School Board Meeting | August 16, 2022

001[Music] good evening and i will ask reverend terry heck to join us at the front and lead us in the invocation and if all of you will stand and join us terry heck dr alan will you lead us in the invocation thank you father we are so thankful that we have all these bodies in this room and it's humbling an opportunity to serve our community but really really focus on our students and the good work that's being done in our classrooms all around this great county and the opportunity to serve so may we be wise in our words and thoughts tonight in your son's name amen and i will now ask max hall to come up and lead us in the pledge of allegiance whenever you're ready i pledge allegiance to the flag of the

002united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may be seated hi max hello how's it going good thank you for coming to our board meeting tonight and leading us in the pledge i hear that you did not know you would be leading us in the pledge before you got here is that true it is true well i appreciate you being willing to improv with us and go with the flow you did a great job so you are 13 years old yes and what school do you go to lakeland highland middle school very nice and you're in eighth grade correct and what is your favorite subject in school agriculture and aerospace as well as world history very nice

003so what do you want to be when you grow up something with technology all right i think we have some open it departments so and i see our our director cheering a little bit up here so be sure to talk to her before you leave so what do you like to do in your free time uh i like to do video games very nice i like it well thank you again so much for joining us do you have people with you here today yes i do i have my mother stepfather and sister very nice can you guys stand up for us thank you so much for bringing max well thank you again max and you may have a seat we appreciate you very much all right and our first order of business is to accept

004the august 16th 2022 school board agenda superintendent hyde are there any revisions madam chair members of the board members community staff there are two changes item b 2 b is in boy kids tag art check presentation we're removing that item it unfortunately was scheduled for the wrong evening and item l4 annual equity report there are updated attachments and just to go ahead and address the issue at this point dr allen as you know during the workshop had asked a question specific to that item as it related to the data being reported as mr warren was able to clarify there is a specific time period in which the department asks us to pull that data set and that's why that number is different than the total number of actual administrators that we have so that addresses

005the disparity between the two data sets thank you madam chair that concludes any changes thank you superintendent hyde and i'll seek a motion to accept the school board agenda as revised so moved second miss fortney and miss fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and i will now hand it over to superintendent hyde for special recognitions yes ma'am madam chair members of the board first i'd like to ask school board member miss lisa miller to step down for special recognitions at this time i'd like to ask angela usher assistant superintendent for facilities and operations to please come forward for special recognition good evening i'm so pleased this evening to introduce to you our maintenance department management staff these are the people

006that do the daily maintenance infrastructure repair minor construction and all district-owned facilities which total over 17 million square feet and about 1600 or more buildings and they accomplished this with a staff of only 174. last year we completed almost 50 000 work orders i want to thank them personally i really appreciate them very much i want to thank them and their spouses and their family so you guys stand up and come up because i really really want to recognize them for the good job that they do mr dwight marsh who's the director of maintenance services he will introduce the various service managers and talk about a little bit more about our responsibilities in that department thank you mike how we doing thank you mr hyde letting us have to be here and the board appreciate

007you all for what recognizing us thank you but anyway we uh i'd like to just tell you which the gentleman's how long they've been with the system right quick and then we'll and then we'll go over what they do and i got we got portable and fencing and rachel and richard takes care of the portables and all the fence that we do i will go over the port we moved already this year we moved 65 portables right now we got 28 more coming that we're leasing and and the growth keeps growing and we keep putting portables in so and i just want to appreciate them too for working hard that they're doing and and all the managers take care of putting the portables on the actual land so we'll catch that as we're going but

008uh we got winter haven shop tim smith he's been with the system 27 years and he's been a been a service manager for 16. tim takes care of the winter haven area the winter haven area goes all the way from record highway oh he takes care all the way to ridge career center they're only at the k-8 up on the other side of i-4 and he has about 27 men most average shop takes around 26 to 28 people so they all take care of we can't care about 140 or 50 schools and then we have about 12-15 facilities that we take care of next gentleman will be uh dennis bolton he's our youngest just started on and he takes care of he uh he's been with the system 16 years but he's been a manager

009just about a year he's not finished yet so he's doing a great job and he takes care of the bartow air he goes all the way from alturas and garden grove all the way to fort meade so he takes care of the south south area and the next gentleman would be lake wales be scott hancock he's on he's been doing he's another he's another newer newer service manager he's two years into it he's been with the system 13 but he's doing a great job he takes care of the ridge all the way from from frost proof all the way to i-4 and it that's a long way to be a part he got a lot of a lot of travel time for his men but he's doing a great job l6 is the next one

010that's at the southern end of lakeland and mulberry is sunny boy yet he's been a he's been a manager for 21 years and he's been here 31 years and he said he's got one more to go [Laughter] yeah then uh the north you carry here we have one that didn't show up at el fort shop that's the north area up there he goes all the way to the lake gibson all the way down to padgett and he's been with us he's a newer shop manager also he's been here 24 years as a tech and he's been a one-year manager next one is james cobb he's been with the system 28 years he's he's a 19 as a manager but james cobbs take care of of the 17 million square feet he's from from bartow to

011all the way to the ridge i mean he i think he had 28 guys missing eight so he's doing a great job i mean that's a big deal right now in august and he's not a he's a pretty busy man but he's not popular [Laughter] especially mine anyway but uh the next shot we have is keith i don't think he showed up today his wife's actually under the weather a little bit and he takes care of all the heavy equipment operation the whole he's the whole county also he takes care he has the dump trucks and the loaders and he takes care of all the retention ponds that we take care of every retention pond we mow him and and he does a good job there he's been a manager of 13 years and he's

012been working here 42 years so he does a great job but we just want to show a few or just say a few things that these gentlemen take care of oh yes they are they do some work done harold harold hamby is he's the maintenance planner he's in the office with me ryan's my secretary and uh and tracy there no don't throw nothing out of them they're doing the much worse than they they're the dispatch girls the one that y'all talked to and we have chris hannah he's a planner in the office also then we have an energy department these two guys are three of them and they go out every night just about and they go to ever they try to go to every problem they look for lights on left on and they

013turn them off they look for monitor monitor we have a cooler freezer in every school and they monitor they look at them ever on a computer and by them watching them we and we save a lot of money by them being out and they go out ever and they go out on the holidays and they go out on the weekends and these gentlemen also these five or seven gentlemen they take a call on vacation they take a call on holidays they take a call on hurricanes they they work 24 7 really and they do a great job and they will and we have 174 men that make these men look good and women and if what for them guys out there and women working so well we wouldn't look like we do and we're doing

