001foreign good evening if I could ask that you all join me in standing for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance and I'd like to call Reverend Harris from Saint Paul AME in Lake Alfred to lead us in the invocation twist grace that brought us Faithfully thus far and Grace will lead us home help us tonight Lord to get off to a good start to our school year tonight let everything that is said and done be for your honor and Glory bless our school board bless our administrators bless our teachers bless our staff but most of all bless our parents and our students and we pray on August 11th when the students arrive to school that they will arrive safely and they will find teachers and coaches mentors and friends that will honor the image of
002God inside of each of them help our students this year to communicate collaborate to think critically and create in such a way that people may know that something something special and something great can come out of a place called Polk County I'm a proud graduate of Kathleen Senior High School and so I carry 863 in my heart and I pray that the students will also Lord you got us through last year and we know you're going to get us through this year too if you did it before you're going to do it again so we thank you for a successful school year once again bless our students as they go back to school allow them to find friends that love them and they can love someone back in return we thank you for all you
003do and finally Lord as I concluded this prayer thank you for my mama Lord Sister Kate fields so grateful to be her son tonight we thank you in your name amen thank you Reverend Harris and I'd now like to call Owen James Trask Rodriguez to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance whenever you're ready I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated except for you Owen all right so I hear you are a student at spessard Holland is that correct what grade will you be in um fourth fourth are you excited to go back to school yes yes so what what has been the best thing you've done
004this summer I know that's a trick question because I'm sure they didn't prep you for that one playing cards with my defined what's your favorite card game um Go Fish I like it awesome so what other things do you like to do for fun um I hear that you might play guitar is that true yeah and I also hear that you're pretty funny yeah so do you have any witty jokes or puns for us um Okay so what did the pickles say with the prickle with the problem I don't know what's the dill pickle that is a good one man I think we need a joke at the start of every school board meeting from now on um I know it made my night a lot better so Owen do you know what you want
005to be when you grow up not yet not yet that's all right listen you've got plenty of time to figure that out so thank you so much for coming and leading us tonight do you have any special guests here with you um I have my mom my sister and my dad which she works here awesome very cool well thank you guys so much for bringing Owen out to to hang out with us tonight and delete Us in the in the pledge Owen have a great school year in fourth grade and we hope we get to see you again soon okay [Applause] all right you can sit down now all right so we will now call this meeting to order for July 25th 2023. the first order of business will be acceptance of the school board
006agenda superintendent high do we have any revisions yes ma'am Madam chair at this time item A3 acceptance of the school board agenda was had an updated motion attached item D2 approval of the minutes June 13 2023 work session meeting minutes were removed item D3 approval of minutes for June 27th work session meeting minutes work session meetings were removed work session minutes were removed item F number one new administrators the attachments were updated item Q2 2023 2024 tentative budget millage rates attachments were added that concludes the changes to the agenda my own chair thank you superintendent Hyde can I get a motion to approve accept the agenda for the July 25th 2023 school board meeting as revised second have Miss fields and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying
007aye any opposed and the motion carries superintendent hide I'm going to turn it over to you for special recognitions yes ma'am Madam chair members of the board members of community and staff at this time I'd like to ask School Board member Lisa Miller to step down represent the board for today's special recognitions um and board members you will not be surprised at who are recognizing first at this time I'd like to bring down Dan Talbot senior director of Athletics to come forward Mr Talbot was recently named a finalist for leadership Playbook 2022 2023 administrator of the Year award I'll read a brief statement from the letter that we were provided this award recognizes individuals in leadership positions who strive to develop other leaders make people in situations better and provide a positive example for those
008they influence the leadership playbook.com helps athletic departments to support teams build stronger cultures by developing better teammates and more positive leaders as part of the online curriculum the program has hundreds of two-minute video lessons to increase a person's leadership abilities to develop these life skills we want to congratulate once again and thank you for investing in the lives of your staff and your students signed Jamie Belcher author and Leadership consultant we want to continue to provide recommendations and acknowledgments for Mr Talbot additionally we received a press release from Akron Ohio Dan Talbot recognized for his leadership Dan Talbot from Polk County public schools has been announced as one of the nominees for the leadership Playbook 2022-2023 administrator of the year the award seeks to honor individuals in leadership positions who strive to develop leadership and
009others make people in situations better and provide a positive example for those to influence board members after earlier today you received a reheard during the workshop a year in review for athletics and it's a quite impressive list of accomplishments and as many of you noted Mr Talbot hates being the focus of attention and quite honestly told the story earlier today as to why he doesn't want to be the focus and why he tries to make our students the focus and I think that conversation earlier today provides further testimony to this amazing man and what he accomplishes each and every day in our school district so if you'd please join me in recognizing Mr [Music] [Applause] uh thank you superintendent Hyde and school board I appreciate the honor again like I said in the work session
010I I accept this award and all the accomplishment on behalf of the school district the 17 schools within our district and the athletic directors at each school um were working as one unit to provide the best opportunity for our student athletes we don't always get there but it's striving to be a Perfection so again I thank you humbly for the award um there is another side to me in my half I do want to thank my wife for being here um I don't tell her but enough how much I care about her and our lives are going in different directions because she works just as much as I do but anytime I do get a big head she's there to make sure that I uh get back in line and do right by kids I'm
011fortunate that I married a former student athlete at Polk County Public Schools who reminds me every day how important the kids are in her County so I am fortunate to have someone that supports me at home and also if I get out of line can put me back in line so I do thank her for all her support and dedication to our profession because like all these administrators and the ones that will be recognized here later you do have to have a strong support at home because we give a lot of our time to our student athletes but that is our passion that is what we chose to do and and hope we do it well but again I I thank you for all the support and and I look forward to another great year
012and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for like I said earlier our finance Department our payroll department HR I.T it's it's one Collective group moving forward so I appreciate all the schools principals athletic directors and again humbly accept the award on behalf of everyone in the district so thank you thank you [Applause] [Laughter] oh I love it um I gotta remember the tippy toes at this time I'd like to bring down Jeanette Crowley director for strategic planning and Partnerships who will recognize are focused on Excellence program partners thank you madam chair school board members and superintendent Hyde it's an honor to be here with each of you tonight as well as our community members and those online with us and we're going to begin with our focus on Excellence highlight video the third year
013of our focused on Excellence employee recognition campaign proved to be bigger than ever the focused on Excellence campaign strives to honor staff members from different employee groups who might get overlooked amidst the hustle of keeping one of the nation's 30th largest school districts running efficiently nonetheless these employees are providing exceptional public service and make the motto students first their mission thanks to our generous sponsors we were able to expand the total number of this past Year's winners to 40 employees each was nominated by their peers for this honor and were ultimately selected by an anonymous judging process the selected honorees receive prizes from our business partners and were invited to special appreciation luncheons in addition they were recognized during school board meetings and featured on the district's social media and website we appreciate everyone who
014nominated a pcps employee last year and we encourage nominations to continue in the coming school year Polk County Public Schools employs more than thirteen thousand staff members there are still so many public servants who deserve to be the focus special recognition thank you for supporting focused on excellence foreign I think that video captures our program beautifully I'm proud of the impact that this meaningful program is having on our employees before I introduce our program sponsors I'd like to say thank you to all the pcps employees who submit nominations thank you to the public relations and strategic Partnerships team who works together to make this campaign successful for pcps and to the countless other employees and then as well as departments that help support and make this program successful we truly do have some amazing business
015partners within our community who come alongside us each and every day because of their commitment to our community Polk County Public Schools and the focus on Excellence program we're able to expand the number of employees and recognize our 40 employees throughout the year through appreciation luncheons we also were able to host our luncheons at the club at Eaglebrook who's also a partner of ours I'm thrilled to report that all of the program sponsors have renewed their partnership efforts through the 2023-24 school year and we've even added more additional sponsors at this time when I call your business name please come forward to be recognized Chick-fil-A South and North locations we have Chase Weber with us and I'd like to give each partner because they invest so much within this program at Polk County Public Schools
016an opportunity to say a few words Chase if you'd like to I I personally and I know on behalf of Chick-fil-A here locally in Polk County there's there's a few of us but um one thing we get to do is hire the young people of Polk County we start at 14 years old and so we love partnering with the schools and the school board to to really make sure we can impact young people's lives and so we just thank you all the teachers and ministers for the work that you guys do day in and day out idx formerly image Depot Ryan delavaneri well um you know it's very easy to get behind a program like this because it points a spotlight on all the great things that our educators are doing and you know I
017know that it can be a thankless job at times and uh I think as a dad a specially taken to this because I'm going we got a lot of kids that we're putting through the system and we're really relying on on these teachers to to show up every day and they do love to see that uh that we're bringing attention to them and I'm really happy to be a small part of it Mid Florida Credit Union Jennifer Devereaux thank you on behalf of Mid Florida Credit Union we thank you we have a long history with partnering with the school board and this is just a great program to recognize individuals and it truly is the gift that keeps on giving from the peer nominations to the individuals who are recognized for coming in to work
