School Board Meeting | September 6, 2022

001[Music] for the invocation and pledge of allegiance our invocation will be led by casey roberts bow our heads dear lord we come to you today and ask that you guide this meeting may all individuals be led to do what is best interest of the task at hand the education of our students lead all involved to make the best decisions in each and every area help us to work together for a positive outcome making concessions as needed while keeping the integrity of the process intact let us each have ears to hear each other and understanding so we together can reach our goals we ask this in the precious name of jesus amen amen thank you and i would like to call kimberly castaneda to lead us in our pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the

002flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god individual with liberty and justice for all you may be seated now you kimberly how are you doing today thank you so much for coming to lead us in the pledge now i see that you go to jesse keene elementary school what grade are you in i'm in fifth grade fifth grade man what's your favorite subject in school reading and writing reading and writing that's fun what's the favorite your favorite book you've read um i haven't really decided haven't that's all right you listen the world is your oyster there are so many to choose from and i'm sure you'll read 10 more this year that are your new favorites all right let's see i see here that

003you speak english and spanish yes that is extremely impressive i wish i was bilingual um so you do you have anybody with you here today yes can you introduce us to them my mom my little brother my grandma my dad and my little sister very nice well thank you for bringing her and yes absolutely all right one last question do you know what you want to be when you grow up i haven't really decided but i'm still um exploring with my wonderful teachers that is awesome well we are very thankful for you and for your wonderful teachers and we hope you have a great fifth grade year thank you [Applause] all right so we will now call this meeting to order and our first order of business is to accept the school board agenda superintendent

004high do we have any revisions yes madam chair we do item f1 new administrators there's been updated attachments item j2 policy updates technical changes only has been removed that item will return a subsequent future date you'll hear more about that during the attorney's report item n is in nancy number one um winter haven hospital incorporated center for behavioral health esc has been moved to an action item because there were questions about it on the agenda oh one out of state field trips there's an updated attachment item q1 the purchase of 100.32 acres for a high school 12 million dollars from impact fees that item has been tabled and removed from this evening's agenda item r2 2022 2023 final budget millage rates two attachments were added thank you superintendent hyde i'll hear a motion to accept

005this evening's agenda move approval to accept the agenda for tuesday september 6 2022. miss cunningham and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next is special recognitions superintendent hyde yes please at this time i'd like to ask school board member k fields to step down for special recognitions at this time i'd like to ask nancy peary senior coordinator for fine arts to come forward for the kids tag arts recognition yeah i promise it'll pick you up don't mess it up okay don't touch it good evening uh it's great to be here with you tonight and i have the honor of being here with our polk county tax collector mr joe tedder the honorable joe tutter and we are celebrating today

006his long-standing seven we're in our 17th year of kids tag art and kids tag art is a wonderful wonderful program that infuses dollars into each visual arts classroom in elementary school this year i am told by mr tedder that uh he's hoping that we will hit the two million dollar mark statewide this is a program that he began here and has been able to foster in other counties all over the state of florida hopefully one day all of the counties will be doing it but we're the ones that have mr tedder and we are here because he is ready to give us the statistics on this year's program thank you nancy good afternoon good afternoon well great great first i want to just thank the school board members for everything that you do i know

007it has been a very tough year as the past few years have been and i appreciate your work i appreciate your dedication to making sure all of our kids have the best opportunity to succeed in life uh as nancy said this is the kids tag art this program has been in existence for 16 years and it all started with i would go and speak to the kids at the great american teaching and as you can imagine trying to go speak to a bunch of fifth graders and i'm the tax collector trying to figure out what am i going to talk about that seems interested interesting at all for these young children so why would what i would do is take my own little the specialty tags that we had in the office the manatee tag

008the university of florida tag the florida state tag all the different heart smart all these different tags and i would go through them with the fifth grade classroom and we'd ask them what do you think this where does the money go to for this tag on that tag and the neat thing was is usually a couple of months later i would get a thank you note from all these different children and what they did is they designed their own little tag as a way of saying thank you for coming to our class and speak and so in our office we center on a table one day and we said whoa i wonder if we could take this creativity of these children and the way they expressed their thanks and actually making it to a program

009that they could design their own tag art and then we could sell that art and the money would go right back to the arts classroom and that's how the program started and as nancy has said that year to date we have raised over a half a million dollars just for polk county and the program became so popular that other tax collectors across the state started doing it and we will pass two million dollars after that now i will tell you the only reason the program is successful is one is because of the great talent of the children to the amazing art teachers that worked very hard and teaching them how to do this but three the support of this school board this program would have never taken off would have never been able to start

010if the school board did not embrace it every single year and so i thank the past history of this school board and this current school board for continuing to support this year over 46 000 raised in this particular year every school will get a base amount of 525 those that sold tags will get that sales numbers on top of that um we already talked about that we had over 1.8 million passing the 2 million this next year and then as you know every year we give we recognize the district that most tags sold in the school board district and last year the winner of that was sarah sarah beth wyatt district 4 was the winner and we have taken that award from her earlier today so that we could give it to this year's winner

011and this year's winner is sarah beth wyatt so yeah the shout out really goes to all the parents in district 4 who have bought their kids tag art so thank you i appreciate it be remiss real quick i know we're running behind but i just wanted to mention our sponsors for this event the community has come together as well our number one sponsor our largest sponsor is southern homes of polk county 25 000 a year a d print bartow ford legoland florida hall communication lauren's kids build to pay mid florida credit union lamar advertising polk education foundation the florida heart research foundation south state bank polk arts alliance publix charities unlimited dpi in the pope museum of art so a lot of people in this community that's making it happen also this year was the

012first year we had the superintendent of schools award so he picked a tag and a young child was able to get that award at this time i'd like to present the check if i may and why margarita arfaro from our office comes up i just wanted to acknowledge the work she does and help coordinate this program on her off hours to make sure that happens brian diehl back here from our office that kind of keeps all the books for us and then always obviously the school board but nancy perry in particular and beth cummings with your art uh area of education they do an amazing job as well so with that i will do whatever you want me to do next [Applause] margarita is also going to give each one of you the little coin

013that's that matches the medallion that our children get at the awards ceremony at the end of each year thank you all very much for your time thank you so much [Applause] and now i'd like to ask pat barnes regional assistant superintendent to please come forward for the differentiated accountability schools recognition is she being joined by dr henry good evening board members superintendent hyde it is with intense pride and excitement that i present to you the principles of the differentiated accountability schools who along with their dedicated and steadfast staff and hard-working students were able to move from d.a status to earning a school grade of c from the last administration of the fsa exams as you know a couple years ago we had 19 schools and we are drastically reducing that number this year we have

014seven last year we had six we really got eight but the state's holding up on one particular individual school but it's common principles as i call your name if you'll come forward mrs terry christian principal dennison middle school miss elizabeth munoz principal east side elementary school mr dart myers principal frost proof ben hill griffin elementary school mrs quavonda birdsong blackman principal fred garner elementary school miss roberta stinson principal griffin elementary school [Applause] along with mrs taylor theron's principal on assignment at griffin elementary school [Applause] mrs carol griffin principal oscar j pope elementary school [Applause] and last but certainly not late the least we just got this the last minute so we're so proud of mr jason looney principal tinarock high school i am sure you each feel as proud of them as they each feel

015this evening this is a wonderful testament to the resiliency of our students our faculty and staff and the leadership teams at this school so congratulations leaders yay superintendent hyde should be in that photo come on superintendent your leadership please you need to be in there for sure i appreciate the faith that he already had a black order i appreciate the faith we have one more yes ma'am finally if jeannette crowley director for strategic planning and partnerships would please come forward for the focus on excellence recognition thank you it's so exciting to be here i wanted to remind everybody that we are kicking off our focus on excellence campaign for the 2022-23 school year focus on excellence is a year-long campaign to spotlight the important contributions of all polk county public school employees each quarter the