014doing a good job as a whole i believe but these also they take care of plumbing electrical carpentry minor construction pond maintenance ac maintenance repair portables safety and security and we also work with the safe schools hand in hand keeping a a one-way in and keeping them out to keep the people out and they work real well with that and we have locksmiths and we have back to we monitor all the acs and that's back going with the uh the energy guys they take care to make sure that electric uses monitoring temperatures in the building we we monitor a lot of things it's it's a modern thing but it's coming good and we also take care of all the stadiums we have uh we have 69 ball fields and we take care of every one

015of them lights on the pole and uh so it's a big deal and and then we take care of the you know they got concession stands and they got so we do have a lot of a lot of things we take care of 174 people it is a lot of work in place but i'd like to say thank you to all these guys here that work hard and they're guys working hard i hope you tell them in the morning that we appreciate them and uh i believe that's it anybody wants to see something yeah you wanted to manage yours ryan really the spouses are here and i want to thank them so much because like these guys come out i would call 2am in the morning and they'll answer and they'll respond and take care

016of the problem i really appreciate them being recognized this evening i really am honored to be working with them and i thank them personally so what a couple last things board members i'll share a quick story so the first day of school or leading up to the first day of school i think it's important that we do acknowledge all of our employees and and this department really shows their level of commitment so we had a high school i was visiting their campus they had recently mulched their campus and it looked really good but the principal pointed out that he had not been mowed yet and when he notified these gentlemen and their shops the fact that they had been mowed managers left their offices got the mowers showed up to schools and started cutting the

017grass that is the level of commitment and the culture we need to continue to sustain and create here because they did not think of themselves first they put our schools and our community first and they should be commended so that was doug dodson and his johnny johnny baxter and johnny baxter so they deserve a lot of credit but i will tell you that that's only one story the level of commitment all of these individuals show and i'm pleased that and just to let the board know not only being recognized here tonight but each each one of our shops was given an allocation this year from some of our donated funds that i receive so that they can actually host some luncheons for their staff to say thank you they deserve that they work extra hours

018they're everywhere if i'm visiting schools if i stop at a racetrack i see one of our trucks somewhere and it's listen it's a cheap thing to buy somebody a hot dog a slice of pizza or a soda but we can't thank you enough and again we continue to grow your departments have not we're looking to address that as you know but you have done an amazing job and if you want to see just how hard they work and their input is absolutely crucial and they're trying and we've committed to having them at the table before we build because their insight and their input is invaluable for example we've built schools and we've not put the right boiler in and some of the boilers we've put in now are incredibly difficult to find parts for if

019not impossible so these individuals provide us that input so we can establish commonality so that's best they're in the best possible position to support our schools but from everything from supporting in ensuring our infrastructure is there to installing overhangs and lighting all the things that make the magic happen every day so thank you dwight thank you angela thanks to everybody else i'm so happy you're here tonight appreciate y'all [Applause] that's a picture there now i'd like to ask dr debra wright principal mclaughlin 612 to please come forward she will recognize and provide recognition for the lincoln cdc donation hi my name is alyssa esposito and i'm a ninth grader at mclaughlin yes a 9th grader at mclaughlin i am here today to thank one of our community donors lincoln cdc has created opportunities for our

020students to learn and grow in ways that go beyond the classroom their donation afforded our school the opportunity to purchase an embroidery machine for our campus this machine will allow students to work with businesses in the community to create business plans logos shirts and embroidery projects it creates a cohort among digital art classes our esc program and the surrounding community of lake wells one day it may even help students have more affordable options as uniforms and school merch can now be made in-house our school prides itself on creating many opportunities for students to grow and explore their interests and i am proud to be a student at mclaughlin this donation helps the school help me become a more whole and complete member of society thank you again to our lovely lincoln cdc donors the school

021and myself greatly appreciate your donation and support as a token of our appreciation we have a small thank you gift for the organization as we work together as a school and community students like me can rise higher and reach our fullest potential and catch the phoenix after all as we are ignited by fire we rise higher [Applause] i was told i had to be the one to speak i just wanted to thank dr hudson and the students and staff at mclaughlin middle school mclaughlin middle high school now i'm so excited to hear that our organization was organized for the purpose of helping to redevelop some of our communities in lake wales we're so proud to invest in polk county schools and to our students in lake wells and mclaughlin middle school and so we didn't

022expect to be recognized tonight but we're so happy that our students are going to be able to invest in themselves and have an opportunity at a trade beyond high school so thank you thank you [Applause] board members i believe i've shared some of this information with you but i i again i started off the school year visiting schools i had the pleasure of visiting with dr deborah wright hudson and one of the things that i need to to share with you is that initially we had projected that they would likely retain 60 to 70 percent of their current eighth grade enrollment and they had approximately 135 students at that time in eighth grade dr deborah wright hudson has informed me that they have over a hundred ninth graders attending their campus right now and more

023registering each day so they have done a great job building that culture and retaining those students and that's outstanding for all of us because you know the growth potential that's in that community that's one of the reasons we needed to have this option was to prevent overcrowding at winterhaven and other areas and kudos to her and her team for doing an amazing job so finally i'd like to bring cheryl joe senior director for professional development forward to recognize our usf masters cohort mr high board chair miss wyatt it is more than an honor and a pleasure that i introduce uh some dynamic young women and young men who are going to be the future of polk county schools and i am so proud of the partnership that we've had with the university of south florida

024when mr high said let's continue this movement and grow our own he didn't have to say it but once i got on the phone and talked to usf and i talked to all of the folks to get them here and then we decided let's bring them in first and then bring them in when they graduate so as the literacy group comes up these young men and young women will be getting their master's degree fully paid for with the investment of the superintendent and the school board and the district and all books and supplies will be covered for this group the first and they're going to come up and when they come up they'll come in a semi-circle we have anna adida from horizons okay we have mary basin from mulberry senior high we have jason

025bowen from rochelle school of the arts we have alexis claibo from eastside elementary we have dejuan davis from real academy we have danielle dole from sandhill elementary lake region i'm sorry she doesn't want elementary lake region high glasgow from sandhill elementary emily gulley from kathleen senior aerospace academy rebecca holik from combi academy of design and engineering we have rebecca i mean jessica mellon from winston academy of engineering we have cinnamon passo from watson elementary we have emily stevens from cleveland court elementary we have christina thorwigan from lake alfred polytechnic and do we have sarah tic tac from mulberry senior high as you can see they span every school board district and they are there were over 200 applications for these masters you're looking at the best of the best and they are doing our literacy

026masters of reading and they're going to give back to the future of our boys and girls here in polk county schools thank you and we'll i would like to call up dr jennifer snyder and she's going to introduce her staff who will be leading this cohort i can't say enough about is this one i can't say enough about miss joe and what she's done in the partnership she's created between usf and polk county it's really amazing i've been at usf for 26 years and i haven't seen anything like it so we're thrilled to be working with you and can't wait to get this new group of teachers we love the last group and so my colleagues here are jim king anne-marie gunn and lindsay parson who's one of your own and i have other colleagues