018with a purpose not just you know it's a job right and so that impact has a positive effect on the culture The Faculty the students and the community so we look forward to the new school year thank you Publix Supermarkets Inc Jeff brumbaugh behalf of public to say thank you it's really ingrained in in Public's Associates from the 14 year old bagger all the way up to someone like myself as a store manager here in Bartow that giving back to the communities what we do George Jenkins was once asked how how much he thought he would be worth if he hadn't given away so much of his wealth and his answer was probably nothing you know and so giving back is in us and then plus I'm married to a wife that's been teaching in
019Polk County for 25 years and with the school board and so she she would she understands and I see firsthand The Untold hours that are behind the scenes not just in the classroom I mean she was at school today doing stuff getting ready for the new year so I thank you guys and everything you do and all of the 13 000 Plus members that are in the school board and teachers and and all the support staff and everybody involved you guys are the heroes so thank you thank you thank you CP CPS investment advisors Eric Jackson yeah on behalf of CPS investment advisors our firm this is something that we get behind it's a no-brainer we give back quite a bit and being able to support the staff the teachers you know the machine that
020goes behind educating these kids it's a pleasure honestly and so and getting to see a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes I mean it was really enlightening so yeah it's the least we can do and we look forward to many more years of this support so thank you thank you hand and stone massage and facial spa we have Stephanie D Martino with us on behalf of Hand and Stone thank you so much for having us and we're very honored to support such a great program that highlights our outstanding employees so I look forward to seeing the winners and hearing their stories this year foreign The Club at Eagle Brook Deborah winter on behalf of the club at Eagle Brook I'd just like to say we're honored to be able to participate in
021this program and really look forward to being able to continue our sponsorship for next year and are looking forward to amazing luncheons and we will see you guys soon thank you thank you very much that concludes my presentation thank you so much thank you madam chair that concludes special recognitions for this evening as adopted before we begin I'd like to welcome the public and go over our public comment process and the opportunities for this evening we will have three opportunities for public comment the first will be for items on this evening's agenda to be voted upon the second will be during the public hearing for public hearing topics and at the end of the meeting we will have an additional opportunity for public comment on items that are not on this evening's agenda to register
022to speak community members must fill out a card in a speaker's 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 is concluded as a reminder public comments are an opportunity for us to hear your thoughts and comments however this is not a question and answer session if you are seeking additional information I encourage you to contact any of us or the superintendent's office outside of board meetings and we would be happy to have deeper conversations first we will have Emmett Purvis and on Deck is Royal Brown good evening Madam chair board members and superintendent Hyde I'm here to discuss several items on the agenda tonight the first item is
023on page 18 of the agenda under subject K2 instructional administrative action please advise me if I'm wrong What appears this item should be the sole responsibility of the members of the school board I would like would not like to see any actions taken where there is no one held accountable for making Personnel policy or changes without the express permission of the elected representatives and in any case involving HR should not be a cons sent item sometimes it may look to be more efficient to do so but again not without the public being aware of the reason please enlighten me and those present while this is done because the board's responsible for hiring evaluating terminating all of school board employees include including the district superintendent the second item I would like to point out that we
024are spending Millions if not billions nationally on digital training teaching programs my questions are what are the teachers doing with all this information overload it is is it teaching further indoctrinating our students and or the digital learning programs approved by and sanctioned by the Florida State Board of Education thank you Mr Purvis next up is Royal Brown and on Deck is Glinda White good afternoon I'm Royal Brown III I live in Winter Haven reference agenda item o teaching and learning consent agreement items 13 14 15 18 and 19. all involving funds for purchasing various teaching and learning programs totaling two million six hundred and twenty three thousand dollars I don't know where these funds come from but obviously they're funded by American taxpayers iPhone and or emailed the contact persons listed on each of these
025items and following are the results items 13 and 14 Jeff Hancock was not available so I left a message to call me but he did not call me back no email address was provided on the agenda for Mr Hancock for items 15 and 19 I called Joe McNaughton and was told he was at a conference all week so I emailed him but received no response I then contacted other contacts listed item 15 Victoria McKenzie who did respond to my email but didn't completely answer my questions for items 18 and 19 I received an email response from Carrie Foster who did not completely answer all questions that I asked I have two points here one if you're going to list contacts on agenda items for public inquiry the contacts should be available or at least respond
026to messages from the public my second point is that none of the references or contacts for these consent agenda spending provide information about measures of Effectiveness expected outcomes and or performance standards for these large Pro expensive programs since my retirement from Polk County School Board system in 2009 I've seen very little progress in achievement Levels by Polk County public students or school system for students assessed by the Florida Department of Education please take a look at the handout their Florida doe charts showing that Polk County Public School ranks below State average test results for level three and above in every subject category the taxpayers of Polk County and the parents of students in Polk County Public Schools expect Improvement in student test scores that is paying for the dump for the buck for these expensive
027supplemental education and teaching and learning programs quite frankly we're tired of Polk County Public Schools being in the bottom quarter of all Florida school districts and student test scores we're going to hold you responsible to make significant improvements and will monitor future results thank you thank you Mr Brown Glinda white and on Deck is Bobby D's my name is Glenda white of Winter Haven I'm regarding consent agenda K subject for chart 3. I'm concerned about Mr Hyde taking oversight of equity and diversity from Human Resources does this mean Mr Hyde will oversee hiring provide reports to the State Board of Education who knows it's not on the information offered I'm concerned that a person who's unaccountable to the public is the wise choice for this role I suggest the board receive oversight as they are
028accountable to the voters I'm asking that all information provided by Mr Hyde be viewed and approved by the board before being released and that information be presented to the public affirmative action was declared unconstitutional last week by scotus affirmative action often results in people being hired just to fill a color block rather than for their qualifications this practice should be stopped lest we further destroy our Polk County Schools regarding consent agenda o subjects 4 5 6 12 14 15 16 17 and 18 purchases of educational or supplemental education materials adding up to millions of dollars and the millions spent during the 22-23 school year we're seeing these massive amounts voted on and spent with little or no discussion little or no information on the agenda and we never see the results of these purchases in
029fact Mr Royal Brown has supplied each of you with statistics on how our kids are performing and it's not good I'd like to know if these materials are effective why do we continue spending Millions on them there should be statistical numbers and percentages information on how these materials are used who's using them how many of you use them and the statistics on performance if they're not effective we should stop purchasing them our kids are not social experiment Lab Rats they're not for sale to the highest political bidder they are human beings in need of an education please give them one regarding consent again agenda Q subject to I'm asking to please take this item off the consent agenda until you are able to discuss the total figure proposed before voting and be transparent you can't
030build trust with the community that actually cares about our kids education if you continually fail to put appropriate and enough information on these agenda items I have to wonder if this is an effort to keep people in the dark thank you very much thank you Miss White next up is Bobby D's hello my name is Bobby deige I'm from Winter Haven Florida I'm here regarding consent agenda K subject four and agendas M subjects 4 10 12 and 13. I signed up today to speak on multiple subjects but I cannot speak on information I don't have only one contact person reached out to me and that was today but they had to get answers to my questions from another source I've had this problem before and or that I didn't get a call back at all
031please try to appoint someone else that can answer questions the same as the appointed contact person is able to do to a lack of transparency in these subjects I could not complete my investigation I had many unanswered questions for example agenda K subject four District reorganization why does Mr Hyde want to oversee the equity and diversity part department why do we even have this department and is Mr Hyde going to be involved in hiring if so will he be hiring according to equity and diversity or affirmative action agendas M subject for mental health applications for six and a quarter million dollars why so much money where's a complete breakdown of expenditures what results do you expect and what service providers are you employing agendas in subjects 10 and 12 Health Care Associates for a combined
032total of nearly three million dollars again need a complete breakdown of expenditures and why are you hiring 10 28 Behavior Support Specialists and why are you targeting eight classrooms in Four elementary schools and why are we supporting what seems to be a mental health facility in schools and what M subject 13 Polk County Department of Health student services suggests to me to be a doctor's office in school all these are paid for with tax dollars the public demands transparency a lack of transparency can only lead one to guess about what information is given like are you hiding something transparency builds trust without trust you have you can't have a solid relationship that's all thank you thank you Mr deese that concludes the public comment portion for agendas for items on the agenda our next order
033of business will be approval of the minutes we have one set of minutes from June 13th school board meeting and I will seek a motion to approve the minutes from the June 13 2023 school board meeting move to approve second Miss Miller and Miss Fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion carries next will be approval of the consent agenda and I'll now seek a motion for approval of the July 25th 2023 consent agenda move to approve second Dr Allen and Miss fields any discussion Ms Miller I just wanted to make a comment I had made in work session concerning the consent agenda items with envo and these other Support Services contracts um in the past I've heard from staff that we have