016program will accept nominations for a different group of employees and a committee will select the winners to receive prizes from our generous sponsors as well as attend a special appreciation luncheon in addition to being recognized at today's school board meeting our winners will also be highlighted on the district's social media channels website and internal and external newsletters this year we're increasing the number of our winners selected to 10 employees per quarter over the course of the year we'll recognize and spotlight 40 employees next week we'll host an appreciation luncheon for the winners along with each winner's supervisor district leadership and program sponsors all winners will receive a prize package valued at over courtesy of our generous partners i want to thank the following business partners who constantly support the work of our school district and

017who have graciously come alongside us making this campaign successful chick-fil-a idx formerly image depot express mid-florida credit union public supermarkets inc mosaic cps investment advisors dixie southern industrial ink hand and stone massage and facial spa sign gypsies lakeland magic and rhino smash sauce company tonight's group of honorees are employees in the following positions clerical para educator and administrator winners as i announce your name please come forward along with your direct supervisor our first winner is debbie prall who is a guidance secretary at lake region high [Applause] oh our next winner is karen parker who is a principal secretary at bartow middle i'd like to add that in addition to their certificate tonight they're getting a special focus on excellence pin as well that they can wear proudly congratulations our next runner is johnny rodriguez principal

018secretary at horizons elementary [Applause] next we have jen jordan who's a homeless technician for the hearth project [Applause] albarto middle [Applause] congratulations can i have rodney white who is an ese para educator at lewis anna woodbury elementary please come forward congratulations can i have latanja key director of teen parent programs and child care services please come forward [Music] congratulations i'd like to have dr shannon gillespie senior manager of social work services and bullying prevention to please come forward thank you [Music] thank you you're welcome thank you congratulations alathia tolls assistant principal at stevens elementary [Applause] all right and next we have tangie durham principal at scott lake elementary [Applause] i'd like to say congratulations again to our 10 winners we increased from last year for five winners per quarter to 10. so as the as

019a program goes i hope to keep increasing more and more and as more sponsors come on so for those of you listening you can find more information on our district website which is polkschoolsfl.com excellence you'll find program information there and how you can get involved and become a sponsor but i hope that each of our winners enjoy the spotlight that they deservingly receive and are going to be receiving in the future um because as we continue to put the spotlight on them and focus on all the contributions that they give to polk county public schools we will continue within the pr department to spotlight them on social media for our focus friday so be looking for their photos their stories and a little bit more about our winners throughout the coming weeks i do want

020to say thank you to all the those that submitted nominations because nominations come in from our employees so the only way the program works is to submit a nomination on behalf of an employee within that that group that we're honoring this month or through the quarter so thank you to the employees who submit nominees thank you to the selection committee and congratulations to all the winners thank you school board madam chair that concludes special recognition for this evening thank you superintendent hyde next on our agenda is public comments on agenda items however we have none on agenda items this evening so next will be approval of our minutes the first set of minutes is for august 16th 2022's school board meeting and i will hear a motion for approval second i believe that was dr

021alan and miss cunningham any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying i any opposed and the motion carries the next set of minutes will be for the august 16 2022 work session and i'll hear a motion for approval so move second 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 will be approval of our consent agenda for september 6 2022. i'll hear a motion move approval 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 superintendent hyde would you like to introduce any of our new administrators i would administrators if your name is called please feel free to come forward say

022a few words and if you're joined by family friends or loved ones please make sure you acknowledge their presence and point them out to us we'll start with john o'brien school-based coach at snively elementary school has now been promoted to assistant principal at snively elementary [Applause] this gives me the honor and opportunity to serve as assistant principal at snively elementary i am so grateful for my family and all their encouragement i am also very grateful for the partnership with polk county and usf because it helped me get through the program and helped me grow as a leader i had phenomenal professors and i had great income encouragement from polk county also i want to say thank you to all the leaders in polk county who have helped push me and train me like miss roseboro

023miss munoz and mr johnson so i will work my best and do my best to continue the excellent traditions at snively of student growth and achievement for our students thank you congratulations i'm sorry and my husband is here to support me can you stand so we can there you go congratulations sir this board wants their pictures there's no reluctant spouses nice next is mr marcus franklin counselor from ridge technical college has been promoted to assistant director of ridge technical college well um i am very thankful and honored to be in your presence tonight thank you um superintendent hai all the school board members here and uh deputy greene um to my love i didn't know this was going to be a semi-popularity contest otherwise i would have brought all of my family and friends here

024with me so thank you all for coming tonight my colleagues and then mr garrison thank you for the opportunity he is the director of ridge technical college thank you all congratulations thank you next is miss lauren hinton director of finance and accounting for florida department of health she's a new hire to director of finance and accounting good evening everyone um now i was warned i'd be standing i wasn't warned i'd be talking um it has been a pleasure going through the hiring process for the school board as a resident a parent of children in the school system um a spouse of a polk county school board graduate i'm honored for this opportunity and i'm looking forward to supporting the the district and the accounting services so with me tonight i have my husband matt and

025thank you for this opportunity where's matt [Applause] next administrator is aligned nunez senior budget management analyst for polk county commissioner's office he's a new hire to senior director of finance and accounting good evening board members i'm humbled at the opportunity and excited at the prospect of coming back to work for polk county public schools and just thankful to superintendent hyde and ms jenkins for giving me this opportunity to continue to come back and serve the students again and with me is my beautiful wife heather who's my biggest supporter and encourager there you go and the last new administrator for this evening is miss tiffany ward the academic coach from orange county public schools she's a new hire into an assistant principal's job at jesse keene elementary [Applause] good evening everyone i want to thank you

026for the opportunity for polk county schools to work for polk county schools i'm so excited to begin working at jesse keene elementary and i'm looking forward to meeting all the new faculty staff students and their families i would like to thank all the board members here this evening and i would also like to give a special thank you to you superintendent hyde and i'm not sure if you're aware but we both share a common past of having worked at liberty middle school so maybe we can talk about that sometime and thank you to miss barnes the regional assistant superintendent for school improvement and to principal dr detling for putting their trust into me and finally i want to thank my wonderful family for their support i have with me today my husband mr joe ward

027who's stood by me for the past 27 years and my 14 year old daughter summer ward very nice come on up and take a picture please thank you when were you at liberty when was i at liberty um about four years ago oh we need talk [Laughter] if you know any good stories we'll take it right she's probably heard a lot of rumors i don't know [Laughter] thank you congratulations thank you thank you we have several administrative moves ashore gibson teacher interventionist at philip o'brien elementary school has been promoted to acting assistant principal at inwood elementary christine harrison school-based coach at valley view elementary has been promoted to acting assistant principal at lewis elementary allison jackson assistant principal two ten months at tenerak high school has been promoted to assistant principal two eleven month at

028tenorak high heather powers assistant principal 2 10 month citrus ridge has been promoted to assistant principal 2 11 month at citrus ridge diane taylor senior director for esc is transferred to senior director for school improvement julie thomas assistant principal at lewis elementary has transferred to assistant principal at elbert elementary and that concludes administrative changes thank you superintendent hyde i just want to give a special thank you to the families from the board because we know that we take your your spouses and your loved ones away quite a bit so we appreciate you letting us letting them come and play with us and help our students next on our agenda is our action items so the first will be q1 which is now winner haven hospital incorporated dba center for behavioral health and this is the

029ese amendment in the amount of one million four hundred and twenty five thousand dollars i'll seek a motion move approval second miss fields and miss miller any discussion and uh superintendent hi uh miss miss casper and i'll send my question perfect if we want miss castles if you would just for the record since there was a question earlier if you would come up and clarify please just again for a matter of transparency and for the record thank you and my question was there was a difference in the scope of service from last year to this year so that's what you're clarifying so in 2019 the direct service was face-to-face sessions and the indirect service was inclusive paperwork phone calls iep meetings and when further further clarification was asked and needed to be addressed on the