027they're not all here tonight but we are thrilled to be working with your teachers and look forward to our future together thank you thank you [Applause] madam chair members of the board that concludes special recognition this evening oh sorry we have sorry we have the at leadership i did not i forgot you had two groups i apologize uh uh not that we say the best for last but since i an ad leadership person so michelle joe is correct while they make their transition up here i will commend her i did make mention to her that i wanted to see us continue the legacy uh that my predecessor established by creating this pipeline opportunity michelle joe is absolutely correct she took it and ran with it in fact she had to chase me for three months

028to get a final commitment because i had to identify funding and everything else to go with it but absolutely thrilled that we're continuing to invest in our own in creating pipelines to support our students so mr cheryl joe i apologize but i wanted to make sure i added that thank you i also want to thank andrew baldwin andrew worked with us and i called him all the time and he all he never said no and we worked together for getting this funding and the whole staff at the federal grants has assisted in making this possible so i want to give a shout out to andy at this time i want to introduce we have a couple of them that are not here we have some dynamic young men and women who will be leading our

029schools in the next few years and i can't say how proud i was to we interviewed we had 200 applications we interviewed 50 in each cohort to narrow it down we only had 15 slots so you're looking at the future board that you're looking at and miss feels they're going to be at kathleen once a month doing uh they are going to be working uh wednesday nights online and kathleen face to face uh on saturdays and they start this saturday so i'd like to introduce larry atchison from codwell elementary tanya bowen from eagle lake elementary kylie childress from bartow middle patricia edgecombe from pope virtual school we have precious ferguson from lake alfred polytech and i know your principal came to support you alvin hannan hannah jr from fort meade middle senior high he's going

030to be the superintendent one day jeremy henry dixon from davenport high he's out sick today jordan jones uh had a was that the one whose daughter got in a car um got hit she's okay but um coming from school but she is fine and jordan is at lakeland senior high school a dynamic young man larry kinsler from boone middle aaron lavelle from lawton child's middle cla kristen luper from willow oak lillian nat moon is from stan ball middle melissa rivera from palmetto elementary amy rivera cintron from lake lakeland highlands middle and kimberly sampson from bartow senior high these are our ed leadership masters and i am so proud and i would like to introduce dr reck she is the dean for usf's at leadership department okay we'll tell the president if you'll tell the other

031dean that'll be great i i'm actually dr breon reck i am the the coordinator of our masters in educational leadership program and i had the honor of interviewing these folks and reviewing that as well as the other folk um this is an extraordinary group of of educators their commitment their their intelligence is going to to serve this district well and we're very excited about the partnership that we're continuing with with polk county um it's a it's a very special thing for us and we're looking forward to to helping support their growth and and seeing what they were able to do for you for your students as we move forward we do have several other folks um dr gonzalo gosto is is our department chair for our educational leadership and policy studies program and dr jennifer

032neal who's one of our other faculty members so they are are here today to to welcome these folks and they will begin their classes on saturday so they're getting ready to get started so thank you again for the partnership and we look forward to to working with these young folks congratulations everyone [Applause] madam chair that truly concludes special recognitions for this evening thank you superintendent hyde and if you were could hear them in the hallway they are a good time too so they were having a party um so we will now move on to public comments so our before we begin i would like to welcome the public and go over our public comment process and the opportunities for this evening we will have three opportunities for public comment this evening the first will be

033for items on this evening's agenda to be voted upon the second will be during the public hearing for public hearing topics and at the end of the meeting we will have an additional opportunity for public comment on items that are not on this evening's agenda to register 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 give your name for the record all comments should be directed to myself as the board chair as a reminder public comments are an opportunity for us to hear your thoughts and comments this is not a question and answer session however if you are

034seeking additional information we encourage you to contact any of us or the superintendent's office outside of board meetings and we would be happy to have deeper conversation before we begin deputy vaughn offered to be my guinea pig tonight for our on deck box so i will call your name when you are on deck in next in line and you will come and stand in this lovely red box that they've taped out for us so thank you deputy vaughn you are a great model all right so we have one speaker for agenda items and that is andy crossfield hello my name is andy crossfield i live in lakeland florida and i hope i haven't misinterpreted the agenda item but madam chair first of all i wanted to point out that most of the public wants to

035have every classroom with a competent teacher and uh after seeing all the people that you are already planning on in the future i'm i'm much more comforted by that because it looks like you're planning for the future with all these people who are going to be filling the slots for the educators um and i also know that this is an election year and you guys didn't sign on for all the the furore that you're having to live through with the campaigns but we support you you do a wonderful job you have the best interest of the kids at heart and so i'd like to join with everyone else in the audience who's still here that that supports the school board and thanks you for the job that you're doing appreciate it all right the next

036item on the agenda will be approval of the minutes we have two sets of minutes to approve the first will be for the july 26 2022 school board meeting and i will seek a motion to approve so moved miss fortney and dr alan any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signal by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries our next set of minutes will be for the july 26 2022 work session i'll seek emotion so moved second miss miller and miss fortney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signal by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next on our agenda will be the consent agenda and i will seek a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second miss fortney and miss fields any discussion seeing

037none all those in favor please signal by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries superintendent hyde would you like to introduce our new administrators i would we have several new administrators that hopefully are here present with us this evening with their family members or spouses their loved ones or just support from their from their newest school assignment and if they are here please come forward we'd love to be able to recognize you individually and also give you an opportunity to say a few words to the board we're going to begin with melissa browning assistant principal fort meade middle senior has been promoted to principal at spook hill elementary school [Applause] opportunity to serve the students and staff and community of spook hill on lake wells it is like a homecoming i actually was

038at spook hill six years ago so enjoying it very much and um loving getting reacquainted with my staff and my students and my parents and looking forward to a productive year so thank you so she shared to me i visited her school on the first day or at least the second day um and one of the things she shared with me that she did not get a standing ovation when she was introduced to her staff but the new dean of discipline was did so uh clearly we made the right appointments there but again we commend you it's it's i was thrilled to make the recommendation for the appointment um i think you've demonstrated your capacity there in the past we expect you to help us rise and elevate that school yet again and we're here

039to support you so thank you so much you're doing an amazing job this week thank you i hope to not disappoint [Applause] next we'd like to bring up mr kenneth hinkle assistant principal two at citrus ridge who's being promoted to assistant principal at laurel elementary [Applause] i appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve polk county school district thank you do you have any family here with you this evening uh not this evening okay we want to make sure they stand and be recognized as well so thank you very much sir we're excited for you they're going to take a quick picture of you and good luck thank you [Applause] robert holby assistant principal at winterhaven is being promoted to assistant principal winner sorry let me rephrase that he is a level two assistant principal at