034issues with these people taking on contracts they cannot fill they do not have the Personnel so they'll take on the contract and recruit so I've talked to the superintendent and the assistant superintendent of Support Services to make sure that um when we agree these contracts will be monitored so we know that the staff is coming in and they're not only coming in but they're capable and they're willing to go into all schools I've had phone calls that staff from these contracted companies do not want to go into our Center Schools and I don't know that we should give them an option because all of our schools need Services especially the students with high significant needs so I talked about it in the work session and I encourage you all if you haven't to watch the
035work sessions it gives you a lot of information but it is confirmed that these will be monitored and these contracts can be canceled if they're not fulfilled thank you thank you Miss Miller Dr Allen thank you madam chair I was going to draw attention to consent agenda within a letter O teaching and learning each year we approve various articulation agreements with local colleges for students to participate in dual enrollment so I just want to draw attention to these agreements that we're approving tonight within the consent for parents and students to know that dual enrollment options are available to you and that would be Kaiser Southeastern University Warner will be an action item coming up as well as South Florida State College and just um you know the the flexibility that's afforded to our students when
036they take dual enrollment if they plan to attend college is accessible to them at free of charge as well and on top of that the financial savings that are a part of this and these articulation agreements that we take part in so happy to support those and that's all I have chair thank you thank you Dr Allen it's about the district organization we had a very in-depth discussion today about the reorganization and some of the concerns concerning the ese positions and Mr Hyde has uh stated that we will we will be getting quarterly reports to see how the Medicaid funds and everything balances to ensure that we are on track uh and uh I feel good about that there was also some discussion about whether or not uh we need to uh place the equity
037and diversity position under superintendent Hyde or someone else and when that position was and when that position was established uh back maybe in 2004 or maybe I don't remember when it actually was established but it's been a minute that position was under the uh supervision of the superintendent of schools and I'm not really sure when it left the superintendent of schools and went to HR I think it might have been when superintendent Byrd was the superintendent I'm not sure but I believe that that position needs to be under the umbrella of the superintendent of schools we hold him accountable and that's a part of his evaluation and I am very confident that he will be able to do what is necessary to ensure that the equity and the diversity piece is adhered to and one
038of the comments that I made in the work session today is that no one wants a hand out one wants an opportunity and I don't believe that the superintendent of schools would put someone in a position that's not qualified for that position and if he or she whoever that superintendent would be would do that then it's up to the school board members to do their job and to do the evaluation and do whatever is necessary but as far as this day and as far as this position I believe that it it serves well being under this supervision of a superintendent Hyde so I will be voting in support of that thank you Miss Fields Mr sharpless got a few questions I asked during a work session superintendent hide that I'd like to just reiterate now
039to the public first on consent agenda item M4 our mental health application um does the Samford Harmony program conflict with the February 2023 Memo from commissioner Diaz pertaining to social emotional learning it does not we cannot teach social emotional learning in its traditional sense however the department even in the application it's explicit in a requests on behalf of the district how are we supporting the social emotional and behavioral needs of our students and so we have been we have been conferring with the Department as we as recently or as as today to receive confirmation that our application and again if the department takes issue with our application they will provide return it to us for correction but as of this afternoon we were told that we were in we were well within the scope of
040what we were to do we do not teach SEL in its traditional sense so what people have come to consider at traditional SEL components we are as commissioner Diaz's email or letter to superintendent stated it was the concerns were explicitly Limited to Edge annuity and the commissioner went on in his email correspondence to state that it's up to school districts to ensure they're compliant with State Statute and so again we will continue to confer with the Department to ensure that we're in compliance with those expectations thank you um another one on o18 the purchase of the hot and Mifflin Harcourt Math 180 um like I said when I looked at the sole source Master list one of the programs is common core codex and so we quit doing Common Core State Standards back in 2019
041so does this uh curriculum prepare students for an assessment that we're not currently doing no sir this is the comprehensive list of all of their products the only product that we are procuring is math 180. okay so again this is they are a sole source provider have been identified as such however again that that attachment simply lists all of their products the only product we are looking to adopt and support is math 180. and that's that's the end of my questions thank you yes sir thank you Mr sharpless Mr Nolte uh thank you Mr sharples for asking a couple of my questions um I'd like to make comments since uh some of the public tonight and also I've heard during the last week has had trouble contacting people here in the school board and of
042course a lot we're on vacation I understand that maybe possibly next time we can put at least another extra name and number to contact since it is frustrating to call down here and and that able to talk to someone but again I understand it's vacation everything but I think we need to add at least one more name to those things thank you good point if I may Mr Nolte I've made a note of that myself it is interesting that Mr Hancock's email has been provided in other items within that same category so we'll make sure unfortunately for US 17 or 19 of our School District staff including teachers and administrators were tapped to be part of standard setting so they are there for the entirety of the week to work with the state of Florida
043as well as colleagues from across the state by the invitation invitation from the Florida Department of Education however there should be a process in place that when they're out of office there is someone else to provide a response within a timely manner so we will work to address that issue thank you thank you Mr Nolte superintendent Hyde yes ma'am um just a matter of clarification I think it's important to note as Miss Fields pointed out the the position of the Dei had reported to the superintendent through the year of 2013. that's when there was a change this is not an HR function this is HR and hiring Equity was just a small part of what this job entails this is also our compliance arm there are several reports that required to provide to both the
044State of Florida and and the federal government as it relates to student participation both in academic areas in their performance in academic areas and that's important for us to know that that this person is our compliance arm additionally this is the person who's responsible for other concerns including Ada complaints and I provided the example of this boardroom where the ramps were not previously ADA Compliant so when we had to work at Jim Miles for the entirety of a school year that was so we could retrofit this facility to ensure that we would be compliant with those expectations that's a function of this job as well this job and this individual also works directly with procurement to ensure that we're abiding by board policies and expectations State policies and expectations as it relates to fairness Veterans
045Preference those types of things things and as the board has shared previously there's a great deal of concern that many of our local companies have felt excluded from the bidding process because they felt like they don't get a fair opportunity so I want to make it very clear this is not about race and to Mrs fields's Point none of us in this community none of us in this room would benefit by hiring unskilled untalented labor simply based off their gender or their race and that's simply just a false statement or a false narrative we work as dead as hard as we can now we do work to ensure that we have a diverse Workforce and that is important for us because we want our employees to reflect the students in which they serve however our
046first priority is to ensure that they're competent and highly skilled and so I wanted to provide that reassurance the reporting to me it's important for everybody to understand that with the exception of Mr Bridges and our auditor every position in the school district ultimately reports the superintendent's office and so I'm not here to unduly influence this individual but there have been concern expressed that in their current capacity they have felt that they couldn't make progress in certain areas and so it's important for that again to default to myself or the chief of staff Mr Dr Allen excuse me made a very good point earlier today that when this was first under the superintendent there was not a chief of staff and so there are districts where it does vary as to who it reports to
047I simply went back historically to where it reports to and to try and streamline it but I can assure the board and the community that Mr Pitts the chief of staff oversees operations which includes procurement Finance HR will be directly involved as well to provide that reassurance to the board and to the question that was posed earlier the board gets copies of all of our submitted reports and they are attached to the board documents every time we submit a report to the State of Florida or to the federal government and so at that point of transparency is there that information is readily available so thank you madam chair thank you superintendent Hyde the other common seeing none all those in favor if I by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries superintendent hide
048do we have any new administrators Madam chair we have quite a few those who are unfortunately not able to be in attendance tonight but I believe that they deserve their recognition Jennifer Crowley Brown administrative assistant at Lake Alfred Elementary School has been promoted to a system principal at Lake Alfred Elementary caprila Jennings testing coordinator from Roosevelt Academy has been promoted to assistant principal at Winter Haven High School and Caitlin Gregory senior coordinator for high school Regional has been promoted to assistant principal at Rochelle School of the Arts for those that are should be in attendance tonight I'd like to begin with Carmen Bonilla administrative assistants at George Jenkins High School who has been promoted to assistant principal at George Jenkins High School who was recently challenged with her very first opportunity to demonstrate her competency
049because we held our principals meeting there last week and she had to ensure that everything was clean tidy and prepared and ready for our attendance so welcome this evening congratulations like to thank superintendent Hyde Madam chair and the board members I would also like to thank my mom and my son for being here they have been my biggest supporters I would also like to thank my friends miss lahara and miss Jimenez for being here they're also Educators and Future Leaders finally I would like to thank those amazing leaders I've had the privilege to work with and are probably one of the reasons I'm here leaders aren't born they're made and they're made just like anything else through hard work and dedication I couldn't help to think about eight years ago when I was recruited in
050Puerto Rico by former superintendent Jacqueline Byrd I was placed at a top school I face many challenges many challenges personally and professionally the struggle was real but at the same time I gained a lot of knowledge experience determination and a lot of leadership roles and opportunities last but not least I would like to thank my former principal Mr Roberts former AP Mr Dwayne Johnson and my principal Mr Tom Patton thank you for your support and for your guidance most importantly thank you for not just telling me but showing me what it takes to be a transformational leader thank you I was going to say please have your family join you thank you fantastic Mr Carlos Rodriguez previously there in an interventionist at Alta Vista Elementary School has now been promoted to acting assistant principal at
