid-september is so that our local government Partners as part of the concurrency processes also have a capital plan that they can look to to make sure that we are doing our best to try and keep up with development and concurrency as well so this is um this is a situation that we find ourselves in from time to time when the state drags its feet yet through our interlocal agreements and not just us but other districts as well that have inter local agreements with their local government Partners through concurrency also are trying to remember coordinate their Capital plans as well as the other local government Capital plans and remember their their fiscal year September 1. so we're
016trying to get those plans all coordinated together so that they're in tandem together so that when we go to develop a School site three or four years down the road we have coordinated through our Capital plan and their Capital plan and we know where the infrastructure needs to go in place when we open a 21c or a South Point Elementary and so on now it is it is as Miss Lou said it's no fault of ours it's something the state does from time to time it is in no way us trying to keep any of the truth from you in fact that's why in the workshop I said not all that information is in there but it won't affect our bottom line because the fact is is most of your Capital revenue is being raised
017locally via your impact fee and your sales tax and then of course we have the one and a half mil local effort as well and in fact at the end of the 20 excuse me at the end of The Five-Year process the reason I was able to assure you that we could bring in those um um planning dollars for Crystal Lake Elementary is we're ending it with a 20 million dollar balance as well so we have the money is there in the capital plan so it and once again even if it were an issue when we bring the plan back in that late meeting in October by then it'll all be populated and you'll have because remember Mr sharpless you had asked will we be able to see the document by then we would be
018able to see the document again any other questions and sorry I just went to my office that watched it you're all right I apologize that we locked you out of the building thank you yes thank you thank you for the response thanks superintendent yes ma'am anything else Miss Fields no ma'am any further discussion we had a motion and a second all those in favor of approving the September 5th 2023 consent agenda please say aye aye any opposed and the motion carries superintendent hi do you have any new administrators that you would like to introduce yes ma'am Madam chair members of the board community members and staff it's my pleasure to introduce four new administrators this evening or promotions that have occurred Miss Laura McCabe previously coordinator of Labor and employee relations is being promoted to
019director of Labor and employee relations good evening school board members and superintendent Hyde I'm humbled by this opportunity and honored by the confidence that superintendent Hyde Mr Pitts Mr Boren and Dr Williams have in my leadership ability I'm grateful for their mentorship and that of previous administrators in my over 20 years in human resources my supportive husband bill is here to celebrate this Milestone along with our daughter Ashley a former science teacher and our son-in-law Taylor and two granddaughters ages 22 months and three months old I look forward to many more years of service with Polk County Public Schools thank you congratulations does your husband want to come down for a photo as well any other family you got to get that pretty but there you go oh we're getting the little one too hold
020on just a second we got a couple more coming wait wait some impressive speed on that stroller gonna lie really awesome congratulations next is cameroncella school-based I pronounce it correctly okay I heard a I heard something there for a moment I was like school-based math coach at Churchwell Elementary School is being promoted to the acting assistant principal at Carlton Palmore Elementary thank you good afternoon thank you very much it is a pleasure to become an assistant principal for Polk County Public Schools particularly at Carleton Palmer Elementary I would like to thank Mr Hyde and the board for this opportunity to lead I would also like to thank Dr Henry for trusting me to lead one of his previous schools now miss um Ken Kendrick I would also like to thank Mr Brady Draper for guiding
021me in this role and taking me along for the ride to be his assistant principal I intend to carry on the Patriot Way focusing on academic success and the Leader in Me program which builds School culture at CPE I'd also like to thank my family who's watching live in Connecticut hi guys and my boyfriend and friends who are all here to support me and believing me in my goals again I would like to thank the board for this opportunity and as our students and staff say a learner today a leader tomorrow thank you thank you [Applause] boyfriend and friends you're welcome to come down and join the photo a lot of friends next is Kathy Copeland acting assistant principal at Frostproof Ben Hill Griffin Elementary is being promoted to assistant principal at Frostproof Ben Hill
022Griffin Elementary good afternoon superintendent Hyde and esteemed board members this is such a surreal moment for me from being a little girl who always knew she wanted to be a teacher to being blessed to have a wonderful supportive husband of 36 years and four beautiful children to include my first precious granddaughter this past July to being unexpectedly called to leadership in my mid-50s when many in the education field are walking into retirement I must thank God first of all for being my Savior and Lord a constant friend who guides my steps and orders my path and keeps my life an adventure with him I cannot describe all the beautiful people I've been blessed to work alongside and to work under who have loved me helped me corrected me sacrificed for me and encouraged me along
023this path each student I have grown to love over these past 21 years in Polk County and their families who have become part of my family now for this I am forever grateful thank you all so much for this incredible opportunity you've blessed me with to serve the staff students and families at Frostproof Ben Hill Griffin Elementary School I fell in love with this area the moment I drove through those orange groves and hills around the Lakes Etc it reminds me very much of the area I grew up in in Richmond Missouri as a small town girl so it feels like a perfect fit Mrs Chapman Mr atheson and the entire staff have already welcomed me so graciously and it is truly a joy to trust God to help me to serve with his grace
024as together we commit to help this school be the Bedrock of this beautiful Community again thank you so very much congratulations yeah and if you have family and friends they should come down please great job congratulations and finally Megan long Reading Coach from Wendell Watson elementary schools being promoted to acting assistant principal at Kathleen Elementary say she can come up if she wants you may want to go ahead and head on down come on down come on sweetheart it's a team effort Dr Henry and Miss Kendrick for this opportunity thank you to my principal Tracy Upton for all your support and guidance thank you to my family and friends for all the support over the last few years my husband Chris is here my son Cooper and my daughter Molly and I have a lot
025of family that are watching online so hello family my dad sister stepdad and in-laws couldn't be here but they're watching online and I'm very excited to be a Kathleen cougar and serve the community where I live thank you congratulations thank you thank you family please there you go thank you Madam chair that concludes new administrators for this evening Linda so first will be item P1 which is the fiscal year 2022-2023 annual financial report and I'll now seek a motion to approve the FY 2022-2023 esc348 report of the financial data to the commissioner of education and the esc-145 superintendent's annual financial report to be transmitted by the deadline set by fldoe September 11 2023. summer second Miss Cunningham and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any