040winter havens being promoted to assistant principal at winterhaven high school [Applause] and i believe it's dr holby my notes don't have that but it is and it was usf so you deserve that regulation so good for you i want to say thank you for the opportunity to serve i'm looking forward to having a great year at winter haven this year i think we've we've got everything set up to run well it's personal in my heart my son was just graduated there so pray for me he's at ucf this year but we're gonna have a great time out there you and i spoke after the graduation last year asked how you held it together because my son graduates in a few years and i don't know that i will you will because you've spent all of

041this time preparing him you'll be you'll be fine well i've had the pleasure of working with you for over a year and so thank you and congratulations well deserved thank you sir [Applause] cornell kirkendall assistant principal level 2 at southwest middle has now been promoted to full assistant principal at southwest middle good evening and i want to start off by thanking everyone for this opportunity to continue to serve the students at southwest middle school and i have my principal sybil odom jackson here with me tonight as well as my husband and i want to thank her as well as my previous principal johnny jackson for their guidance and their support throughout this journey and my husband for putting up with these long hours that i work every day and it just so happens that i

042am a graduate of the first usf kathleen cohort for educational leadership so i think that that is a huge investment thank you well as you know middle school has a special place in my heart people just don't know but it is absolutely hands down in my opinion the best grade level to serve um they come in they're quirky they're different they're unique and they mature and they argue about everything but at the end of the day you love them up and they do an amazing job for us would your husband please stand and your principal please stand to be recognized they deserve that [Applause] congratulations thank you miss cassandra peters was present was previously an esc center administrator for hillsborough county she's a new hire here to polk county and she has been assigned as

043director for esc curriculum charter schools and private schools i wore heels so i could talk through this i knew that i would have to speak or say something but first and foremost i just want to say thank you for the opportunity for being able to come here and to continue to serve children believe it or not this is my 25th year and i'm still excited to be in education my kids love it here they started at lakeland highlands middle and they love the transition so i am grateful and thankful for the opportunity to serve you all and my husband my wonderful husband daryl peters is here and both of my beautiful children emma and max hall who got looped into saying the pledge today and you did an awesome job buddy thank you guys thank

044you congratulations so members of the board you know we knew this day was coming that cheryl joe had indicated her her interest in in dedication to retiring after countless years of service and you've heard multiple people give her recognition well deserved but it's time to replace miss cheryl joe and so at this time it's my absolute pleasure to introduce jennifer rouse senior coordinator for professional development she is being promoted from within as to senior director for professional development thank you so much board members thank you superintendent hyde thank you mr mcnaughton for the opportunity to serve as senior director of professional learning um god has given me the gift to and the faith to do what i love for the last 23 years and i am forever thankful to him i am extremely proud to

045stand before you this evening as someone who was born and raised in polk county um who has lived here my whole life and now i'm raising my own fabulous family here and my children carter and jessa my parents who are with me in spirit were my first teachers who raised me to believe that with god all things are possible and i am forever grateful for that um the spark to become an educator was ignited uh for me by numerous teachers as i traveled through paget elementary as a student then churchwell elementary when it was um built um and then lake gibson middle school and then lake gibson high school go braves um once a brave always a brave um and after interning in polk county schools i landed at kathleen elementary with my first principal

046karen kemp who has long been retired but she was the kind of leader that looking back i was blessed to learn and grow under early in my career so i have to thank her tonight as her relentless pursuit of excellence for her students her i expect high expectations for every minute of instructional time she fed her teachers through ongoing meaningful professional learning and motivated them through feedback and praise um other leaders like kathy conley lana tatum kathy reilly debbie henderson encouraged coach personally impacted me as well over the years and helped navigate me uh to this point and then there's cheryl joe who has been my leader and mentor for the past 12 years uh her leadership has modeled integrity empathy courage respect and a sincere passion for the school district her vast experiences and

047her skill set are admirable and her dedication to this district has positively impacted thousands thank you cheryl for providing me guidance support and the autonomy to take on big responsibilities and for showing me that my work will speak for itself thank you for never settling for anything less than excellence and for being the most encouraging honest ethical and fearless leader i've ever worked for and then finally it is our professional and ethical responsibility as educators to learn reflect improve and have a positive impact on kids and i'm proud to work with the tremendously talented educators in the professional development department who model and choose excellence and set standards for others to follow they are selfless they're driven they're student-centered leaders that i learn with and love every day we will work tirelessly tirelessly mr hyde

048to develop and support teachers in our district because we believe that great leaders and great teachers create great students we will be relentless in putting students first and supporting superintendent hyde's goals and once again thank you for the privilege to serve in this capacity i do not take it lightly and i look forward to the journey thank you so i do not believe miss rouse was here during workshop and i'm going to urge her not to watch the video on strategic plan goals one and two because your department is listed in almost every cell so we're not asking you to do everything by yourselves i'll talk with you later about this but congratulations i think the fact that the whole team turned out says a lot about our replacement and our decision to hire ms

049rouse next i'd like to introduce miss patricia trejo program planner for hispanic and latino studies from palm beach county schools she is a new hire here to polk county she is a polk county product her family continues to reside here she had a sincere interest to return to polk county she did an amazing job interviewing for the director of esau and it's my privilege to recommend you for appointment thank you so much school board members good evening my name is patricia trejo thank you chair board member sarah beth i am so delighted to be a part of the polk county public schools family as a former esau migrant student myself who attended arbendell elementary stambaugh middle school and arbandal high school and then had the honor of come of coming back and being inducted into

050the hall of fame and then also served as a teacher back in 1999 here in polk county it's just an absolute honor and a privilege to come back and serve the great school community of polk county public schools that had such a positive impact on me and so i'd like to thank you all for this incredible opportunity i'd like to thank the florida association of latino administrators and superintendents the national association of latino administrators and superintendents as well as my family my husband jose rodriguez and my parents fernando gloria trejo for their incredible ongoing support thank you thank you congratulations i will read off the administrative moves if these individuals are here in the audience i would ask them to stand and please be recognized melissa bearden assistant principal from garden grove elementary school has

051been transferred to be assistant principal at spook hill elementary school congratulations miss angela birdsong dean at stambon middle school has been promoted to the acting assistant principal at southwest middle school jessica gavin teacher from garden grove elementary has been promoted to the acting assistant principal at garden grove elementary katherine gaimont school-based coach at lake alfred polytech has been promoted to acting assistant principal at lake alfred prolly technical academy no okay is it kiva lark assistant principal from mclaughlin middle has been transferred to now be assistant principal at lake marion creek nadia lewis former kathleen elementary school principal is now a new hire as acting principal at stevens elementary alexander mclucky assistant principal at highlands grove has been permitted to acting principal at lewis elementary school brenda norquist school-based coach at sleepy hill elementary school has