030actual um on the actual contract because when there was a data review that was done the direct services with individual group and parent and family counseling was was a little more clear and then indirect would be electronic documentation up to one hour per student per month and then iep meetings it appeared that some of the indirect service was was a little more than the direct service as we had originally wanted so that was that was the change and this contract resulted in a savings of approximately 200 000 correct yes sir it's now 1.425 thank you and more direct services to the students correct me yes ma'am okay thank you you're welcome thank you very much thank you miss fields you're welcome any other discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor please signify

031by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next on our action agenda is the efficiency audit and i will seek a motion to move forward with our efficiency audit move approval for the efficiency audit as proposed second miss cunningham and dr alan any discussion ms miller thank you madam chair just have comment this is something that um you know was a big agenda item for me from the very beginning of joining the board and i think this is only going to help us financially so i want to say thank you to the superintendent and all the staff that were able to put this proposal together to have this done and i'm hoping that we will finally see some of the areas that we've all had concerns with but needed it all together in

032one document so this is exciting time for the district thank you very much thank you miss miller any other miss fields superintendent can we make sure that the financial analysis budget impact statement is attached to that please yes ma'am i've requested a final a final document from them that would indicate 250 000 but again through private donations that will be 225 none of the funding will come from the general budget as i shared thank you dr allen great i just want to follow up um with what miss miller had said this is something that we have definitely been pushing hard on and superintendent high thanks for your due diligence um i i'd requested that that one file i don't know if you had a chance to look at it thanks for pushing that our way

033the value that i saw on that is that it's going to allow us to see the findings and then the monetary the quantitative element attached to that solution and and that document was very clear and i really appreciate the work that you did on that and this will be a great thing moving forward as we demonstrate to our taxpayers that we are looking for efficiency in our practices so thank you you're welcome thank you dr alan any further comments seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next is q3 approval of warranty deed for sidewalk right-of-way dedication to the city of lakeland in conjunction with the modernization of southwest middle school i'll hear a motion move approval second miss fields and miss miller any discussion

034seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and last item on our action agenda is q4 the 2021 2022 annual financial report and i will seek a motion to approve move approval second miss cunningham and miss miller any discussion madam chair if i may interject here for a moment there was a question as to why only the index pages were attached and part of that is the final submission is not due until the 12th and the team will finalize that and submit that document subsequent to that submission to the state thank you superintendent hyde all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye anya post and the motion carries right next we will open the public hearing and we do not have any speaker

035signed up for the public hearing so the first item is r1 the 2022 student progression plan and i will seek a motion for approval so move second dr allen and miss cunningham any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries all right and next is our budget and if i could ask either miss jenkins or mr pitts to come up and give us a little bit of a run down before we do all of our motions good evening um i would like to start by telling everyone that this year's total budget will be almost 2.4 billion dollars that's 1.2 billion in the general fund we have about 89 89 million in special revenue for food service we have 124 million in special revenue for other 282.9

036million in esser 3 million in miscellaneous special revenue about 65 million in debt service 446 million in capital outlay 155 million in internal service funds which are health insurance workers compensation and liability and then 19 million in internal funds so this year the proposed millage rates are as follows these rates reflect an increase in the total rollback rate of 11.26 percent the required local effort is 3.271 mills which is point it's three tenths less than it was last year at 3.581 the discretionary operating remains the same at 0.748 mills local capital improvement remains the same at 1.5 mils for a total of 5.519 mills our what that means to to us in monetary terms from our required local effort we can expect to receive 180 a little over 187 million for discretionary operating it's a

037little around 43 million and for our local capital improvement 86.1 million thank you miss jenkins yes ma'am all right we have several items to come before us the first is the proposed millage rates as follows so i'll seek a motion to for the proposed millage rates including the reasons for any changes these rates reflect an increase in the total rollback rate of 11.26 percent let me get to the right page madam chair i make a motion to approve the required local effort including prior period funding adjustments of 3.27 mills do i have a second second miss cunningham and dr alan any discussion miss fields i think it's the same discussion that we have every year of having the millage rate roll back it would be nice if we could just stay where it is and

038um in in in the efforts of us trying to uh to have more uh monies to go into the classroom and other places so i know that we've been lobbying for that for years and i don't know how we get past it but i think every year it needs to at least be be mentioned it remains one of our legislative priorities absolutely and just for the public that's required by the state correct any other discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be a motion to adopt the discretionary operating millage of 0.7480 mills [Music] miss fields and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next is the

039motion to adopt the local capital improvement capital outlay millage of 1.5 mills i'll hear a motion move approval to adopt the local capital improvement capital outlay millage of 1.5 mills second miss cunningham and miss fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries number four is a motion to approve resolution 2022-2023-03 determining revenues and millage levied so moved second miss cunningham and miss fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please say aye aye right any opposed and the motion carries number five is motion to approve resolution 22 2022 2023-04 adopting the 2022-2023 final budget and millage rates move approval second miss cunningham and dr alan any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed

040and the motion carries and last is a motion to adopt resolution 2022-2023-05 approving categorical allocation flexibility for fiscal year 2022-2023 so second dr allen and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and i believe that is all of our motions for the budget we will end this public hearing and reconvene the school board meeting and next is our superintendent's report this man madam chair several items this evening the next work session will be held on september 20th 2022 the work session will begin at 9 00 a.m work session will be held here at jim miles professional development center located at 4270 wallace road in lakeland however just to apprise the board and our community we will be returning back to

041the bartow location they have finalized installation of all the equipment they're finalizing the testing there will be several dates and times that are provided to the board to to invite you to come out to be trained on the devices so that you're familiar with how to access your laptops for example will no longer be immediately in front of you they'll actually be in the network station and they'll be networked into the screen before you and so there's some new technology that's been included so we'll need to provide a training on that before we return completely to that location additionally i know board members have asked about the about several of the um of the superhero figures that are out amongst a crowd and here with the cabinet and myself so very pleased to share and

042dr allen was a volunteer at this event but two weeks ago we held the junior achievement bowling competition and i know that mr looney has left i was pleased that we beat his team at tenerak high school um i don't know what that means that cabinet's a bunch of good bowlers um but several of us we had a great time miss winchester mr cochrane uh mr pitts uh mr mcnaughton miss winchester and myself but it was a great event they'd had to reschedule it several times so i was glad we were able to participate and so that's what the superhero they had a superhero theme so the trophies issued to us this year were superheroes and so you see several of them out here in the audience so congratulations to my team that carried today

043because it definitely wasn't because of my score that's for sure thank you madam chair that concludes the superintendent's report thank you superintendent hyde and i hope the trophies will be at every board meeting they really are nice decorations and next will be our attorney's report item one is the is to request authority to advertise public hearing for the reproductive health curriculum is required by florida law this will be held at the october 25th 2022 regularly scheduled school board meeting and the statute reads all instructional materials is defined in section 1006.292 which are used to teach reproductive health or any disease including hiv aids and symptoms development and treatment as part of the courses referenced in subsection three must be annually approved by a district school board in an open notice public meeting thank you mr

044bridges i'll hear a motion to approve the advertisement of a public meeting on october 25th 2022 at the regularly scheduled school board meeting for reproductive health curriculum miss fields and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries thank you madam chair second item recommend approval of proposed attorney client engagement agreement with baron budd pc panish shea and boyle llp walk up melodia kelly and schurnberger pc wagstaff and cartmill llp beasley allen crow methmen partisan miles pc goza on old llc and curtin mcconkey pc to provide legal services in connection with pursuit of claims for damages associated with jewel and electronic cigarettes in litigation on a contingency fee basis there will be no cost to the district beyond specified agreed contingency fee in

045the event of a successful recovery from the defendants and have provided the motion the language for a motion motion to approve the proposed attorney client engagement agreement for to provide legal services in connection with the pursuit of claims for damages associated with joule and electronic cigarettes in litigation second miss fields and miss cunningham any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and madam chair the the third item was not on the agenda but at the work session there was discussion today and the uh policy changes that were originally scheduled for approval tonight uh were pulled from the agenda we'll need to re-advertise that for public hearing and i would propose to do that at the october school board meeting and with your authority

