001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] good evening if you could all rise with me for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance and I will ask Mr sharpless to lead us through our invocation your precious Heavenly Father we thank you for all the many blessings Lord we asked for special protection for our students and our staff and School sites safe travel mercies as they go to and from schools every day please give us the wisdom and discernment to make the decisions that you find most appealing your precious name we pray amen amen and I'd now like to invite Emma Knapp up to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated not you Emma not
002not quite yet I have some questions for you how are you doing today good could I ask you to pull yeah pull down the mic just a little bit for her perfect I have to make sure I can hear your answers so I hear that you go to school at Oscar J Pope is that correct now what grade are you in third grade third grade so what's your favorite thing about third grade we get to do a lot of math a lot of math very nice awesome do you know what you want to be when you grow up yes I want to be a marine biologist that's awesome so so what is your favorite ocean animal sharks sharks are you a big fan of Shark Week yes yes all right so what do you like
003to do in your free time I like to paint or draw very nice we got a little left brain and right brain going on I like it it's impressive so what is your favorite thing about your school that we have awesome teachers very nice who's your teacher this year Miss gerstler sorry one more time miss gersler miss gersler awesome so did you bring any guests with you tonight yes I have my mom I have my awesome assistant principal and my old principal Miss Gershwin oh my God awesome could you guys all stand and be recognized as well [Applause] okay well Emma thank you so much for coming out and leading Us in the Pledge of Allegiance we appreciate you giving us some of your time tonight and sharing your talents and I hope you have
004the best third grade year ever and we will see you next time [Applause] this meeting for August 22nd 2023 is now called to order our first order of business is to accept the school board agenda superintendent hi do we have any revisions Madam chair at this time there are no revisions accept the agenda so moved second Miss fields and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be our special recognitions and I will turn it back over to superintendent hide it's me and Madam chair at this time I'd like to ask School Board member Rick Nolte to step down for today's special recognitions while he transitions I'd like to ask Reba Coyle Community liaison and director and Julie Sloan principal
005of Southwest Elementary to please come forward to recognize one of their business partners good evening superintendent Hyde and school board members so I was here back in July with the liaison team sharing what we do and we left you that night with a story about a really beautiful partnership it all started over a simple conversation simple cup of coffee and it has flourished into what is now the example of what a true community and school partnership looks like so I wanted to do recognize one of our partners Jin lay and have Julie Sloan come up the principal at Southwest Elementary to tell you what this partnership has meant to their school and what it is done for Jen lay as a business owner good evening we were blessed to have Miss Reba Coyle assigned to
006us as our community liaison and I think one of her amazing things that she does is she's able to know the needs of each of her schools and partner them with businesses that she thinks will be able to help and we had an amazing first meeting with Jen lay and we talked about mentoring and reading with our students and she kept asking what else I didn't know what I was allowed to ask for so I just started telling her different things we had going on at our school one of which was creating the first Career Academy we have a digital production Academy now and when I said that Jin lay started crying and that was her background and so she was super excited to partner with us on that we not only had her support
007in renovating our studio but more importantly she has been to our school and mentored our students that are on our television team she's helped them write scripts given them camera tips and then brought in amazing resources from the industry so our students can see how what they're learning in the digital academy will then could transfer over into a career she's brought Emmy Award winners to speak to our students she has brought News Channel 8 cameraman and I know I'm forgetting some but come on up there the amazing partnership that she has made with us has just truly supported our students and shown them that there's a possibility for a career path and what they're participating thank you thank you for recognizing me and my team the lay group we we sell real estate I didn't
008know one I'm so happy thank you for having three Community Liaisons I think that it's one of I mean everything I could never be a teacher or do what you guys do so kudos to all of y'all but the community Liaisons really are like that connecting piece and so when Reba was like you know would you adopt the school the only thing I wanted to do was be able to see the kids and know the kids and that they knew me mainly because I'm an empty nester now and I I needed kids in my life um and so I thank you for that and I love I love this school so much and I wish every business could connect with a school so that everyone can Thrive so that's it thank you [Applause] well they
009get prepared to take their picture board members you'll recall you got to see the video produced by students I talking about the program and it was very powerful so we're very appreciative Miss Miller well there I'm getting ready for their picture I just want to say that you know what Reba does and what she did with this connection is what we want for our school Liaisons we have a lot of reading if you're not already signed up to read the students or to volunteer we have multiple opportunities to do that but to connect the business Community with a school that can actually help a particular need this is exactly what we needed here so I want to thank the Gen lay team and Reba for her work in making this connection chair Wyatt I just
010also wanted to mention we talked a little bit about inside pcps earlier and jyn is one of our newest class members for inside pcps class 2. so thank you Jen for all that you're doing with our students because we know that that it means a lot to them so thank you next I'd like to invite Jeanette Crowley director for strategic planning and Partnerships who will recognize the uwcf champion Award winners for the 2022 district-wide campaign this is always a highly coveted award I'm seeing the same face walk through the door Mr van thank you madam chair members of the school board and superintendent hide for this opportunity it's always a highlight of the Year also with me tonight to present is Chantel a master senior coordinator of Partnerships and development with the Polk Education Foundation
011and Beth Hill corporate philanthropy manager with United Way of Central Florida each year our school district conducts an employee workplace campaign to support the United Way of Central Florida for the second year in a row staff had the opportunity to also donate to the Polk Education Foundation through the employee giving campaign funds raised for United Way and Polk Education Foundation are combined and count towards our overall giving to the United Way of Central Florida the total amount of funds raised for the 2022 campaign Year campaign year is 76 142 dollars which is an increase from last year so I think that deserves a round of applause to everybody thank you and of this amount raised nineteen thousand and eleven dollars was raised for the Polk Education Foundation we had 63 schools and 16 departments participate
012and Polk County Public Schools ranks number 10 in total giving for United Way of Central Florida out of over 500 companies now I'd like Chantel to come say a few words I'm here to express our deep gratitude for the ongoing partnership between the Polk Education Foundation the school district and the United Way in the employee giving campaign for the second year as Jeanette said we stand together in a unique position as a non-profit that is an integral part of our school district we're working tirelessly to uplift our teachers students and staff the contributions garnered from this giving campaign hold the power to transform lives through the generous support given we have been able to drive initiatives such as our scholarship program reading tutoring program and the invaluable free teacher Market these Endeavors have not only
013enriched the educational experience for our students but have provided crucial resources for our school district last year our fruits collected as Jeanette said were almost twenty thousand dollars and that comes straight back into our school district this tangible impact underscores the significance of our collaborative work and the potential it holds to betterment of our educational system we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the school district and for affording employees the opportunity to be a part of this noble cause together we are fostering an environment where every individual can Thrive learn and Excel thank you now Beth Hill is going to say a few words on behalf of United Way of Central Florida well thank you so much to the school board and the administration and to Jeanette for hosting us this evening what an honor it
014is to be here with you all and to just have a moment to say thank you for your profound involvement in what we're doing at United Way of Central Florida your campaign of over seventy six thousand dollars like Jeanette highlighted put you solidly in the top 10 of our community supporters along with other organizations like the sheriff's department and Wells Fargo and public supermarkets and so we're so thankful for your support and your continued support um over so many years but specifically these last two years that I've been working with Jeanette on this campaign um and I've had the honor of watching her run such a creative campaign um even our own superintendent hide having some skin in the game this year with the creative save it or shave it event that she ran and
015we've just seen such a wonderful response from this community and I just wanted to highlight a little bit of what your dollars have done so throughout our 2022 campaign um your 76 142 dollars went directly to support the greatest needs in some of our our most identified gaps in our community and in 2022 alone your donations aided more than 138 302 individuals across more than 60 organizations and agencies that is a huge deal not just working with our children but with their families and providing their basic needs because we believe that everyone can achieve their full potential but not everyone has the opportunity and so we are trying to close those gaps and you're helping us to make that happen so thank you on behalf of those hundred and thirty eight thousand three hundred and
016two families and the children that they represent we appreciate your support and we appreciate your ongoing work to this community and thank you to Jeanette for all of the work that you do that I see up close firsthand and thank you to the school board and to superintendent Hyde for your support we appreciate it we're about to kick off our 2023 campaign so we're ready we're gearing up to get started and do this all again and we expect a wonderful year of continuing to close those gaps and reach out to our community so on behalf of everyone at United Way Christina my CEO Ileana our cdmo and myself we just want to say a huge thank you thank you for your support thank you now it's my honor to recognize our United Way Champion Award
017winners as I announce your name please come forward to receive your certificate and gift our top high school I'm going to have you all to get in place and help out you can get in the middle here all right yeah you can go ahead and go ahead yep we're going to take a few photos so our top high school is Lake Gibson High with four thousand [Applause] 496 dollars which talked last year he had a little over thirty one hundred dollars so I want to say congratulations to Lake Gibson High School and Mr van so Mr van would you like to say a few words it's great to be here again and it's just a it's just a wonderful uh part to be you know to be involved in the community to raise this money
018for our community and uh and have such a fun way doing it we do a lot of cool creative things to raise this money and a lot of it involves you know having fun with our kids having fun with our staff and again we're honored to be here in order to be a part of United Way it's not about winning but it is about winning and my coordinator Miss Melinda Diaz couldn't be here tonight her daughter's got her first volleyball game at Legacy High School but I want to recognize her because she puts this together for us and she knows my competitive nature so she knows we gotta win every year so thank you so much United Way school board for having us tonight we're honored yeah you said that yeah I like the beard
019congratulations sir our top middle school is Kathleen Middle School with 2 1412 dollars which increases from last year they had over sixteen hundred last year so we are not the Ryan Van but it's okay we're catching up um Billy lay is my coordinator and last year but unfortunately he's not with me this year so we're still going to beat you um I think that our community and our students everybody I mean we rely on the United Way to underwrite so many things for our students so they can be successful so they can be at school and I don't know where some of our families would be especially this past year with all the economic downturn and everything else without United Way so we do a lot of great things with our students and staff not
020as good as yours but we're getting there we're Middle School in that high school and we look forward every year to the competition so you want to say anything you know you said every year that you make it up here but we do too and I I would just like to dig in the data a little bit and see funds per student funds per adult because I feel like we're going to catch you somewhere right there [Applause] they are nothing if they're not competitive all right our top elementary school is special Holland with and that is an increase again from last year and they actually were the highest amount of raise they raised the highest amount overall between any department or any um uh School raised so Brittany Richards is here with us as their
021employee coordinator for special Holland Elementary apologizes for not being able to make it tonight but she wrote a few words for us to share with you thank you for the recognition special Holland Elementary is dedicated to supporting United Way each year because of the amazing support they give our community One support we enjoy at our school each year is the reading Pals our volunteers who come in to read kindergarten students are important to the culture to the culture we build at spessard the students are so excited and they look forward to the time and attention they receive from our United Way volunteers spencerdale Holland will continue to be one of the top supporters of United Way through our annual pledges and our fundraisers because of the importance they hold in our community thank you [Applause]
022our top Department okay drumroll here is Office of the superintendent who raised 251.65 I think it was the save it or shaven that did it for them so I'd like to have Wendy Winchester come down Mr Hyde are you gonna come down for this too oh sure okay how much was our total 4 251.65 496 dollars that just sounds like Mr Van's gonna do save it or shave it next year more yeah for the highest gain an employee participation they went from the 2021 campaign to the 22 campaign they had an increase of 85 percent of employee participation in the campaign so Valley View Elementary we have principal Jennifer Rogers with us here foreign [Applause] we are honored to be recognized we are looking forward to increasing our employee participation even more this year just
023being here and hearing some of the stories um I would love to ask you afterwards some different ideas it's always great to get more ideas um and congratulations to all of you being recognized and thank you United Way for everything that you do for our community and for Valley View thank you picture thank you and our last award for this evening is our pcps philanthropist of the year and so the philanthropist of the year is one of those employees that kind of goes above and beyond that's been a supporter of the campaign for many many years but we would like to recognize Dr Shirley James who is the assistant director with the Fresh Start program and before she comes I want her to come up but before she speaks I just want everyone to know
024that Dr James has been a consistent Giver to United Way since 2002 and she's also been a giver to the Polk Education Foundation for the past 10 years so her spirit of giving is truly remarkable and I feel like she is so deserving of this philanthropist of the Year award and want to say congratulations so much foreign thank you and I didn't want to come but I humbly received this award because it I believe it is my duty to contribute to communities and families and I have done this consistently because it is a part of what I was raised to do is to give back and so today I stand here as a person who has done this in humility in some concern about what goes on in communities and with families and I will
025continue to do so until I can't thank you [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] thank you um well yeah I'll just all right that concludes my presentation thank you so much Madam chair that concludes special recognitions for this evening thank you the next item on our agenda is public comments four items on the agenda to be voted upon as adopted at the start of this meeting 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 as always during this time comments will be limited to those items on the agenda at the end of the meeting we will have an additional opportunity for public comment
026on items that are not on this evening's agenda 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 you will hear a beep when your time has concluded as a reminder public comments are an opportunity for us to hear your thoughts and comments 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 and we would be happy to have deeper conversations before we begin there is a red line over here so I will call up the first speaker and then on deck if you are on deck if you can please
027make your way to the red line we also need to keep the aisles completely clear so if you are standing in the aisle you must find a seat or go into the Overflow room first is going to be Douglas and then on Deck is Bobby D's speak on agenda item five of removing proclamations which first off is just a cowardly solution to this debacle that we've been going through I would also like to ask Nolte to just not vote step down I mean that is not an agenda item I apologize thank you thank you next up is Bobby D's and on Deck is Kai Moore whenever you're ready hello my name is Bobby Dees I'm from Winter Haven Florida I'm concerned about the public not knowing about their tax dollars being spent on Mental Health
028Care in schools the school board spent Millions last month on Behavioral Health and Lord knows how much before that and today another three million dollars agenda M subject one learning support says the school board will approve Contracting out mental health care from Winter Haven Hospital this is in addition to existing Mental Health Care already provided by schools you should contract out all mental health care to keep medical records out of schools and how the quality of personnel that are less likely to be influenced by any socialist agenda and then the M3 learning support States you want five floating teachers that support Behavior Health in classrooms like Watchdogs if you will schools should focus on disciplinary problems they have with unruly students by removing them from the classroom and school grounds and notify the parent their
029child is suspended or expelled let the parent deal with their child's problem there was a poor example of this during the recent incident at Blake Academy where a bully remains in school and the victim is removed from school backwards isn't it but as of yet I have not heard or seen any updates on the matter now I know the state is funding these mental health care programs and it will take lawmakers to change it but throwing money at this problem is not fixing it one feature of this type of government Social Health Care welfare makes people more dependent on government parents are the only ones that are responsible for their child's physical and mental health care not the schools nor the government under current School Board reasons statistics show that student performance levels have dropped
030Polk County's placement on student performance went from 57th out of 67 counties to 60th all this money spent on learning support should be spent on hiring real quality teachers that stick to teaching academics that will raise their students level of performance and is beneficial to their future and raise the bar on education standards by taking Equity out of the equation in closing I would like to add I don't think my tax dollars should pay for someone else's mental health care thank you Mr Dees Kai Moore and on Deck is Glinda White hi I'm Kai and I'm a disabled queer activist from right here in Polk County Florida in a Polk County public school graduate because it is not painfully obviously yet there is a large group of conservatives here to demand that all school boards
031stop these proclamations they want to abolish proclamations and that was brought to us by our very own felon Rick Nolte which I don't even want to get into the ethical issues of him being on this board and you guys will say it is not on the agenda so for now I will ignore it I'm here to remind you that when you took this position on the board you acknowledged and swore to uphold these standards to hold yourself to the highest ethical standards to act with honesty and integrity and to embrace and uphold equity and in case you didn't know that Equity means to recognize that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make injustices make adjustments to imbalances proclamations are ceremonial documents issued by the Polk County Commission to
032honor celebrate an uplift events groups of people or to increase public awareness of noteworthy causes in case you don't remember from last time I was in here I informed you of Demands like these that have the goal of silencing and erasing multiple minority groups such as the lgbtq plus Community Black and Hispanic communities disabled people and more are usually spoon fed to board like this by groups such as Mom for Liberty and other groups which some of which are here currently that by the way are usually either recognized hate groups Nazis or other forms of supremacists and normally have the endorsement of our very own tropical Fury order reclaiming my time I implore you to do your job and recognize the demands of those who seek into not recognize the demands of those who seek
033to harm others and instead focus on the things that are actually important and can better our systems such as the overwhelming number of broken air conditioning systems that are forcing students and teachers okay then I will speak later thank you next is Glinda white however we are not going to begin until the aisles are clear there are people standing in the aisles which I've already asked that you find a seat or go into the Overflow room on Deck will be Maria Keith good evening my name is Glenda white of Winter Haven I'm asking that you vote Yes on item P5 on the action action agenda to discontinue proclamations given that Polk performance ratings for Florida schools have slipped from 57th into state to 60th out of 67. it is past time to stop catering to