052been promoted to acting ap at highlands grove elementary [Applause] shin palagano behavior specialist district wide has been promoted to acting assistant principal at lawton child's middle heather palmer assistant principal at spook hill elementary has been transferred to auburndale central elementary in the same role as assistant principal tina ramsey school-based coach from mclaughlin middle has been promoted to acting assistant principal at mclaughlin middle amy santangelo assistant principal at highland city elementary has been transferred to assistant principal at valley view elementary chaubray timmons principal at spook hill elementary has been transferred as assistant principal at highland city elementary ingrid van assistant principal at jesse keene elementary has been transferred to assistant principal at crystal lake elementary alexandra wise principal at lewis elementary has been transferred and is now principal at elbert elementary [Applause] and brett i'm so

053apologetic i believe it's is it we're sima where is zima brett wiersema teacher at blake academy is being promoted as the acting assistant principal at mobile mulberry middle school you know coming from south florida i know all the hispanic last names when i was in the midwest i knew all of the european names that come here and there's a whole new challenge so thank you very much congratulations to all of you and thanks everybody for coming out to support superintendent hyde can we get a picture can we get a picture of those that are the lateral transfers that were here on that list you just called if you'll come up to the front i will say too i've already heard from a few of their schools that are super excited that they're there um so

054for all of you thank you for the hard work that you're doing and and all that's the good that's happening in our schools because of you all right thank you ladies and our next item on the agenda is our action agenda so q1 will be the naming of spessard holland elementary's specified holland elementary's media center in honor of melody butler and i will seek emotion so moved second i have miss cunningham and miss fortney any discussion miss fortney i would like to uh first say how i'm going to miss this woman but she has great things coming toward her and um are you going to call them up here while i read this i can i will call them up there here while you read this melody if you and your your family which i

055think maybe much of the audience would like to come up to the front come on gators i see all of you you can just keep walking down sir beth chair is that what you want me to do yes please go ahead in june melody butler announced that she would be retiring after 40 years of service with polk county public schools 14 years ago mrs butler was responsible for opening spesard holland elementary and each year since she has displayed outstanding leadership through her efforts specific highland elementary has become known for its positive school culture with students and faculty who are dedicated to academic excellence her unwavering devotion to her students and staff has been a shining example for others she has influenced generations of teachers and school leaders to follow her lead and leave a lasting

056impact on our community she is a tireless volunteer and supporter of community service projects mrs butler for mrs butler learning extends beyond the classroom and caring for others knows no limits spesard holland elementary is proud to rename its media center in honor of melody butler before i'm incredibly humbled by this honor being bestowed upon me everyone who knows me as a leader knows that i'm a community person a collaborative leader and that everything i do is with a together approach that we accomplished so much more than as an individual thank you superintendent from the first year we opened 10 teachers short and probably 500 students over what we were expected to open with uh to a two la two-hour long car line where the loop wasn't big enough to start with to this year when

057we were one point away from a b and the third highest learning gains in polk county schools and missed second by one point it was a team effort i am nothing without those that i surround myself with and those that trust me to lead them i'm incredibly thankful for the many relationships that i've developed down through the years many in this room in the short time thank you superintendent hyde school board members i will support you uplift you in prayer and continue to move forward with efforts to support polk county public schools that's near and dear to my heart dad thank you for being the first college graduate in your family our family and valuing education so that all of your children grandchildren have degrees and advanced degrees he started it all following the leading

058of his heart to come to florida at a later age to southeastern university to become a minister and moved us here in seventh grade and we pulled in a memorial boulevard back in the days and i thought where has my dad taking us to this god forsaken place because i was from a little country town in kentucky but you know what god knew what he was doing and all things have worked out beautifully for my family mom your tireless efforts to support us as a family see that we had family dinners together around the table and still at 81 gets those sunday dinners together for all of us to be together as a family their culture the values that they've instilled in me has made me who i am today and the leader that i

059wanted to be and thank god i've been able to be mallory daniel juliette i love you i'm incredibly proud of all of you as educators carla daryn's at a concert saving seats for us he would have been here but carla thank you for being here i love you my husband wow he's mowed the grass especially planted flowers yeah brought me a frappe which is known as my drug of choice or sweet tea when i'm like stressed out over something thank you mike tyler what an educator you are continue to shine russ and april thank you for what you do for pinewood elementary for westwood there's nothing better than changing the lives of children for the better and that's what the school district is all about i've said enough thank you special holland elementary from 2009

060until today it is what it is and have full faith that it will continue to be a great place for children thank you all right and while he's getting your picture we do officially need to vote so all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries congratulations and thank you melody all right and the next item on our agenda is non-union salary increases and i will seek a motion to approve the non-union salary increases as presented so moved dr allen second second i'll take a second on that did i call him miss fourtney with the the motion and dr allen with the second there we go any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries the last

061item on our action agenda is the hazel mental health contract and i will seek a motion to approve the hazel mental health contract to provide on-demand mental health and medical teletherapy tele-appointments and crisis response services second miss fields and miss fortney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries i will now open the public hearing for our policy updates and we do not have any cards for comments on the public hearing right first i will seek a motion to approve the updates to board bylaw 100. so moved second miss fortney and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries number two will be a motion to approve the updates to board

062by law 161 parliamentary authority and i will seek a motion to approve second miss fortney and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next we'll be emotion i'll seek a motion to approve the updates to board bylaw 165.1 the agenda so moved second miss fortney and miss fields any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries four i'll seek a motion to approve the updates to to policy number three one two zero employment of instructional staff move approval second 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 and last but not least i

063will seek a motion to approve the updates to policy number 5610 removal out of school suspension disciplinary placement and expulsion of students so move second dr allen and miss forney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and superintendent hi do you have a report for us yes ma'am i do sorry got moved madam chair members of the board the next work session on board me will be held on september 6 2022 the work session will begin at 12 30 p.m and the board meeting will begin at 5 pm both meetings will be held at the jim miles professional development center located at 4270 wallace road in lakeland we are just as an update getting incredibly close to being able to return back

064to the bartow office they began installation today of the last remaining components that were necessary in order for us to record and broadcast and do everything else we need to do so i'll provide you a weekly update as i have done previously and then we'll obviously provide an update to the community should this date and location change i do not believe that this date and location will change because of the topics that are involved might require i believe there's a public hearing on the 16th so i believe as we've discussed with miss winchester and others it may be more appropriate for us to host it here however just to be cognizant i wanted to provide the board with an update as to the status of the previous meeting room thank you superintendent and next will