046i'll arrange to get that to get that public notice published thank you mr bridges i'll hear a motion to advertise a an attorney-client privilege session at our october 25th meeting day is that correct approval second miss cunningham and dr alan any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries well and thank you for that one but i and i because i didn't need that but i also need authority to advertise for the for the policies that were originally on today's agenda but we'll have a public meeting at uh public at the next meeting no i needed that one too so i will also hear a motion for the policies for for a policy hearing for the october 25th 2022 regular board meeting second miss

047fields and dr allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries thank you sir are we all covered now all right yes ma'am thank you mr bridges all right and we will now move on to board members reports and we'll start with dr allen great thank you i was hoping to get a little clarification on on why the superintendent chose iron man as his trophy but i'm hoping we'll figure that out and he'll share that with us later on but i do want to say [Laughter] nice so yeah thank you thank you for jumping in and demonstrating your bowling skills and by the way you know we we now have bowling as an option for sports um within polk county which is a great

048thing um as well and you know i mean this was this was true competition i mean publix was there saddle creek was there um and and we as as the district polk county school board we stepped away as the kingpins so thank you all for representing so well miss winchester well done thank y'all i had a chance to visit out of county just recently within the last two weeks to manatee technical college and um if you don't know much about my background yes i do have a doctor in front of my name but i do value my upbringing and where i came from i spent a couple years as a sheet metal mechanic my grandpa was a diesel mechanic my uncles were you know journeyman welders and it was great to step into that facility

049and say wow this this is impressive and um i think technical education should be an option we should consider that um within our household economy and within discussions with our family and our kids and so forth and to me that that is the predominant um that that's the the leader within the state and just wanted to walk around just get a sense for what they're doing and hear from their administrators and yes they're doing great things and i think we can take some of those best practices and bring them and implement them in our district but what i i did step away from that as well hearing from an administrator there that had shared that they sent their child to our amp program at central florida aeronautical academy and i'm like whoa okay i went

050over to look to see what they were doing but then i realized they were actually utilizing something that we do excellent with excellence as well and what he said to me was that polk county's a p program within our aeronautical school is one of the only public options in central florida we do have private options but the cost to attend those schools comparative to the cost to attend the travis amp program was dramatically different that said something about what we're doing within our technical programs here so i just want to commend the work that we're doing within our technical education to prepare the next generation of aerospace as we look towards the future and then to ditto on that i was over at the college and career fell fair that we sponsored over at florida

051southern college and you know i picked up this one from gmf steel and they have an amazing apprenticeship program they just had a ribbon cutting recently and they're based in lakeland and you can earn up to 27 per hour and then you go through their apprenticeship program at no cost as far as the tuition so basically you work four days a week and then you go through their ed program education program on fridays so to see some of those opportunities for our students and i'm looking forward to actually bridging some partnerships like that moving ahead but also just to see the long lines of students engaging and you know finding interest and different college options and so forth and then the last thing i just wanted to note was i had a chance to visit

052harrison if you haven't been over there they do have um an exhibit for our ap student art and again i do think there's an opportunity for our students to engage with our ap coursework and dual enrollment coursework and those are opportunities to reduce the cost of tuition for college but first of all just to recognize the talent of our students by going through that exhibit and seeing the amazing artwork that our students are taking part in but to recognize too that you know these students have earned college credit before they graduate high school so i just wanted to commend that as well in regards to the student work and what they're doing from a success standpoint and then also wanted to say happy birthday to my youngest daughter she's waiting on me to get home

053to celebrate with her tonight so look forward to seeing her thank you madam chair thank you dr alan and miss cunningham yes thank you madam chair um we had a very wonderful work session today at the very end of the work session unfortunately it was at the end our superintendent took the time to do a year in review um of what's take place what has taken place in our school systems and a lot of the changes and improvements that have been made only in the last 12 months since he's been here well 12 plus a skosh right and it was amazing if any of you get the chance to view our work session online i would encourage you to do so there were so many things that are in the works and have been accomplished

054and are working towards accomplishment and he hurried through them because we had limited time before we needed to start our board meeting but i just want to say publicly in a board meeting thank you superintendent hyde for the incredible work that you do thank you for the incredible team that you have put in place to lead our polk county public schools thank you to our staff our teachers our bus drivers i mean just the fact that we were able to negotiate three contracts essentially here at the very beginning of school been on the board 18 years i don't remember us doing that and the list goes on and on and you know they used to say to me my ask me and our pea partners you know put your money where your mouth is well

055guess what we're starting to do that and that really makes me feel good not that it's the biggest raise anyone's ever had or will have but you know what we have to start somewhere and folks we did start somewhere and we're going to continue to move that forward because there's nothing more important than recognizing the people that work for us and give so much of their time and talent so once again thank you for allowing your team our team to negotiate those contracts so that people going in know where they stand and can plan for their year and their future going forward and there's so many things that i could list out but i won't in the essence of time but if you have a chance and you can view that work session towards the

056last hour or so it's somewhere in there i don't know what number i probably should have asked jason and the team but nevertheless it would be well worth your time to hear all the things that superintendent hyde listed as accomplishments in in 12 months or less so again it's just a public thank you you've worked very hard your family needs to be commended patty your son freddie your mom i mean when you give so much of your precious time to us it's obvious that you know they are sacrificing to allow you to do that and that means a lot as well so blessings to you and your family and thank you sir for all that you have done thus far that concludes my report madam chair thank you miss cunningham ms miller i just have

057two quick things first of all today in the work session you saw the community of lake gibson really support that school and i if you've not been to lake gibson you're not from that community i'm lucky enough to have two schools that are really supported by the communities that they're a part of i can tell you lake gibson there's probably 40 staff members who've graduated from that school who returned to their high school to work there because the environment that's there their whole entire administrative team are graduates of that school so i want to say you know that's the what we do here in polk county it is about culture it is about building those families and lake gibson definitely shows that and they did today with that 75 000 contribution from the community for

058their field naming um so i want to recognize that family the gunder family for for giving us that opportunity at auburndale which is another very big community supported school we had two students leilani lugo and megan knowles who are two of 62 000 students from across the country to earn academic honors from the college board's national recognition programs these national recognition programs grant underrepresented students with academic honors that can be included on their college and scholarship applications and they connect students with universities across the country colleges and scholarship programs use these honors to identify students from underrepresented groups and this is one more way that we're helping send kids to college that are choosing that path so i'm very proud of armadale high school and the two students from there thank you madam chair thank

059you miss miller and miss fields thank you i have a couple of things i wanted to to go back to special recognition and to commend the leadership of the six schools that were recognized earlier for turning the situation around to making a c and i want to commend the staff and the students and the families because it takes a team effort for something like this to have occurred i'm sure there was a lot of sleepless nights a lot of stress i know that to be the case and i want them to know that it has not gone unnoticed and we're very very proud of what they've been able to accomplish no longer needing to be under the state watch still needing that support but not needing it like they needed before and that would be

060denison middle principal terry christian eastside elementary elizabeth munaz fred garner elementary commander blackman frost proof ben hill griffin jonathan dart myers griffin elementary roberta i call her miss b.j stinson and oscar j pope elementary carol griffin so again i want to commend each and every one of them and griffin elementary is in my school district and they were on the verge of closure so for them to be able to turn that school around was amazing and we had a celebration recently at the well downtown and superintendent high was in attendance and the excitement in the room and the pride that they had was just amazing to witness that they were able to celebrate what they've been able to work so hard to accomplish and the sponsors that made sure that there was no expense to

061them and it was a very well put together event for the evening so i wanted to commend all the folks that were involved in helping to get that together and khalil carswell one of our community liaison was very instrumental in making sure that everything was put together for that event and then kathleen high school we're back on it we're doing our community leaders meeting we had our first meeting last week and we had a great attendance and new faces and new folks wanting to come in a lot of the alumni is coming in wanting to be involved and make a difference in that school so we're very excited about what we're going to be able to see this school year and that ends my report thank you miss fields and just very quickly i want