034political groups and put your focus where it belongs ensuring our kids are getting a solid education I urge you do the right thing vote Yes on this matter regarding consent agenda items M1 and M3 I see that the board wants to contract out another three million dollars from Mental Health Services we're already spending copious amounts of money on supplemental education and support last month you voted to provide health clinics and schools providing Health Care in school is completely inappropriate I understand the need to ensure our kids are getting appropriate health and mental health care however the school is not the place for these Services the school system should not have access to kids Private health records and mental health records parents should be fully involved in the health care and mental health care of their
035kids not to turn it over to the school the schools should contract these Services out and collect critical information and recommendations from the contracted providers it's evident that in-school provision of these Services has done nothing to improve education delivery prevent School violence and bullying as evidenced by the Brown case bullying of which this school board has virtually ignored and self-harm done by kids to themselves who have serious mental health issues now we want to spend multiple Millions more on additional service please turn over health and mental health services to the professionals Polk schools should stay in their own lane and provide a solid education for our kids thank you thank you Maria Keith and on Deck is Anna Rivera for the discontinuing of all proclamations by the school board the actor for clock Pro confirmation
036is an abusive power as you are forcing your opinions and ideas on everyone this is not your job your job is to keep the children safe and to make sure the children receive the basic concepts of Reading Writing and math in the early years adding history in other subjects after that each child's needs are different and we need to consider that and not try and tell them who they are or what they need to be so enclosure I just want to say if you give the children the basic tools Reading Writing and math in a safe environment everything else will follow if they can read they can learn anything and it also allows them to think for themselves not what they are told to think proclamations will not fix anything and I thank you for
037your time thank you Miss Keith Anna Rivera and on Deck is Donna Hager Buenas Tardes good afternoon everyone I want to start with something that was written a long long time ago when they founded this country Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are one of our founding fathers Benjamin Franklin I write to you today and I said to all of you an email about the proclamations and I just want to say something real quick and by the way I did come in dress code if anyone noticed um being a member of this community for over 15 years running the Hispanic chamber of commerce and a lot of you know me plus also women for lulac to disregard a community and an organization during proclamations is
038very it's it doesn't have a lot of forte to not do that you have to recognize these communities because this room right now is full of these communities okay so we want to recognize communities that have given to this community such as businesses I moved to this community why because I wanted to become an entrepreneur and recognize those I brought my son here he's gone through school here he goes to college here and I want everyone to realize that the importance of a proclamation is to recognize what everyone has done well and will continue to do well in this community and this will affect us in a very negative way to not accept these so I am asking you to vote no and please keep these proclamations going because autism veterans rights women's rights and
039everyone's rights should be recognized thank you Donna Hager and on Deck is Lydia Medrano I'm Donna Hager from Winter Haven and I support the discontinuing the practicing of proclamations thank you Mr Nolte for putting that on the agenda proclamations do not support the mission of Polk County schools to provide a high quality education for all students proclamations do not encourage accepting people as individuals but support grouping people by labeling and judging them a school in Winter Haven received an f grade three in Lakeland received a grades all Elementary proclamations don't help bring up the grades in the school system proclamations do not improve reading performance mathematical mathematical expertise scientific understanding and writing skills proclamations do not make sport teams more cohesive musical groups more pleasing to hear artistic Works more expressive and students more prepared
040to be productive adults it's past time for the school board to focus on things that do not have anything to do with education and I encourage you to vote Yes for doing away with proclamations thank you thank you Miss Hager next is Lydia Medrano and on Deck is Carol Essie my name is Lydia Medrano I am the vice president for the Southeast region of the league of United Latin American citizens also known as lulac and lulac is the oldest and the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States my message to you today is that eliminating proclamations is the same as denying the contributions made by the diversity of residents in this County to recognize veterans domestic violence awareness Hispanic Heritage Month African-American historic History Month lgbtq women Etc is to create conscience of
041who we really are we cannot live in denial that we are diverse proclamations is a way to show that these board values each and every one that it appreciates that its diversity and respects residents equal rights which are given by the Constitution we are here because we're concerned about the decision that the school board is about to make we can achieve Unity by respecting diversity within our community thank you next is Carol Essie and on Deck is Emmett Purvis ended Hyde and others in the room my name is Carol Essie I'm a Polk County resident and taxpayer I grew up with parents who were both Public School teachers and I was trained to be a teacher a long time ago I remember overhearing my parents say they couldn't do what some of their friends were
042doing and that was sending their children to private school now I can tell you that I'm so thankful that they didn't I went to Public Schools similar to poke that were diverse in many different ways my public school education better prepared me for life my career dealing with people from all walks of life and even the culture wars today and I am speaking about the proclamations wanting those to stay and I guess that's a vote no so I want to thank the school board members and Dr Hyde and the teachers that they work with for the dedication to their students and my parents taught me what a huge job you all have especially the teachers and today we as parents grandparents uncles and Community aunts and uncles and community members we are indebted to you
043all and we do support you many of us do that don't come here so I'm here to speak for them last month's meeting was the first I ever watched and I was shocked because well that's partly why I'm here today it's apparent that many do not understand the complexity of your jobs training and experience are truly necessary to deal with the multiple issues in education and many different viewpoints even more important public schools are the Bedrock of democracy one Viewpoint is not enough parents and family members and friends have a hard job too instead of trying to do your job I encourage them to continue to instill values in their children and support them in school and church activities my parents did that and believe me I made it hard for them but it did
044stick I would suggest trying to collaborate with teachers instead of criticizing don't be afraid of differences they are learning experiences we can all work together which will help us understand each other to the board members please allow diversity to be celebrated by proclamations you deem appropriate thank you [Applause] thank you Emmett Purvis and on Deck is Terry pickle Emmett Purvis 655 East Stewart here in Bartow and I'm here to ask you to vote Yes on the proclamations and something I'd like to share with you I've worked for the company that owned this building that you're operating in I retired from that same company we had a board of directors which is your job you're a board of directors and you make decisions and sometimes it appears that the Tails wagon of the dog you people
045Mr Hyde works for you and I'm an investor where's my Roi on all of the money we dropped three more points where's the return on the investment we went out of business that's why you have this building because Noir and I ask you before I close and I'd like to say this I have no problem with proclamations as long as they pertain to school business and no further you want to Pro you want to and and I agree students should be recognized I'm a veteran you don't have to recognize me I'll get along without it but keep it within your jurisdiction and I thank you and I'll respect each one of you personally in our respect what you do But there again it comes back we are the investors and we expect to return on
046our investment thank you [Applause] very pickle and on Deck is Royal Brown uh ladies and gentlemen I I do I appreciate everything that you do I really do as a father and a grandfather um still have two grandchildren in public school not here in Florida anymore they moved to South Carolina but I want to say that I think that we're missing the mark when we get focused on diversions I I it's the best best way I know how to put it but in my opinion to attempt to promote or espouse a culture or a society to a political or socially driven agenda misses the mark totally on the purpose of educating our young people um rather as in the words of Noah Webster known as the father of American scholarship and education he penned these
047words in 1788. he said it is not an it is an object of vast magnitude that systems of Education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse on knowledge of the Sciences but may implant in the minds of the American Youth the principles of virtue and of Liberty and inspired them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country I believe that this is the the primary and almost if you will the sole purpose of educations it is to instill these values to instill these principles in our youth and our children um and as teachers and I I was a teacher for several years in Texas where I'm from uh not in public school but in Bible School um it's very important the job that you
048have undertaken as a teacher as a school board member because this is the future of our country the people that you are nurturing the people that you are bringing up and instilling these virtues and the knowledge as well and I thank you for your time I would say please vote Yes the proclamations are aren't a it's not the focus that we should be looking at in terms of our educating our children thank you [Applause] and on Deck is Bob Nichol good afternoon I'm Royal Brown III I live in Winter Haven Florida I'm here to urge you to vote to end all proclamations by the school board some of your past proclamations have been very divisive as they pit people with different values some political or cultural in nature against each other you should not take
049sides doing so is playing identity politics which do not unite people but rather significantly divide them proclamations often promote the beliefs of some groups which are not shared by the beliefs of other groups and this causes dissension at your work session on July 25th one of your school board members stated and I quote it is unfortunate that proclamations have turned into Political circuses and that's what we've seen I agree with that she also went on to say and it's unfortunate and I quote the following we need to listen to people who have students in school because a lot of the things we're listening to are from people who have no interests no vested interest in the outcome because they don't have children in our schools that's a false statement folks for three reasons it's an
050insulting statement quite frankly first of all we have a vested interest in our children as the future of our country depends on the future of our children and we know that the quality of their education and their ability to meet standards for their grade levels by subject Which is far too worth when we have far too many Polk County Public School students that aren't meeting these standards secondly the source of funding for your school board salaries and our schools are we taxpayers who pay County state and federal taxes thirdly we vote for school board members okay and this also gives us the right to express our views when education issues at school board meetings so to say that the only people that have any vested interest in our students or those who have children in
051school that's just wrong and you shouldn't be making comments like that any questions thank you thank you Mr Brown Bob nickel Bob Nichol and on Deck is James taggett good evening my name is Bob Nichol I'm an ESC inclusion teacher in Haines City I live at 1054 Medina Drive in Winter Haven in 1835 New York Governor Henry Seward and his wife Francis embarked on what was to have been a tour of the south in her book Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote of how the sewards came across a group of 10 slave children on the road outside of Richmond the children were chained together by their wrists they'd been separated from their parents and purchased from different plantations that day they were on their way to be auctioned off sewards found the scene so
052revolting that they turned their Carriage around and went home fast forward to this summer when the Florida Board of Education adopted new African-American standards that teach how slavery was beneficial fast forward to tonight where some members of this board want to abolish proclamations honoring Black History Month on March the 15th 2007 Lake Region High School graduate Ryan Skipper was stabbed 19 times his throat was slit his body was left by the side of a road in Juanita in a public service announcement released by equality Florida Ryan's mother said her son was murdered because he was gay fast forward to tonight where some members of this board want to do away with proclamations honoring pride month now since some members of the board also want to do away with Hispanic Heritage Month allow me to do
053my own Proclamation I would like to honor one of Puerto Rico's all-time greats Roberto Clemente he would have been 69 this month Hall of Famer 13 All-Star games National League MVP National League batting champion Gold Glove Award winner tragically Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash when he was only 38. tonight Roberto Clemente is rolling over in his grave thank you thank you Mr nickel James taggett and on Deck is Joellen McPeak yeah good afternoon my name is Jim taggett I'm a Polk County resident taxpayer and voter okay and I'm asking you to vote Yes on P5 let's get rid of the proclamations okay my reasons are okay with these proclamations you're recognizing this group or that group or a particular lifestyle or particular sexual orientation while ignoring everybody else that's not fair to the
054everybody else until we heard about being Equitable okay if you want to be fair and Equitable to everybody you're going to need a lot more proclamations okay there's not enough time in the school board meeting to do that the same idea with having a month for this group or a month for that group or a month for this activity okay why don't we have a month for math a month for English a month for science a month for American history another one for world history okay your job on the on the school board is oversee the education of the Polk County students prepare them for the world citizenship okay somebody just mentioned okay out of 67 school boards Polk County is number 60. let's get it up here somewhere to a reasonable number that is
055your job okay let's dispense with the fluff and just educate our children he teach them math teach them how to add and subtract and multiply with a pencil and paper not pushing buttons on a thing okay teach you how to read and write speak proper English accurate American history maybe job training for those that don't aren't going to college that is your job okay okay and now as far as uh Miss Miller's comments on the July 25th uh work session okay I'm a Polk County property owner and taxpayer my tax dollars pay for those seats I do have the right to follow my money and see how it's spent I'm also a voter I get to follow my vote and have a say in what you all do okay if you want to refund my
056tax dollars I'll go home and I'll shut up not an agenda item well thank you for your time Joellen McPhee Joelle and McPeak and on Deck is Stephanie Yocum Joellen McPeak my pronouns are she her I am here to express my opposition to discontinuing proclamations and show my support for the development of a policy for adopting future proclamations to include a voice by vote by board members I would like to take a moment to talk about the importance of proclamations and how they support historically marginalized groups proclamations share a common purpose to recognize honor or support particular individuals or groups for historically marginalized groups proclamations can be a powerful tool for creating and maintaining their identity by acknowledging their unique experiences struggles and contributions proclamations can help to validate and affirm their place in society
057this can be especially important for groups that have been historically erased or sidelined such as women people of color lgbtq plus individuals the disabled persons and others proclamations create space by publicly recognizing groups existences and needs proclamations can help break down barriers and promote inclusion this is especially important in areas where discrimination or Prejudice is still prevalent such as schools and public spaces finally proclamations can support equity by highlighting the specific challenges and injustices faced by historically marginalized groups by drawing attention to these issues proclamations can and spur action and create momentum for change our students deserve to be seen and feel safe in our schools as you know chronic absenteeism has a negative impact on student achievement students who feel valued students who feel connected students who feel seen come to school students who
058have a sense of belonging engage academically proclamations that celebrate and honor are diverse Vibrant Community and illuminate issues that affect our students add to our students sense of belonging an essential component to learning thank you [Applause] Stephanie Yocum and on Deck is rain Johnson good evening I'm Stephanie Yocum I'm not only the Polk Education Association president I'm a teacher and I'm a mother of a now kindergartner in our school system proclamations have been a time of Celebration recognition and representation in Polk County public schools for many years and this practice should remain a Cornerstone of Polk County Public Schools and our mission and vision to put students first divisive can be used a great deal of things in the world of public education today but our school board uplifting important issues like child abuse awareness
059Fine Arts education disability awareness and celebrating historically underrepresented minority groups is far from divisive it's interesting how last year all seven of you gave a standing ovation for Mr J.J Corbett as he accepted the Black History Month Proclamation but now that very Act is viewed as divisive I find it also curious that now all of a sudden there's no clear progress or process for proclamations while in the past before her departure from the district Marissa green oversaw all board proclamations that staff or outside groups submitted through a submission form and a process these recognitions were ultimately approved by the superintendent's office to come before the board why is this an issue now I think we all know the answer here putting students first means celebrating what makes our students different and unique while binding us
060together as a community students cannot learn the academics we want them to excel in if they do not feel valued and see themselves represented in the very educational system they participate in that completes our public school system representation matters not just for our students but for our teachers and our staff and our community as a whole when we can see ourselves represented at all levels we can dream and Achieve what we can visualize in others that have come before us or occupy those spaces now this is the power and the necessity of proclamations and this is why we advocate for proclamations to remain a part of Polk County Public Schools I implore you all as a board to not listen to a fringe minority of people and listen to your community at large thank you
061[Applause] Rayne Johnson and on Deck is Matthew grishlovsky hello I'm Rayne Johnson with women's voices of Southwest Florida's youth chapter today I have a few questions for you which are all rhetorical don't worry you don't have to answer them um number one are you stupid number two what made you think this was a good idea also this is on P5 um number three why number four do you know the outcome of this and number five why can we open with prayer but can't acknowledge gay people exist just you know some questions I have um some of you guys need to pull your dentures out and stop trying to make rules for a generation you don't relate to I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that this was ever a good plan to remove
062the proclamations that I acknowledge things like pride month it's seriously baffling that y'all have the intelligence of a cell missing its nucleus to the members of the board who think love to who can think love y'all keep trying your best to outweigh the negativity that this is side note y'all know Memorial Day is a proclamation right as well as Fourth of July and President's Day and all of your patriotic days so if we want to remove pop-up missions let's go ahead and remove proclamations but know that we have to remove all proclamations not just the ones you dislike meaning not just pride month not just Mental Health not just whatever you decide is inappropriate for school I'm just trying to you know think of some other examples but you know those are the biggest ones
063because a bunch most of y'all are just homophobic transphobic people um and you know we can throw the term bigot in there as well because most of you people want to keep things like Memorial Day President's day and every other patriotic day how many times do we have to come up here by the way I'm a student at the 10th grade who had to leave early from school so I could come and speak on this I'm taking algebra two I'm taking world history but guess what it's all secular which thank God for that one so I'm just trying to think and think of why this was ever a good idea thank you thank you and I apologize I'm gonna have you say your own last name when you get to the mic and on Deck
064is Paul Ron Cruz Ki yeah I'm sorry for holski it's polish so I've said before the board numerous times including two months ago as a young voice that has worked hard to involve students in government such as like the um State Senate and the school board I'm standing here today to speak in favor of keeping proclamations since two months ago when I first spoke before the board I have heard from what feels like hundreds of members of the Polk County public education system and its community and I want to amplify amplify their voices as well as mine I'll tell you the experience that many gay and trans Students impul County face my first and only out gay teacher face discrimination with people calling him homophobic slurs in the classroom every single day including when his