026opposed and the motion carries and item P2 will be our half cent sales tax oversight committee and I will seek a motion to approve Bishop Willie Mincey to the half cent sales tax oversight committee so moved second Miss fields and Mr sharpless any discussion Miss Fields I don't really think that um we need any introduction to Bishop Mitzi he has been a faithful supporter of the public school system here for years years and years so I'm not going to read all this but I will read a few things he is uh currently a pastor in the Winter Haven Community he is passion of true Holiness Tabernacle and he's been there for 41 years that's amazing to me he is very active in the Winter Haven Community as well as in Polk County he is part
027of several organizations including the NAACP Winter Haven Branch where he is the current Branch President and serves on the executive committee the second vice president of the interact Alliance Winter Haven Interfaith ministerial Alliance Winter Haven minister of Association in Polk County Interfaith ministerial Alliance he is acted with Polk County School Board we know that and serves on the executive committee of the churches of God and the true Holiness International Pastor Mincey I call him Bishop mincy is well known as the pastor at large in our Polk County communities and we are just very thankful uh Bishop Missy for your continuous support of our school district and we're very uh thankful that you're willing to serve on the sales tax oversight committee thank you Miss Fields any further discussion all right seeing none all those in
028favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries Bishop mincy did you want to say anything or do you want to wait till all right sounds good all right next is going to be action agenda item P3 District reorganization and I will seek a motion to accept the district reorganization as presented so I moved second Mr sharpless and Dr Allen any discussion Miss Fields I don't really want to repeat what was said earlier in the work session but I think we had some good discussions some questions that needed to be clarified and so I look forward to uh superintendent Hyde is a relation to maybe looking at the process of how we're bringing all of the different departments uh before it's time for us to consider voting on them yes ma'am
029thank you thank you Miss fields any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next we will open our public hearing and this evening we have our budget so this is the 2023-2024 final budget and millage rate there are no speakers signed up for public comment so first I will seek a motion to adopt the required local effort millage of 3.160 mils so move second Dr Allen and Miss Cunningham any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next I'll seek a motion to adopt the discretionary operating millage of 0.7480 Mills second Miss fields and Miss Miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and
030the motion carries next we'll seek a motion to adopt the local Capital Improvement Capital outlay millage of 1.5 Mills so moved second Miss fields and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion carries we do not need a motion for this but just to note the total millage will be 5.408 next we will need a motion to approve resolution 2023-2024-03 determining revenues in millage levied so move second Dr Allen and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion carries and last I'll seek a motion to approve resolution 2023-2024-04 adopting the 2023-2024 final budget and millage rates so move second Miss fields and Miss Cunningham any discussion seeing none all
031those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries we will now close the public meeting and reopen the school board meeting and next up will be superintendent Heights report superintendent hide Madam chair the next work session will be held on September 26 2023 the work session will begin at 9 A.M I mean we'll be held at the district office located at 1915 South Floral Avenue in Bartow additionally as part of the superintendent's report I'd like to again thank all of our amazing employees who helped support all of our shelters and make sure that our schools are prepared pre-storm post storm and even during storm we have an amazing group of individuals in our trades groups and other maintenance areas who help make sure that this is able to be
032done we had over 300 District level administrator and District level staff who had signed up to cover on rotations and teams of 7 to 12 individuals and seven hour increment shifts all of our shelters we were fortunate this time that we did not feel the brunt of this storm and unfortunately there are multiple other storms that are out there as you know we had the capacity to house 100 or excuse me not 113 13 000 potential shelter residents we did take in over 100 we took in 113 largely due due to the fact that the storm and its impact here in Polk County diminished significantly as it continued to approach and went elsewhere Our Hearts and Thoughts continue to be with those who were directly impacted by the storm just as we did last year
033I was remiss earlier in the workshop for not sharing this we did reach out to our surrounding counties and those who were impacted and offered assistance as we've done in the past as you know last year we flexed a lot of our maintenance staff sent utility trucks with equipment and materials to help them recover from the storm and we made the same offer this time next year we'll be in a much better place to continue to offer support as you recall the governor's office approved an appropriation for us to procure mobile generators that not only will allow us to make sure that we maintain power in our in our shelters but that upon their closure if Polk County is not directly impacted we will be able to mobilize those and take them to other counties
034that were directly affected and that was one of the reasons why we were approved for that appropriation this last year additionally I'd like to say thank you obviously Fleet for the law enforcement officers you know these are all individuals who not only give of themselves but are there forfeiting their time and the safety of their own families to make sure that our community is protected without law enforcement shelters would be a little bit more chaotic and obviously we want them there to do the background checks on any individuals so we can make take make sure that we can shelter appropriately we did have one pet shelter that was Tenoroc High School I don't think people realize after two days of pets living in a building it can get interesting and so it's a lot of
035cleanup a lot of Maintenance and we're very happy to be able to to support those residents and we get all manner of animals coming into our shelters some we have to turn away others that we you know Embrace we have pocket pets that's a new term for me things you know hamsters gerbils things like that all the way up to large canines and and we had we learned some valuable lessons last year for example if you have a newly adopted pet and they're too young they're not a able to get vaccinated and that's one of the requirements for our shelters so we had to actually create a quarantine area for certain animals so that they could be sheltered appropriately as well so we do a very good job of that additionally I do want to