062to give a shout out because the celebrity lip sync battle is coming up and for those of you that don't know this is winter haven public education partnership's annual fundraiser i am really excited to announce that we can officially unveil our contestants and so one of them is our very own lake region high school principal miss amy hardy who has jumped into the winter haven community feet first and no looking back so it is our contestants are amy hardy chris newman lake john lane jacob burton happ hazelwood and julie adams so that will be on november 10th the good news is the next day is veterans day so you can come out and party and have a great time and you don't even have to go to work tomorrow and one of our favorite judges

063will be our very own superintendent hyde so tickets are only 30 dollars it all goes to support public education in winterhaven you only have two more meetings of me giving these announcements so just want to make sure all of you are are ready to come have some fun with us so now we will move on to our public comments section so these are for items not included on this evening's agenda just as before or just as you would have in earlier sections to register to speak community members must fill out a speaker card in the lobby prior to the meeting all speakers will be given three minutes the clock will give you a warning sound when you have one minute left and when you have 30 seconds left please note that although the board encourages

064community 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 before we begin i have asked deputy vaughn to help me point out where the on deck area is so if you are on deck you will come and stand in this nice red box he's our favorite model so thank you deputy vaughn so our first speaker will be victor chandler and on deck will be on tavio hernandez can you pass those to ms yvette and she'll pass him out thank you i'm requesting that you change your negotiation to teachers to one based on uh increasing the salary schedule and costs from the

065previous year now you may wonder why this is necessary view the first chief both teachers and senior management were reported to receive the same exact total nine percent raise during the four-year period all 208 steps of the management salary schedule increased by a minimum 9.2 percent over 3 thousand dollars none of the steps of the teacher salary schedule increase even close to nine percent some even decreased the beginning teachers salary increased 2.1 percent or 450 and the pay for teacher with 16 years experience decreased 12.1 percent or over 4 thousand dollars the second sheet covers from 1976 to last year teachers reportedly received a greater raise than administrators the salary schedule of teachers had a massive loss of inflation to over 330 thousand dollars while all senior management positions had a gain adjusted for inflation

066a teacher with 16 years experience last year was paid almost 19 000 dollars less than a teacher with the same experience in 1976. last year the deputy superintendent adjusted for inflation was paid over forty thousand dollars more than the deputy superintendent in 1976. equating raises that are not equivalent is legally highly questionable the third sheet illustrates the method i'm requesting you use for negotiating teacher contracts it assumes from 1976 to 2022 both teachers and senior management were given a cost of living adjustment in their salary schedules every step of the teacher's salary schedule and senior management salary schedules would have increased by 410 percent the beginning salary the maximum salary of teachers as well as to pay for all administration positions would have increased 410 percent no group of employees would have gained a financial

067advantage if you had just given teachers a cost of living adjustment in their salary schedule from 1976 you would now be able to hire teachers with ease and be able to retain those teachers this is far less than the amount that you did for superintendent for senior management even for board members this change needs to be made so that we don't get in a worse situation than we're in now view that material it should be obvious to you thank you mr chandler next is octavio hernandez and on deck is christy mccullough good evening my name is octavio hernandez i hope you all enjoyed your labor day weekend you can thank 150 years of union labor union union strong i'm a teacher at evan ford high school i'm a parent of a polk county student two

068pole county students uh 18 year old 18 year resident of polk county as a proud union member though we don't like to complain without bringing forth some solutions so i'm not just going to come here to complain i want to say some things and try to help it out so i've heard statements here before about teaching classes that prepare our students for vocational careers and i agree however these jobs we're discussing are jobs from the 50s such as woodshop class now that doesn't prepare our kids for the future uh most of us learn how to change the oil from our car from our uh from our local mechanic or our parents but how many of you guys know how to change the oil of a tesla that's right there has no oil right this is

069the future guys and we're not preparing our kids for the future to take care of these cars and have these jobs i know some of us want our kids to be closer to jesus but they don't have to be carpenters also we need to start offering coding as an elective as an early class especially since we're going more into usage of computers in the classroom the city of lake nona is getting millions of dollars of fund because they're becoming florida's tech hub we need to help our future citizens and poke get those high-paying jobs we need our students to have coding all the way from third grade and up we need to start having these classes so they can get very prepared for the future we're not preparing them for the future we're preparing them

070for the past uh second we have a lot of my students come to me and they cry and they complain because their lunch is not long enough 22-minute lunches ladies and gentlemen you try to get up go to class go to go to the lunchroom pick up your lunch and sit down eat in less than seven minutes and then go back to class we need to have longer classes longer lunches for them so they can learn social skills they've lost three years guys three years that none of us had that none of us have experience three years of living behind a screen and getting to know our friends talking not learning how to be face to face most of us met our friends and you know in our backyards playing football in our school these

071kids don't know how to do that we need to have longer lunches so they can get to know how to have social skills they don't have that we need to let them learn how to just relax and eat and enjoy social environment with each other not just behind a screen and then the last thing today our school last ac for two hours now i know a lot of you guys think that that's not a very big deal but in california they're having rolling blackouts already and that's to do to a water shortage now i know you don't think it matters here but when they start moving here it's going to be our problem also and florida relies heavily on gas for their for their electricity gas relies on fracking which relies heavily on water we

072need to start already find a way to conserve our water so we can save our sports because i hate to have this next year where we can't have our sports because there's no water to uh to water the glass so they can play football imagine lake county [Music] thank you christy mccullough thank you tandy braid tandy braid justin sharpless and on deck is shayna fox hello i'm justin sharpless um and i've got a prepared i'm from lake wales and i've got a prepared statement i would like to make and then i've got a little bit of talking from the hip hello my name is justin sharpless and i'm the polk county school board member elect for district six first i wanted to publicly thank school board member lynn wilson for his service to district six

073and polk county public schools over the past eight years i'm hoping lynn watches this because i really hope he does anyhow i hope to continue working with lynn throughout my tenure as a school board member representing the same district next i would also like to thank school board member sarah forney for her service to our district and her passion for our employees again i hope sarah watches this as well please know i'm a phone call or email away and look forward to your continued advocacy for polk county public schools finally i want to bring to the attention of the board an event that's happening next month i plan on emailing you all then this next week to let you know the details of the event as i'm going to be serving as the announcer the

074inaugural holly brewer adaptive rodeo will take place on saturday october 8th starting at 10 o'clock am at 5713 lucerne park road in winterhaven this event has been organized by two mothers who wanted their exceptional needs children to have the same opportunities as their other children events that will be happening are barrel racing goat tying cow roping whip popping cow showmanship and mechanical bull riding no physical limitations are excluded from this event and participation in the event is only for children 18 years old and under the organizers have been blessed by an outpouring of support from individuals who are wanting to learn more about their children there is a huge need for this kind of event in polk county and the mothers had no idea how big uh this need was the goal of the event

075is to create a 501 3c organization and give out scholarships to families as the children graduate these scholarships would not only be for education but also for respite care for the caregivers to have a break so from the bottom of my heart i invite each one of you to the inaugural holly brewer adaptive rodeo for these kids and i also look forward to working with you all after being sworn in in november thank you very much thank you justin hey and shayna fox and on deck is cassandra gibson hi i'm shawna fox and i am here for a few reasons i'm here with my daughter bella and i haven't been able to be at school board meetings with my daughter bella for a while because of the hatred that is spewed into this microphone regularly

076for the last few years toward you and each and every one of you and students and families and humans in general so i'm glad that we're here together and i just wanted to come and say thank you thank you for serving as a sieve and filtering out that negativity that's been spewed at you over the last few years and making sure it doesn't trickle down to our students thank you for those of you who work within the community and who are advocates for serving as a shelter for students in positive endeavors in the world and thank you for serving as a shield because there have been bullets of bigotry aimed at our kids and our families and i just wanted to say thank you because you have been at the receiving end of those words