065grandmother passed away and he had to take leave for months I never saw that teacher ever again and I don't know if he even is in the education field due to the trauma that he faced from students in my senior year in the George shinkans parking lot I remember being shouted at by a group of students in a car that demeaned me as an effing queer and then they as a joked acted as if they were going to jump me I of course brought that to the principal and other faculty members but they couldn't do anything about it my best friend is still a senior in high school and she's terrified to hold her true identity in our classrooms and our hallways because of potential discrimination my other best friend's mother is a teacher and
066feels scared to even say the word gay in the classroom Polk County has a diverse community of queer students in the classroom our hallways and everywhere else in fact Dr Allen the evaluatorian of one of your most prestigious high schools that is going to Duke is gay the best talent of the next generation is massively queer trans and more we need to stand up and keep our students in our County by demanding that proclamations should exist thank you thank you Paul Ron Cruz and on Deck is Bonnie Patterson James I am a U.S army veteran combat veteran thank you I am also a member of lulac and vice president of the Puerto Rican Hispanic chamber of commerce here in Polk County and I first wanted to say thank you to all the service members Teachers
067Community contributors uh First Responders and especially the teachers I want to say thank you to everybody because I have three boys and I could not imagine doing you know taking care of 30 plus kids on a daily basis so thank you to everybody first off second um I'd like to say that we are more alike than we are different everyone here is here because they care like every single person regardless of opinion is here because they care about the future of children so let's be clear about that right our community and our children going forward let's I have to say from a personal standpoint proclamations are essentially a conduit to a conversation and stifling that conversation is equal to censorship and a violation of freedom of speech it was said that education is about preparing
068kids for the world but gay people black people Latino Hispanic and Asian Etc all people that exist so they will have to deal with these people in the real world and it's up to the parents to instill their own values and beliefs in their children not the jobs of the school board or the teachers to install specific values in children instead to educate them so they respect others when those beliefs are different or cultural backgrounds are different so we should be having these difficult conversations it is that the intent of coming to a compromise that would be better for the children who are in the school today and that will be in school tomorrow they have been posted or shared online encouraging people to support uh the ending of Publications by wearing white t-shirts I'm
069not going to suggest that that is a specific intent but can somebody please recognize how that could look to a different group especially a minority group that could be perceived as negative so suggesting that there there already seems to be a hot bus a hot button issue and culture War buttons that are constantly being pressed but they have nothing to do with what's actually affecting these children that's actually take into consideration that this is impeding our ability to educate and also instill proper values going forward what happened to Freedom what happened to being exposed to contrasting ideas and being allowed to make up your own mind as a service member I've lived by a code and that I may not agree with your opinion but I will defend to with my life the ability for
070you to express them just as every American and should therefore I urge you to vote no on item P5 regarding proclamations because we need our voices heard thank you Mr Cruz [Applause] Bonnie Patterson James and on Deck is Cesar Ramirez good evening I'm here again as a mother grandmother and concerned citizen in Polk County I'm an activist in Polk County and I'm here to address the pride Proclamation and sadly we continue to wait for the proclamation to be added to the agenda the lgbtqia community adds to our culture and contributions that have been made at a local state and National level I urge you to vote no on removing the proclamations because they are an individual celebration the opposite of pride is shame and it appears from the actions of our legislators the speakers here
071superintendent Hyde and citizens defending Freedom that they would rather these children and staff live in shame I don't understand how those coming up and spewing Christian values continue to forget religious values have no place in our government you are elected officials leave your faith at the door you took an own beautiful by putting your Christian faith first you are neglecting our Jewish students and families are Muslim families it is not just you you took an oath to represent all to represent all of the students and not just white CIS kids Lakeland is a large and diverse community people living by the laws the laws include living how you want to live and being who you are in life as long as you're not hurting another person removing proclamations hurts people and communities the proclamations were
072not an issue until superintendent Hyde decided to use his personal beliefs and remove the June proclamations for Pride how do you explain your bias when there are so many proclamations to be read national days Religious Freedom Day education sharing day transgender day of this ability Thanksgiving day I mean come on I will never forget how I was rescued in school from an abusive home I remember the day with Clarity in my algebra teacher reaching out that something was off it was that day my last abuse occurred and I was removed from that toxic environment I 100 support mental health and teachers being able to speak to students because they may be the only person a student is going to talk to thank you [Applause] thank you Miss Patterson James next is Cesar Ramirez and on
073Deck is James Guth rough school board members and superintendent for allowing me to be here today I had a full speech prepared I'm going to speak a little bit from the heart I have many titles in this community but probably not one more important than Dad I have two daughters that went through the public school system and I'm so par so proud to be a poke resident by the way Oscar J Pope is the coolest school it is and now she and one of two coolest schools the other one is Wagner and Dr Allen they're both in your District so good job appreciate that but proclamations are extremely important and here's why and I want to dispel some of the things that were said earlier about it not be in education not only is it
074honoring something special but it also educates people on what that is how do we know about General Colin Powell and the contributions he made from a man who came from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States to become a five-star general and a Secretary of State under President Bush how do we know about the good Engineers Puerto Rican Army regiment and and the contributions and the sacrifices they made to our American history how do we know without acknowledging that in in Hispanic Heritage Month someone said here earlier that proclamations are not educational I disagree I think they're an opportunity for all of us to learn a little bit something about one another this is not a political issue for me because we could learn about each other in so many different ways and
075eliminating proclamations solves a problem we don't have there is no issues except that people think that we shouldn't be focusing on one group we're not we're focusing on those contributions that are important to our community and people who look like me would like to know that we are celebrating that of which we are Americans I hope for a day that we could get rid of the hyphenated American I don't want to be a Hispanic American anymore I'm an American I'm a third generation veteran father fought in Vietnam grandfather fought in World War II these proclamations allow us to represent that history and let's face it can't eliminate proclamations because of one you don't like because you eliminate all the other ones and even if you don't like it learn a little bit something about it
076folks education um is it it's just mind-boggling that this is a conversation I'm having with the school board to have a vote on don't know I'm asking you vote no to eliminating education thank you thank you Mr Ramirez James Guth and on Deck is Elizabeth Rasmussen thank you my name is James Guth I live in Poinciana you know Iron is an amazing thing it's reasonably plentiful microphones we got it I'm sorry iron is an amazing thing it's reasonably plentiful it's malleable it's usable but no one will say it's strong it's not and it rusts but if you mix a little carbon and a little manganese into it it becomes Steel but it's still rust s if you throw a little nickel and a little chromium into it you can make stainless steel but you don't
077get steel by taking a charcoal briquette and throwing it onto a plank of iron that isn't how it works the strength from steel comes from the manganese and the carbon finding its way into the interstitial defects that exist in the lattice of the iron it isn't just pieces it's an alloy and that's what America is America is a Melting Pot let me encourage you to keep that Melting Pot on the two nuclear submarines which I was fortunate enough to command and in fact the seven others that I served on there was no room for air breathers that did not contribute and not one job was unnecessary every person knew that they could depend on every other person for their very lives so Norman were no more important than machinist mates and we did not have
078sonar day or machinists made weep we were just proud to be a subset of that Melting Pot that is America that alloy that makes us strong no matter how honorable the intention sound no matter how celebrated the speaker these proclamations hide a division agenda they create division and trust me there is an agenda and yeah you've been deluded in going along with it for a long time no one can contest the importance of the 101st Airborne for example in winning World War II but the 101st Airborne did not win World War II they work with patins tanks and the RAF and yes the Red Army to win World War II it was a team effort I'm here today to ask you to stop deluding yourselves into thinking that you can stop segregation by segregating thank
079you Mr youth Elizabeth Rasmussen and on Deck is Christy mccola I'm Elizabeth Rasmussen sorry okay good evening school board members my name is Elizabeth Rasmussen and I come to speak to you today regarding the use of proclamations in our school district America is a diverse place and Florida and Polk County are no different by Banning the use of proclamation we are effectively saying that diversity has no place in Polk County this is entirely misleading as we have students faculty and staff who are from all walks of life by getting rid of proclamations we are saying that the diverse backgrounds of these students faculty and staff do not matter and do not deserve recognition I urge you to reconsider the Banning of proclamations and to keep diversity in Polk County Schools thank you so much thank
080you Christy McCullough and on Deck is Roxanne Watkins to Proclaim is declare something one considers importance with emphasis at the beginning of each work work session you say in the who are we that one of the four most important things is to establish a culture where stakeholders feel valued publicly recognizing that groups of these stakeholders matter seems like an easy way to do this our schools are desperate for resources and both time and money communities Partners bless us with both when they make a donation or allow workers to work with our come to help our schools during work hours it seems like why can't we even take 10 minutes to say thank you to publicly say thank you the amount of teens who said they were lonely doubled from 2012 to 2018 and the pandemic
081only made that worse people that are isolated and lonely are more likely to suffer from anxiety depression more likely to self-harm use substance abuse or engage in destructive Behavior either toward themselves or others many of our students have homes where they have no value School may be the only place they're valued we expect them to come every day and do their best we need to tell them they're important we must show people they are seeing before we can expect them to actively participate this goes for students teachers support staff administrators those in the district office support our families of our students and our Community Partners all need to feel valued I do agree for Proclamation does not support one of our stakeholder groups we don't need to spend our time on it I thought about
082the irony that at the same meaning where some of you wanted to do away with proclamations you celebrated a program by Polk schools where they Proclaim how amazing our employees are the focus on excellence last year was the worst year of my 21-year teaching career I actually thought about walking out almost daily the thing that may have kept me in the classroom was getting that card and that prize knowing that someone took the time to write and say what I did mattered that may have kept me in the classroom that little bit of recognition you guys know this because read my email to you last year about how important it was being recognized matters so Mr Nolte you said we need to stop doing proclamations and get back to teaching well here's the thing not
083doing proclamations let you guys go home 15 minutes earlier it doesn't change the classroom it doesn't change a thing for our teachers we still do the same job if you want to make a difference in our classrooms give teachers more time to do the stuff they need to do to teach and do less extra stuff that doesn't matter and doesn't have anything to do with teaching take some of the stuff off their plate just trust them give them time to teach and realize that maybe being told they're important is the reason they come they come their students come our Community Partners come proclamations matter because they support the mission you read each and every thank you Miss masala Roxanne Watkins and on Deck is Terry Coney we need to understand that all citizens in Polk
084County are vested in the success of our schools it doesn't matter if you have a child in the County school system or not I'm a small business owner we hire graduates from the Polk County School System they will enter our military just as I did as a Polk County school graduate I spent 30 years in the military serving around the world Polk County represents us everywhere when our students graduate and join the military join International businesses I pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes every year on multiple properties around the county we fought a revolutionary war against taxation without representation so I feel very strongly that I have an active role I vote for County school board members and it is my job to hold my person that I vote for accountable in addition
085I want to complement those members who understand that their job is to as a school board member is focusing on the children in their education I want to read a few numbers that I found online today Lakeland School fell from a ranking of 230 in 2018 to 258 last year Winter Haven fell from 274 to 327. Highland City fell from 195 to 257. Polk City fell from 340 to 380. please focus on educating our children and supporting our teachers who just want to do their job as a 30-year veteran and a hundred percent disabled veteran I don't need a proclamation from a County School Board member to feel appreciated or affirm for my contribution to this County or to this country thank you Miss Watkins [Applause] Terry Coney and on Deck is Sean Jordan good
086evening School Board Supply get this out of the way first I would ask you to vote no on this agenda item P5 second proclamations have everything to do with education next you have you have a very hard job leadership is hard democracy is messy and cumbersome but that's what our country was built on compromise nobody gets everything that they want if you go back to the 1787 Constitutional Convention there was a cons there was a compromise made on the three-fifth item some of you may know what that is if you don't Google it but I've heard constantly since I've been in here about the role of education and what proclamations do what proclamations don't do ratings going up and down proclamations have nothing nothing whatsoever to do with that we need every we need to
087do everything we can to inspire our kids and they are inspired if if we can do or say or show them something that makes them feel good I was I was at the Lakeland City Commission meeting yesterday and they still do proclamations they did a proclamation on uh general aviation they did a proclamation for alignment the men that go up and work on the lines I spoke with Bill Beasley the uh the county manager and I asked him about proclamations they still do proclamations but they decide which ones they want to do don't take the easy way out it's it's easy just oh we're not going to do this anymore it really is you're paid to make decisions and you have hard decisions to make I sit here through the uh through the work session
088and some of it I found frivolous I mean are we dealing with with with with with cell phones and names and all these things but then you have hard decisions on on money and capital budget and buildings so so I mean we're wasting all this time talking about proclamations you know to to use my inner Allen Iverson proclamations really so if if if you're going to do this I would I would ask you just the table the whole thing and not even vote because we have smart people up here talk about it and you can select the ones you want you basically have nine months through a school year thank you Mr Coney don't thank you Sean Jordan thank you Sean Jordan and on Deck is Abdul al-kitab ly that's my name my name is
089Sean Jordan at Lakeland resin and proud business owner here in Polk County there are certain things that go on in this wonderful County in our schools and unfortunately school boards have a hard decision and a hard decision is what your sign says students first we need to bring back the value of Education we have lots of beautiful young bright-minded children that are graduating and or don't have the time or the teachers don't have the time to give them the education that they need because they're too busy with this Proclamation this Proclamation busy with this hope I take time for this we'll take time for that simply let's just get rid of them all everyone say oh it's Thanksgiving Day there's this day I sit back and look at my daughter's school schedule how many days
090she's actually in school how many days she's actually out of school versus every different holiday here it's going I'm going wow as a business owner I'm blessed to be able to say okay I can take that day off of work and make sure my daughter has a has someone to watch over and keep her out of trouble I look at this and listen to all the different voices out there all the why different views on everything but I was also the same person that was at city council meeting a few weeks ago when they had drag queens and they're when the drag queen show I was the only one that came up and brought up State Statute eight two seven point zero four and that right there is contributing to the delinquency of a minor
091some will say that doesn't have any standing any value in it but if we look at line B the word persuasion is in there so if we get a young child it's in a school saying the western state California where they do allow it and where certain teachers will have a room they'll little little town Timmy just Mrs Kim and now another another little child will say oh wait a minute is that right or is that wrong it's persuasion this looks the pure value of the fact proclamations have no place in school our children need to you know sit back study and be the best brightest Minds that they can be they are our future they are the ones that we want running this country one day and if we were floated in our minds
092with different opportunities and different populations and confusing them with that was bring back Reading Writing arithmetic let's bring back the values the great values which made this wonderful country so great in a beautiful place that many people from around the world fight hard for I used to work with a guy tried 12 times to get here from Cuba he finally made it here and he worked very hard he was one of the hardest working guys I ever worked with I feel blessed to work with that man he feels he's the only one to go into hard situations with me and pull out the hardest and most difficult things I it's in your eye it's in your hands our children's future I yield Abdul and on Deck is Robert Goodman Madam chair I'm a board members
093fellow citizens I Rise this evening in support of P5 the Declaration of Independence declares we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and then it goes on to say that uh we have government and we have boards like this one that exist by the consent of the government we who assemble ourselves here are the ones that provide that consent to you to do the work that we call you to do I've heard of many different positions mine is that I support this and I believe that it's a time honored tradition that school boards provide proclamations that recognize significant historical cultural ethnic and other occurrences in our community it appears
094to me that this discontinuing Proclamation patients is a simply a gateway to denying or depriving other activities under the guise of anti-wope shenanigans John Maxwell tells us that the courage of the leader is not for himself or herself but for those who are dependent on him to lead we as citizens of this community are dependent on you to lead and to make an example or to set an example for our children we have far too many leaders in our community now that get up and espouse all kinds of foolishness under the guise of leadership and then they are just being disrespectful dishonorable I served in the United States armor I've heard others say that we can all claim all these great things that we've done for this against I'm a volunteer with the Polk County
095School boards I give my time free time I might add and uh and I appreciate that opportunity the word education comes from the Latin word EduCare which means to draw out from within is the responsibility and it's the practice of a of a proclamation to draw out that diversity that that uh Excellence that exists in all of us and in the things that we do and we need to support those things in our communities I grew up in this community uh and I used to drive through a portion of town that said no dogs no cats no Mexicans no Puerto Ricans no allowed you see and I'm a product of Polk County School Board and they said that uh to me that it was a Melting Pot and that I could pull myself up by
096my bootstraps I pulled myself up by my smooth straps and I'm standing here flat-footed telling you that what we need to do is support this and if you can't do that I'll be here just as regularly as those who want to oppose it thank you [Music] [Applause] Robert Goodman and on Deck is Karen Wessel I'm going to go off script just a little bit I had some things written I was going to say and some of it's already been said I want to take time to talk to you tonight as a father of three grandfather of quite a few all of my children I am a product of public schools my children are in public schools my grandchildren are in public schools I want to take time to focus on the reason you're elected and