051Juanita Elementary good evening Mr Hyde and Madam chairman and the board first first and foremost I'd like to say that I'm just very grateful to be an assistant principal excited for the opportunity to to grow as a professional at Juanita Elementary um as far as giving thanks I would like to thank Mr Green and Miss Nave and Mr Roberts who actually approved me I have actually met them yet but they actually improved my position so really grateful for that um I'm also very thankful to miss Caballero I think she's here today she kind of interviewed me and hired me on the spot so I'm really grateful and I'm excited to be part of the Juanita team and I would be remiss tonight if I didn't thank my former principal Mrs Stewart for just trusting me
052and all those leadership activities that you gave me and and all of those wonderful things especially the steam Academy that we did at Alta Vista so thank you for that and uh I would also like to thank my beautiful wife that's here and my family for all you all your support and over the years and I've been teaching for 18 years they're like get into leadership get into leadership so here I am so and last but not least I'd like to thank my Elementary School principal Claire McGraw she's retired but she actually still keeps tabs on me and she's the only principal that actually paddled me so actually I think I got the message thank you thank you would your lovely family please join you and I assure you will get to see and get
053to know those individuals very very very well congratulations again Miss Cassandra Peters director for exceptional student education promoted to senior director for exceptional student education good evening Madam chair and members of the board superintendent Hyde families and community I'm humbled and blessed by the opportunity to continue to serve and grow as a leader here in Polk County I would first like to thank God for this important task that has been given to me I would like to thank first after God my husband and best friend Daryl Peters and my beautiful children Max and Emma Hall my son just started Summerlin today he did his first day in boot camp he loved it I said you're going to go back for more he said absolutely so um what I'd like to say is being a wife
054and mom has been the highest privilege and reward that I've had been bestowed upon me along with being able to serve here in this community that I reside in I take this job very seriously and I'm dedicated to the families and making sure that I put my all into it as well as working beside the passionate group of people that I call friends and family I do I do again appreciate the opportunity and honestly I feel that the purpose here for me is to continue to serve to humbly serve and grow alongside our families and staff and continue this glorious Journey alongside of all of you thank you I was going to say please have your please have your family join you thank you awesome okay pleasure thank you very much is it Jordan Dr
055Christina Jordan previously an instructor at Penn State University is newly appointed as the assistant principal at Albert Elementary welcoming back to Polk County at over Elementary I would also like to thank Ms Nave Mr campis and Ms wise for the exciting opportunity to serve the community and the families at Albert and lastly I'd like to thank my children for always supporting mommy in her role that has her heart and as well as Ms Stewart for her mentorship during my leadership roles within the county are you joined by any family to this evening I am not they're all joining virtually from Pennsylvania fantastic great to see you I can hear them cheering from there next is Mr Christopher balance so balance or balance balance fantastic I want to make sure I get it right administrators previously
056the administrative assistant of Frostproof middle senior high school has now been promoted to assistant principal at Bartow High School thank you good evening good evening first want to say thank you to the board Mr Hyde Ms Collins and Mr Lawson for the opportunity and the faith in me to be the assistant principal at Bartow High School I want to say thank you to Kyle Windham and the administration of Frostproof middle senior high school for mentoring me for these past five years I also want to extend my my gratitude to Dan Talbot for his leadership and mentorship he was one of the reasons why he was uh he was noticed today and last but certainly not least I want to thank my family my wife and kids for all their patience and forces I went through
057this whole process I look forward to working hard for the students and staff at Polk County Schools thank you thank you sir oh thank you next we have Dr Deidra Joe Sullivan senior manager for exceptional student education who's now being promoted to assistant director for exceptional student education hey good evening Madam chair superintendent Hyde and the board members and Community I stand here today as a product of Polk County Schools I would also like to thank my parents and the village who instilled in me the importance of Education family morals and integrity most importantly I was taught to trust God I stand here today coming into a new position new to the district the position and I am tasked with doing my very best serving all students in all schools here in Polk County thank
058you thank you next we have Miss Elizabeth Holbrook ee teacher from sdoc celebration K-8 school who is the newly appointed assistant principal at Griffin Elementary Hyde thank you to principal Stinson um I'm so excited and thankful for this opportunity I'm so excited to work with you and to make great things happen at Griffin Elementary I'd also like to say thank you to all of my administrators and teachers that have that I've worked with that have grown me into the leader that I've become today I'd like to say thank you to my colleagues and my friends especially my bestie Odie for standing by my side I'd like to say thank you to my children Kenneth Tyler McKenzie and Abby for just never giving up on me my grandson Luca all of them for just filling my
059heart with support and unconditional love it's just overfilling me um and lastly to my husband my best friend Ken for standing by me supporting me through good interviews bad interviews convincing me to never give up I'm so glad to finally have reached this spot in my life and I hope to do you proud thank you so much Hang on we're waiting on family oh yeah oh she's missing one right Madam chair next is Jessica Miller school-based coach from Polk City Elementary School who's been recently promoted to assistant principal at Polk City Elementary good evening I'm grateful to the board and superintendent Hyde for this opportunity I wouldn't be where I am without the love and support of my friends and family I'm especially grateful to my husband Chris he's been my biggest supporter and encourager
060I appreciate the rest of my family including our teenager Jaden my sister my mom my in-laws and for also supporting me through this journey I'm thankful to the many teachers and leaders over the years and District staff that have molded and shaped me into the educator and leader I am today and finally I want to thank Miss Hancock for trusting me enough to hire me as a Reading Coach many years ago and I'm thankful that she's now entrusted me with this role as her AP Polk City Elementary holds a special place in my heart and I'm going to do my best to ensure that I'm the leader that the students and staff there deserve congratulations oh yeah now they'll never see you Miss Smith would you please pronounce your first name for me Joe Helene
061okay I just want to make sure miss Joe Helene Smith was the math coach at Kathleen high school has now been promoted to assistant principal at Ridge Community High School yes I am truly humbled for this opportunity opportunity I'd like to thank the board and the super and superintendent high for this opportunity thanks to my family for your support throughout this process thank you to my mentors Mrs ladretta Akins and the late Mr Johnny Jackson for your guidance and just believing in me to the administration students and staff at Kathleen high school thank you as well and lastly to my mother Lucille Hawkins to my late father Johnny Hawkins senior and to my Uncle Albert Hawkins Jr for studying the tone for our family and motivating me to live out my dreams thank you congratulations
062thank you foreign next we have Mr Joshua Sumner administrative assistant at Caldwell Elementary School being promoted to assistant principal at Lincoln Avenue Academy thank you board members uh Mr Hyde it's a real pleasure I would like to thank you guys for this opportunity Miss Antoinette Kirby and the staff at Lincoln who has been um very welcoming as it's a 12-month position so I've already started now so I've been there there all have been fantastic and I'm really enjoying my experience and I was thinking back to thinking about being in school not I'm 42. I was in school for 13 years and now I've been teaching for 13 years so I've been a part of Polk County public schools for more of my life than I've not been a part of Polk County Public Schools that's
063going to change in the near future but we're not going to talk about that right now but I was thinking about that you know being a part of this and um you know we've seen a lot of board members and superintendents come through and I really appreciate you guys I enjoy the direction that's going um John Hill with aspiring leaders was a great guy and I think that it took me a little while to fully commit to going into this program into leadership but I think I picked the right time with you guys here as a great team Mr Hyde and all the district welcome you guys are fantastic all the people who have mentored me Miss sharp I worked for her for five years so uh thank all of you guys thank all the
064people who come out to the school board meetings and go care enough to actually show up and not just hanging out at their house complaining about stuff but you guys are out here too so thank you guys for coming out and I'm just really excited to be a part of it all congratulations next we have Miss Kimberly best testing Corner coordinator from Davenport School of the Arts being promoted to assistant principal at Davenport School of the Arts good evening Madam chair board members and superintendent Hyde I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to serve as assistant principal at Davenport School of the Arts being born and raised here in Polk County I am a product of Polk County Public Schools and I've been an educator in Polk County for 24 years so I'm
065excited and blessed at this opportunity to give back to the community which is my home I want to thank my principal Cindy Brayton and for allowing me to work alongside her and assistant principal Alicia Hughes to make DSA shine bright I want to thank my family my husband Justin my daughter Kaylee my son Tyler who's away at college and my mom and dad Brenda and Brian Stokes are here this evening and thank all of my family and friends who aren't here but have supported me during this journey and for the future so thank you Nations foreign thank you next we have Mr Chauncey Mitchell assistant principal being converted from an 11-month assistant principal at Lake Region High School to assistant principal 12 months over our DJJ programs okay Mr Corey clebo administrative assistant at Davenport
066High School being promoted to assistant principal at Davenport High School yes sir thank you board members thank you superintendent Hyde I'm going to tell a little story when I started this administrative journey across the street at Bartow High School I met a brand new assistant principal to the district I learned a whole lot from him a whole lot of how to do things his way and it's been an awesome four years because this year he became the principal of Bartow High School and I had an opportunity to now start my administrative Journey as an assistant principal so I got to thank Lance Lawson for a lot of what he taught me I got to thank Doug Harwell as well he's over at Davenport high school with me Mr DJ for the opportunity I look forward