077and those words are the reason i haven't been able to bring my daughter here so unfortunately um i had to deliver the news a couple of weeks ago to her that hate had won um the night in an election that we cared very deeply about and it was a hard lesson for me to have to teach her but now the cat is out of the bag and i can bring her here and and she can see you know what what this looks like and hopefully she won't have to witness so much of the negativity but i i'm also here i have a sign that i left back there that says love indoors and then on the other side it says we the people are here to stay because although it appeared that hatred had had

078been victorious in at least one of the races for school board we're here to say that love love will endure it's not going we're not going anywhere we're citizens and patriots and humans just like everyone else and we are going to be here to face that along with you and to stand for our mantra which is the kindness is everything so thank you and hard lessons are part of life right i haven't always stood here with a smile on my face in front of the school board i haven't always said thank you i was a teacher for 20 years so we weren't always on the same side of issues but the turn that it's taken here in the last few years has been disheartening because it's gone from you know justified anger i would call

079it as a teacher to uh something on a whole nother level so here's hoping for a a turn for the positive thank you so much thank you miss fox cassandra gibson and on deck is sarah calamit calimunji hello i too would like to thank superintendent hyde for the very first time in 21 years here in polk county i started the year with the contract thank you the only difference is him so i i know you guys all worked very hard and i appreciate it greatly but there was one different factor and i think that you deserve a whole lot of praise or you really do i would also like to say that this school board race was one of the hardest that any of you have all gone through congratulations on winning we will endure

080through november with lisa and as far as sarah fortney i would like to publicly say that i don't think a school board member ever worked harder than she did and i want her and everyone in this room to know that i am grateful for her years of service she ran a campaign on honesty and love and fairness and we owe her all a great debt of gratitude so sarah if you're watching if you're hearing me thank you very much you were a good school board member and your legacy will endure thank you guys thank you miss gibson sarah calamucci and on deck is robert goodman good evening i am going to be reading a letter that i received today from sheriff grady judd i know that the rest of you received this letter as well

081but i wanted to read it here tonight for those in the community that did not receive it dear sarah recently packs of complaints were forwarded to my office with petitions requesting we investigate the polk county school board for making obscene materials available to students i and state attorney haas have reviewed your request we agree many excerpts from the various books are vile odious and abhorrent if these adjectives don't adequately explain the text some passages are just filthy and nasty i cannot in my wildest imagination understand why the school board members would want an environment where the government provides at taxpayer expense such material to students really just children whose brains have not fully developed however it is painfully obvious that despite the horribleness of the text which i believe at a bare minimum grooms children

082and desensitizes the young mind while exposing them to deviant conduct the materials presented don't rise to the level of investigation and prosecution under the obscenity laws of the state of florida simply put everything that is pornographic and or perverted is not criminally illegal under the very technical florida obscenity law as you well know i led the charge to eliminate obscene businesses from polk county there are none here the state's attorney office with assistant state attorney copley who is a nationally recognized expert on obscenity laws and has prosecuted hundreds of people we arrested for obscenity law violations was also asked to evaluate the materials provided his professional opinion state attorney brian haas's professional opinion and mine coincide the materials we reviewed fail to meet the high standards for prosecution under current legislative and case law even

083though we all are mortified by what we read you know i love to arrest people who violate the law the state attorney haas's prosecution standards are impeccable if there was a criminal charge we would hold those individuals accountable according to law with that said there are other paths the citizens of polk county can consider to keep this reprehensible content from being exposed to children by the polk county school board request the school board re-vote on the on the recommendations i proposed and superintendent hyde agreed this would put in place an opt-in and opt-out policy mandating the parents be the only ones who can authorize their children access to the instant books which contact which contain shocking inappropriate language anytime the child is under the legal adult age of 18 seek civil recourse and request the

084courts issue an injunction against the school board seek law changes through the florida legislation there are many forms of relief books containing vile content to be coded for age appropriateness stop the availability to students under 18 without the express written approval of the child's parent seek political relief by voting for school board members who you believe share your values i appreciate your passion regarding the subject and the desire to keep the children of polk county safe from such repugnant material thank you robert goodman and on deck is leroy kaufman continuing where sarah left off i am bound by from sheriff judd i am bound by the law as it written if i can be a further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me we are following all legal methods suggested by sheriff judds and

085we have already been working on all the things he mentioned in his letter that you have all received we will not stop defending the innocent children of polk county the community at large is on our side of the argument even with the amount of false information coming from this board and the teachers union let's talk a little bit about that at the last school board meeting board member lisa miller said if we weren't careful trying to ban books we were going to wind up getting the bible banned i no one's trying to ban books in sheriff's judd's letter he said it was no different than taking a child to an r rated movie that's all that's being asked here we're just asking for a parent to have to check a box to say this book

086contains this material we understand we will let them we will allow our child to do it all we're asking for is commonplace protocols just like a r-rated movie or a video game at that meeting i promised we would follow all legal avenues to protect the children within a week i started dropping off 106 criminal complaint letters at sheriff's offices all over town those were not directed at teachers those were not directed at librarians they were directed at this board because you made the decision though it was in not in plain sight you made the decision to not protect the children the books in question have content including graphic incestual pedophilia bestiality graphic rape your job is to protect the children of polk county you're hired by the community to do that k fields was just

087rehired congratulations justin sharpless was just hired to do that we expect that you will do that we are now submitting an appeal at sheriff judd's request to put in place the opt-in option opt-out option you were against who here at this board is willing to align with our sheriff superintendent's hide recommendation and respond to this appeal with a public school board vote please do better please do the right thing we will work with you in any capacity i agree with lisa miller that we need a rating system on books there's one for music there's one for video games there's one for movies i would love to have that conversation with you but the rhetoric has to stop we all need to be on the side of the children of polk county i'm going to serve

088these there's copies for all of you and here and i will serve these to west bridge as the attorney for all of you to read thank you since i was a dress i would like to respond miss miller so just a point of order i mean i i would prefer madam chair if we just stick to our agenda and and get through our comments please the school board members because they're not supposed to be addressed when they're addressed they're allowed to respond miss miller you can respond briefly thank you so yes no one on this board is trying to harm children we have a policy in place and that's what i was explaining in the state of texas when they started taking books out of libraries another group came and they pulled the bible off

089the shelf that's exactly what i was saying now it's under review it is a slippery slope we have a policy so when the gentleman drove to haines city police department he could have gone two more miles down the road to haines city high school that has the only copy of the body picture book that people are offended by he could have taken one parent to that one high school held the meeting and had the book reviewed there is policy in place the disinformation that this is not in place already is what's upsetting as far as a rating system love to have one let's have that conversation we've talked about it in the past but know that it is happening and we don't want that to happen here at polk county because we love what we

090have here we love that everybody has a voice and when we start one thing to start a slippery slope it may not end and what i'm saying is a person of faith and a parent of 11 year old we have to be careful we have to create policy that's all i was asking so thank you for coming this evening thank you miss miller leroy kaufman and on deck is carl thomas and i ask that you please direct all comments to me as the chair my name is leroy kaufman i'm a resident of lake hashem ha and the reason i'm here tonight the reason we're here tonight my wife's back there too is because we recently became aware of your initiative to establish a school at lake castle road and marigold i have been in this

091location i actually live on the west side of hatching hot i've been at this location since 2005 we are very proud of the atmosphere in the area it is actually an area where there is a natural wildlife mitigation zone and we are very aware of the issues that would surround building all the buildings and the and the improvements that you're you're con thinking about doing and that we know all too well how greatly that would affect our area and our infrastructure is not there we don't have the ability to to cope with the things that you're proposing and the growth that's there we have one way in to hatchnaha and one way out that's hashnahar road i am here because i only learned about this last thursday maybe that's my fault but if if i'm

092a tax paying member i expect that if my tax dollars are going to go for something that's in the area where i'm affected that i should at least be included so i'm here now i've sent a email message to miss wyatt who i thought was our representative i sent an email to everybody else but i would greatly appreciate it being included in any future talk and discussion and i would also tell you that i have a lot of experience with fish and wildlife and the state of florida and regulation i was i'm a former director of the division of animal industry and state veterinarian for the state of florida so i don't come here with a lack of knowledge of the process and what's there but i'm here telling you that i'm want to be