036point out and again as I mentioned today I want to appeal to our to our parents and our students we have had a series of tragic events in Polk County at large we have lost nearly 10 individuals if not more to date starting from the first day of school due to traffic fatalities and largely due to speed and excessive speed and speed mixed with inclement weather is not a good mix especially for young drivers and inexperienced drivers and so it's something that I want to continue to reiterate we've we've promised to maintain a focus on pedestrian safety but we also have to make sure that we're reminding our students to please be careful please adjust their habits leave earlier drive a little slower or just get there later quite frankly we'd rather you get there
037and I know that there's been a catchphrase that law enforcements use but arrive alive right and that's our goal for our students and unfortunately we've seen far too many tragedies of late involving vehicles and traffic accidents and again much many of those could be avoided if we just simply slowed down and paid attention to road conditions and so our hearts and obviously prayers are continued to be to extend to those families and and those directly impacted by this but I wanted to take the opportunity to remind everyone please have a conversation with your child and remind them about the need to slow down and heed all of the traffic laws that are out there thank you madam chair that concludes the superintendent's report thank you superintendent Hyde Mr Bridges thank you madam chair I've been
038asked to request authority to advertise a public hearing to be held on on October 24th 2023 during the regularly scheduled school board meeting for policy updates to policy number 111 designation of new positions 312 1.01 background screening and employment checks and 5330 use of medications Mr bridges on ocean to approve to advertise the public hearing for these policy updates Miss Cunningham and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed thank you madam in the motion carries to the advertisement thank you right and I apologize Miss Matthews I did not ask during work session but do you have a report this evening okay thank you all right and Dr Allen you're up first very good so as we launch into this school year I just wanted
039to really give a a nice shout out to our guidance counselors at the beginning of the school year I mean they are just bombarded and blasted with student emails making schedule adjustments I know just within our household one bit of communication I heard was you know I sent 30 emails in the last two days to my guidance counselor making changes to a schedule and and adding an AP course or a dual enrollment just all kinds of adjustments so if I just think about that one and just multiply that around the school district so again thanks to our guidance counselors and all the work they do and making all those adjustments at the very beginning and then on the flip of that I just wanted to say thanks to our principals and teachers who continue to
040have a lifelong impact in our students lives and my angle on that one was as I launched into my school semester at Florida Southern I'm advising a lot of students that have graduated from our Polk County School District and you know they don't necessarily see me in this capacity um but I I like to probe and hear from them and just to hear those tenses of stories of how you know that middle school teacher or that principal really influenced them in choosing the discipline that they're studying at college is quite affirming and just wanted to share that and really say a big thanks to our teachers and our principals that have such a huge impact within our students lives Madam chair that's all I have tonight thank you Dr Allen Ms Cunningham thank you madam
041chair I just wanted to Echo a little bit about what I said at Workshop today just want to give a huge shout out and thank you to all the folks um in our administrative team throughout the district who worked so diligently over hurricane idalia tropical storm whatever she ended up being but I know there are countless numbers of folks a lot of them were in the room today during work session that left their families volunteered or were asked to serve and did graciously gave up time with their families on a labor day we are on a sorry weekend to do what needed to be done to try to take care of our schools and service our community because we do have a lot of folks that when the call goes out to evacuate they evacuate
042because they have to and as I said I personally was blessed we had a lot of wind and rain but no particular damage but not everybody may have been so lucky and for Polk County Schools to always be the ones that open up our facilities to be able to help those in need regardless of what type of need and from what demographic they may come including pets and superintendents shared this morning last year we even had a horse in one of our shelters um I mean we we we're here for everybody and we strive to do the right thing and I'm just so grateful that we have employees that care and come out and do that and volunteer there's time in service to be in those shelters whether they're checking a person in whether they're
043assisting with a pet or whatever the thing may be they're there we're always the ones that are called upon there is no other organization that is asked to open up a shelter besides Polk County Public Schools and so I'm just very proud of that and I just want to give a shout out and a huge thank you to all of you who may be listening who participated in that during the storm yeah your time and talent was greatly appreciated so thank you so very much and also to our law enforcement for being there with us side by side side kudos to everyone and thank you for keeping us all safe and that concludes my report Madam chair thank you Miss Cunningham Mr Nolte thank you madam chair I agree uh totally with uh Dr Allen
044and Mrs Cunningham what they uh said previously um just great job uh thank you all for attending tonight and showing interest in our fabulous school system here trying to make it better teachers administrators great job superintendent Hyde excellent job on organizations and organizational and getting the uh the shelters all ready to rock and roll and thank you for teachers and administrators and all the time they gave and it was just tremendous Safety First like you mentioned we have had some serious uh injuries and if everybody can just try to slow down we're in that school zone and talk to your neighbors about it stop a little school buses when you see those flashing little signs out there and you know just think Safety First Sheriff Judd and the police officers of Polk County did a
045super job and they continue to do a great job and uh I wish everybody a great school Year and be safe don't forget now these uh youngins grow up awfully fast so spend some time specially with the elementary ones reading to them 5 10 15 minutes every night and don't forget you can go out in the front yard and play some catch and uh they grew up so fast and before you know it they're what's that song Cats in the Cradle something like that anyway thank you again for coming and uh have a great evening God bless thank you Mr Nolte Ms Fields I have a statement I like to read tonight my board report on my statement is about school board meeting decorum at our last school board meeting there were lots of people
046present at our last school board meeting to voice their opinion on whether or not Proclamation should be continued as viewpoints were shared folks shared their opinion in support of discontinuing proclamations and in support of continuing proclamations comments quickly got out of order and comments for many of those in support of proclamations continuing and not continuing with very disrespectful booing came from both groups name calling came from both groups insults came from both groups some even use profanity what would Jesus do well he would be ashamed of how some of us are acting setting a poor example for our babies our children many in the audience thank God they're not here right now if you all don't stop your mean and hateful ways we're going to have the same scenario here as was recently witnessed in