097the reason everyone in this room no matter what their point of view is is here we're all here because we want to focus on the children your job is to ensure that the children of Polk County Public Schools have a quality education they're prepared for a successful life after their K-12 education is complete whether that involves going to college or entering the workforce of Polk County or whatever they choose to do what they do in these schools is the citizens that we are going to be hiring the citizens that are we are going to be electing and the citizens that are going to run this country in the future every citizen of Polk County every taxpayer has their entry has a vested interest in them all of you some of you on the board have
098students that have never entered a public school a day in their life and you criticize people who say well you don't have anyone in school where is the agenda item okay let's get to the top the board says the board is as diverse as the audience so we want to I think that it's sad that we're going to end proclamations that's something that nobody would ever really want but one of the board members last month said it's turned into a circus tonight we had rain Johnson tell people to put take their Dentures out or put their dentures in they spoke to all of you disrespectfully you're working to make sure that children of Polk County have a good education you're working hard that kind of disrespect is why we're here and again there it is
099we see this at every school board meeting we speak at for for the state when we go to the state state school board meeting it's always people disrespecting those who disagree we're number 60 out of out of 67 counties please fix that we will partner with you we'll work with you I will dedicate any amount of time that is needed to get a better education for our students let's stop with political nonsense and get on with educating students thank you thank you [Applause] thank you Aaron welzel and on Deck is John Lin hi my name is Karen Wells I live in Winter Haven Florida Polk County school board members and superintendent Hyde thank you for allowing me this time to speak on an important issue I was very sad and frankly disappointed when I heard
100that A specific group of people in our community felt that proclamations by the Polk County School Board are divisive the proclamations range from issues such as domestic violence awareness special education awareness veteran recognition to those proclamations that acknowledge the identities of our community I identities that celebrate our diversity like Hispanic Heritage Month African-American history month lgbtq History Month women's history month and so many others I believe that our differences do not divide us but they reinforce the ability to recognize accept and celebrate those differences School Board Proclamation should be continued to recognize our whole community and all of its amazing and diverse members now more than ever we need to show students staff and families that they are valued here in Polk County no matter who they are where they come from or who their
101parents are board members I encourage you please continue to practice and proclamations in these meetings we cannot allow small-minded groups to determine what books our children read or the recognition in honor of our diversity in our community children need to learn about our history about the differences in our family in our religions and yes the differences in the color of our skin or the language that we speak children learn what they live we want them to live in a happy healthy and loving environment to learn all they can to be productive citizens in a scary world and to build a community that recognizes accepts and celebrates the differences together we should not promote divisiveness or hate in our schools thank you for your time thank you John Lin in on Deck is Donna Windsor thank
102you board for your patients with robust and dynamic differences and conversation that's what our country was founded on our culture today is all too uh often looking for ways to have our feelings heard but what I'm hearing tonight is robust debate you'll make the decision at the end of this as to whether we have resolutions uh proclamations excuse me continue I stand before you tonight with some comments from what I've observed over the past several school board meetings reference the board's continued practice of issuing proclamations this practice should be abandoned immediately it should be abandoned by seven to zero vote actually for any elected body to continue a practice fraught with so much controversy on matters having nothing to do with the academic achievement of our students should be really a no-brainer the abandonment of
103proclamation should be the easiest vote of your tenure on this school board along with the same topic it is extremely disappointing to me as a citizen that we are told basically we are not worthy of coming before you since we have no children in the Polk County School System having children in Polk County Schools is not uh it is entirely beside the point all Polk citizens should be concerned with the academic achievement or lack thereof of all students being lectured by a member of the board saying we have no quote vested interest is insulting and I would request that that bullying tactic immediately cease just today I received from the Polk County Property Appraiser's office an indication of what my property taxes will be for 2024. the largest piece of that bill is your Polk
104County or is our Polk County School System uh what governing body was the largest recipient of the taxes in the past and will be going forward the Polk County School District that alone qualifies me to stand at this Podium not whether I have kids grandkids no people or whatever those are all various Dynamics and they're factual but me standing here before you as a taxpayer I have a right to be here and express my opinion and actually be continually obligated to understand what's going on with Polk County School Systems I appreciate your time thank you and on Deck is kit Taylor hello and thank you for allowing me to speak thank you all for being here I would like to thank the teachers and also the deputies that are keeping us safe you know I
105had something prepared but then as I listened to people speak a lot of people already covered some of the things that I wanted to say um you know the I'm here to speak about P5 the proclamations and I do think that they're an important part of Education because they teach our children a very important lesson which is how to be able to be around people that are different than you that believe differently than you you know this meeting started with um I don't remember what you called it but either way it was a prayer and I'm an atheist so I don't agree with that but I don't have to insist that you never praise your your higher power whatever that might be because it makes me uncomfortable all I can do is opt out you
106know I learn critical thinking because that allows me to decide whether or not I believe what you believe it doesn't mean I have to tell you what you can and cannot believe um that being said I think proclamations are a great way to teach our kids to be a global citizen to get along with people who are different than them it's also a way to teach them to be aware of things they might not have been aware of and it also allows us to devote other resources like time and money to the things that are our students don't get enough of which is you know we have teacher shortages we have AC problems we have other things where our kids those things are taken away from our kids education far more than whether we spend
10715 minutes saying that we Proclaim acceptance of a group um or not a group or or a cause that seems silly to me we have so much bigger problems um it seems silly to me than when my kids are better prepared to figure out what to do when someone starts shooting than I am because we can't stop those things but we're worried about whether or not saying gay people are okay is going to be a problem for my kids it's not they're not going to turn gay and neither are yours so I really think we need to get our priorities in order we need to get it together and we need to put the students first like it says there for if we haven't done it already which we really we haven't we need to
108start today thank you thank you Spencer hit Taylor and on Deck is Anita Carson good evening members of the School Board I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to address you I'm sure you all are eager to be here I'm not really a public speaker so you'll excuse me if I Stumble a little bit I hope anyway uh I'd like to thank Abdullah for for stealing my thunder I was going to open up with the same preamble to the Declaration of Independence I think it was we hold these truths to be self-evident anymore I think a lot of our people uh are not really tied into that concept that all men are created equal but I diverge I'm sorry we're here to talk about proclamations which are statements to celebrate or to honor and
109celebrate what we value and if if that's not the the basis for education I don't really know what is I believe it was uh Socrates or aerosol I get confused that they pointed out that uh education is the lighting of a fire not the filling of a vessel and we have to have something to light that fire with students I'm a retired teacher retired uh in 2020 after teaching for 21 years um and I lost my train of thought there I'm sorry um this the things that we honor that we celebrate they say things to our students they're what the um they're the first thing we start with that kind of lay the groundwork students really aren't they don't really um they don't always pay attention to what you're saying and sometimes they pay a
110lot more attention than you think they do and I guarantee you that these proclamations that um that honor uh Spanish Heritage lgbtq issues um Juneteenth African-American month they all they all make an impression on them whether they're whether it's a conscious uh thing that they're they're going to stand up and fight for whether just in the back of their mind they understand that it's honored by our our society our culture our education um you know I was I had I had no idea when I first started teaching I was a commercial artist for years and I I switched to education thinking well this is a cheery job I'm done by the time it's uh what kids got at 2 45. I'm off it's time to go home and just call it a day maybe maybe
111I can take up painting it's the hardest job I ever had uh these teachers they'll admit it was like I cried my first night after I actually faced the kids I went home and cried um so I'm running out of time here so I'd just like to to say that you know if you're against these proclamations are you thank you Anita Carson and on Deck is Chelsea Davis I know the board all knows me um I appreciate you listening to the wide group of diverse people that have come forward today our proclamations and our special recognitions have always been the happy moment in our school board meetings they've always been the thing where we get to recognize businesses that have helped us out there places where we recognize individual students where we recognize amazing leaders
112in our community we had JJ Corbett take the African-American history Proclamation last year and he had a standing ovation for the amount of history that he shows in this community um they haven't been divisive ever before and they weren't until June of this year and it's hard for me to see that and not take that as specifically directed at one community and now it feels like we are saying we would rather take all proclamations and all of those happy moments away then address a specific Community existing in our world that's horrific they are already under attack they're already not feeling seen or heard this will make more people leave the classrooms we have a shortage of teachers that harms every single student I've heard a lot today about the concept of politicization politicalization and that
113this Proclamation process is politicizing these identities but realistically these identities aren't political in and of themselves they've been politicized as a tactic to make it easier for boards to say we don't want to get political being queer isn't political in and of itself it's just an identity being black isn't political it's an identity marker if you allow the politicization of our communities to take away our ability to recognize the beautifully diverse Community we have you are taking away the support that the board has been seeing as amazing before there's no reason for us to take it away now that it's deemed political when it wasn't before these are people that's it people and we're wanting to recognize that they exist in our communities that shouldn't be divisive think about the people who are telling you
114it is because they're also calling to remove actual supports from mental health from our students as well so now they don't want them to be seen heard or get help think about who you're listening to when you are making your decision today I would hope that you will continue supporting all of our diverse communities and I hope you made the right decision today thank you thank you self Davis hi I'm chelse Davis I'm currently the only school counselor at Boone Middle School so I was a little late getting here today um please don't remove proclamations I understand that it is easier to to sidestep issues that have become wedge issues in our community right now it's it's easier to avoid the issue altogether and I know y'all could use a break I think we all
115could um but not on this one not here not not with our students is confidence in us on the line Polk County schools are Guided by a simple value I've heard it a few times tonight students first we have a great motto students first that's every student that's LGBT students that's disabled students that students of every Heritage every life circumstance we care for all of them and bluntly our kids aren't stupid can we please be respectful of our speaker thank you thank you so to be blunt our kids aren't stupid they they see what's going on here they they see us here choosing not to celebrate our differences for the sake of not upsetting a loud minority they see their role models us cowing to a bully instead of standing up for them like we
116teach them they see our hypocrisy and we deserve their scrutiny we cannot sit here and wear shirts embroidered with students first while rejecting the differences that make our community the thriving ecosystem that it is our students are watching they understand and they hear what we are saying when we don't speak up for them please do not remove proclamations from our community we must set the example as Educators and as much as people who live in Polk County thank you Miss Davis that concludes our public comments for items on the agenda I'm going to ask that we take a brief 10-minute recess before we move on we've been going for about two hours so I think everybody could stand to stretch for a minute so we will be back at 707 foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign
117[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] good evening if I could have everyone take a seat please we can get back to our agenda foreign I need everyone in a seat or in the Overflow room please we have to keep the aisles clear all right first next on our agenda is the approval of the minutes I know it's been a long evening but we have to keep quiet the first set of minutes will be for July 25th 2023 school board meeting and I will seek a motion to approve the minutes from the July 25th 2023 school board meeting approved second Dr Allen and Mr
118sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be for the July 25th work session so I'll seek a motion to approve the minutes of the July 25th 2023 work session meeting so moved second Miss fields and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries our next set of minutes will be from June 27th work session so I'll seek a motion to approve the minutes of the June 27 2023 work session so moved second Miss Cunningham and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion carries and our last set of minutes will be the June
11913th work session I'll seek a motion to approve the minutes of the June 13th 2023 work session so moved second Miss fields and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be our consent agenda I'll now seek a motion for approval of the August 22nd 2023 consent agenda so moved second Miss Cunningham and Miss fields any discussion seeing none I'm sorry Dr Allen thank you madam chair I just wanted to note M1 since this one actually came up in public comment uh and reflecting last week I did send an email to superintendent High to clarify on that particular agenda item as it related to BayCare in cooperation with Winter Haven hospital and I was just seeking more context on that
120one so um superintendent hide if you can maybe speak to that one and what you had responded to me about that agenda item certainly and this is a similar response was provided to the constituent who spoke earlier as well who inquired as to why we need these services so first and foremost this is a long-standing contract that we have had well over 15 years we have maintained this contract and again this is a contract and the budgeted amount is the maximum amount we could spend we are billed on a regular basis this contract in comparison to the previous contract has actually been reduced by over two hundred thousand dollars additionally new language was put into the contract to ensure that we we would not be billed for no show appointments these are for school-based services
121obviously parental consent has already been provided these are for our students who have IEPs or individualized education plans this is required by federal law it's also required by state law it also ensures that we're in compliance with House Bill 7026 the Marjory Stone Douglas act and House Bill 7030 which is a similar Bill and so again these are our students who require mental health supports all services are provided at the school level which eliminates any barriers to our families or our students as far as Transportation needs and so it's done during the school day they embed themselves in many instances these staff are considered an extension of the school-based staff however as I shared with Dr Allen given the long-standing nature of this contract it will be one that we review and consider putting out
122an RFP for to determine whether or not there are other contract providers that we could use in the same capacity throughout the district I'm not saying we would necessarily necessarily negate this contract at all it's simply a matter of is there a better price the 75 dollar per visit cost that we have here is well under the national average for what therapeutic services cost and so that's anywhere from 90 to 200 for therapeutic services and supports and again these are some of our most fragile students so this is not a new program or a new process in fact I think the board would appreciate the the refinements that have been done and the reduction of the contract and the reduction of the contract was not because we did not have the need last year or
123going into this same school year as we did last year but Miss Williams and her team have been working to grow our own Staffing and so to a point that was mentioned earlier by one of our stakeholders the intent is to pull these back within the school district and provide those services and supports but again I want to make sure it's clear that these are not something this is not something that's new nor is it something we do haphazardly or just simply because it's a it's a pedagogical or philosophical opinion of ours this is a mandate by federal policy and state requirements to make sure that we're adequately serving our students of need thank you so much for that clarification superintendent Hyde I and I was going to draw attention also to uh oh four
124and this one is an articulation agreement with the University of South Florida last go round during our public meeting I brought forward a couple of the other articulation agreements that we have with other colleges around our area whereas so this allows our students to pursue dual enrollment just came through advising season at Florida Southern College and had a chance to advise with several students from Polk County and hear from them the impact that dual enrollment had in their Journey here in Polk County and the impact that's going to have for them to to double major to pick up an extra minor but also save thousands of dollars on their education as well so just wanted to draw attention to that as I give approval on this consent agenda that is accessible to our students and
125that's all I have Madam chair Allen any for any further shin and all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries superintendent Hyde would you like to introduce any new administrators yes ma'am Madam chair we we have a page full instead of two pages like last time we will start with Miss tolay Kendrick she was previously the senior director of school Improvement she's now been promoted to acting assistant superintendent of the middle school region good evening Mr Hyde and school board members thank you for the opportunity to serve my community I'm a proud product of Polk County Public Schools I attended Griffin Elementary School Kathleen Middle School and Lake Gibson High School I'd like to take the opportunity to thank those who have impacted me the most during my
126time I would like to thank Deputy superintendent green Chief Collins as well as the Educators who've made a difference in my life they're here with me today that would be Mrs um I'd like to say Dr Clint Wright first because he was actually my middle school principal and he saw something in me and he pulled me to the side and he said you can be whatever you want to be and so thank you Dr Clint Wright Mrs Charlene Brinson Mrs Patricia Barnes I'd also like to thank my mentors who have helped me through my principleship that would be Mr Brett Butler and Mrs Eileen Killebrew Mr Hyde school board members thank you again for this opportunity I look forward to serving the community in which I grew up in congratulations does anybody want to bring
127down for fixed pictures yes after absolutely I know Pat Barnes isn't going to try and stay back there and hide [Laughter] thank you Miss Barnes [Music] next up is George Millar assistant director for transportation and operations who's being promoted to director for transportation and operations board members who pretend to hide thank you so much for the Privileges to come tonight um I just want to say it's humbling and I'm honored to accept this position it's great and as I've said throughout my career here at Polk County this is the best group of people I've worked with in my entire career it's a privilege and a pleasure to come to work every day I just want to say thank you thank you sir [Applause] next up is Jeanette Aguilar assistant principal two at Citrus Ridge Civics
128Academy is being promoted to assistant principal Bethune Academy I do not see her Gretchen arzillo assistant principal two at Lake Gibson highest Middle School excuse me was promoted to assistant principal at Lake Gibson middle school she is not in attendance this evening Ria Cleveland assistant principal 2 at Bartow Middle School is being promoted to assistant principal at Doris Sanders Learning Center hey guys I just want to say thank you so much I was just it's been an opportunity I was at Bartow for eight years now I'm at Doris Sanders and in case y'all don't know this is Center School uh oh I love ESC someone's found my passion for me so thank you all so much for that I can't I just look forward to great things y'all come visit our school because uh we're