067to not only making Davenport be great but being a representative of Polk County as a whole and making sure we can continue to improve and do the things that you guys are doing so well so thank you guys oh hold on I got to thank my beautiful wife back here Alexa she's one of the best curriculum Minds we have watch out for her thank you that's good what was her name Kristen Miss clabo we expect to see you here soon lechaz Cofield Harris assistant principal at Mi Escuela Montessori Charter is newly appointed as the assistant principal at Chain of Lakes Elementary thank you to you to the cabinet and to my principal Ms Susie Nelson first I'd like to give an honor to God for an amazing opportunity to lead and serve I am because
068he is to my son you are my heart and every day I live as an example that you are braver than you know smarter than you understand and remember in this life it is not how you start that matters but how you finish thank you to my family my friends and my school leadership mentors you all have been my greatest Advocates my future's critics and consistent cheerleaders for my success and in some cases saving my career last to the chain of Lake staff and Scholars know that I love each of you beyond measure and I believe in your potential each and every day remember these words from a foster kid straight out of the housing projects in Brooklyn New York finish strong go honors thank you wait we need to take your picture I think
069you're coming down foreign Mr Ronald Rountree Administrative Assistant from Spook Hill Elementary is being promoted to assistant principal at Lake Region High School giving first and foremost given honor to God for the opportunity Madam chair superintendent High Deputy superintendent green school board I would like to extend my sincere thank you for the opportunity to serve in this capacity I would like to thank my beautiful fiancee Bridget Roby who is here supporting me tonight thank you for sticking by my side and being with me as we make the transition from Mississippi to Florida you are my rock my right hand thank you for trusting in the plan of moving to this state where we have no personal family but we gain so much more she is also a product of the Polk County School Board I
070would like to thank my principals Dr Myra Richardson and Miss Michelle Browning for their leadership guidance and support along the way Ms Browning who is in attendance this evening boss lady oh there she is of the 23 years in this business I've benefited the most from working under your leadership you'll come to mean on depression knowledge of discipline as well as curriculum and by the successful change in academics culture and climate and in the school that you lead one day it's principled I will model my leadership after your style I would like to thank my fellow co-workers Natasha Atkinson and Miss Christie Chanley who are here to support today in this um Atkinson had to leave but thank Ms Chandler for being here thank you for working alongside of me as we strive to build
071positive relationships and transferring those methods to our students I really appreciate that I would like to think give a special thanks to my recruiter mentor and close friend assistant principal Albert Commons who is in attendance this evening thank you for recruiting me to this state being an ongoing mentor and a very close friend thank you for pushing me to get back into leadership you saw the potential in me and not allowed me to sell it for less than who I am you saw how I can benefit the district from a leadership standpoint because of you I'm able to stand here today sir not only did you recruit me you anointedly recruited my fiancee to Polk County School District as well on behalf of my family I say thank you I would also like to give
072a special thanks to my dear friend and Mentor assistant principal Melissa Bearden who is also in attendance this after this evening working alongside of you um this past year we changed the narrative we changed the culture we erased the stigma we built we build a family environment that Spook Hill that would last for many years to come I wouldn't be able to stand here today in confidence of my new position if it wasn't for you thank you for your leadership guidance and your ability to mold me into the leader I am today ma'am we faced and conquered many challenges through it all you stood by my side and taught me how to lead the right way the Polk County way for that I'm forever grateful last but certainly not least I would like to thank
073my current principal Miss Amy Hardy for allowing me to serve alongside of her for whom I will serve faithfully and honor and With Honor as we strive to make Lake Region's High School the best high school in the state go Thunder thank you I know your fiance is going to come join you please he has officially requested all of him fantastic Shannon herter behavior interventionist from Horizons Elementary is being promoted to assistant principal at bellasita Middle School K-8 I don't know how to follow that that was a lot uh I want to thank my friends and family who are watching because they couldn't be here they were very supportive I want to thank Mr McDougall he's out here for giving me the opportunity I look forward to serving our community and him I want to
074thank Mr Blankenship Miss Melton and Miss Maderos for never telling me no because if it weren't for them I would not be here thank you to my aspiring leaders colleagues as well as Mr Hill he was amazing and helping me and developing me to get here and thank you Lord I'm here and I'm happy to be here bye congratulations all right Miss West Tamika West Administrative Assistant from Mulberry Middle School is being promoted to assistant principal at Mulberry Middle School thank you to the board superintendent Hyde I just want to first thank the Lord for just blessing me in this calling that he's given in my life um or I remember just getting the call and I was like you sure about this Lord and um I wouldn't take it for granted I don't take
075it for granted I thank him for being able to serve our students being able to serve my fellow staff members and friends and colleagues in this in education and so I'm thankful that for that I'm thankful to my family my tribe my parents who always supported me who encouraged me who pushed me to dream and continue to push to move forward and just my surprise my tribe who's always been here for me I'm thankful for my principal Miss kangelo's my boss I'm thankful for as soon as I came over here and she was so excited to have me on the campus and she continued to pour into me she continued to push me she could when you're gonna do leadership you want to be the dean do you want to do this were you going
076to do that and so I thank you Miss kangelos for believing in me I thank you for pushing me and I thank you for the work that we're going to do at the Mulberry Middle School and I thank you and I thank you for um just the people that I've worked with over the years who also have poured into me who've also encouraged me I thank you for the students that I've served and I just thank you thank you so you have a big cheering section are they going to come down and take a picture all right come on next is Mr Sean Livingston assistant principal from Paget Elementary School who's being promoted to acting principal at Boone Middle School thank you good evening board members the superintendent Hyde thank you Mr Hyde and school
077board for the opportunity I'm honored to join and serve the Boone Middle School Community I guess I'm now a wildcat I thank God for setting me on a path to work with middle school students in a variety of roles I've been a special education engineering general education teacher a professional development trainer an administrator for average students as well as a middle school and Elementary assistant principal it is a pleasure to lead a school with such amazing students and dedicated staff in a supportive community I'm grateful that I was blessed with a beautiful family I want to thank my lovely wife and my three amazing children for their continued support I very much appreciate the help and support that I received from many friends colleagues and Personnel within the district along this path again I look
078forward to working with the balloon faculty families and community and towards a great school year thank you very much congratulations sir and who's joining you this evening fantastic foreign thank you and last but certainly not least Mr Luke Whit assistant director for accounting is now being transferred to assistant director for internal audits thank you Hyde Madam chair members of the board um it's a pleasure to be here I look forward to transitioning into this new role I also have to thank Miss Matthews for giving me this opportunity as well I'm excited to learn all that I can under her she has a wealth of knowledge as I'm sure you all are aware so um ready to learn under her and serve you all my family could not be here tonight my wife just gave birth
079to our third child about eight weeks ago so she could not be here they are watching from home though I love you guys and uh um yeah I appreciate the opportunity and I'm looking forward to this next opportunity with Polk County Public Schools so thank you congratulations on both counts Madam chair that concludes new administrators sorry we have to get the picture first the most important part all right thank you superintendent Hyde for introducing all of our wonderful new administrators I think the list gets longer every every month um but it's exciting because that means great things are happening at all of our schools next on the agenda is going to be our action agenda so first will be P1 the superintendent's recommendation on the charter application for navigator Academy of leadership and the motion
080so I'll now seek a motion to deny the charter application for navigator Academy of leadership High School so moved Miss Cunningham and Miss Fields any discussion Miss Cunningham thank you um I just want to say that our staff did an awesome job in reviewing this application and it took a lot of time and effort on all those folks behalfs we take charter schools and kids education as you know very seriously and for the district to recommend denial instead of approval because our area Davenport is one of the fastest growing in Polk County so as you may be aware I don't know if it's in the backup for the public but it was denied by our Charter Review Committee twelve to three and it's one thing if it's you know six to six or five to
081six but there was an overwhelming amount when I went down and reviewed all the different sections there was quite a few where they simply did not meet standards and there's nothing more important to me than a child getting a first class education and if we can't if they can't provide that or show that they were are able to provide that then I feel very strongly that we need to uphold the superintendent's recommendation which is why I made the motion tonight so that concludes my comments on this school thank you Miss Cunningham any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be item P2 Lena Vista Elementary naming of the physical education Pavilion in honor of James Murphy a move to approve
082second Miss Miller and Miss Fields any discussion Madam chair I'd like to read the letter recommend recommending Miss milk go ahead Miss Miller superintendent Hyde I am proudly recommending that the legacy of Coach James Murphy be kept at Lena Vista by naming the physical education Pavilion in his honor coach Murphy has dedicated 35 years of his career to our school Community since he first joined Polk County public schools in 1988. during his tenure he devoted himself to the betterment of our students serving as a mentor role model and a friend to so many young people coach Murphy has led physical education classes organized sports teams and has taught students to have a well-rounded appreciation for wellness please take into consideration this request and naming the Lena Vista Elementary physical education Pavilion in honor of Coach
083James Murphy thank you thank you Miss Miller any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and do we have someone from Lena Vista or Jamesburg and yes why don't why don't you come on down if you'd like to say a few words I need a new set of golf clubs um I'm humbled and it's an honor I never expected anything like that and it has been my privilege to serve Polk County and its students for 35 years and I thank my wife and Miss Sharp and that's it thank you thank you sir thank you so much [Applause] forward to the official unveiling of your name on The Pavilion the next item on our agenda is p sorry P3 language and literacy Academy