047Jacksonville wake up people before it is too late you all can agree to disagree in a respectful manner State your Viewpoint and leave it in the hands of the of the decision makers the majority of the time when there are there are controversial issues I vote differently than the majority of the school board members I might not like the results of the votes but I don't boo them I don't insult them I don't call them out of their name I don't curse at them I accept the decision and move on abide by the Golden Rule you do unto others that you would have them do unto you so hear this I will not continue to sit in board meetings and listen to all kinds of mean and hateful statements I don't think we should even
048allow this type of behavior in our meetings Mrs Wyatt either remove those who are out of order I will remove myself unto this part of the meeting is over and that is the end of my comments for tonight thank you Miss Fields Mr sharpless so I want to talk about a few of the things that um that I've done recently and then um some in the future here uh first I want to say that last month I got the tour Scenic K-8 which is in Haines City a new school it was completed ahead of schedule and it was very impressive so I think kudos to the district for thinking outside the box on this model as well as the construction company for getting it done also I started my football tour my Friday Night Lights
049tour I was honored to be at the George Jenkins High School football game with my mother and my son whenever the the field was dedicated to the late Jerry may um it was a very touching moment also I was at auburndale's game last week that was fun uh only got to stay about the first half because I got the rain started coming down but I will say uh principal Bennett and your wife both were great hosts and I appreciate that um next week I start uh my campaign to increase Elementary agricultural literacy across the district I'll be reading to uh select elementary schools that I'm invited to I'm really excited about that about our agricultural industry um you know that way students realize that milk doesn't come from Publix it actually comes from a dairy
050and so I'm excited about that and actually getting out there face to face with some of our elementary school students I've taught middle and high middle and high school as well as college but you know never really other than my my students I've never been uh I'm sorry my children as well as my experience um don't spend a lot of time at elementary schools so I'm really looking forward to that truly um speaking of my children tonight is uh today is my oldest son Wyatt's sixth birthday so Wyatt if you're watching happy birthday I love you I can't wait to come home and see you um I want to just report on a really tragic event that happened in my district um yesterday Stephen Lee rodda a young man was murdered by his father and
051I want the communities in frost proof and Lake Wales to know that I grieve with them I care about them I live right in between the two communities where the young man went to school um I'm very thankful to our disc school district for having grieve counselors at the schools to help them it's just a really tragic event and it's not something as a parent that you you would like to I mean even fathom it's just really tough and the last thing I I want to talk about speaking of something that's hard to Fathom is next month I mentioned this in the um the work session but next month I'm going to be going down to Marjory Stoneman High School Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and I'm going to be going on a tour of
052the 1200 building there were horrific event happened obviously and I take school safety very important very all my family are teachers or they're in the school system and they're on campuses daily my children are on campuses daily and every time I hear about something like like what happened in Uvalde Texas or down in Parkland the thought goes through my mind that that could be my kids that could be my family and so it's certainly not something that I am excited to go see but I definitely think it's important and so um I will be going next month to Margaret Stoneman Douglas High School and with that that's all I have thank you Mr sharpless I hope that Wyatt is watching the school board meeting because he might be the coolest six-year-old I've ever met if
053this is what he uh he watches for his Nightly News Miss Miller thank you madam chair um I have a just a quick report I also was able to tour the scenic terrorist school which is a great new school that's housing our Albert kids until we have that new school rebuilt I will say that the efficiency committee I think is what we're calling them was having a meeting there and I and I stuck my nose in which I may have wasn't invited but superintendent let me join and it was interesting to see the when as the superintendent shared facts about the numbers in our district of students several were surprised the number of students with disabilities or the number of students who were non-english speakers or the ones that may fall into different categories that
054we have so I think you know the education of the public is very important and a lot of that is educating people who don't attend the meetings on what the facts are about this District so I appreciate having that efficiency committee and having them come in and learn about our district and see what we're doing the progress being made because I think that speaks best and it speaks at volumes for What's Happening Here in Polk County thank you madam chair thank you Miss Miller and I do not have a report this evening but I just want to comment on how cool it is that all of our law enforcement tonight we have an all-female team which I think is really fun this evening I don't know that that's happened before recently so thank you for
055being here to keep us safe and with that we will go to public comments so we'll now begin our public comments for items not included in this evening's agenda just as before to register to speak community members must have filled out a speaker card in the lobby prior to the meeting all speaker speakers will be given three minutes the light will turn yellow when you have one minute left and you will hear a beep when your time is concluded please note that although the board encourages Community participation no immediate action will be taken on items presented during this public comment portion of the meeting if follow-up board action is required then the matter may be placed on an agenda at a subsequent meeting in accordance with school board policy and just as a reminder from
056before all comments shall be directed through me as the school board chair all right first up we have Jamie Smith and then on Deck will be Douglas Johnson and if you are on deck if you can just make your way to the little red line over here that will be very helpful thank you for letting us come and talk this evening um hopefully my comments aren't so wild um so I just want to let you know that I'm a native of Lakeland born and raised so my whole life has been in the public school system here I went to Florida Southern College and so everything about me is Lakeland my child goes to a public school in South Lakeland and um I came today because last week I went to a Lakeland chamber event that
057was through the EVC and Mr Hyde spoke there and um you know he brought up some issues about uh about what's going on in the public school system and um two of the things that caught my eye were the the funding per child and he said you know in in Florida it's 9 000 the nation average is 12. the duck through the doe that's not exactly right but it's a few dollars off um in for example St John's County does more with less it's one of the top rated school districts so we can do more with less and then the other thing that caught my mind was the truancy issue and so I was like that was a large number so I went on to the cdc's website to site to look to see what