129doing amazing things already well in the week and a half we're doing amazing things so I invite all of you come out and visit us and see what we're doing out there thank you thank you [Applause] thanks thank you Freddie Cole behavior interventionist at Inwood Elementary School is being promoted to acting assistant principal at Paget Elementary School good evening everybody I've been down a little bit good evening everybody it's a pleasure to be here it's such an honor I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve our Polk County Community this is my third year in the county and I've been mentored by some of the greatest people Mr John Hill and Miss delay Kendrick who was here earlier so I'm just grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to serving thank you master congratulations thank you
130foreign assistant principal two at Lakeland High School is being promoted to assistant principal at George Jenkins High School good evening everybody good evening Mr superintendent board thank you for this opportunity to serve at assistant principal at George Jenkins High School I'm honored to be able to work with this great staff in an amazing administrative team under the direction of Mr Patton one incredible team of professionals really thrilled to be there I would also like to thank the staff and Leadership at Lakeland High School it was a true privilege to be able to work with them in the role of ap2 over the past two years finally I'd like to thank my family for being supportive of me as I transitioned through these roles I look forward to the new leadership position and the opportunities for
131growth that it will provide it is my goal to be the best servant leader that I can be in the role of assistant principal at George Jenkins Mr superintendent board thank you again for the opportunity congratulations thank you [Applause] Mr Mario Jenkins assistant principal two at Tenoroc High School is being promoted to assistant principal at Auburndale High School thank you first and foremost I want to give honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for everything I want to thank my wife for 28 years quandria for believing in me and giving me favor with God and man I want to give honor to my children Omari Mason my parents Walter and Donna Jenkins else they've impacted my life in so many ways for raising me right and then the fear of the ammunition of the
132Lord I Thank you for raising me my mentor and life coach Mr Ernest Joe for not letting me settle for mediocrity my professional mentors Donna drizum John Hill Julie Grice Jason Looney and Dr Sally Brisbane stone for your wisdom and guidance my current principal Mr Todd Bennett for your leadership and integrity and transparency I've learned so much from you in just a couple of weeks I thank you for your leadership my regional superintendent Tracy Collins for not forgetting about me and vouching for me the memory of my late principal Mr Richard Lewis Lake Gibson High School class of 1991. he was a great educational leader showed me what educational leadership looked like and I honor him finally to Mr Hyde and to this great Board of uh school board thank you for this tremendous opportunity
133I look forward to serving Polk County Schools congratulations [Applause] come on Todd Todd you're not coming down ah I mean he can do one with family then you can jump in as well all right Todd hey congratulations [Applause] making a return appearance in Polk County Public Schools Mr Damian Jones previously principal in DeSoto County public schools has recently been appointed to an assistant principal at Denison Middle School he was previously employed in Polk County Public Schools and had a stellar record with us Dr Hyde for welcoming me back here to Polk County very excited to be back I went away for a couple years have some great experiences down in DeSoto County definitely glad to be back home my family is definitely glad that I'm back home in their absence tonight so again thank you
134for welcoming back and I look forward to what the future may bring thank you thank you home [Applause] hey I need to get your picture not official without a picture next is Erica Morse assistant principal two at Auburndale High School is being promoted to assistant principal at Auburndale High School hi good evening I'm honored to be here tonight not being an ed major I've been an educator for the last 19 years and I've been supported taught and mentored by some of the most amazing individuals to whom I own a great deal of gratitude first I'd like to thank the Lord for leading me down this path I'd like to thank my family for supporting and sacrificing to make this possible my parents Jeff and Jane my husband Andy and his parents Mary Beth and Cecil
135and my children Jake Olivia and Emily thank you I would also like to thank my professional mentors who shaped and believed in me and guided me endlessly to Mr Brett Butler Mr Harry Williams Mr Ty Bruno Mr Dan Talbot Mr Alan doujay Miss Tracy Collins and Mr Hyde thank you so much and I'd also like to honor the late Johnny Jackson who started my career as an administrator lastly I'd like to thank Mr Todd Bennett for allowing me the opportunity to serve the wonderful Auburndale community and I'm so grateful and humbled to have this opportunity and I promise to serve and Lead others to the best of my abilities thank you and go hounds [Applause] she's adorable well you gotta get the baby in the picture that's cute congratulations [Applause] next is Heather Powers assistant
136principal 2 from Citrus Ridge Civics academies being promoted to assistant principal Citrus Ridge Civics Academy hello good evening I just want to say thank you for this opportunity to continue serving our students of Polk County um that's it I didn't have anything planned congratulations [Applause] next is Miss Lisa provino assistant principal at Auburndale High School who's now being promoted to assistant principal at McLaughlin Academy things thank you for having me here tonight I would like to thank my friends and my family for all the support that they've given me through this journey their love and encouragement has always pushed me forward to achieve my goals I want to thank my leaders and mentors without without guidance would I would probably not be down this path y Thomas for taking a chance on me Mr Tom
137Patton for being my mentor and always showing me a different side of things Mr tiburn offer allowing me to solidify my footing and allowing me to find my voice to Dr Deborah Wright thank you for allowing me to experience collaboration and keeping an Open Door Lacey emberling for taking my calls and always letting me do all the data that my heart could stand and I cannot in good conscience not mention Johnny Jackson he was not my principal but with his encouragement was always there and he's always kind to me I want to thank Miss Tracy Collins for the face provided in me and Mr Hyde while I miss seeing Freddy every day walking with purpose I am so proud and so honored to be at my position at McLaughlin Academy it is my intention to
138make all of you very proud of me and the work that I do while serving the community of Lake Wales and Polk County Schools congratulations and in true McLaughlin style they turned out they always turned out to support their people hey let's take one with family and then we'll put our students in there okay let's get the rest of the group in thank you the Mr Marvin Reeves assistant principal 2 at Winter Haven High School is being promoted to assistant principal Winter Haven High School good evening my name is Marvin Reeves I am a product of the Polk County School Board system I'm first generation Polk County born and raised in Lake Wales Florida I am Lake Wales Highlander and I am very appreciative for the opportunity that has been given to me and I
139won't let you down thank you very much great job sir [Applause] next is Robert Schott assistant principal 2 from Sleepy Hill Middle is now being promoted to a system principal at Southwest Middle he is he is he is that yeah good evening everyone try this good evening guys thank you I'd like to thank the board uh first of all I'd like to thank Mr Hyde for the opportunity to lead here in Polk County very excited um and I hope I'm able to make a difference [Applause] next is hackham schwell assistant principal two at Bartow High School being promoted to assistant principal at gauze Academy not in attendance tonight Todd simmers assistant principal 2 at Bartow High School is being promoted to assistant principal at Bartow High School well thank you guys for having me it's
140an honor thank you superintendent Hyde and your team thank you board members um man I have so many people to thank but I will go ahead and table that I'll be sending out individual thank yous for that to respect everybody's time you guys know who you are uh so many people have helped me along the way I want to definitely send a shout out to principal Lance Lawson abarto high school and the IBU I had a head of um schools Mandy Craven of course my amazing principal who is here because I'm at Summerlin Academy Dr Downing our commandant so thank you for coming tonight what a commitment and an honor and I do appreciate it I've got a couple more uh just people to think well I have this time Miss DeLoach my third grade
141elementary teacher from Carlton Palmer Elementary who at an early age although I didn't realize it really had the concept of the whole child and recognizing individual students or who they are and really just brought that out so I try to continue that on my parents my father who taught me to Commitment following through and loyalty and accountability of course my mother who taught me to embrace and have tolerance and empathy and be really reflective and that's helped me along the way and last but not least my wonderful family is here my my lovely wife and children who are just my lighthouse on that Rocky Shore and they really Drive everything I do um so to our team we're doing amazing things Summerlin Academy and Bartow so thank you again for your guys time and I
142appreciate it congratulations [Applause] they remembered that you have to take a picture [Applause] coming down you didn't want to come down and get in the picture you're welcome sir congratulations and last but certainly not least Miss Kimberly Slifer a system principle 2 at bulberry high school is being promoted to assistant principal at Davenport High School good evening thank you members of the board superintendent Hyde I remember leaving the classroom to become an instructional coach I had made an impact on my 180 students but there's so many more students that could still use my help as our brand new teachers needed help my passion in education became to support new teachers and feeling confident in their role in finding a love for the classroom God blessed me with three wonderful years as an instructional coach but
143now as an administrator I can make school-wide impacts I now strive to support my 120 teachers so that I can help 2 400 students feel at home successful and ready for their future I'm so grateful for God's guidance throughout this journey grateful to have a husband that is proud of my career and has supported my growth since day one grateful for parents and a sister that love and push me towards success thank you to Ashley Gambrell and Kaylee Mullenix for being my confidence every single day huge shout out to Kaylee Kish for being the best mentor to guide me from teacher to coach and now fellow administrator I'm immensely grateful to Mr Young and the admin team at Mulberry high school that school is a well-oiled machine and they taught me so much in one
144year thank you to miss Collins for your guidance and support and finally thank you to Mr dujay for helping me feel like a Bronco from day one and continuing to guide me on this path of leadership congratulations [Applause] I'm getting old Madam chair that concludes recognition of new administrators thank you superintendent Hyde next on our agenda will be item P1 Lake Region High School naming of the football field in honor of Stephen White and I will now hear a motion to approve Lake Region High School naming of the football field in honor of Stephen White to be named Stephen White Stadium Mr sharpless and Miss Cunningham any discussion Mr sharpless did you want to read your sure I'm going to read my letter of support for actually all three the first three items um superintendent
145Hyde I stand in support of Lake Region High School's request for naming of three athletic buildings which are Stephen White stadium football Randy House of Payne weight room and John Bridges softball softball complex for softball the attached letters detail the accomplishments of each honoree named above and and how their service to students and the community has been a helpful part of this dedication on behalf of Lake Region and myself I ask that this request be taken into consideration in the naming of the above athletic buildings respectfully Justin sharpless District Six thank you Mr sharpless any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries do we have I believe is Mr White or do we have some Representatives here Mr White can I call
146you up to be recognized welcome back the Walk of Fame members Dr Hyde m and that's just today [Laughter] presenting the number one staff and number one students it's not about me really and to just to give you a real brief history of what how this all happened by the way my wife Wendy is here and Dr Stewart and Susan Stewart are hearing Dr Stewart's here because he's the reason for all this he's the one that appointed me but when we opened up Lake Region High School in 1995 the stadium was not complete and there was a reason for that in 95 the budget was tight you remember so we shared the stadium with Denison we the students and the Mr Tucker myself we got along fine but the booster groups it caused a major
147problem so so the my number one staff and my number number two one number one students along with me as their guidance begged the school board to loan us the money to finish our Stadium and they did and the way that we paid for it is we took a percentage of our tickets from football soccer baseball band dances and we sent a percentage to the school board we did that for about four or five years and somebody over here liked us and forgave us and then we held we don't we didn't have celebrations at Lake Region High School we called them thunderbrations and we had a huge thunderbration and we celebrated and we burned the mortgage so to speak so that's the that's the story of how we got our stadium and so I appreciate
148the honor and I will only represent those number one students and staff who now have ownership because they had to give a little bit because part of their Gates were going into getting a Stadium built so Dr Stewart Susan Stewart my wife and the board members thank you very much I appreciate it thank you thank you I think we'd like to get a picture remember it is yeah sorry you've been called by name you have to come now there's no option Susan you've been called by name that's the rule come on don't be shy well wait don't you worry we're good [Laughter] it was night out on the town [Applause] I wanted to mention Seth Lampard is here Mrs Hardy couldn't come but Seth Lambert came as a nice Miss Hardee's moving into a new
149house I don't know all right the next item on our agenda is action item P2 Lake Region High School naming the weight room and Otter of Dr Rand sorry in honor of Randy house and it will be named Randy House of Payne so I will seek a motion to approve Lake Region High School's naming of the weight room in honor of Randy house to be named Randy house of pain so moved Mr sharpless and Miss Fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries do we have someone here for the Randy House of Pain they left okay well we will make sure that we send them our congratulations I also am not sure who came up with that name but it might be
150one of the best names we have on any of our buildings so kudos to them action item P3 is Lake Region naming of the softball field in honor of John Bridges so I'll now seek a motion to approve Lake Region High School naming of the softball field in honor of John Bridges to be named John Bridges softball complex so moved second Mr sharpless and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and do we have John or family members here anyone he left as well well we will send him our congratulations as well next we have item P4 which is Rochelle School of the Arts naming of the Hermann Jenkins naming and of naming a lab in honor of Herman Jenkins
151so I'll seek a motion to approve the Rochelle School of the Arts naming of the fabrication lab in honor of World War II Army veteran Mr Herman Jenkins second Miss fields and Miss Miller any discussion I'd like to read the letter that I sent to superintendent Hyde I have received the request from Carol Griffin principal Rochelle School of the Arts to name the fabrication lab in honor of Mr Herman Jenkins a graduate of Washington Park High School in a World War II Army veteran please find meeting minutes reflecting unanimous approval of this request from the school advisory Council in the early 1950s Mr Jenkins taught himself photography and set up a photography studio in his home where he took pictures and developed them in his home he had many jobs in Lakeland after leaving the
152Army but his legacy to the African-American Baby Boomers is that of being a great photographer I am requesting that the fabrication Lab at Rochelle School of the art to be named in his honor the Herman Jenkins fabrication lab if this request meets your approval I'm requesting that this be on an upcoming school board meeting agenda which is tonight and I understand that Mr Jenkins is a hundred and four years old and that's amazing [Applause] one of the things that I always say is give people flowers while they can see them and smell them so he's still alive I'm sure he's going to be excited to know that something has been named in his honor any further discussion none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and
153as Mr Jenkins or someone from his family here this evening hello good evening um tender the board and our principal Miss Carol Griffin from Rochelle scholar Arts indeed um I'm certainly honored to be here on behalf of my uncle uncle Herman and um he is 104 years old this is the person who's actually lived through two pandemics and he did do World wall um too and um I recall being about like five six years old and I was at his house on occasion he was building a dark room I said Uncle why are you building a dark room where we have light in the house already why do we need a dark room and so he showed me uh just tons of films that he had just goofed up on but he taught himself um
154uh through encyclopedia to actually build a dark room and develop them to take um photos of people of color back during um the 56 is um during that period of time so I'm definitely honored to be here on behalf of him and I'll get whatever it is him Tim by the weekend but he's 104 and he's um he's doing well and um give us Griffin thanks so much I'm Rochelle Elmer Elementary myself my son was in the first year of the School of the Arts in the first year it was incepted so um I'm just indeed on it for the school board just to um to present my uncle with this um declaration thanks so much I use declaration too [Applause] yeah and we also asked Mr Coney to come up with them please he's
155on the advisory Council [Applause] next on the agenda is item P5 discontinuing proclamations Madam chair I would like to make a motion to table this topic until we have further discussion I know for a fact that in the past 15 years or so proclamations have been something we've done here in Polk County I think we're elected we're paid a full teacher salary with benefits to make hard decisions and have hard conversations and I think getting rid of all of them is not appropriate for this County Mr Purvis and I have had a lot of conversations and I respect you very much when you said there's some of them that absolutely are important to students I know my son went to public school here in Polk County and as someone with a disability I usually had
156to explain to people what it was like to even know him he wasn't even recognized so I know what it meant to me as a family years ago if I was on the school board and I know what it means to other families Hispanic heritage I know what it means we are a major we are no longer the minor the minority is the majority Hispanic students it's important for these children to see themselves and that's important in their education I I have talked to the superintendent I don't think that we went around about this the right way I don't think they're trying to make a motion in a work session and then adding it to an agenda is the proper way to do it there should have been further discussion we can do two things
157we can have the superintendent go and make some kind of template and talk about what we do want to have included in proclamations that are very important to our students and it might not be all of them and it might not make everyone happy but that's also our job we're here to represent the entire district and have really hard conversations and I think this is a very easy way out to throw them all out and so I am not able to support this tonight because we have not vetted this fully [Applause] would anyone like to second that motion a second for discussion Miss Fields with the second any discussion Mr sharpless was first I believe Mr sharpless sure um I've I've coached many parliamentary procedure teams in FFA and this actually is out of order
158because you first have to have emotion on the floor before you can table it so there is no motion on the floor right now so we can't table something that's not on the floor well board member Miller I think after the motion is made then you can move to table the motion believe the motion was to table the the item correct but you have to have the item on the floor first yes I might if I might apologize yeah if I might yeah the yeah the the you a school board member it is possible for the superintendent to pull the item but for a school board member I think I think Ms sharpless is correct the the appropriate thing would be to wait until the motion is made and then make a motion to lay
159on the table emotionally on the table requires a second but it is not debatable so if you make the motion and it is seconded it will move immediately to a boat without debate also if it is correct me if I'm wrong if it's laid on the table at this meeting then the motion is dead no if it's late on on the table at this meeting it needs to be taken up at the next meeting the next meeting thanks man thank you or Ori or a Time certain issuance of proclamations does someone want to make the most we can't do anything until someone makes emotion I'd like to uh make a motion to stop the proclamations our number one job is safety proclamations are a distraction it creates anxiety and Division in the community we just
160need the motion yeah okay see I forgot it's hard to become a politician then sorry about that like to make emotions Mr T has made a motion to discontinue the issuance of proclamations do I need to restate the notion we need them chair second for discussion sure I'll second that Dr Allen with the second any discussion now Madam chair I would like to take this opportunity to table this motion until further discussion these on keeping the proclamations that are important to this community so you had not been called on but sorry to have discussion before we're gonna have discussion before we do that Miss Fields was next on Deck well I would say that I'm a little bit confused on the process um my comments are the same as they were last month I uh
161I value Proclamation and what they bring to the table I personally have learned so much through proclamations especially when our staff come like the mental health counseling a month when we learn about things that otherwise we might not know the uh the child abuse a month that we celebrate there are so many reasons to embrace our differences and understand that we might not all agree but at the end of the day we're supposed to be a reflection of every student that we serve in our school district we're supposed to be and so I don't understand how having a proclamation takes away from learning as a matter of fact it helps the students to learn in my opinion I have had many emails which I'm sure many of you all have as well and there's one