065be attorney bridges thank you madam chair i don't have anything that requires board action tonight but i would like to announce an attorney-client session florida statute 286.011 subparagraph 8 allows the school board to meet privately with its superintendent and council to discuss matters that are the subject of pending litigation and i have a need to speak with you we will set that up at a an upcoming board meeting likely the september 6th meeting and that requires an advertisement in which we will we will name the date the names of the people present it will the entire matter will be taken down by a court reporter and the transcript will become public record at the close of the litigation but we will set that up during a board meeting it's been a while since we've had

066one of those and i'll and i'll walk you through that when we get there but i i am required to announce it publicly before we before we advertise so i've taken care of that requirement thank you ma'am thank you mr bridges and we will now move to our board member reports and we will go backwards today and start with district 7. lisa miller thank you madam chair i don't i didn't realize uh i was so lucky today um i want to reference something that i'm hoping mr hyde will read but i wanted to bring it up in my board report um first of all i want to say back to school has been crazy fun it's been the car lines are backed up but i know we're all getting that worked out and i appreciate

067the staff that is staying late to make sure kids needs are met and coming early to make sure kids needs are met i need to talk a little bit today about disinformation and what that does to a community and what that's i've experienced personally if you haven't met me i'm not easily intimidated and that's you know just one of my personality traits but some disinformation has gone on about this book review that we've had and it's been so significant that my 76 year old parents have been harassed at home i've been harassed in public by someone from citizens for freedom or whatever the name of the group is telling me that my son is not autistic he is using words like that and i'm using it for my campaign what's being used for campaign as

068fodder about a policy that we already have we have a policy if you are interested in books that belong to your children's school you go to the school and ask for a committee meeting hearing it's always been our policy i follow the law there has been a review by a sheriff not our own sheriff sheriff eric flowers he will share that with you and much like me he might not like what he reads in those books but he understands it's not pornography and breaking the law if you would like to change the law i would love to help you work on a rating system nationally i think that's a phenomenal idea it does not exist us in polk county cannot create it on our own when you start banning books you will ban all the

069books the bible in every kind of form is in our libraries watch them come for that because you're trying to make a political statement these books have not been checked out these books are not available to elementary school students the disinformation is going to get somebody hurt so i'm asking if you want to talk about the books if you want to talk about our policy that you speak with facts and i hope our superintendent will help us with that letter with his response that was written today because what i'm afraid of is disinformation to people who may become dangerous because what they believe is we're here to hurt children and that is the saddest thing i've ever seen so um superintendent high would you like to read that letter now or later be more than

070madam chair if you would like to read it now you may just ma'am again it's it's a matter of bulleted facts so to address some of the concerns that have been expressed to us here in the public the board did address this issue publicly at the may 10th board meeting they addressed it fully at that time while it did not require a formal vote as shared by our school board attorney each board member spoke to the opt-out opt-in policy that i was recommending in advising and moving forward with the board as a majority did not support with upholding both policies i continued to attempt to bring that simply to show the board that to address some of the concerns that they had shared with me about confusing parents with multiple opportunities what does this mean

071for secondary students however the board did fully address this and provide me with direction on may 10th there are only 12 books truly in question while there were 16 books initially challenged four of the books were upheld completely by all parties all representatives including the representative from the challenging party the ccdf so four instances where even they upheld the retention of books so again we're only talking about 12 books contrary to the assertions by some none of these books are pushed on students in fact and it's all been foied previously and it's a matter of public record and i'd be more than happy to share it with anybody else the data shows that these books do not exist in all of our schools in fact they exist in very small numbers across the entire district

072and they are not represented or reflected in all of our schools there are a lot of false assertions being made one book in particular is limited to a particular high school it is the only book in existence in the entirety of the school district and it's at the high school level and yet many people have referenced that book because it's an it's illustrated and they've assumed that that's available to elementary age students it is not george drama two boys kissing and 13 reasons why were the four books that were fully authorized to be retained as i recall only the kite runner and beloved are recommended readings for advanced placement classes or high school level classes supported through college board we have always had and maintained a policy where parents can opt their children out of

073those reading materials and request an alternate reading assignment in regards to that with the understanding that we would have to find books with similar themes because that's how the advanced placement course is assessed not on the specificity of those two books but on specificity of some of the themes and topics that are addressed throughout that those novels five books have only been checked out excuse me five books have never been checked out in the last three to four years of the remaining twelve books nine books exist in fewer than seven of our schools and five books exist in just five schools three of the books exist on one campus and only one campus across the entirety of the district it is interesting and this has not been something that we've shared publicly but complaints were

074only filed with polk county public schools and not with any parochial private or charter schools i confirmed at the time of the book challenge that these books existed in their libraries we know this because they utilize our destiny management system and they report those books in their catalog to us when i inquired with their complaintants who were petitioning for the removal of the books why these books were not being challenged i was told that's coming soon and yet here we are 10 months later and there's not been any movement or request to remove those books from those settings many of which do not involve settings where or excuse me our public schools are not where many of the petitioners own children attend it's my understanding that at the time several groups have met with the

075comm then former commissioner of education or with the florida department of education who also decided and also shared that they would not recommend the removal of these books it's important that we understand that books that are associated or concerns associated with human growth and development our district no school district exceeds the threshold of the standards and benchmarks that are required to be taught by the florida department of education our school district does not adopt a curriculum for human growth and development independent of direction from the state of florida so i know there's a lot of issues out there and there's a lot of concerns out there as it relates to these books but there's also a lot of untold facts that need to be rectified and need to be continued to be messaged so that

076we all have a complete comprehensive understanding of what's actually happening in our schools as of this afternoon we've only had 42 parents opt out of the challenged books with an estimated 116 000 students in polk county public schools this year that equates to 0.036 percent of our families and i know that many are going to argue as they as we heard arguments initially that a lot of our families are not engaged and i would not disagree that there's a component out there families that we need to figure out a way to better engage them that's why we have an entire strategic plan goal that surrounds that but to assume that 99.6 of our families don't care about their children's education is a false narrative and it's disingenuous at best so finally the district does have

077a policy in place where books can be removed from the pub from our libraries this is not the policy of challenging books as we've spoken we have an obligation and we have a policy that's already within a board policy that allows our media specialist when we rephrase that that requires our media specialists to evaluate materials within their schools as i mentioned multiple of these books have never been checked out it is highly likely that in the next year or two those books may be removed from the library simply because of in no circulation or their age it's also important to note these books were not recently adopted the overwhelming majority of these books were adopted many many years ago these are not recent adoptions that exist within our schools and they're in limited quantities you