058was that number so this CDC have made a report back in 2014 or 2015 and they said of course the number one cause of truancy was um illness of course the numbers went up really high recently we all get it they tell us to keep us better to stay home so I imagine that in the next year or two that truancy will for that factor um will go will go away second cause is Boolean so the the numbers from the cdc's website and they have a the report right here um it just it goes over some information about Boolean and how that kids don't feel safe in school and they won't come my child has been he's in elementary school and um and he's been bullied and I won't bring him to school for the
059next few days after he's been bullied and I don't think it's being addressed in schools appropriately so when he was in VPK I witnessed a bullying incident when I dropped him off and I took him out of school he never came back and it's at the same score so there's your two months of truancy right there and that was just a few years ago so I just that's my thing I just don't think he's being addressed appropriately thank you thank you yes superintendent hide to clarify that was not me that made the comment about school finance that was a representative for idea schools who were sharing why Ida was previously unable to come to the State of Florida because of the low level of funding as compared to other states but they're getting some other
060private subsidies so that was just for clarification that was not me that stated about school funding thank you superintendent ahead right we have Douglas Johnston and then on Deck is rain Johnson good evening I already sent a couple of emails with everything I'm going to read from tonight plus plenty of educational material so first of all September is National Suicide awareness prevent or Suicide Prevention awareness month so I'm gonna read uh just the start of the new research on lgbtq teen suicide rates uh as reported by Newport Academy research shows that lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer teens are at increased risk of suicide and mental health issues like depression and anxiety one of the most startling statistics lgbtq teens consider suicide and make suicide attempts at about four times the national rate for all
061adolescents these numbers shed light on the crucial importance of suicide prevention for lgbtq youth during Suicide Prevention awareness month and all year round parents teachers mentors and policy makers must help ensure that lgbtq teens receive ongoing support and access to Mental Health Care Resources key takeaways the Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBT youth 13 to 24 seriously considers suicide each year in the United States and that at least one attempt suicide every 45 seconds these challenges include stigma families rejection bullying threats of injury violence increasingly limited access to gender affirming care higher rates of depression among the lgbtq population also lead to higher rates of substance abuse as a form of self-medication for mental health stressors research has constantly shown that support and acceptance from parents leads to better mental health greater
062self-acceptance and it helps enhanced well-being among transgender youth some key perspective factors for LGBT youth suicide this is jumping over to the pre uh Trevor Project social support and acceptance from adults and peers having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among LGBT lgbtq youth people by 40 percent a 2021 peer-reviewed study by the Trevor projects researchers published in transgender Health found that transgender and non-binary youth reported gender identity acceptance from adults and peers had significantly lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year lgbtq youth who felt high social support from their family reported attempting suicide at least half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support listen I could just keep going on and on and on these are just types of people that
063exist you are elected officials speak up come on we need you to defend our kids okay I don't think I'm being contradictory here or crazy these are human beings our community needs you guys to step up recognize them all right thank you be safe thank you Mr Johnston Rayne Johnson and on Deck is Spike p hello I am Rayne Johnson with women's Southwest Florida's youth chapter and I am a 10th grade student I have been arrested I was arrested at 13 and I had it was on July 4th actually so it was about a week and a half before I started um I found out that I was first off kicked out of my school second off for being queer I was I was expelled from my school for being a queer non-binary student and
064I don't even think I have to go into and explain why and how that had such a detrimental effect on my mental health to lose all of my friends all those I cared about and then on top of that getting arrested a week later for losing my rights and then members of this board saying that I need to worry more about my academics than activism I'm worried about my academics but I'm also worried about whether or not I'm going to be allowed to learn that queer people exist I'm worried that I'm gonna not be allowed to know that slavery was a horrible time in our history that we need to own up to and acknowledge exists just like we need to acknowledge every part of History we need to acknowledge Stonewall we need to acknowledge
065the 60s the 70s we need to acknowledge World War II we need to acknowledge World War one because if not we're going to repeat ourselves we're going to go back to a time where it wasn't okay to openly be queer not like it is now not that I can't say my school because I'm worried I'm gonna get shot trying to learn geometry it like I shouldn't have to be here I shouldn't have to be spending my time worrying about whether or not you guys are going to accept and acknowledge that black history needs to be taught properly whether or not queer history should be taught properly whether or not proclamations are going to stay in place to recognize said things I'm tired of worrying constantly whether or not my education is safe and whether or
066not I'm safe thank you Miss Johnson Spike p and on Deck is Aaron Fior afternoon unfortunately it can't be a good afternoon as I have to be here tonight it's unfortunate truly unfortunate that we have students that feel unsafe in their classrooms cafeterias and even just walking to their next class periods unfortunate that I have personally had queer students reach out to me crying deathly afraid that they will be harmed on campus because of their identities afraid that they will be killed on campus for their identities and now now we are going to have students feel unrepresented in their communities alone not only in who they are but the unique struggles that they face and that their ancestors might have faced as well the removal of all proclamations is nothing but an extremist push to
067get rid of unique students and staff members this agenda does nothing but harm every individual every citizen in this County District these kind of pushes cause certain hate groups to come out in support of them as well as seen last meeting when an iron cross swastika medal was seen In This Very Room there needs to be some serious actions with this board to bring back all proclamations so that all marginalized people can feel heard represented and not ignored by board members that are supposed to represent them and care about them history will remember your decision and for the sake of Polk County our students and our staff please make it a good one Aaron Fiore and on Deck is Donna Windsor yeah my name is Aaron and I have two kids in the Polk School