162email that really stood out to me and I'm going to read it and this email is from Mr and Mrs cash and they are from District 2. extreme board my family and I are a long-term Polk County residents who have successfully had two children complete their K-12 education in Polk County one went on to school at Ridge tech one attended Haines City IB and is currently attending Polk State our youngest is still a middle school student at DSA we have always had wonderful experiences with our children's varied abilities and interests that have truly allowed them to thrive my children have the benefit of being white and middle class as a Polk County educator as a Polk County educator I am well aware this is not the experience or even the diversity of every family we
163serve proclamations honor the beautiful diversity of our County they tell the minority and the marginalized that they are seeing they are honored they are valued the fact that a vocal minority can intimidate a board of thoughtful educated adults into ignoring the diversity of these groups instead of celebrating it is deeply concerning if as a district we are truly honoring the motto of students first to do away with proclamations not only does not reflect the motto it demands it by insinuating that the wonderful diversity within our county is irrelevant I would urge you as elected officials who seriously reflect on what message doing away with Proclamation sentences student staff and the Greater Community with regards Thomas and Janet cash District Two I think that sums up pretty well for me I think it's an educational tool
164[Applause] I don't see how it impacts education how it lessens education and one of the things that I want to say that's not directly relevant but I guess it is someone tonight made a comment that just really hurt my heart I have teachers workday behind off each and every day they don't get paid much nothing and someone said a real teacher what's a real teacher everyone that go into the classroom roll up their sleeves and work hard for our students I hope they're a real teacher if they're not why do we have them here foreign [Applause] s words hurt words hurt if you can't say something nice about somebody just be quiet and so I am not in support of doing away with proclamations thank you Miss fields and I believe I hit the button
165too quickly Mr sharpless do you still have comments okay Mr Nolte okay I was a teacher 36 and a half years I taught here for 10 years of Polk County we never had proclamations I don't remember them at all and each teacher I knew that was okay I was gonna say wow what did I do wrong this time okay each teacher I knew when you went into the classroom I taught physical education so whenever it rained we were inside a classroom every teacher I knew and talked with was positive and they made their kids feel like they were the best they got that from the classroom teacher back in the 90s I thought was it Medela through Jesse Keane Elementary School that was 30 some years ago our society has changed so much since then
166it saddens me that well just like like in here tonight and then last time it was in sorakis our heads got to pop on the old wooden block and it's it's really saddens me that uh I don't really want to do a practical Proclamation but we have to now I feel because it's so divisive it's uh just like it's uh like in the old west it's like a mob mentality somewhat you get everybody together and they do their thing and we need to be Americans first Polk County and we need to educate our our children we need to show them how to live we don't need to make someone else that doesn't think our way feel bad we just need to be no comments we need to work as hard as educating our students how
167to read and write learn our constitution all our awesome country we live in all our paperwork as hard as we did to try to do this tonight and the last time let's all get together let's all make everybody feel look I see his head shaping out there I'm serious we live in the greatest country in the world and we're just blowing it up right now from inside let's stop all this quobbling let's all just get along and let's put our children first their education and I think that um the schools the principals the teachers the the super uh the lunchroom people the custodians we all need to work together we don't need to just pull each other apart all the time and that's why I feel that these these proclamations when we make them they're
168decisive we need to get back to the basics get back to education and get out of the political mess thank you and God bless thank you Mr Nolte Miller [Music] I want to remind my colleague there are students who never make it to the physical education field because they're in a hospital they're in a hospital bed and a stretcher in one of our Center Schools with feeding tubes and I think that's one thing that proclamations helped us understand I've never seen divisive other than the email that went out which I did try to contact many people and I got a lot of great feedback um the last meeting was there was divisive on both sides people were very upset but in the 15 years that I've been here as a community member involved in my
169schools without being paid to be it was never a divisive topic Veterans Day is not a divisive topic Heartland for children or not is not a divisive topic so you can make up Division if that fits your narrative but I have never seen that as a board member other than the pride Proclamation and I'll tell you when I called the people that got the templated email that had some not so accurate information about how our kids are scoring I would ask them what proclamations do you want to see and most of them agreed with everything but they disagreed with the pride Proclamation well then that's this conversation we need to have I didn't talk to people there were two people that told me get rid of all of them everybody everybody is the same everybody
170is equal you don't have have them too out of all the phone calls and emails that I that I contacted trying to understand the other side of the table about proclamations I can tell you that the pinwheels about child abuse that's not divisive I haven't seen anybody in the room be upset about that so we're not going to make a fraudulent um Forum that things are divisive there's one major issue the elephant in the room people are very upset about the pride Proclamation so have the conversation do our jobs as elected officials and we might come back and say you know what we're not going to do it we're going to leave it to the county but if the city and the County elected officials can be responsible we need to be responsible elected officials
171and not try to take the side door of getting out of something that's been very positive in this District so I think that's why my misunderstanding I've been around a long time I was a student of the 90s but I was an advocate in this community for a long time and I have never this is the first time this conversations ever happened the man that said in this chair before me read from the Bible and disagreed with the pride Proclamation he had every right to do that with free speech that was what he did and he was elected official and if that's how you feel that's what you should do to try to get rid of all of them so you don't have to look political and you don't have to make decisions people don't
172like I think is not is not sound leadership we have to have a hard conversation so I think it's about time we have them [Applause] this field just for the record I want I want to say that to my memory Miss Cunningham can correct me if I'm wrong I think we have had proclamations ever since I've been on the board I mean that's 21 years and um I think that what Miss Miller basically is saying is correct uh I don't think we've ever had any opportunities and challenges I know a couple years ago I think that was one of the issues that we had and rather than to continue voting on proclamations because we used to vote on proclamations it was just saying that we would just acknowledge without voting uh and so I think
173that if if there is an issue that needs to be addressed as Ms Miller just referenced then let's just vote it up up I voted down but not do away with proclamations thank you Miss fields any further discussion Dr Allen all right uh a statement that I heard tonight is being recognized matters and I'm gonna hold to that statement but um I'm going to propose a different angle that Maybe nobody's going to be happy about and that's okay um but I would say this and it is a little alarming that if we've done proclamations for 26 years yet we've not established a policy that should be a concern to us um but in general I'll read my thoughts here and keep the conversation moving so I want to definitely think you know well over 200
174individuals that sent emails Quantified I didn't really break down the word count or anything like that but I did read and um face-to-face conversations phone calls social interactions regarding this this topic and I would definitely reject or disagree with the opinion that some somehow a small vocal minority is controlling this narrative now and be just because I mean there's nonpartisan Independence Libertarians and several others that hold the same opinion uh regarding stopping the practice of proclamations and here's some of the reasoning that I've heard far and wide which include one I've got five of them that I distilled from listening and reading and engaging one the necessity of devoting critical time um to the business of educating students right that's a reasonable one two the possibility of diverting attention away from some of our most
175pressing issues which I would say at the core of our strategic plan is student outcomes number three the controversy and divisiveness as demonstrated tonight in some capacity not in all capacities so I appreciate the logic the rational discussion the civility I really appreciate that I've learned by listening tonight number four the possibility of inadvertently excluding or marginalizing certain groups which could alienate students that's possible even by extracting we'll do that as well number five sometimes it's just it just becomes this symbolic rather than truly having a tangible impact on the lives of all students and sometimes that could happen now the fear of not feeling important scene or being valued is real I engage that every day in my classroom and I understand that however a decision to stop reading proclamations does not does not
176undermine our Humanity my opinion is that all students can be recognized and I said it being recognized matters it was your words that said it in the very back row on the edge I believe and that moved me tonight and our policy number five four five one it's entitled student recognitions and I will hold to that because this is what it states the school board values excellence and seeks to develop in students the desire to do their best in all things it shall be the policy of this board a policy therefore to recognize outstanding accomplishment and curricular co-curricular and extracurricular areas my hopes are that we practice the policy that we have now we discussed this extensively in our work session and I asked what our procedures were in policy 9300 which I'm about to
177State here in a moment as well in policy 5451 ask for procedures as well we don't have those and superintendent High transparently stated that and I really appreciate that which tells me practicing proclamations for 26 years with no policy or procedures is an issue now it also says the board authorizes the superintendent to develop a plan for recognition of outstanding student achievement based on well-defined consistent criteria and standards and that's what we should ask of the superintendent to do it's not here but the policy is here the procedures are not in regards to recognizing students students first that's my first point in regards to being recognized matters the policy is there to recognize our students and it's a beautiful policy let's put it into practice also policy 9300 Awards recognition and incentives for staff School
178volunteers advisory committee members and community members which states the school board values excellence and wants to recognize and thereby encourage Mr Nolte just said that staff members School volunteers advisory and a lot of people said it tonight as well advisory committee members community members whose achievements and or service exemplify the Excellence that is our district standard it shall be the policy of this board therefore that exemplary achievements and or service of Staff members School volunteers advisory committee members and community members be appropriately recognized with meritorious service Awards so what do these policies allow superintendent Hyde I'm asking you can we recognize the Hispanic student that does something great under current policies yes yes uh and could we do that during Hispanic month yes okay do these policies allow us to celebrate and recognize a black
179student who gained gained admittance to one of our nation's most prestigious college or university yes can we recognize a white female student for winning the national hackathon with superb coding skills maybe my daughter one day yes can we recognize a gay student achieving National Merit in the field of science I would say yes can we recognize a group of students from multiple ethnicities who won a Statewide academic quiz in Polk County this year which we did yes now again if you feel that this vote undermines Humanity I adamantly disagree overall I hold the opinion that the school board should not declare proclamations but we should use the policy that's in place to recognize students and to recognize others around our community so with that I will not be voting or I will be voting no
180to proclamations thank you Dr Allen Mr sharpless I'm not going to repeat anything that's already been stated I do want to add one point though um Mr Bridges stated in our last work session last month that proclamations are defined in state statutes dealing with municipalities and not school boards I believe that's intentional and municipalities should be the place that proclamations are given I stated that last time this isn't about recognizing or not recognizing a group this is about the proper place for that to happen um I would also just Echo Dr Allen's statement we do not need proclamations to recognize students and staff we can already do this during the special recognition time at our board meetings and so that's why I will be voting yes to discontinue proclamations thank you Mr sharpless Miss fields
181does it recognition policies say that student and staff doesn't say students we have two separate policies one for students and one for staff and Beyond staff as well okay thank you for that oh okay I wasn't gonna read the email from Marissa green but I feel like I have to read it because I think that Mr Dr Allen you're discrediting Marissa Green's work I I'm I'm my comments that's my feeling but that's what that's how I feel and for you all to sit up here and say we've been doing proclamations for 21 plus years that all of a sudden it's not in alignment with what we should be doing as an educational institution because Mr Bridges said that it's basically comes from governmental entities I don't know there's simply no reference to uh to proclamations
182in the law when it comes to school boards that's all but it doesn't mean that we can't do it because we've been doing it for 21 years and a plus years and Mr and Dr Allen said that we didn't have anything in place well we did have something in place we had Marissa green doing proclamations for a number of years so I don't think Marissa green was sitting and just fine by the seat of her pants I think that she had a process in place and she has it here and she accidentally be read and I'm going to read it and it's going to be a few minutes and hopefully everybody will be be respectful of that I'm not going to read the first paragraph I don't think is relevant I am compelled to provide
183my insight because those who have seen me at Boardman is knew it was my role and I do not want it to be misconstrued that I did not handle the processing of proclamations appropriately it is documented through my emails that I would send routinely to senior directors Regional superintendents principals and other key staff reminding them of the process to make a recognition or Proclamation requests the link existed on the Hub and several times I requested to my colleagues to make the link more prominent so that it could be easily found however that did not happen if there were proclamations that were not recognized at the school board meeting it is because outside groups were not aware they could request one and department has did not bring a request forth there was no internal or external
184public relations campaign to do so had this been done there probably could have been and less angst about this issue there's an approclamation for Flag Day Asian American History Month I.T Professionals Day and the list goes on and on again it takes someone passionate to make the request or for department heads to remember they can do so I used to be able to make presentation at the summer Leadership meetings explaining this in other parts of my role such as managing special events but towards the end was no longer afforded the opportunity to do so those individuals who have made Proclamation requests are Faithfully done so for many years and understood the importance of meeting the deadline this is the reason if you review board docs why you would frequently see the same proclamations over and
185over again just the facts not only did I manage Proclamation requests I had to make sure it was written correctly and properly formatted to enhance the presentation I would sometimes coach the requester to bring mementos for the DS to celebrate for example the year when we were treated to dessert this is a board a Hispanic Heritage Month was at my recommendation in the past I also recommended to staff to use the opportunity to recognize an employee a Community member to receive the proclamation as a way to boost morale and recognize leaders in the community for their unwavering service like I'm saying this like Mr J.J Corbett any recognition requests made out the deadline needed to prove upon the superintendent's office this usually happened because the folks waiting until the last minute and happened a few
186times with Proclamation requests and then she just said she's a phone call away for any clarification but I just wanted to make sure that everyone understands Marissa green did this and she did this well and after she left if my membership has been correctly and the superintendent can correct me if I'm wrong Chandra Hall started doing proclamations so I just want to make sure that it's understood this proclamations has not just been something we've just been that we just conjured up it is something that we've been doing for a long one of time and it might not be something in in detail writing but there is or was a process and I want to make sure that that's understood I want anybody to leave him by here leaving the way thinking that we don't we
187didn't have a a procedure or a process in place thank you Miss Fields Miss Cunningham thank you madam chair okay what a night right two different board meetings so here are my thoughts um I first want to thank everybody for coming out it's awful late um and I really felt bad that the folks that were being introduced tonight are new administrators had to wait until all the public comments and actually you know things do happen for a reason I think it's quite a blessing that those people were all introduced tonight where everybody in the room could hear and see the diversity in our admin I for one am very proud that our district employs people of every nationality every race every background every religion we are very blessed and I think tonight when all those
188people came forward with their families we had every faction of this County tonight represented to me that is diversity that is inclusion that is equity not a piece of paper proclamating x y or Z I've been on the board a while with Miss Fields her a little bit longer than I and we've seen things come and go I personally don't feel that the proclamation says as much as having a teacher in your classroom that looks like me having a principle in my school that looks like me having a cafeteria nutrition worker who looks and speaks my language to help me that to me touches me so we've talked a lot about so many different things I personally don't view it as one group against another group like in this group not like in that group
189wanting this one not wanting that I'm not into what I call the nonsense to me that's nonsense guys we're all human beings we all bleed the same color blood I don't care where you come from and what your background is and what language you speak so I feel we need to do what's right and I feel that we I would uphold to do away with proclamations because I feel that every child can be loved and nurtured I heard so many of you come up tonight and say it was that one teacher who reached out to me including me when I was younger and maybe saved me from a perilous future because somebody cared but that wasn't a proclamation read at a school board meeting I mean really I really feel we're talking down to Basics
190human beings regardless of what your background is it doesn't matter just hug the person next to you and say hey we're in this together and let our children know that they're loved and that they're accepted and that we accept all children because we do we are the public school system and I'm very proud of that so I don't feel that a proclamation does anything for our students I didn't dig as deep I respect you Dr Allen for taking the time to do the research that you've done um but I think we can bring those children forward regardless of their background and if it is a particular month and there's a child that wins or does and we need to recognize him my goodness there's always a few minutes at the beginning of our meetings you
191all have been here to take the time just like we recognize business partners what is more important than recognizing a few of our kids for something that they did and it doesn't have to be one something maybe they're president of a club a pride Club in one of the schools whatever it is if we need to help a child to become better at what they do and to give them the recognition that they are human being in our eyes then we owe it to do that but to me the proclamation which is what I'm hearing were saying it would do and I just don't feel that way being a mother and raising two kids it's kind of like we just need to be human beings reach across the aisle and recognize individual human beings a
192child student or a staff member or a custodian who goes out of their way cafeteria worker bus driver for crying out loud they're the first person that welcomes the child into our school system and the last one that they see at the end of the day so I will not be I will be supporting the motion to um stop the proclamations thank you madam chair thank you Miss Miller I appreciate Miss Cunningham Commons and Mr Allen's they both reflected what's been so unfortunately divisive so if a pride group comes from one of our schools that wants to be recognized it was just sad by two different board members they would be so that's a conversation that people don't want to have and I just want to make sure that I think it's in the heart
193of everybody on this board to represent and protect all kids I want the people in this audience to know that I do have I do have questions what Mr Allen had brought up this is you're just what we're doing is just changing one thing from another and if it makes it sound good by a label I guess it's better but what I need from the superintendent is specific instructions on how people because I can tell you right now disability awareness I'll have 15 kids up here ready to celebrate so we need to we still have to have parameters on what we're going to do and how we're going to do it so I would like to have that conversation at a work session where he can present you know if it's Hispanic Heritage Month who