084for learning contract renewal move approval second Miss fields and Miss Cunningham any discussion Miss Miller I'm just going to say that I appreciate the conversation and work session today schools like this that really cater to the most vulnerable students sometimes need extra help and support I am looking forward to those reviews of not only the financials but of the support services that are provided to come back that we are meeting the needs of those students and we're providing the help any help that's needed either at the district or at the state level so thank you very much Madam chair thank you Miss Miller any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be P4 the matter Middle Charter contract and I'll seek
085a motion to approve the matter Middle Charter contract so moved second Miss Cunningham and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye all right any opposed and the motion carries right and next will be P5 the Warner University Jewel enrollment articulation agreement this was pulled separately from our other dual enrollment articulation agreements um due to Mr sharpless's relationship with Warner University do you want to I was just going to say I'm a professor at Warner University so I need to abstain from this vote thank you Mr sharpless and you have filed the appropriate paperwork I filed a appropriate paper the appropriate thank you Mr sharpless all right I will now seek a motion to approve the Warner University dual enrollment articulation agreement addendum for 2023-2024 school year so
086move second Dr Allen and Miss Miller any discussion right seeing none all of those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed foreign carries six to zero and next we will go into a public hearing I will now open the public hearing the first order of business is any comments on public hearing items we have not received any comment cards this evening for public hearing items so first will be q1 policy updates and we will take each of these separately so first I will hear a motion to approve updates on board bylaw 142.3 orientation so moved second Miss Cunningham and Miss fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed in the motion carries next we'll have I'll seek a motion to approve updates to policy
0875121 controlled open enrollment move to approved second Miss Miller and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries our third policy update will be I'll seek a motion to approve updates to policy 7520 the naming of school facilities commemorations and memorials so I moved second Mr sharpless and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye and last but not least I'll seek a motion to approve updates to policy 511 homeless students move that we approve second Dr Alan and Miss Miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye hi any opposed and the motion carries the next item for our public hearing is the 2023-2024 tentative budget and
088millage rates and I will ask that Miss Jenkins comes up to walk us through this good evening Madam chair board member superintendent State Statute outlines the format and Language by which we have to approve the tentative budget so I will begin and walk you through on Sunday July 23 2023 the district ran an advertisement of the fiscal year 2324 proposed millage rates in The Lakeland Ledger in accordance with the truth in millage trim requirements the board must hold a public hearing within five days to discuss the proposed tax levies and tentative budget the tentative budget for this year involves three different millage rates the required local effort which is 3.160 mils discretionary operating 0.748 Mills local Capital Improvement 1.500 Mills totaling 5.408 mils it is recommended to approve the following millage rates we recommend that
089you approve the required local effort millage in the value of 3.160 mils that requires the motion thank you Miss Jenkins so I'll now seek a motion to approve the required local effort include including prior period funding adjustment millage of 3.160 mils Madam chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve the required local effort of 3.160 Mills 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 we recommend you approve the discretionary operating millage in the amount of 0.748 Mills the next motion I will next I will seek a motion to approve the discretionary operating millage of 0.748 mils Miss fields and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any
090opposed and the motion carries we recommend you approve the local Capital Improvement Capital outlay millage in the amount of 1.500 mils I'll now seek a motion to approve the recommended local Capital Improvements for Capital outlay millage of 1.50 Mills as part of your packet the tentative budget summary is attached and the last three pages of that are the trim ad which was run in the Lakeland Ledger for your review next we will ask the sorry I think we I needed the motion on the capital outlay oh I'm sorry 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 next we will ask that you recommend approval of the resolution number 2023 slash 24 hyphen01 formally adopting the millage rates
091for fiscal year 2023-2024. I'll seek emotions I'll take a motion to approve resolution 2023 202401 Miss fields and Miss Miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next we recommend approval of resolution number 2023-24 02 formally adopting 2023-2024 tentative budget in the amount of two million 502 billion 503 700 but sorry 2 billion 503 million seven hundred fifteen thousand eight eleven and I'll seek a motion to approve resolution 2023 202402 formally adopting the 2023-2024 tentative budget in the amount of 2 billion 503 million 715 811 so moved second Miss Cunningham and Dr Allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries finally we recommend approval to submit to the property appraiser
092form dr420s the certification of taxable value which reflects the previously approved tentative millage rates and sets the final budget hearing for Tuesday September 5th 2023 at 501 pm at 9 1915 South Floral Avenue Bartow Florida 33831 and one final point I must mention is the millage rates this year the total millage rate to be levied is 7.50 percent more than the rollback rate thank you and just to clarify that's to start no earlier than 501 pm on September 5th I'll seek a motion to submit to the property appraisers form dr420s the certificate of taxable value second Miss fields and Mr sharpless any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries thank you Miss Jenkins and we will now close the public hearing and reopen
093the school board meeting superintendent hi do you have a report for us yes ma'am Madam chair the next work session in Boardman will be held on August 22nd 2023 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 at 1915 South Floral Avenue in Bartow report for us thank you madam chair pursuant to your conversation at the work session this afternoon request authority to advertise a public hearing to be held during the regular meeting of the school board at Polk County on September 5th 2023 and to consider changes to school board policy regarding proclamations does that include that because there were two other policies that we heard today during work session I know that the request that
094I the request I heard was was to advertise the public hearing for this one Mr superintendent in October okay thank you I just wanted to double yes ma'am that was my understanding thank you so we'll seek a motion to approve the authority to advertise a policy on proclamations for the September board meeting 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 thank you ma'am anything else for your report thank you Mr Bridges and Miss Matthews we have an internal audit report today thank you madam chair this evening I'm bringing the internal audit plan for your approval that I previously emailed to the board for your review the internal audit Charter requires school board approval of an annual audit plan
095the audit plan was created from a comprehensive risk assessment of the school district and covers as many higher risk areas as possible given our available resources audit plans must be flexible to account for unanticipated demands such as unscheduled Audits and investigations any significant deviation from the approved audit plan will be communicated to the school board through periodic activity reports thank you Miss Matthews and you need a motion on that approval of the annual audit plan and I'll now hear a motion to approve the 2023-2024 internal audit Services audit plan so moved second Miss Cunningham and Dr Allen any discussion Miss Cunningham thank you I just want to say to Miss Matthews you uh always have done an incredible job and we appreciate the amount of work that you and your team does and I know
096you just recently we just tonight approved or got to meet the new young man in your department who's been promoted and we're excited for that and I know that it's a thankless job we know that but it's something that we appreciate the time and effort that's spent because it's looking at where our you know tax dollars are being spent and making sure that through our audit Services Department that our schools and all are being Financial that are financially being audited so that proper things are being done in the schools to ensure that we don't have fraud and we don't have theft in those types of things so um it it's great that you present this plan to US every year and you consistently do an outstanding job with your team and I just want to
097say on behalf of the kids who aren't here to speak tonight to say thank you because it's basically making sure that the dollars that are allocated to our schools are being taken care of and are being properly spent so thank you so much to you and your team thank you Mrs Cunningham thank you Miss Cunningham seeing no further comments all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed in the motion carries congratulations with Matthews and congratulations on hiring an assistant director I know that that has also been a a challenge so congratulations thank you all right next we will go to board members reports Dr Allen Madam chair I have no comments tonight oh man all right Miss Cunningham okay thank you madam chair just a couple things I just wanted to say
098a huge kudos to principal Shannon Brown on an absolutely wonderful ribbon cutting and historical marker dedication and unveiling it was held at Davenport Elementary School in cooperation with the Davenport Historical Society many thanks to the McKnight family for their generous donation in sponsoring the historical marker creating a legacy for this school that was built and started in 1927. so kudos to everyone at Davenport Elementary School I also want to give a shout out and a special thanks to Susan Copeland executive director of the Polk Education Foundation and her wonderful team our company provides scholarships to graduating seniors every year and to that end we receive a report annually how much money that the Polk Education Foundation raises to help students and I'm very happy to report that this year for the scholarship season the Polk
099Education Foundation was able to raise over 893 thousand dollars to assist over 400 students in Polk County Public Schools and that's a lot of money raised so I just want to say a special thank you to all of our donors throughout Polk County whose commitment helps our students achieve their post-secondary goals so thank you Miss Copeland and to the team and of course to our donors who consistently provide donations every year to make this a realization for our graduating seniors and that concludes my report Mr Vice chairman indeed Miss Cunningham thank you so much next Mr Nolte thank you uh I can't believe Jamie Murphy is a gentleman that built golf clubs for I just figured it out about 32 years ago and he had jet black hair and that's why I kept looking at
100man he looks familiar but uh he's a great uh was a great young man then now he's a great older man and I'm glad he got the uh physical education building uh named after him that uh that's really classy and thank you uh people for attending tonight's meeting thank you for your support um buckled Down the Hatch I think it's August 3rd the kids are back so keep reading to those no what day they back 11th that's right 11. so keep reading to your Elementary uh youngins and um looking forward to a great year hope we can get as much support right as we can and keep on spreading the word that Polk County is moving forward and upward so thanks again have a great summer and God bless thank you Mr Nolte fields just