068System and my kids are both voracious readers and I assume that we greatly annoy the Librarians because we get out hundreds of books a year and I have had to teach them to be Discerning in their choices because there are many vulgar books being slipped into our school libraries and I've submitted a few books for removal my kids are really happy that I'm doing this they're really interested in it and they're encouraging me to review more and they want books like this one removed from the libraries and that's why I'm here this is this is an excerpt from Red Hood and it's by Elena Arnold and it's in several Polk County Schools In this passage the main character is a young girl and she's just about to get her first period it says I object
069to all vulgar books in school libraries and I hope that you'll remove this and others like it thank you thank you Miss Fiore Donna Windsor and on Deck is Billy Townsend hello again um so I did want to take a moment just to to speak to what Mr sharpless talked about the student who was unfortunately who was killed um he's 16 years old he's in power Academy when I think about that boy I picture my own and I think that you know that drives the message of mental health and how important it is home because I can't think of a sane person who could or would do something like that um so you know that's one reason why I know at the last meeting mental health was a subject that was addressed and I think
070that it is very important so anything we can do to support that I'm in complete favor of um tonight the reason for me being here is I I think you made a mistake in voting to do away with proclamations I think it was a hasty decision made by this board simply because um you felt that because there were opposing views on one particular Proclamation it was more effective just to throw the baby out with the bath water and to do away with all proclamations and I I do think that there was a mistake made by doing that um I think that you know as I spoke earlier about the agenda item that to help homeless youths a large percentage of the homeless youths in Polk County and in our country are lgbtq students who don't
071feel safe at home um and so by trying to avoid having a conversation about them because it makes us uncomfortable is failing those students and I do think that responsibility lies with you I think you have a responsibility to really think about the issues the kids today are facing they're different than the issues that I faced when I was young they're different than the issues that some of you face when you were young and we need to take those issues into account and we need to hear it and think about it from the students point of view we need not say well serves them right that they got arrested we need to not say that their children and their voices don't matter we need to listen we need to be quiet we need to hear
072them and we need to acknowledge what they're saying what they're asking us to do and we need to care and I don't feel like we did that by just saying well too much discussion let's just do away with it instead we had a process the the person who was doing the proclamations for years was made it very clear that their process was very specific we just let it go when that person stopped working for the school board and that's not the right way to handle it that was a mistake on y'all's part and you failed the kids in the community by doing so do better thank you Miss Windsor Billy Townsend and on Deck is Kyle Moore hey everybody good evening I wanted to address the fact and I'll address this to his Wyatt there
073is a board a board member Mr ulti who in recent recent days stipulated to a campaign via violation that is a felony um I think he's never addressed that in public he's he's never apologized to the public for it um I would urge him to do to do that um I also there are a couple of questions I would urge him to it answer which would include has there been any sort of a great agreement with the state attorney's office about prosecution related to you know his his decision to stipulate to the Florida elections Commission and you know if he would be willing to produce the receipts for these 7 500 worth of stuff that he uh had to correct um on on on his uh can't campaign information I think all of that would
074go a long way toward clearing the air with the public as a whole can't make him do it but I wanted to state that on the record um secondly concerning the acclimations someone someone noted uh you know I'm I'm glad glad they did that the coming month is is is that is that as those Suicide Prevention month we've just come out of a national drug overdose prevention month uh week I think both of those could have been addressed here tonight and and would have brought people into the uh the meeting room uh would have brought people working on those those issues which obviously bear very heavily on our kids uh I Echo what this Windsor said the the vote last week was foolish and and really cow cowardly um if if you don't want to
075take votes then don't take votes you know or or take a hard vote um I think to cut yourself off from from the community because you're afraid the community has something to say to you um does not speak well for the position you hope so thanks thank you Mr Townsend next is Kyle Moore and on Deck is Matthew groshley I will one day I'm so sorry goholski I'm so sorry whenever you're ready Kyle I'm Kyle and I am the one with the crazy but in my opinion true and I try to keep them as fact-faced as I can comments and I am a product of Polk County Public Schools congratulations you got rid of all the proclamations what now and before I get too far into this I do want to say I can agree
076to disagree and I do on many subjects but I will not when it comes to Human Rights and the well-being of my queer children you are following the footsteps of the fascist GOP and their project 2025. if you are not aware of what project 2025 is it is a master plan created by a coalition of powerful conservative organizations including but not limited to the family research Council the Heritage Foundation Alliance defending Freedom the American legislative exchange Council and more all of which are entities that have been pushing for the horrific anti-trans anti-lgbtq and anti-diversity and inclusion bills that we have seen in the past year project 2025 includes a 900 page document with detailed plans of criminalizing queer existence removing transgender ideology whatever that is from all schools labeling any and all Librarians and or
077teachers who do not strictly follow Christopher's conservative ideology as registered sex offenders and how to eradicate transgender ideology from public life once again whatever that is I would highly recommend that you research project 2025 as three minutes is nowhere near enough time to tell you how truly horrific it is in case I haven't made it very clear project 2025 is a genocidal Nazi ideology in which you are following step by step I find it honestly sad that you allow this type of ideology and bigotry to take place here especially considering that one of the board members who prescribed it is known for shady Financial indiscretions is known for tweeting about my transgender sibling who was a 13 at the time saying that they shouldn't care about activism and that they deserve to be arrested I
078find the actions of this board and especially the actions of Rick Nolte to be unacceptable and appalling and I ask that you please consider what side of History do you want to be remembered for thank you Matthew good girl ski I'm so sorry oh you're all good before I start I want to make it clear that this is not directed towards the honorable members Miss Miller and Miss Fields I do agree with you miss Fields but I was elected as president of the Polk County young Democrats at the age of 19 to represent students and students are angry they're hurt and they live in fear for the rest of the board I want to make it known that we see what you're doing and how horrible it is for our students and I want to