194how many students how many community members how that will look um and the ones have been left out for years you know we have an entire military school with Summerlin Academy we shouldn't be leaving the Veterans Day proclamations out at all but how will that look and who will we will select you know you're still going to get unto people being felt left out so I think a lot of this is going back to do the homework on the how-to and we've just exchanged one for the other so I understand the why I'm in politics but I need I need more um I need more clarification on the how thank you thank you Miss Miller Dr Allen yeah and just to you know uh continue that is that's what we're commissioned to do that's what
195we're elected to do and and I just want to say on the record I love Marissa green right um violent Fierce I mean purple um all that um I was in Minnesota recently I want to get a picture in front of Princess studio just to send to send to Marissa green but what she clarified for me is I mean the fact that we have a former employer or employee I'm sorry a former employee sending us an email a how a procedure a practice was done that is an issue to me um you know we're we're here to you know govern over our policy and our practices and our procedures that is one of our primaries um so that was my concern not you know whether she did it or didn't do it right just the
196fact that I had we had a former employee writing out something that was not present and we've talked about succession planning that was one of superintendent Hyde's initiatives when we hired him is we wanted to know out of that 52 applicant pool that Polk County had for the superintendent which was the highest around the state that we should have had more of our Polk County people in that applicant pool so succession planning is just that if we lose an employee can that practice and that procedure continue right whatever it is that's the point that I was trying to make in regards to Miss Green's email and I love her so she knows that um on record so that's all I have thank you thank you Dr Allen and I just want to clarify if there
197was some question just Violet Fierce not violent fear oh there was some murmuring in the audience so I just want to make sure that that is very clear I love it um I before we go on and I will come back to you Miss Fields but I'm going to make a couple comments and then I know superintendent Hyde would like to make a couple comments really one of the reasons that this all came about is starting probably January February of this year superintendent had started receiving several requests for proclamations that were not from groups that even exist in Polk County um one of them that I can very clearly remember was April or May and it was a group from Orlando that was having a hundred year celebration they wanted a proclamation based on their
198involvement in our schools we could not find what schools in Polk County they were involved in um yet they wanted a proclamation from us saying how great of a partner they were so that's really where we started to look at do we have a policy what's the policy who's the person that can is it any groups that are partners with us is it any group in the State of Florida is it any group in the United States do they have to live in Polk County what does it look like um so that really is where this started I know there's been several since then um however I I agree with my colleagues that we have a mechanism to recognize our students and our staff in the people in Polk County that are doing great things
199and that's what we should be doing at board meetings is recognizing the people in our school district that are doing incredible things we saw some tonight we saw our United Way recipients that I don't know that there's anybody more passionate about raising money for United Way than potentially miss Gregory or Mr van and it's they can duke it out most days though special Holland takes it every year I don't know why they're even trying um but we saw that with Jen lay tonight who has dedicated so much time to Southwest Elementary School making sure that they have the the greatest ITV program that they can and being there to pour into those students that those are the great things that we should be recognizing um those are things that we already have policies about I
200know superintendent Hyde sent us some recommendations this morning of what a procedure would look like um I too I think we all received Miss um Miss Green's email and I don't think that this conversation is anything about what she was doing or not doing it was more it needs to be codified of what the process is to be advertised of this is who it goes to this is when it has to to be approved something that we can publish and have documented so that when a staff member leaves we have we have it in writing we know what the next person can do to pick up the torch um and to make sure that that it's being championed by someone superintendent hi did you have additional actually Madam chair you you addressed quite a few
201things first and foremost this was never criticism of former employees the issue is no organization can survive if the intellectual property resides with certain individuals when they leave the organization we are left with a gap we are left with a void of information board members I encourage you nothing's been deleted from The Hub you are more than welcome and you have direct access to the Hub search it no policy no procedure exists and I think we're conflating two issues because the only thing that exists on the Hub is a recognition document that is limited to only principles and directors that's not recognition that's or it's not proclamations it's not resolutions it is solely for recognition of employees and students and yet it is so restrictive it only allows for principals and directors to submit I
202think that's what's Happening Here is we're conflating those two issues because that is the only document that resides on the Hub and me the entire intent behind this was if we're going to do these we're going to do them well we're going to have a process in place that other entities have used successfully for years and we would adopt an actual procedure that would ensure that when I depart that there's actually a procedure that supports this initiative moving forward in fact we are doing a review of all board policies and anytime it speaks to an issue where the superintendent shall develop procedures I can tell you that we are now scouring for all of those documents and what we're finding is far too often it resides with an individual it does not reside in writing
203and that's what we have to clarify because again we have turnover we have a portion of our of our team that is aging out and we should not be Reliant upon those individuals after the fact to reinform us as to what our procedure should be again this was never critical criticism of individuals this was a criticism that was in the absence of a written procedure I'm not comfortable doing this because I showed you the history and how often do we miss the mark with black history month with Hispanic Heritage Month with disabilities month with autism month awareness month we miss the mark repeatedly and I only gave you a five-year snapshot I can't even imagine what it looks like before that and I believe that that's a disservice and to also clarify as far as
204far as proclamations are concerned if anyone believes that African-American and black history month is going away or Hispanic heritage months going away they are wrong this district will absolutely continue to honor and recognize those months and ensure not just that we highlight them in that month but as a district we're ensuring that we're addressing those contents and those topics consistently throughout the year because as you heard repeatedly tonight we are a Melting Pot and that Melting Pot exists and it thrives because we share these mixed experiences that we've all had and we all benefit from that narrative there is no singular story of what it is to be American and I think that that's important for us to recognize and so I just wanted to clarify and I appreciate it Miss Fields saying it as
205well part of this is there's no reason procedure we acknowledge that so that's all we're seeking to do that's all I initially sought to do with this was not to do anything other than that so I appreciate the opportunity to clarify thank you superintendent Hyde Ms Fields and superintendent I believe that I do believe that your heart is in the right place when it comes to this I will say this and I'm gonna be done with it because I'm not a back and forth person I don't have time for that I'm too old but I will say this Marissa green has the same right that everybody in this room has if she want to have comments she acts that uh that the email be read into record as a board member I have a right
206to do that if I choose to you might not like it I don't really care but I'm going to do what I think is right and so with that said I'm done with it I think that we're at a place now where we need to vote thank you Miss Fields I have Dr Allen still on the list and then we can call for a vote yep indeed and uh this this is coming because I I feel like this motion needs to be amended and West Bridges you can maybe speak to this a bit it does need to be codified because at this point when we vote on this this is only going to be reflected in our minutes so I would like to and under your suggestion but amend the motion that this be added
207to policy 9300 as it relates to Awards recognitions and incentives for staff School volunteers advisory committee members and community members um I'm sorry you that what be added specifically that would be it would be added to that policy what would be added to that policy well see we had this discussion during work session and became very confusing because there's no policy that existed so we're voting are we voting is the motion on the floor to eliminate the practice of the only emotion on the floor is to discontinue the practice period all right school board can come back at any time and and direct the development of policies and procedures okay for whatever sort of recognition that you like all right okay I'll leave it Stan yes yep so we have a motion in a second
208on the floor any further discussion I had one thing um I just like for my colleagues if we've stepped down to give proclamations for 20 something years and we just now decided that we're not going to do it if there's other things that we're doing I think they need to be brought ahead way ahead of time before it turns into the mass chaos of templated emails I think that it's much easier to address things beforehand instead of after thank you thank you Miss Miller seeing no further discussion all those in favor of discontinuing the issuance of proclamations please signify by saying aye aye wait wait wait wait wait wait wait yeah we got a motion in a second we had both no she never tabled it no she it was Nolte and Dr Allen roll
209call yeah I thought the whole point of that discussion was to allow you to make a motion at the end I thought that's what the clarification was so Mr Bridges we've already had a motion in a second so we need to vote and and that was the discussion so we're voting on it Miss Miller was directed to withhold her motion correct so if she wanted to make a motion to table she could make that motion at this point correct it would need majority vote I'm at the length of time and the comments of my colleagues we are not going to um pursue with my emotion we'll go ahead and vote on this Mr Hyde perfect thank you Miss Miller so we will it we will need a roll call vote on this we will start
210with District One District Two I District three District Four I District Five absolutely no District Six I District Seven no the motion carries five to two next on our agenda is the superintendent's report superintendent hide yeah Madam chair the next work session and board meeting will be held on September 5th 2020. the work session will begin at 12 30 pm and the board meeting will begin at 5 PM the meetings will be held at the district office located in 1915 South Floral Avenue in Bartow thank you superintendent Hyde Mr Bridges we're not done with our meeting yet please do not make comments from the audience Mr Bridges second Miss fields and Miss Cunningham any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries delighted to
211pitch you an easy one thank you all right and we will go backwards this evening so Miss Miller thank you I apologize I heard you have to leave and I was I asked to go first um back to school has been an amazing time for our students I spend a lot of time at Lake Gibson I tell people because they invite me out so much because van always has something going on those people are if you didn't see that video or the Reel that we made he brings in the entire band and cheerleading squad to welcome the teachers back and um talking about making people feel comfortable where they work it's an amazing place to be I've enjoyed I have the most new principles in District Seven and I've enjoyed meeting all of them and
212helping to promote their work in the schools I did visit I think my smallest school which is Auburndale Central and even with the small campus they're doing amazing work there for those students I wanted to clarify something since it's misquoted already and I like to have things on tape for legal reasons when I talk about listening to people in the community I want to highlight the people that are in our schools that are retired that are reading to our students that are hanging out with our kids after school and after school programs my son went all the way up I think we started at Dr Annie Roberts in Sleepy Hill we ended up at Wendell Watson and Lake Gibson and going back after he was out of school I think gave me the most Joy
213so if you have time there's lots of programs available for you to really really dig into our schools you can Google numbers I don't think that gives you a proper I can guarantee it doesn't give you a proper Outlook of what's happening in our schools every Elementary School needs a Sac member so you're more than welcome to join the sacks maybe you used to be a DJ we have schools that have Proms and we they need music you know they need extracurricular activities the fact that Jen lay in a real estate company know for her fact her kids attended a charter school but she invested in one of our public schools and I think that brings more joy to people than anything so I'm not saying it doesn't matter you're welcome to look at my
214financials talk about tax returns don't ask my husband about our quarterlies I think everybody invests in this County but the people that put in what we call Sweat Equity with our kids I think are the most valuable so I appreciate you doing that whether you're a retired teacher or whether you are you have kids who you're empty nesting and you need something to do we'll find you a school and a place to fit in and I just appreciate the people that are doing that on their own they're getting to know the real needs of schools not that we don't need people reading but there's some really intricate things needed the fact that we connected a young Real Estate Group to I.T needs that they never imagined would be able to be met to see those
215kids in the work they're doing I know that brings them a lot of a lot of Joy so if you're not plugged into a school go ahead and drive by the nearest one and stop by the office and ask how you can be as long as you're not a convicted felon you're more than welcome to fill out a volunteer application and we'll put you to work in our schools because that's what we desperately need I can quote numbers all day long but until we have enough people put into Sweat Equity I don't know how much we're going to be able to improve just on what we're doing alone our teachers are overworked and underpaid and so are our staff members so even if you just want to drop off some baked goods and say good
216job I think that you will see you will see the work going on in the school and you'll see how much people appreciate you and the time spent thank you for the time Madam chair we've had a very long meeting I appreciate my absent letting me leave just a few minutes early you have my cell phone my email is public and if you'd like to speak with me after this meeting I'm more than welcome to talk to you thank you thank you Miss Miller Mr sharpless sure so I'm gonna um make a very short comment um I just want to say that this upcoming Monday is the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech I feel like this is a great opportunity for our students to learn and I hope
217many of our teachers make teachable moments from this anniversary as I reflect on the words spoken by Dr King I hope the devices the divisiveness in our community can be healed one quote I would like to highlight from him well one thing I would like for us to learn from that speech is that we do not seek to satisfy our thirst for Freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred so please please um let's let's work together I I care deeply about our students I care deeply about our staff and I'm going to stop there think all of our employees for supporting the United Way and the impact that each of our employees is giving to so many organizations that are in need of helping to make our community a better place and
218United Way is is is probably one of the best investments that anyone can make and I want to um make sure that everyone understands that United Way has a very tedious process when you apply because girls think of Lakeland where I am also a part of we go through that process and they hold us accountable and we have outcomes and we have to prove that we're worthy of getting contributions to the United Way so the money is well spent and helping a lot of people's lives and I wanted to commend superintendent Hyde I don't think the superintendent's office has ever been a part of the celebration with having placement so that says a lot for you leading your staff and understanding the importance and the value of giving back so congratulations to to your department
219as well as all the other departments and schools that were recognize today thank you thank you Miss Fields Mr Nolte thanks everybody for attending tonight helps everybody I believe to get on the same page and if not we're gonna pull together and make this a great year Justin I appreciate your context about uh comments about the great Dr Martin Luther King I was blessed to get to every school in the last two weeks to introduce the principles to my one of my favorite food groups donuts and luckily every uh office seemed to be very nice and comfortable and I hope that soon every school is going to be blowing some nice cool air I'm sure they're working on it and uh again let's all work together and get on the same page and just make
220this a great year and let's get our grades way up there and just uh make this a real show place or a beautiful Schoolhouse on the hill and stay connected get to your schools volunteer read your children or grandchildren and be a be a person that the kids are going to look up to and say I remember that I remember that teacher I remember that parent I remember how nice and kind they were and how they treat everybody with respect even though there may be differences let's all keep up with the good work and treat each other respect and thanks for coming God bless thank you Mr Nolte Miss Cunningham thank you madam chair it is late and in respect to everyone who's here I will decline a report and save my information for next
221time thank you Miss Cunningham Dr Allen and I've got a long long list but I I won't go through them all you guys can't see his list but it is really it really is so long there's been so many things but yeah the back to school bashes were amazing I just think of all the Community Partners that stepped up um you know WFLA News Channel a spectrum Bay news 9. they were out covering the great things happening at Jesse Keane in regards to the back to school bash um I just think about our annual summer commencement ceremony there were several board members that took part in that and these students finished strong and gained the recognition that they deserve I wanted to say heartfelt thanks to assist assistant superintendent Rob Davis and the transportation division
222I'm just getting a chance to visit that in-service early on right before the launch of our massive operation of transporting these students to our schools safely incredible when you you think about all the staff that builds all kinds of training and really focused on the safety and the well-being of our students really appreciate that I wanted to say congrats to Travis technical on their automotive collision technology technician program basically the program recently went through a re-accredit reaccreditation with ASE and they did gain that accreditation so and I said this earlier today if you've tried to have a car repair lately you know the the uh the shortage we're experiencing in this area is very real and then on a similar note to that I spoke earlier especially as it relates to our AC issues happening
223around our schools we definitely want to have a comfortable space for our teachers and our students and you know I apologize to the first year teacher that was displaced and moved to the cafeteria I just uh just had a concern for that and I recognized from an empathy standpoint the struggle there I am grateful to our staff that work tirelessly to address these concerns superintendent Hyde thank you thank you thank you for the transparent communication from your team the extensiveness of that communication it's been extremely thorough and I mentioned this earlier today that this should be a call to invest more into our trade academies at Ridge and Travis these are critical areas that need more attention especially as it relates to training the next generation of AC technicians a couple other things but I'll
224just Skip to My quote this is from the book entitled The Vanishing word by Dr art hunt who was one of my mentors and he says writing is permanent and writing is portable however digital communication is fleeting it can be it can easily disappear it can easily be manipulated it can be forgotten so that's why we write with a pencil and that's all I have thank you thank you so much for your pencil quote I as we move into our non-agenda items sorry our public comments on non-agenda items I am going to forego my comments in exchange for a brief five-minute recess we've been going for about for a little over two hours now again so I want to make sure everybody has the opportunity to use the restroom and stretch for a moment so
225we will be back at nine o'clock foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you all so much for obliging me with a quick restroom break all right first for next up will be our items that are not on the agenda for vote this evening just as before 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 you will hear a beep when the time has 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
226board action is required then the matter may be placed on the agenda at a subsequent meeting in accordance with school board policy first up will be Stephanie Yocum and on Deck is Connie Ferguson I'm Stephanie Yocum the president of the Polk Education Association you guys have a special treat tonight because I normally don't talk at these meetings anymore and you get to hear me twice tonight so things must be really hitting the fan um and so and I also declare and Proclaim that tomorrow will be AC day for all classrooms as it should be and that's why I'm here tonight is to talk about the AC issues we've been having systemically across the district since teachers have come back August 3rd I do want to uplift our ask me brothers and sisters first because the