093included we shouldn't be included the public should be included the people that will be impacted should be included thank you thank you mr kaufman carl thomas and on deck is glenn lawhorn yeah um i just need to know because you kicked it out of the agenda where we get to know when we can actually speak on this in front of when you decide to vote it that's we actually had everything prepared to talk to you all about but it's not worth it i just need to know from you all when you are going to try to do this on the hatching hall project do we have an agenda or do we know how to get an agenda so we will be bringing it back superintendent hyde either at the regularly scheduled board meeting on october

09425th or if they can get the proposals together before then at we'll add a special board meeting on i believe it's october 11th um so it the soonest will be october 11th if it's not ready by then then it'll be october 25th but those agendas come out a week before so the tuesday prior on our uh website so october 11th there's not gonna be like some special deal go on like in the middle of september and we don't get our voice the earliest it would be is october okay thank you just for the record if there is a special meeting of the school board called at any time it will be noticed publicly in advance of the meeting where that's that's what everybody wants it will be noticed first off it is published in the

095lakeland ledger which is the newspaper of general circulation for polk county it will also be on the school board's website immediately after it's published okay thank you so if i may madam chair um if i may clarify because for their members in the community who are i think concerned or frustrated that the item was tabled and so for absolute clarity you know the board went out and looked at public property that was readily available we entered into or intended to enter into a contract for 100 plus acres so we would have enough property to build both a middle school and a high school site during that time we received an unsolicited proposal which is allowed under statute but it was a privately held piece parcel of land so rather than furthering a discussion on the

096current parcel the board acted earlier and directed me through their consensus vote to pull the item to allow my team to have an appropriate timeline to review the second proposal now they both fall within the same relative community area i believe they're literally across the street from each other two sister parcels of land so to your concerns about the impact your community you'll have the opportunity to express that but i wanted to explain why the item was tabled for this evening so it will come back at the october 11th meeting is what i anticipate to have happen but again that will be publicly noticed as mr bridges pointed out thank you superintendent hyde thank you ma'am glenn lawhorn and on deck is i believe it's larry ward well that answered an awful lot of questions

097right there because oh there you go now today i mean i can stand here and tell you all this stuff on my paper and it's really not going to do any good uh until you've come up with some sort of proposal as to what you're really trying to do out there but however i will tell you um even the thought of doing something like this on hatchnahal road um if i can speak off the cuff that's kind of ridiculous you got a one lane road well i guess i'm supposed to talk to you you have a one lane road that you're going to put 2 000 more vehicles on a day going in and out of those schools that's a two-lane miner collector road that's not going to work it's just not going to work

098there's no way there's no plans anywhere in anybody's budget in the state or county's budget to add anything for roads the developer's certainly not going to four lane hatchnahal road all the way to highway 27 which is where you would have to take your closest point for a four-lane means of ingress and egress so that's just one of the things the purchase of the land with public funds really needs to be scrutinized pretty good and i'm sure that that's going to go down but i don't think that we need to be buying property out there you're taking a school and putting it out in the middle of nowhere there's no support there there's no mechanism for any kind of what's the word i was looking for any kind of uh law enforcement medical anything out

099there like that that goes on there's nothing there there's nothing to support it so if there's a problem now you got a really big problem but you look at the impacts overall what does the project look like short term and then what does it look like in five years that's what you got to look at none of us here there's a lot of people here there's a lot more people that want to be here that couldn't but we'll be a little better guns loaded so to speak when we come in for the next meeting [Music] got to be really really i'm sorry i'm getting kind of ahead of myself we got to be careful about what we're doing out there and uh to go out there and put something like this out in the middle

100of nowhere is just crazy so i heard the comment put your money where your mouth is a little while earlier 12 million dollars is a lot of money you could buy a piece of property for a fourth of that in town and put all those students in town instead out in the middle of the woods so thank you for your time we'll see you all again thank you and larry ward larry ward and on deck is robert hall i just want to say i agree with all the rhetoric that's going on at hatching hall right now i'm a resident out there i've been a resident of florida for 40 years i was born and raised here and some of the things that are going on right now are just unacceptable it's not thought out i

101go by the school all the time and somebody's going to get hurt out there so it needs to be consciously re-engineered before to keep spending money on something that's it's not thought out that's not thought out i uh recently retired and i learned a lot about environmental impacts i worked for disney for 40 years i know a lot that goes on out there what we did what we can do the sky is the limit all you got to do is have the id and go after it there's nothing can be done but it needs time and it needs development it needs our input that's my say thank you thank you [Applause] robert hall and on deck is jeremy knowles uh i'm a father a grandfather um one of the main things he's got to do

102with my kids is take them fishing hunting whether we catch anything or shooting it's just the piece of quiet that we get when we get to do it i know a lot of folks feel the same that use that area we don't get anything but the the satisfaction we get from the peace out there in the woods and the water is something that we contribute a lot of time in our own resources to pick up trash in that area mow grass pavilions we build pavilions out there just maintain the natural resources that are out there putting a high school right in the middle of that area right there i'd expect it from greedy corporations but not from educators i mean we i tell my kids all the time going down the road i said look

103out the window you see those trees you're not going to see them by the time you get my age and it's a fact i preach it to them since they were as big and they're grown now and that's just something we need to look into and that's one area i don't know if y'all been to the area seeing what it's like out there but we don't need a high school in that area not right there put it 10 miles up the road five miles up the road but not there thank you okay jeremy knowles and on deck is danielle nixon hello my name is jeremy knowles my mother is sharon knowles she was a polk county polk county school principal for 35 years 49 years total with the polk county school board so i completely

104understand the importance of the public school system and the need for growth when it's when it's time i won't harp on it too much but you know why this area there was considering it's been pulled from the agenda but like you said it's at the the hatchnet hall road is 10 miles long it's at the very end of it a dead end road that dead ends into a lake um all the property that's on and surrounding um it's a fragile ecosystem it's majority of it now is already state land so it needs to be protected another thing is this property was for sale that i know for at least two years it was purchased in april then all of a sudden four months later um there's a deal to you know made with a developer

105that the school board's like gotta have this hundred acres of land um after you know just four months of him closing on the land and it was it had been for sale for two years already uh so the question is is why why there and why all of a sudden um and then another thing um for example just a quick search today on landwatch.com at the intersection of white clay pit road and detour road in town there's 110 acres for sale for 3.5 million dollars that's a third of the 12 million dollars we're talking about why can't that be considered um you won't have the environmental studies to be done the mitigation it's you know old citrus grove everything's there ready to go um that's another thing on the land that does propose there's you

106know we got the wetlands home mitigate for the wetlands but there's also 30 acres of sand scrub habitat you have sand skinks gopher tortoise and scrub jays on this property you're going to have to mitigate for that property at at least a two to one ratio on your acreage where's that property going to come from um the rest of the property is pretty much low land so i don't know where you're going to get at least 60 acres to offset for that cost and then also it says the school board wants all of that the mitigation done in 12 months there's no way that can be done in 12 months with the studies plus construction it'll never happen in that short amount of time and there's a lot more but i'll let it go with

107that thank you thank you jera wyatt would you like me to address any of that if you would like to you may okay there are a few of the questions sir that you asked and i'll share some responses for the entirety of the community so we had previously looked at another parcel of land unfortunately it contained a large portion was marshland we do need a school out in that location davenport high school is already close to exceeding capacity haines city high school is well over capacity and the growth around that area is we anticipate we are actually losing students to osceola county because we do not have a facility located out in that area so we have looked excuse me ma'am i'm trying to address the questions and if you have an opportunity mike i'd

108be more than happy to address your questions if you signed up for public participation if not i'll stay after the meeting and i'll be happy to address your questions further so we have been looking for additional parcels of land this land came with the mitigation included including the film and so that's the opportunity that's presented before us there is a fire station close in close proximity we know the growth is occurring in that area we're going to anticipate a school there and quite frankly i'd like to get ahead of the issue rather than chasing the issue like we have been historically we're well positioned to do this with impact fees we understand you have concerns and all of those things will be addressed in real time but at the end of the day we have