079also remind you of what this country was founded on life liberty and the pursuit of happiness to Dr Alan Miss Wyatt and Mr sharpless I know you all care about winning re-election maybe future political jobs but we remember what you did we'll remember that you stood against our students maybe you should just maybe you should just violate campaign Finance laws like Rick did instead of signaling that you don't support us Miss Cunningham I was so shocked to see you soon please direct all comment through the chair thank you I'm so shocked to see members of the board that have been absent in previous meetings actually show up for their job at for once I honestly wish in some instances that they would not show up because they would not approve the bigotry and the hatred
080that we saw in that room that day you all took an oath to represent students and teachers yet you don't do attacks on our community centers do anything to you do not see inspired shootings in Jacksonville do anything do Nazis rallying in Orlando saying that we are everywhere do anything we have a member that has been indicted on campaign Finance violations and he still sits in that seat every single meeting and helps prop up the swastikas and the Nazis that were in that room my name is Matthew gerholski a proud product of Polk County Public Schools an activists a Ally of our schools our community and our queer communities I was raised out of a struggling family poverty and the support of our community and I'm here to tell you that the house is burning
081and you are not the firefighters that we need in the room thank you [Applause] kiddo grass it's a grass or glass and then on Deck is Deborah Lawson and can you just state your name for the record for me yes please glass I apologize today I stand before you to advocate for the return of a powerful and meaningful tradition the issue of Pride proclamations for queer students in recent times Polk County has veered away from recognizing the importance of these proclamations but I firmly believe that it's time to bring them back and celebrate diversity inclusivity and the rights of queer students the significance of Pride Proclamation lies in their ability to create an environment of acceptance and understanding these proclamations send a message to Career students they are seen valuable and embraced for who they
082are they provide a Beacon of Hope and support for those who may be struggling with their Identity or feeling isolated these proclamations promote tolerance and respect among all students they teach empathy diversity appreciation and the importance of treating one another with kindness regardless of differences in an increasingly diverse World these are essential lessons that will serve students well throughout their lives the return of Pride proclamations for query students is not just about recognizing a minority group it's about creating an inclusive and Equitable educational environment for all me and my friends and other young people shouldn't even need to be here we should be living our youth luckily me and the other Polk County young Debs can get together and speak up against Injustice as a queer recent graduate of Polk County I call for the
083resignation of Rick Notte and the return of proclamations in our County thank you thank you Deborah Lawson and on Deck is Silas Prescott so before I start I hope you're dressing them this is part of your time okay number two my grandkids better not be allowed to check that book out take it off take it out whatever you have to do okay so my name is Deborah Lawson so I'm addressing a couple of one one major thing that wasn't on this agenda and should be on every agenda and at every work session overcrowding overcrowding overcrowding overcrowding cannot use that word enough every school in Polk County is anywhere from 19 to 40 percent overcrowded something should have already been done and when you attend a Planning Commission meeting the one thing they the developers are
084allowed to say and why their projects are passed School concurrency we are assured by the Polk County School Board that all students are going to have a place to go to school when your project is built that's how they get some of their projects passed that's how they did a whole lot of projects right there on Scenic Highway and Detour Road and all that that's how they got those projects passed oh why because we were going to build Scenic School imagine that but you know what Scenic School opened up this year to Albert Elementary School students imagine that you knew that well in advance they knew that in advance Albert Elementary was going to be remodeled before that school ever opened up but yet they can stand up the developers can stand up in front
085of a Planning Commission and say the Polk County school board has assured us that they should be okay as far as capacity of schools that's all a joke you talk about buying property to build these schools stop buying property on D roads you want to know how to prevent some of those wrecks too on detour in Hatch nahal Road to bus wrecks people the last three weeks of school last year to two bus wrecks I don't know about y'all but one was too many had snow Hall Road is a d Road for you to ever consider building a school anywhere near hat Snell Road you should be ashamed of yourself detour and hatchnall two bus wrecks you want to stop some of the accidents stop building on D roads Kokomo road is a d Road
086we hear School the it's in Works to build a school either near detour Road or off of Kokomo Road detour Road and hatching the hall hatching the hall is a d Road Kokomo Road's a d Road you want to do something and I hope I hope that every work session you address school overcrowding I hope that on every agenda somehow you address the overcrowding because it's up to you to do something about the overcrowding of schools thank you thank you Silas Prescott and on Deck is pamloose of the newly reformed Polk County young Democrats I'm honored to be here today and to be speaking I am a student at Bartow senior high school and I feel my words may have an impact on your future decisions as it is my senior year of high school
087I'm on my way out but I would like to leave my home my hive better in a better State than it was when I arrived I have seen bartohi go through some changes and some that are not for the betterment of the school in my sophomore year I scholar the school purposely get lit on fire for a joke in my junior year I saw the Art Academy get heavily downsized to one teacher I saw this as science classes dwindled to nothing but basics I saw the huge fight the fire and Rescue Academy had to bear just to keep their thriving Academy that many students would go to build their careers out of I have seen lots of teachers get laid off however the most drastic change I began to see was the destruction of school
088pride and respect I go into school every morning dreading walking to class I Walk The Halls and hear my peers saying racial and sexual slurs to each other in class I feel the teachers do not understand the students or how we work best at lunch I see students get in fights or create messes around campus I think students me include have lost any sort of Pride or respect in our school I try to see the good I try to make each passing day better I try to help anyone who asks but it's difficult when you have lost hope for your school and more importantly the future I think the best starting point is to make all students feel valued feel seen feel important I am only a part of Bartow High School the 2000 students
089that walk through those orange and blue doors each morning same as me we are Bartow High School not every student is white not every student follows a gender binary or specific partner preference not every student is able-bodied or minded to exclude these students and not recognize their existence is heartbreaking to me I wish for every student in Polk County Schools to feel valued to feel important to feel seen school pride is only a symptom of the larger issue the students do not feel seen I urge that the board would bring back the proclamations that were voted off this August I'm a student at Bartow High School I want to feel seen thank you Mr Prescott Sam loose and on Deck is Robert Goodman hello again and as you know my name is Pam I'm a