227AC techs and the maintenance teams that are on the ground working as fast as they can are the real heroes tonight trying to get things working as fast as they can and our teachers and our parents and our support staff and I'm sure our building administrators appreciate everything the issue is not with them the issue is twofold and that's why we filed agreements we were informally communicating with the district to try to resolve these issues as fast as they were coming into us because as soon as teachers came back on August 3rd our phones were ringing off the hook because ACS were down across the district we still have 309 classrooms that do not have working AC and that's just the tier one there are still some that are not cooling appropriately that are 79
228and maybe under that in that considered working okay right now which is still unacceptable um I'm really mad that this has gotten to this point because we have a good relationship with our district and to feel that we had to go to a formal grievance to get things resolved really does anger me and it wasn't until we filed our formal grievance that all of a sudden overtime was approved for AC techs all of a sudden you know they were working on getting contractors and contracted companies to come and help our AC techs because I don't know if you guys know this but there are eight Perpetual AC Tech vacancies that the district has not been able to fill in years for a district or size that is unacceptable and so the grievance isn't just about
229getting emergency relief and immediate relief to our classrooms for so that teaching and learning conditions can be cool and comfortable for Student Success this is about changing policy and procedure moving forward so that this does not continue to happen again and again year after year and so I urge the district to look as part of our agreements to look at and change their policies so that classrooms aren't hot all summer and that the second teachers come back we figure out that it's broken you know setting the temperature to 72 while we might disagree with that you should go walk some of those classrooms that are 72 degrees and it feels not like 72 in here it feels a little bit cooler so what's good for the goose is good for the gander thank you Miss
230Yokum Connie Ferguson last call Connie Ferguson next is Bonnie Patterson James I'm back air conditioning and ethics seem to be a problem in our Polk County school board right now why is that ethics examines the racial the rational justification for our moral judgments it studies what is morally right or wrong just or unjust it encompasses being alert to racial prejudice and discrimination whether I voted for you or not is irrelevant you were elected to represent and support all and be morally right how can we trust you to lead when you are allowing Rick Nolte to continue as a leader is it because our governor endorsed him that he will face no criminal charges it is a felony and he has admitted to such in May I was maliciously pursued and arrested over 1.7 ounces of
231clean cotton not campaign fraud have you had your mug shot taken have you been fingerprinted or strip searched no if Rick Nolte would like to show his integrity and moral compass he should step down and resign his position in Rick Nolte's words let's just get along and put our children first and yet you want to end and further divide us and minimize the diversity in our community each of you that voted to end the proclamation should be ashamed of yourselves for limiting education through diversity shame on you superintendent Hyde for creating this problem and choosing to do it over pride month and your personal beliefs you created this how are you superintendent Hyde going to bring us all back together when you've already said Pride would be acknowledged in October so now we're just not
232going to acknowledge it at all Polk County has a heat index of over 100 degrees since my sisters went back to school teaching I can't imagine working with 30 children in the heat cranky there's no learning going on but I bet your offices are comfortable because it feels great in here you cannot learn or nor work in 85 degree plus temperatures it makes you physically ill and yet we expect our students and staff to perform at their Peak we are now ranked lower than most of our Florida communities counties what are you going to do you heard from the teachers the parents are calling it's not right and why wasn't this addressed in the summer before students returned not the week that teachers returned in over 200 work orders put in shame on you Elizabeth
233resmuzin Rasmussen I'm so sorry and then on Deck is Bernard Wells Rasmussen good evening again school board members my name is Elizabeth Rasmussen and I'm a high school teacher here in Polk County I come here tonight to talk about the ongoing AC issues that are at many of our schools the district says that this happens every year and it's normal but what they failed to mention is that the air conditioning is actually shut off during the summer and on the weekends during the school year this creates a plethora of problems including doors warping to the point where they don't open and close in fact I experienced this firsthand at my own school when I got stuck in the bathroom for five minutes due to a warped door so that was fun thankfully that situation has
234been fixed but it shouldn't have happened in the first place another issue that occurs due to no AC in the summer is persistent mold conditions in many of our campuses this destroys expensive textbooks and can contribute to many adverse health conditions for our students our faculty and for our staff finally I'd like to say that standing up and speaking out is not divisive it's part of being in a Democratic Society I urge you to listen to our faculty and staff members as they ask for you to make changes and how we approach this AC issue thank you thank you Miss Rasmussen Bernard Wells and on Deck is Ria McKinney good evening my name is you guys have been given some points that I'm going to address tonight I was asked by Lisa Miller to offer
235evidence of things that I've been bringing before this board over the last nine months but tonight I'm here to offer some receipts per systemic State complaint the districts specifically failed to implement special design instruction and related services in accordance with students IEPs the district also failed to identify locate evaluate and determine eligibility for students and fail to follow the required procedures for developing and implementing initial IEPs it is obvious that this current ESC Administration including the superintendent do not know the federal and state requirements regarding provision of services I have previously begged this board to further investigate the decision and actions that led to this systemic complaint that cannot be appealed with doe the district received the money but the students did not receive the services again where is the money the students awaited shame
236on all of you since we're talking about the phase of the superintendent and the new ESC Administration there's also a communication from doe regarding a comprehensive coordinated early intervention services Polk has been identified as having a disproportionality with discipline related to in-school suspension of black African-American students for more than 10 days over identification of students with disability in specific disability categories placement of students with disability and particular educational setting and disciplinary action which include in-school out of school suspension and expulsion disperpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline that I mentioned in a previous board meeting because of this disproportionality poke is required to set aside 15 percent of their idea funds roughly 3.9 million dollars to address the causes of this disproportionality in the 2324 school year I have repeatedly spoken to this board about mistreatment of African-American
237women in leadership roles within the district which is now seemingly impacting our African-American student this boy cannot continue to ignore these facts per a public records request from doe the total number of State complaints and due process file is more than double from the 2122 to 2223 school year showing a record high number of individuals and systemic State complaints the data shows that from 2018-19 to 2021-22 under the previous ESC Administration the numbers of complaint never reached a level that are now seen with an addition of four ese administrators and an ese attorney the data speaks for itself the superintendent and the current ESC Administration are a liability to this District next is Ree McKinney and on Deck is Douglas chair members of the school board attorney Bridges superintendent Hyde I'm Ray McKinney at Polk
238County Public School educator retired from the schoolhouse but not from education I am grateful to the board and to the superintendent who support our employees the Florida Constitution and article 9 Section 1 States in part and I quote the education of children is a fundamental value to the people of the State of Florida it is therefore a Paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders it goes on to Proclaim that adequate provision allows students to obtain a high quality education in Polk County our Public Schools include students with a multitude of cultural backgrounds Faith beliefs and lifestyles every student in our school should be respected honored and taught true facts teaching truth is not indoctrination teaching truth is high quality education teaching comes with
239pressures including but not limited to lesson planning lesson preparation student Behavior grading students work administrative paperwork required meetings often unreal expectation from students parents and administrators and community members low pay and state laws with ambiguous terminology that restrict the teaching of true facts together these pressures and others make the teaching of today's students an extremely high stress job it is therefore imperative that the school board and School administration from assistant principals up to the and including the superintendent continue to make it known that they appreciate and support the men and women delivering truth each day to our students thank you thank you Douglas and her Gibson when I was 16 years old I visited my grandparents after school as I often did my grandfather had not look to be in the eye the entire visit
240I didn't think anything of it my grandmother I wasn't acting any differently she historically had a better Poker Face on TV a news clip showed that a murder of a gay man was now being investigated as a hate crime without looking away from the TV my grandfather says to me and I quote I could never kill as it's against God's Commandments but those who do kill homosexuals are doing God's work I would not find out until the next day when confronted by my mother she had been working the night before With Tears In Her Eyes inability to walk and in between sobs asking me what she did wrong I would find out that the day the morning before I was viciously outed to my family it was a year and a half later in that
241same dining room where we watch TV that my grandfather during a little session of at-home conversion therapy me talking back long story punches me across that table now recent Studies have shown that in Generation Z 19.7 percent are lgbtq Plus one in five now if you want to look at the graph of left-handedness the history of left-handedness you'll see pretty much this exact same thing just over the generations it just keeps getting better why or keeps getting um more populated why because they're not being hunted down by crazy religious people now according to this same study uh 11.2 percent of Millennials queer 3.3 percent of Gen X 2.7 percent of Baby Boomers and 1.7 percent of the silent generation now this is not surprising to anyone who's familiar with things such as the history of
242left-handedness or the diversity of this community lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer questioning asexual intersex to Spirit these are all separate identities now you can uh go and say lesbian gay bisexual uh asexual all sexual romantic identities and then transgender too many people just see transgender as mentally ill gaze too many people do not understand that there is a separation between your sex your sexuality and your gender the the gender structure that we work on today is still based in the bull is still based in white supremacists uh British colonization we do not recognize the diversity of our cultures [Music] Linda White and on Deck is Royal Brown hi my name is Glinda White Winter Haven resident um Lisa Miller continues to issue hateful comments from work session her latest comment we need to listen to
243people who have students in school because a lot of the things we're listening to are from people who have no interests no vested interest in the outcome because they do not have children in our schools so I thank you for this and hope we can continue the conversation I would like to provide a rebuttal to that statement every single resident who works and pays taxes in Polk County has a vested interest in the education of our children I recently spoke to a friend of mine who is having trouble hiring people at the entry level because they can't read a tape measure stay in your own lane Polk School Board you're failing our kids Lisa Miller's salary is paid by the taxes of the people in this County she needs to remember that her job is
244in service to the people of our County not berating everyone she doesn't agree with Lisa Miller should be removed from her seat on this board if she keeps up her hateful commentary about Polk citizens I'd like to add that we who according to her do not have current kids it currently in the schools or vested interests by her definitions stood in the heat today for over an hour as we did last month to attend this meeting to endure the insults of people disrespectful children because we care about them thank you thank you Miss White Royal Brown and on Deck is Leah Fisher I want to thank you for your vote tonight I think it was the right vote I also want to correct a misconception that a lot of people seem to have and that
245is Memorial Day Veterans Day Independence Day Flag Day Thanksgiving are all national holidays authorized by Congress they are not I thought it was not for you they're not proclamations as it was intimated here tonight I'd also like to say that it was said that words hurt yeah they do and here's some of the words I heard tonight directed towards me and about 52 other family loving god-loving Patriots who attended this meeting I heard that we were small-minded I heard that we were Nazis okay I heard that uh you know we basically we don't care about children and all that is just totally false and quite frankly I've been coming to these school boards now meetings now for a couple years and I'm pretty tired of all the hatred developed directed towards those of us that
246God that love our God love our country and love students while the rest of these folks just get away with it tonight sitting behind me while y'all were discussing what you were going to vote on about the proclamations there was incessant talk ing you down you don't know that because you're sitting up there and you can't hear what's going on out there in the audience but there needs to be some tightening up here we're the ones being civil not them here see that's what I'm saying and it gets a little tiring we're going to continue to come to those cool boards you're not going to run us off okay now another thing a couple of procedural things that I would recommend that you all look at number one this venue here this location is becoming
247inadequate for the large groups of people that are coming here to talk you need you need to go either go back to the place on 98 or go back to what what you used to do when I was teaching in Polk County the school boards were held over here in the Bartow High School auditorium but this venue here you're you're outgrowing it and it's going to continue to get worse so please look at that you need a protocol about what's happening out here outside your building as people are lining up some of us were here at three thank you Mr Brown next is the Fisher and on Deck is Donna Windsor Leah Leah Fisher and Donna Windsor Anita Carson I signed up tonight for the off agenda item to talk about AC found it interesting
248that someone decided to point out that they stood outside for an hour because we hear about kids and that's that's awesome it's hot outside our teachers spend eight hours a day in heat with no AC and they're all in this room waiting to continue to talk to y'all about the problems that are really impacting our schools the majority of people that were here to speak please shut the doors in the back in or out the majority that we're here to speak against the proclamations went home as soon as that vote was done but the people who spoke for the proclamations are still here because they still care about kids and what they have to face in their classrooms I think that your decision today to completely eradicate proclamations um does a disservice to every person
249in this County um I was especially appalled at the quoting of Dr King right after removing a black history Proclamation um so I'll quote from a letter from Birmingham Jail we are here because Injustice is here there's one group of people that showed up that said we don't like this group so take the proclamations away and then the people who wanted Proclamation showed up and said we want you to see everyone those are not two sides of a divisive coin there's one group that's being divisive which is why we've never had an issue in 20 years and there's one group saying we all deserve to be seen this was wrong this was incredibly wrong and I'm surprised at some of you that I thought had better logical skills than that so I appreciate the two
250of you that stood up I appreciate you standing up um when a whole community of people are just wanting to be seen so thank you foreign Jones Caitlyn Jones and then on Deck is Ruby B so I have been a teacher at Polk County school board for eight years this is my first ever school board meeting and this is also the first week I have ever joined the union [Applause] but I am not here to complain because that's what I got Stephanie for all right I am here for Solutions because I don't complain without a solution because that would just be complaining and nobody's going to pay attention one of our Solutions and I believe it was you Mr Allen it wasn't one of your essays that you read tonight but you did mention that
251we have trade schools and I do not understand that if we are graduating people from our trade school specifically our Ace HVAC program why are we not funneling them into our empty positions if they are good enough and qualified enough to pass our certifications then why are we not offering them some type of contract why are we not putting our students first and offering them a career I do not understand why we have empty positions when we have students in a classroom that have Polk County School Board Hands-On opportunities that is my biggest thing why are we not investing in ourselves at my school we invest in our kids every single day because sometimes we're the only hug they get it is appalling that you guys do not invest in us if you know every
252single year you come back to over 200 ish work orders on air conditioners why are we not Outsourcing and having every single air conditioner serviced over the summer every home owner is supposed to take care of their air conditioner and having it serviced is one thing but classrooms my classroom specifically has gone four to six months at a time without a new air filter and when we are told just to brush it off with your broom that is not acceptable thank you Ruby and then on Deck is Bishop mincy man it is cold in this room too bad kids can't experience that a good old freezing to death in the classroom tradition but anyway I'm here to speak about concerns related to prageru being approved by the state for use in the classrooms despite it
253quite literally being founded with a biased and bigoted intent to be used as propaganda their content includes things such as claiming slavery is a good thing and climate change isn't real despite us literally experiencing it this summer so I'm asking at the Polk County School Board to not overwrite my rights as a parent to have my kids access proper public education and not allow this propaganda in our local classrooms because I'm raising my kids to be anti-racist anti-bigatry and to have critical thinking skills and to not be the kind of person who spends their senior citizen years crying about the existence of people who are different from them in public meetings but here I am having to teach adults these things too they will learn the brutal facts of History they will learn to celebrate
254groups that are in cultures even if they are not part of those groups because these things are only divisive if you're an evil brainwashed and hateful person a few years ago I thought it would only have to worry about school shootings when my kids went to school which I shouldn't even have to worry about that but now I have to worry about so much more now I have to worry about white supremacist and decisions being made by someone who can't even follow basic laws about campaign contributions I shouldn't have to ask that in 2023 that a school's not being racist homophobic transferment and it is infuriating and I'm so so Beyond people who start and start discriminating crying why can't we get along you're why we can't get along Rick you start racist homophobic and
255this needs to Ed fisherman scene because I've told you the truth members judgment was coming to the district one woman took prayer out of the school One Man created the problem that you have tonight in Tallahassee Florida nobody stood up against wolf walk is the problem book is the problem Christian people would talk they know God have a loud woof to mess their minds up and we have multiple problems and it ain't gonna get no better this is not going to get no better just gonna get progressively worse because the Bible said when they knew him as God they glorified him not as God and they became vain in their imagination and their foolish Hearts were darker and they became they worshiped the creature more than the Creator anytime you put God out you can
256get ready for hell it's going to distort amen this nation is going to be destroyed because of this stuff that Christian folks that talked to talk but don't walk the walk everybody can sound good make themselves look good it's a right way and it's a wrong way black history y'all talk about Proclamation that man don't want it to be told to our children our children need to know the history know what happened no why there are different color people in the world know why somebody did that tell the truth the truth will set you free that's the only thing will set you free when you look at the skin color of a child and you're gonna go to school you're gonna try to make him feel like he ain't disappeared two people got together and
257that's why they like look like they look we got issues and we got problems and we don't want to face the problem we're gonna duck around the problem and you're gonna try to patch it up and try to fix it it will never be fixed until you walk up and face the truth face it look truth in the eye and say truth I accept you because the truth will set us free tonight in our schools in our communities in our churches wherever we go if we learn to do what's right right is gonna win every time every time now you can get ready amen mark my word do what you want to do but the Bible says that judgment was going to come and I'm telling you I told you all it was going to
258come so all of this rookers that we had here tonight it's almost 10 o'clock I'm supposed to be sleep ing thank you Bishop mincy with no further business to come before this board this meeting is adjourned