078know it's important for people to understand that and while i know that there's a strong feelings on either side of this issue the reality of it is we developed a process that allowed us to allow all books to be addressed simultaneously and remove that obligation from multiple schools to be done simultaneously throughout the year and i felt that that was an important process for us to do 65 percent of each committee were community-based members there was not stacked with district officials we did and we were very intentional in ensuring that there was somebody with early childhood development expertise and mental health background knowledge and psychology background so that we could address all of those disparate issues or needs so again in its totality we've addressed this issue thoroughly the board has provided directive we're providing

079the opt out at this time and we'll i'll continue to provide updates to the board into community meetings for the opt-outs we have had a handful of parents communicate that they had just received this communication as of two days ago or yesterday when the final update went out however we have been communicating the requirement and and provided all of the resources to parents including the instructional videos on how they can complete the opt-out process since august 3rd it's been messaged no fewer than four times since that date inclusive of that date it's important for us to remind remember that so if there's a family that says i need additional time we are somewhat limited in that however we'd be more than willing to have a discussion to see what accommodation can be provided the reason

080why we're limited is we're not allowing any distribution of materials until this process is completed because we need to ensure that all of our media specialists have a comprehensive list of all the choices selected by parents so that we ensure that that student doesn't get access to that book based off that parent's interest so ms madam chair and members of the board you know that that's a summary of the responses i've been providing to individuals over the last couple days you know i believe again we've operated transparently this is not something that we take lightly and i believe that we've offered great opportunity we far exceed what the state requires um in any law by offering parents an opt-out as you know we're actually a year ahead of schedule we were not required to provide

081a searchable format of the list of books at each school until the 23 24 school year we are one year ahead of that additionally we allow it's a searchable format and so parents not only have that but we've highlighted all of the books and some parents have contacted us very recently they spoke to stacey davis who oversees this department and said i went into my child's school and i don't see any of the books highlighted that were challenged that's simply because none of those books exist in your child's school now parents can choose to select other books and that's why we created this process was to empower parents to make an informed decision these books are not the only books that some parents may have find find troubling they may have personal religious or other

082beliefs within their household and we're supporting that so i think it's important to recognize we have afforded this option to everyone we've addressed it but there are other factors that need to be addressed openly because the reality of it is i think the misconceptions continue to be perpetuated out there that these books exist everywhere and that we're pushing these books on students and that's simply not the case the checkout history does not support that the distribution does not support that and so hopefully we can move past this issue and focus on what matters most which is educating our kids and continuing to see academic improvement madam chair thank you superintendent [Applause] i just have one follow-up to that this is actually much more parent pushing pushing parent involvement because there's only a few books most

083of them are not even at your kid's school but let's say something else is of your interest maybe you don't want your child in elementary school to read books on war because you're not ready for them to be exposed to that in their free time this allows you to go in and take care of any book that you don't agree with how would that be in opposition to parent choice that is what we want for parents who want them to be involved go into the destiny system and for the group i mean podcast um whatever i see that you have lots of things at your fingertips help educate the parents on what their rights are and what they can do to help keep keep their choice involved in their students curriculum or their students extracurricular

084activities because none of this is part of the curriculum but um i just want to say there is a solution to this and people based on solutions i think is how we've ended up here we've ended up here early people wanting to help fix this issue but campaign fodder is no more giving stu people disinformation is no more because it's not fair to the public and it's not fair to these school dis these schools that really work hard for your children thank you miss miller district five miss fields superintendent i told you earlier today that i think that was probably one of the best pieces that you've written as it relates to addressing an issue that we have before us have you thought about maybe doing a a frequently asked question in reference to some

085of the things that you have there and put it on the website so folks can can refer to that we had not but we can most certainly do that because we've had other questions come in and we've been addressing those and i want to give a lot of credit to our school level staff and stacy and others who have been directly involved in this and this has not been an easy task to accomplish um and i they deserve credit i mean the the process that we established we received countless calls asking us for copies of everything we did and how we approached it how we structured our teams for the committee structure and review and the rubrics and everything else because many other districts felt that the process we established was very thoughtful very intentional

086and quite honestly very thorough so they deserve a lot of credit this has not been an easy task for the department for i t miss pasco and her team to create the systems that allowed this to happen this was done in a matter of months and they deserve a tremendous amount of credit for making this happen but we have received a number of questions related to it especially for parents who never had a parent portal access before and i'm actually quite intrigued and we're going to do a data poll to figure out of all the parents who have contacted us how many did not have a parent portal account and i'm continually surprised by that because a lot of the information that parents typically rely on for orientation and back to school is all contained

087within the parent portal your tran your child's bus number their times their locations their stops their teacher their schedule is all in there very very early on in the summer so parents have that information at their fingertips so i think this is a good way to reinforce that quite frankly and we're going to continue to encourage and i've spoken with our communications director that and others that we've got to find other ways to ensure that parents are migrating to that process and that system because they can they can actually be far more engaged in their child's learning than ever before and so yes we would we can actually explore an faq to address and be able to um ensure that everybody gets the same answer to the same questions that we're getting i think the

088more information we can provide the better yes ma'am especially with all of the things that we have coming before us right now when we need to be focusing on making sure that our kids get a good start this school year and embrace the great work that our staff have been doing and i think that's getting lost in the mix uh i just wanted to again superintendent thank you for continuing the work that superintendent former superintendent jackie bird did as it relates to the master's courts program with usl i know we had i believe two classes before covet came and so now we're going to class three and that is great to know that we are building uh folks within our school district that can continue to carry the the torch and to provide us with

089the best education possible for our students so thank you for that and then i just wanted to say that we're excited about all of the things that's going to be happening this school year and griffin elementary is going to be having a celebration at the latter part of this month uh for making a c grade and i believe that all the board members will be getting an invitation if you haven't already gotten that uh please consider attending it uh i won't give the date you'll get the date on the uh invitation but uh just keep that in mind and i think that's all that i have miss hyatt ms wyatt thank you miss fields and next will be miss fortney well thank you fellow board member lisa miller for saying the obvious and superintendent hyde

090for uh your kind uh and accurate words i don't get to hear that much anymore and moving on retirees i want to congratulate everyone and thank you for your service all your recent retirees um i just can't say enough chair wyatt about the community leadership program of polk vision that has been uh on my mind and now it looks like it's coming out that's that's just awesome um i dig attend the davenport davenport high school uh the transportation training for our bus drivers in attendance that was very nice there was a lot of excitement in that room and i want to thank dr alan for allowing some of us to join in on the meeting with junior achievement and the possibility of biztown because uh again chair wyatt had me uh attend a couple of