090mother I'm a grandmother and I've been involved in one area or another of Education my entire life two of my three children have been involved in education their entire life my third child attended the Air Force Academy and recently graduated from the same college that President Eisenhower and General Patton attended he serves and loves his country and I'm very proud of them care about my family and my community putting together the interlocal agreement took the entire Community the months the school board City and staff sat around the table together and discussed and disagreed until we agreed and then crafted the document that your name is on it was our community coming together for the children it was not about stopping growth it was a way to manage growth so that the children would have a
091place to learn and build community I was absolutely sickened when I found out what happened to school concurrency about the lies that were being told and then to have my supervisor tell me that she was the one that told staff to tell those lies and wanted me to do it also I took that information about what was happening to Mr Hyde and he told me how Brave I was and that it took a lot of courage to do that he said he would check into it and see about beginning an investigation and get back with me not another word from him then my supervisor began giving me a very hard time about everything I felt that Mr Hyde had spoke to her and I was being retaliated against she demanded that I submit the five-year
092work plan that you had not even seen was not on the agenda to the Department of Education I called doe and they told me I better not submit it because it had not been on the agenda I refused to do it and then I was reprimanded I've never had a reprimand in my entire life and I feel I was being pushed out of a job that I wasn't ready to leave I filed a whistleblower complaint with Wes but I didn't have I didn't want to sue anybody I just wanted to let you know the information you needed to do to do your job and to keep you out of trouble but no one even seemed to care I am so saddened the planning department began leaving out information about reserve seats that is are required
093to be given to Developers Mrs Cunningham was so right at the last board meeting the fact that the new K-8 is not being used as promise is simply poor planning and it is not using the resources we developed to work together as a community there should have been a new High School in that area over a year ago thank you Miss loose Robert Goodman and on Deck is Bishop mincy good evening board members I am here to talk about something I don't want to talk about it's the Polk's policy with explicit library books those that violate Florida statute 847012 content that contains sexual conduct excitement battery bestiality pedophilia and sadomastic abuse all which is harmful to minors there's a book Lucky by Alex siebel that is in four Polk County high schools I'm not going
094to read a lot from it just one paragraph on page six Miss Fields clearly defined what chaos was as a board meeting and I thank you for that it was chaotic last month we were told that reading books at a board meeting is chaos tonight the video feed as soon as the first person read from a book your live video feed was cut to the public hope you know that so that's cutting off the microphone to the publicity regulation there's no FCC on YouTube that yes that is we legally have to okay it has also said the port the board has a policy for book challenges and that it's working is it that book's in schools who's it working for minor children who deserve to be innocent the community who elected you were only the
095people in our society who want to sexualize Children I'm sure no parent or taxpayer in Polk County approves of this board spending taxpayers taxpayer funds on books that contain rape pedophilia bestiality and all of that stuff it's all in violation of Florida law but here we are you can't show The Exorcist of The Hangover in a high school classroom and you shouldn't be able to some of these books are a lot more graphic than those yet there are those who want to say we want those Books banned or that people want to have those Books banned not showing The Exorcist in a classroom is just because it's not age appropriate it's the same thing it's it calling them banned is a lie um let's look to some other counties and I hope you look at
096these who are doing things to actually protect children Polk County has removed zero challenged books zero Clay County has removed 177 sexually inappropriate books Martin County has removed 98 of 110 sexual books that were challenged Manatee 25 of 43 Indian River 34 Osceola 21 in all 21 of those are in our school system Flagler 11 Escambia 9 Marion County 7 Broward and Brevard three each these are just a few examples please do better please protect our children there's a policy in place it's not working we have zero removed thank you thank you Mr Goodman Bishop mincy has probably been on earlier and I didn't say nothing I offered you earlier all right just give me give me a couple more minutes how y'all want to say tonight to uh all of you board members I
097hope that you all are taking a little time to go into our schools um there is a whole lot that we need help with our teachers and our principals and I think if you all got any power with anybody in Tallahassee y'all need to contact them and tell them whoever the fingerprinting people is they need to change the company or do something because too many children are going to school and don't have the proper to doing the best you can got people in there but people that need to be approved cannot be approved because the process is not working and that needs to be taken care of our children as our superintendent said the other week staying home well if you got a teacher can't teach you what you're asked to do but stay home
098you ain't learning nothing that's that's why people need to see the importance parents need to see the importance of what's going on we fighting about a whole lot of stuff that really may be necessary to some people I'm not telling you not to fight for what you believe in but this this thing has created more problems than you will ever see in a book oh y'all valued you and go get them a phone and they don't know what they look at on the phone but you all believe these phones I want to say I appreciate you all for uh give me the vote of confidence to be a part of this oversight tax committee amen I tried to go to schools all over the district I've been specially interested in they've been the ones that
099have been turned around amen I pray for every one of them every day for all of you people that sit on the board I pray for you I called you I called you I told y'all this I call your name amen so the Lord know your name of course I told him what your name is and I asked him to help you to guide you the strength of you and have the right Vision because we need the right Vision uh our children are lost and getting more lost because there's so many evil things that are happening in the world so tonight I appreciate you all for that and I have been to visit the newer ones that man we opened been all the groundbreaking that you had and I will continue to do that because
100I want to see uh our district become the greatest District that it can be in the State of Florida but I would appreciate if you all would be so kind and really kind of encourage these people to do something about these kind of situations thank you thank you Bishop Mincey seeing no further business to come before the board this meeting is adjourned