109several concerns with properties out in that area as well i'd be happy to consider the property that you shared here that's more in town the issue may be it may not be buildable it may not have the perfect it may not pass the percolation study it may have other issues and that's why our team may have overlooked it in the first place so i can't say for sure but i'd be happy to look at it our goal is to find an opportunity for us not only to build a new high school but as i said we're requiring 100 acres or more so we can build a high school and a subsequent middle school for future growth and needs rather than having to bust students in an ordinary amount of direction or time and having them

110sit on a bus for an hour each direction we have to get ahead of this issue the school if this if this parcel of land were approved and the board went out and put out an rfp for a construction firm and we were able to get started we'd be looking at a 25 26 opening of the high school so i think i've addressed as many of your questions as i can i can't speak to the environmental issues as far as skink relocation and gopher toters i don't know if your numbers are accurate i know what's been presented to us by the potential developed by this by the landowner so i'd be again happy to explore that further but that's part of what the board did took action on today was to table this issue on

111this current property and explore another property was brought to our attention that that that seller feels they have a better parcel of land but i will tell you it's immediately adjacent to that property we're already looking at um so i tried to address as many of your questions as i could sir again i'll be happy to stay after meeting and answer as many other questions as you all have but this will be done on october 11th you'll have an opportunity to come and present your concerns before the board you're also welcome to submit any questions or concerns to my office and to the school board i would always encourage you to copy both of us because they'll see my responses to you and my team will be able to address as many of your questions

112and concerns as possible so but thank you very much for coming this evening i appreciate you sir thank you superintendent hyde danielle danielle mixon and then deborah lawson is on deck i'm here also to speak about the development of the school out at hatchnet hall my family has been in that area for over a hundred years i am still on my family homestead for over a hundred years and i have watched that entire area of poinciana totally be turned into a slum okay it used to be one of the most beautiful rural neighborhoods out there okay the ranch that you guys want to put this school on all the way around to the ranch that disney owns used to be owned privately by one man my family was the caretakers of that ranch i know

113the indian artifacts and bodies and the cars from the original first car in this country with a motor that sits out on that land there's old turpentine mills on that land there's lots of history on that land that these people want to come in and dump a lot of dirt on and push all that water out onto residents that's been here and supported your school board pay taxes to this school and to this county for years when nobody wanted us now because a couple of greedy builders want to come along and line their pockets they want to come in and devastate our home and our land and it is not right now i'm going to get off of the whole contra conservation area because plenty of other people here have covered that and i'm going

114to school you on the street smarts part of it because most of you probably never set foot in poinciana in the last five or ten years let me tell you what up it's ate up with gang violence you build a high school anywhere near that place and it will be just like the schools in new york that the kids i went to school with parents moved them down here to get them out of because it was not safe for them to go to school and learn and if you did go and manage not to get cut up or shot up at school you still couldn't learn anything because your class was disrupted by a bunch of hoodlums now you are going to create the prime breeding ground for even more gang members to be selected

115by there you need to disperse these schools out send one out by dundee by the middle school out there send one out off of johnson out in that direction so you separate these gangs and these kids because what you're going to do is have a massive mess on your hands out there that y'all can't control because you don't got the deputies in that area there is not a law station out in that area except one peddly little substation and i've watched hank city come in countless times lake hamilton to back polk county because they only have seven cops that patrol that entire area to frost proof jail now you tell me that's where you guys really want to sit at school y'all say y'all are for our kids don't put them in that environment because

116kids that live in dundee kids that live at hatching hall kids that live in other places are going to be forced to go to that school out there in that kind of environment and it's not right thank you deborah lawson and on deck is deborah [Applause] johnson okay my name is deborah olson and i live in the area that you're talking about but i live in front of sand hill elementary school okay sand hill elementary has hatchnahal road tied up most of the morning and most of the afternoon because you can't get in and out and you know that so if that's the kind of school you're going to build out there we're going to fight it to the very end okay that being said let me just say hedging hall road was never designed

117to hold a school okay port hatchnet hall when you go into it it's just like everybody else has said there's one way in and one way out and you are going to cause such a problem to the residents out there and i just think that he just gave you a good piece of property you're going to spend less on a piece of property than you are going to pay for just the mitigation and the environmental studies out there when you spend 5.2 million dollars to do an environmental study you know there's a problem you know what the problem is there's wildlife out there there are endangered species of animals and if you build a school there you're going to run them off nobody's going to go along with you spending 5.2 million dollars just for

118an environmental study we have worked at getting other people involved conservationists and everything else so i would encourage you to look for another piece of property to build that school at because it's going to be tied up for a long time if you chose out there thank you deborah johnson and on deck is michael lyle hello my name is deborah johnson and everyone has covered a lot of the points that i wanted to talk about today but my concern is the traffic there's already a school there on that road there is no turn lane i can't count how many times traffic has been stopped with all of the parents alongside one road and the other parents trying to turn without a turn lane and the traffic is completely stopped i'd be interested in what you're

119going to do about the traffic thank you michael lyle and on deck is lamar quinn most everybody's already covered most of the topics um i grew up out here on this lake i grew up in this neck of the woods uh that place as a whole has always been a sacred area um the property to the south is all in state protection it's it's in protection for a reason the property to the south of that down at kissimmee state park is in state protection that whole ridge has it's a watershed area but it also has a lot of indian artifacts the road the road issue is a problem now it's only going to get worse with more development without the road infrastructures i live off canal my parents live off kokomo both of them roads

120are congested now that school's back in of course like they're saying at the end of jim edwards there it's are tiner it's blocked up because there's no turn lanes but even the traffic coming from points in and the port on canal road is basically a little side road has become like hatchney hall wrote and that's been in the last couple years the only reason it's like that is because of the school zone on hatchney hall it's a detour you see to get around and it's easier for the people coming from poinciana to get around there the road infrastructure definitely needs to be addressed before any more housing schools or anything's put out that way as far as i'm concerned um there's been a number of wrecks on hatching hall there's plenty of deaths from the

121traffic but the the school zones without the road infrastructure is just not going to work and as far as where that area is it all needs to be in state protection it don't need to go to no school or buildings period it's been that way for centuries for a reason florida's as a whole we're losing any kind of resources as areas like that they're dying off once the trees are gone you got california we don't want california and florida so everybody needs to kind of consider this because uh as far as conservation um if we don't conserve anything we have nothing for the future resources are gone and as far as that goes the watershed any hurricane all that area is flooded it's flooded any time a hurricane comes the water sheds from points in

122a parkway to the lake it's all downhill so any any pollutants is going in to our ecosystem in our chain of lakes which is everglades headwaters which is right across the street from where they want to build the school okay why protect one side of the road with this and then not protect the rest uh it just don't make sense the property on the back side of the lake was disney's that gave to the state okay it's under conservation for a reason um and i feel that this property should be looked at the same way that's all i got to say today thank you sir and lamar quinn hello sarah board members thank you for your diligence your hard work mr superintendent we look forward to your leadership on this 100 acre whatever this parcel

123might be my name is lamar quinn resident of lake ethanol since 1963 attended your alta vista school in its first grade year 1963 right after it was built got some history i uh spent a lot of time at creek ranch which is now the asana of the property of the hundred acres that you're looking at beautiful property folks have spoken to that and i've walked that as a youngster um just want to say that uh that the history of this ridge area that has been referenced the skinks and the gopher superintendent appreciate you looking into that very very important but there's a there's a bigger history to this ridge area for the health state of florida and i'm confident that you folks are going to do the right thing you're going to look at this

124and make the right best decision because growth is important our kids schools we've got we've got to facilitate that might not be the right place but we know it does have to happen so we look forward to your leadership we look forward to participating and bringing our counter measures we'll have a few and let's make the right best decisions together okay thank you and with no further business to come before the board we are adjourned [Music] do [Music] you