101have a couple of items it's been a long day I'm very proud that my son was here tonight to do the prayer he also swore me and when I was were elected to the school board in November of last year and he is a teacher at Lakeland Christian he teaches bible so he is really done well and just very proud of him and I think he is willing to come anytime he needs to pray so that's a good thing that he wants to come and do it also I want to congratulate all of the folks that were recognize tonight for your promotion for your new positions and superintendent hide it definitely is a reflection of our school district and our students and so that's a good thing so thank you to you and your team
102and that's then my report thank you Miss Fields Mr sharpless um I've got a few things first I want to congratulate Emma self who is Bartow High School class of 2023 just recently graduated uh this last month she was elected as a vice president for the Florida FFA Association and so she'll be representing she's one of seven Statewide that will be representing Florida FFA and she's right here from Bartow High School so I want a huge congratulations to her um bringing it back to District Six I want to congratulate Mr Ray Cruz who is the uh agriculture teacher at uh Roosevelt Academy he was named uh the overall Florida winner of the national AG in the classroom excellence in teaching about agriculture award wow that's a mouthful but nationally recognized for the top one in
103Florida so that's pretty impressive um for you 80s rock band uh uh supporters and and I guess hair band junkies um want to say that uh Frost Proof high schools choir got to open for Foreigner this this past month so that was pretty cool over in Tampa so uh our you know our choir there at Frostproof want to give a big shout out to our Fine Arts there um a couple more things uh I just saw yesterday on our social media in our district that we welcomed our newest Guardians our school Guardians um I just want to take a a second to thank all of our Guardians and our school resource officers because without them it will be very difficult to keep our school staff as well as our students safe so thank you I
104think we got another SRO right here right yep and are you uh sorry yeah thank you both also for keeping us safe tonight but uh also our students so um just wanted put put up two of my um two of my programs I'm going to start this year that I'm trying to get more out into the community um in our school district first um agricultural literacy is something I'm pretty passionate about um having our students realize that milk doesn't come from Publix it actually comes from a cow and I'm going to focus on our elementary schools and going out and actually reading a book and um principals be prepared to get an email here within next week but I want to go read a book an agricultural book to our elementary schools and get in
105there and educate about agriculture we have some great Educators in in our in our school district but I I want to get out there and I want to see our students and I want to I want to teach about agriculture to them so I'll be doing an agricultural literacy program as well as one of one of my favorite things is high school football we're about to start that season and so I plan on going to a different game every week a different a different school so really get out there in the community so principals if you if you want me to attend your schools make sure to email me and I would love to both reading as well as football so thank you both thank you thank you Mr sharpless Miss Miller I have a
106couple of exciting things that came out of Lake Gibson High School over the summer um Gabby Tedesco is one of the students there who won the farc she's the first female wrestler at Lake Gibson to win a National Title she won in the hundred pound division Fargo National wrestling tournament she won the state in 2023 she went she went and ranked 29th and went all the way up and took the title by the end of it so we are very proud of Gabby and her coaches and the team that helped support her also we have a teacher at Lake Gibson and if you've never been out I know we're Way North so pack a snack and get some gas but if you want to come way out North Lake Gibson High School has a beautiful
107theater and they have an amazing theater teacher and I want to recognize Greg Burdick I've seen some of the shows that he's produced with the students but he also wrote a play called accommodation so if you live in my world you know what that means it highlights a teacher a parent a student administrator the whole meeting the concerns about the child's education and their accommodations the play was produced formed in Los Angeles and Mr Burdick went out to um to completely be celebrated for his artistic work and so I'm very excited for Mr Burdick we're very lucky to have him here I want to hope that he's not snatched up but he went out to LA in July and received those nominations for that play and I'm so very proud of him and I can't
108wait to see his plays this year with the students I have a couple more things I today we had a staff member introduce us to the ways of leadership and it also applies to advocacy so I wanted to share it tonight there's not many people here but I wanted to share a little bit about um positive advocacy you know I don't know everything but I did teach a couple of courses at the state level through the last governor's office on disability advocacy but when advocating for an issue or a cause you know we talk about staying calm and collecting data assuming positive intent and leading with Integrity also making collaborative relationships and I think we have a lot of groups here if you weren't really inspired by tonight I don't think you were breathing because
109you can see how many people love this school district and are here for families multiple people and their families are employed with us they're products of our school district and when we have issues they step in to help resolve them the opposite of that is chaos and if you don't know and I haven't watched the news there's a lot of Chaos in school boards I can tell you Polk has kept it out for a lot of the reasons that you saw tonight dedicated people who care about kids a school board and a superintendent who creates processes and policy to make sure that we're meeting the the state and National standards I want to read a couple of things that we receive one specially targeted to our superintendent I will not name the people that send
110them I will name the the groups that they come from our Winter Haven 912 group sends emails calling our superintendent bigoted politically bigoted and then he hires politically biased liberals with no um to ensure that politicalized Liberals are hired for these positions no matter their skin color we receive some very vile emails about our superintendent and about our board chair this email went on to to Target the board chair and I want to make a public statement I'm very proud to be on this board I'm very proud of the chair I think she's done a phenomenal job for her term here and I'm very proud of this superintendent we don't always agree he can tell you I come with my list but when I do I do it in a respectful manner I also get
111forwarded the emails from the ccdf CDF I'm not sure they keep changing the name and I want to believe that this group has good intentions I've kind of told him in the past the house can't always be on fire you got to be doing something we got to be doing something that you think is is positive for students but again the all call to come out tonight to read books that are currently being challenged look around the room they all call didn't bring many people out because people realize that is chaos and our students deserve better we have a system for the books we have a system for the books to follow and I think people are following we got a great list and that's what we're going to do we're going to follow policies
112and procedures Polk County doesn't tolerate chaos and for the group that brought in a convicted felon to run campaigns and cause chaos in this County I want to believe that you want to do something good I want to believe that you care about the students in this District so I'm asking that when you look to Advocate that you advocate in a positive manner you bring facts and you bring compassion to our students our students deserve that because in all these emails and all these um which is not all these emails two emails that I received students are never mentioned nobody talks about the kids they attack our superintendent so I want to say tonight publicly that I'm very proud of our superintendent I'm proud of this board I'm proud of being a school board member
113at a time that I never imagined would be um and so I just want to thank our staff for showing up all summer long I've went out and met new principals at schools and teachers who are volunteering and the last thing I want to say is very positive um Karen she's going to be so embarrassed I mentioned her Karen Heim Brown is a teacher at Philip O'Brien Elementary she was in Behavior which pays a lot more money but she went into the classroom because she cares about kids and over the summer she realized that students with disabilities especially significant disabilities don't get opportunities to go to summer camps there's just not the city doesn't have enough support for them they try to do their best the YMCAs it's hard to find support those kids go
114home and sit for the entire summer so what did Karen do in her spare time she created a three-week camp at her house she took volunteers over other teachers she took older students that would come in and volunteer and she gave these families respite and she gave these kids a place to learn they learned about money and they learned they went to the store and they had outings it was a phenomenal a phenomenal program that a teacher didn't have to do and those who our teachers are our teachers are good people our staff care about kids so I want to appreciate the people who still maintain that message and understand what we're doing here and the people that lead and Advocate with calm and positiveness and I'm hoping the people that lead and advocate in
115chaos will join on board thank you Miss Miller and I am going to abstain from having any comments tonight because I know we are running late um other than just welcome back to our students and staff I'm I know that the cars are already in the parking lots even though we don't start technically for a couple more weeks um but it's exciting to see all of the magic that happens on the first day of school if you are looking for the best entertainment you can buy go and have lunch with a kindergartner on the first day of school because them trying to carry those trays classic but welcome back to all of our students and staff we'll now go on to the public comment portion of the agenda for non-agenda items just as before all
116speakers will be given three minutes the clock will give you a warning sound when you have one minute left and I'm sorry it will flash yellow when you have one minute left and it will give you a beep when it is complete please note that although the board encourages Community participation no immediate action will be taken on items presented during this public comment portion of the meeting if follow-up board action is required then the matter may be placed on the agenda at a subsequent meeting in accordance with school board policy first will be Douglas J and on Deck is Jesse James if you could state your name for the record when you come up as well Douglas Johnston hi I think we can tell from a few of the comments actually made earlier by some
117speakers that white supremacy the evil myth of white supremacy is a problem in this country uh look at what our governor is doing with education uh I sent you guys a list of resources one being from the national Sexual Violence Resource Center uh article labeled what are the connections between transphobia racism and sexual violence I want to make sure that we are educated on the issues facing the lgbtq plus Community especially since we seem to be removing any mention of them in the schools the proclamation last month was removed not no reference to it this month as was requested there were actually a couple of comments on that so the first one being that there's lots of things we don't mention every month so let me quickly do that July is disability pride month National
118minority Health Awareness Month French American Heritage Month the national bison month and plastic free July August you can pick up any of these next month if you'd like to national black business month National immunization Awareness Month don't be a bully month spinal muscular atrophy Awareness Month National Road victim month and World cancer support month I only have two more months September blood cancer awareness National alcohol and drug addiction recovery library card signup month which should be every month National Suicide Prevention awareness and World Alzheimer's disease month and finally for October we have ADHD Awareness Month Breast Cancer Awareness Month depression Awareness Month lgbtq history month and National book month now I would like to make another comment the other reason it was removed was stated that uh we wanted to represent all members of the
119community which actually is more telling than the excuse than the person meant it to be saying that you do not view the queer Community as your community now why would I say that well you literally refuse to speak of us this is a problem especially with all of the hate the spike in anti-trans legislation which most of the country doesn't even want we need to be there for our students I remember I grew up in the public school system here I Bartow High School I remember 2007 graduating let me tell you pretty homophobic dealt with a lot of sorry dealt with a lot of terrible uh bigotry and that's an interesting thing bigotry so many people are more worried about being called a racist or being called a bigot than actually doing racist and bigoted
120things we have too many people out here who would rather look down on others than look out for them Jesse James and on Deck is Elizabeth suits hello I'm Jesse James and I'm going into eighth grade and I'm 13 years old and I just wanted to cover the proclamation issue that was addressed during the work session this afternoon um I agree with Mr Nolte Mr sharpless and Mrs Cunningham that I don't I don't think it's okay because I think that the school board should focus on more important things and the most important thing that the school board should be doing is focusing on children's education uh I'd say that you should let the municipalities handle um things like that with all the proclamations and with the pride Proclamation specifically you you celebrate a heinous sin
121against God which whether you believe in Christ or not is it's wrong either way um and in House Bill 1069 it states that you cannot sexualize children in schools so with the pride Proclamation Tech you're breaking you're breaking God's law and man's law even so if we only celebrate our differences we forget that we are united As Americans and there is a simple truth that not a lot of people understand it's that united we stand divided we fall and so if we can if you if we only focus on how we're different then we won't recognize how we're similar and then we'll we'll be ended that's it thank you next up will be Elizabeth suits and on Deck is Pam loose bye um I actually want to address a couple of comments that were made
122in the work session discussion in reference to the policy and procedures for proclamations Mrs Miller said a lot of people we're listening to have no interest in the outcome because they don't have children in our schools and she also mentioned something about very few Middle School groups that she talked about a minute ago who make decisions for the many I just want to take a minute and tell you about who those groups are we are a group comprised of parents grandparents current and former Educators tax paying Polk County residents who absolutely have a vested interest in the student in these students we want Polk County students getting the best education possible which we have a lot of work to do as we land somewhere I think near the bottom of the academic Barrel and we
123want our students to receive the full protections afforded by the laws in the in Florida statute I personally was born and raised in Lakeland a graduate of Lakeland Highlands Middle School and an honors grad with distinction at Lakeland High School and I'll be a Dreadnought till I die I am a formal I'm a former public school kindergarten teacher and I have kids that I'm raising here in Polk County I have an interest a school board member is elected by the community for the community he or she serves and so community members including groups that exist within within those communities have a stake in this we have literally invested in these school systems with our time our talents and our taxes regardless of whether we have a student currently in the system or not we by
124nature of our Constitution have a seat at this table so I believe it is disrespectful for an elected official to minimize and continually detract from a group's input into school board issues just because they have opinions with which with which board members may not agree I would respectfully ask that members would not use their platform to negate or minimize the voice of community members or groups but instead would use their voice to engage in the long-lost artist civil discourse where an individual can walk away maybe not agreeing with the other person but maybe seeing the bigger picture of where that person is coming from and maybe why they are showing up our motivation for being here tonight is We Care we care how students are performing we care if our tax dollars are being spent
125wisely and we care about the future impact on our community of which these students are also members so instead of being annoyed that local groups and individuals are here invoking their first amendment rights be thankful we still have the right to do so and be thankful our students can see the petitioning of our government in action because that's how all of this is supposed to work I personally would love to see divisive proclamations off the agenda and get back to the pub to task at hand our education of our students thank you Miss suits Miss loose and on Deck is Patricia Harvard okay on the agenda today there were several millions of dollars of new curriculum and we watched this curriculum being adopted year after year but we really don't ever get to see that
126what the data shows that that if that curriculum is effective um what we can see on the the fdoe website though are the results of test results and I I apologize that should say test results not grades on your your handout and I want you to take a special notice of the red line across the middle these are the Polk scores for the last seven years that red line is the 50 mark um and on the second page you'll see the state results and on the last page or the graduation rates I was really impressed tonight with all the new administrators that got up and and what did they say but they thanked God for their position oh my goodness they thanked God in the public school system and you know what we teach in
127the public school system is that they were created by a big the children are created by a big explosion at some point in time that happened out of nowhere but what we ought to be teaching the children is that they are not an accident that they are known and loved by their creator before they were born that they are precious in His sight that there is forgiveness and that they are the recipients of his grace and his Mercy because they have received grace and mercy to love others regardless of the color of their skin or beliefs if God can forgive them then they should forgive others if we could get back to teaching that in our schools you'd see these test scores very very differently thank you Miss loose Patricia Harvard and on Deck is
128Jessica R I asked for a formal investigation as written in board policy 5517 at the June meeting due to my child being harassed and bullied when intended Blake Academy I never received a call from Dr from Mr Hyde or Dr Alan about this I finally received a call from Sherry Scott I asked what the next steps were in the formal investigation she said the investigation was done and there was nothing left to do the policy states that the compliance officer is to take a written statement from me and that they are to get a list of potential Witnesses this was not done no interviews as required with me the other parents or any Witnesses were held no written report has been provided as required in the meantime Polk County Polk County Judge has twice determined
129the video that was made of my child twice determined that the video that was upheld in I'm sorry twice determined that the video is most definitely a threat that was upheld an injunction against the child that made the video I continued to be contacted by the child who made the video she told others she was going to beat my ass and my daughter has continued to be harassed by other black students this is the latest voicemail that was left on my daughter's phone 7 12 23 at 10 30 pm no one in this District seems to care it continues to be covered up I will keep fighting this issue until it is addressed not only for my child but for the other children who find themselves in this situation of all school districts that should
130care it should be this one where Rebecca Ann swindrick jumped to her death after being bullied and rest this should be taken seriously always thank you superintendent hide do we have someone available Eric Dalton take additional information thank you Miss Nate all right next is Jessica R and on Deck is Robert Goodman hello I just want to start by thank you thanking the board for their time and for dedicating your careers to the education of children I am here as an activist a taxpayer a previous substitute teacher for three years and an aunt to three kids in the Polk County School System I'm also the founder of the feminist activist group the Lakeland women's Collective the Lakeland women's Collective stands behind black brown and Indigenous children in the State of Florida who will wrongly be
131taught the slavery resulted in the personal benefits of black people it is your duty to protect all children of all Races in poke and put students first I noticed that Polk County school board has not made a formal statement about this yet and I find that confusing it implies that you don't see the whitewashing of American history as an issue slavery was inhumane and in order to avoid repeating the past we must discuss it accurately because black lives matter thank you and Robert Goodman good evening I would like to address comments at first made by Mrs Miller and today's work session as a parent I volunteered 50 hours a month in public school as a grandparent of several students in the Polk County School System taxpayer and representative countless parents grandparents and taxpayers I can
132assure you that every person in this room every person in Polk County has a vested interest in the education of every student in Polk County Public Schools earlier today at the work session there was a lengthy and heated discussion about the future of proclamations and if they should even be made at all by the board if a formal policy on proclamations and resolutions is adopted implementation of the policy should Accord with Florida Statutes 1132 subsection 1 stating all actions of District school officials shall be consistent and in harmony with state laws and with the rules and minimum standards of the State Board the enforcement Authority lies at the school board level as established in Florida statute 1132 subsection 2 which states District boards shall operate control and supervise all free public schools in their respective
133districts and may exercise in any power except as previously prohibited by the state constitution or state law it is worth noting that Florida statute 1142 subsection 8c3 prohibits classroom production by school Personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity in pre-kindergarten through eight and if such instruction is provided in 9-12 the instruction must be age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with State Standards Beyond this state statute 1000.071 is also relevant to this point on the use of personal pronouns and titles Therefore your consideration as a board must reflect an observation of Florida law around prohibitions regarding instruction or general identity sexual orientation or pronoun uses that's not gay straight that is no sexualization of any child in school any proclamation in contradiction with these is unlawful and illegal it is
134also important to acknowledge that school board actions are not consistent that are not consistent or in harmony with state law have also been found unlawful in the 2000 case wer versus School Board of Polk County the court found that while the school board has significant Authority and matters not addressed specifically by the legislator it is prohibited from promulgating rules at variants with legislation that means any policy on the issuance of proclamations and resolutions the one you are considering must be in harmony with state law anything short of this would undermine the flower the legislator constituting acts outside of the legal school thank you Mr Goodman Mr Goodman for their business to come before the board this meeting is adjourned