091things and i did the tour as well and i see the value in that and i'm glad that we're moving forward great things to come um we did the summerlin military academy dedicated their activity room to mr j.j corbett i'm going to say out loud again miss fields i would hope that we get a school named after that great man i love being around him and his family i want to give a shout out to the staff and students of ib at bartow high school i think for the first time don't quote me on that they had a 100 percent passing rate on their diplomas um jesse king back to school bash that was fun uh lots of excited little families the gecko was there that was great um bobby williams steve warner bobby williams

092former student of mine i taught steve warner's son and they teamed up to do the uh the freedom tour and they did a teacher giveaway with our community liaisons in the northeast section there was the kid the teachers were just like kids going in and getting their stuff sarah beth was there with the chamber it was really a great event i mean they came back and had trailers like file cabinets cushy chairs uh you know office chairs um i had the pleasure of doing mclaughlin's orientation that was well done uh again very very excited uh for that another goal of prior superintendents is coming into a reality and then uh superintendent hyde and i actually showed uh were able to go to the guardian swearing in at sheriff's office that that was interesting uh and

093you know i cannot thank our uh our sros school resource officers and our guardians and they even had one sentinel sworn in that day so that was kind of interesting and i'm going to say one more time and i will not stop saying it pre-k through 12 public schools just do it better every student protected every family respected thank you that's my little report thank you miss fortney miss cunningham thank you madam chair i just want to welcome everybody back to the start of school it's an exciting time after superintendent hyde gave his school performance summary for this past year i know i'm very excited to see what the future brings i encourage all of our students to continue to read spend time doing your work stay focused as i tell kids stay out of

094nonsense and try to make this the best year ever because you've got the right teachers in place you've got the right administrators cafeteria workers bus drivers you name it the team is out there and ready to serve so blessings to all and i look forward to an awesome school year and thank everybody for coming back and being on the a team as i call it thank you so much and that concludes my report madam chair thank you miss cunningham and dr alan thank you madam chair if you missed our work session really uh get a chance to take a look at that some great big topics that we were working through i thoroughly enjoyed the agenda so well done and organizing that as we build our focus and initiatives moving forward from a visionary standpoint

095this evening you know we approved in our consent agenda the purchase of 32 school buses to replace within our fleet and i had a chance to briefly stop in during the in service you know my fellow colleagues were along with us as well miss miller and miss fortney were there hanging out so really thanks appreciate the invite to that in-service training for all the bus drivers and the attendants uh assistant superintendent rob davis appreciate the invite so you know just for fun um i spent some time on the fdoe site looking at the transportation profiles and i'm sure that's what we like to do in our spare time look at the transportation profiles of other districts as well as polk's district and and this is what i found out of the big seven polk has

096the highest percentage of enrolled students being transported and when i say the highest i thought it was pretty dramatic miami-dade with four percent broward four percent hillsboro 18 orange 12. polk had 28 of students enrolled being transported it's pretty amazing so i just want to say thank you to the bus drivers in attendance for the great work you do in transporting so many of our students safely to school each day especially as we launch into the new school year had a chance to roam through some orientations around the district the school starts been amazing during orientation by the way power went out at a couple of my district one schools and we had roaming dogs in the hallway it was quite fun but overall i mean it was so neat i mean one of the

097principals literally she was sitting in the hallway with a laptop you know engaging with students and just parents all around her um it was just amazing sight to see for sure um just really want to say thanks to district one principals you've carved out some short bits of time as i traveled around the district 22 schools within district one for the last few days so if i missed you i look forward to seeing you very soon and in conclusion a pencil and a dream can take you anywhere you want to go that's all i have for my report thank you thank you dr alan we did learn on our brief dinner break that he has a large pencil coming that you can actually write with so we have that to be looking forward to um

098just a couple quick things because most of mine have already been addressed but winter haven high school's cambridge program got their scores this week as well they had 761 exams passed last year 28 of those received an a which is the highest score that they can get 63 of our 2022 graduates earned their cambridge diploma which was 90 of the students in the program and most impressively i think is that 83 of their 2023 graduates have already earned their cambridge diplomas without taking any of their exams yet this year so yes that deserves some applause so they are working incredibly hard i'm excited for the opportunity to have um tinarock reporting some scores shortly as they start getting their their students graduated because they it takes a couple years to get there but so i

099just want to give a shout out to winter haven and their cambridge students last thing i just want to give a shout out to rob davis and our transportation department our friday update last week just with the first two days of school data in the first day of school and we know that buses the first couple weeks are always getting into their rhythm and running a little bit late first day of school we had 27 percent late in the morning 18 late in the afternoon by the second day of school they had already cut that down to under 15 in the morning and under in just over five percent for the afternoon which is a huge task and i've heard that they've just gotten better and better and better since then so i'm sure those

100are not numbers that you probably won't be sharing because they're still from day two but that is a huge jump for for our bus drivers and i know there's several that are running extra routes and that they're still short staffed so please send them our thanks for all that they're doing to get our kids to school on time [Applause] yes mr bridges when we were when we had a school bus case we ran the numbers and at that time i think we were running 600 school buses and they were driving about 9 million miles a year i'm sure those numbers have gone up i don't know if you have them uh off the top of your head rob but that's a huge undertaking and the logistics of what they do are just amazing they drive

101around the entire world twice every day millions of miles yes yes so with yes with that we will move on to our public comments on non-agenda items i apologize i switched to my notes so we will now begin with our public comments on for items not included on this evening's agenda just as before to register to speak community members must fill out a speaker card in the lobby prior to the meeting all speakers will be given three minutes the 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 community participation no immediate action will be taken on items presented during this public comment portion of the meeting if follow-up board action is required then the matter may be

102placed on the agenda at a subsequent meeting in accordance with school board policy and just as a reminder we have our lovely red box here for those of you on deck and i don't think we need deputy vaughn to demonstrate again um but that's the area that will ask you to stand if you're on deck so first we will have richard miller thank you all right and next we will have julie butler or sorry butler and then on deck is laura coyle yes ma'am all right hi my name is julie butler and my son is a student at valley view elementary valley view is a wonderful school with one of the highest ratings in the surrounding area but this may not be the case for long i am here today concerning the rezoning of the

103property next to valley view for a hospital on the corner of 540a and harold's nursery road this property is 29 acres and the zoning proposal is allowing for a facility of nearly a million square feet complete with helipad needless to say i along with many others are concerned about the impact this will have not only to our neighborhoods but to our school as well i would like to express a few of our concerns and invite you as a school board to take action to protect our school first negotiating traffic on 540a during car rider line is very difficult cars are backed up way past the turn lanes half on and off the road with vehicles zooming by way above the posted speed limit pulling in and out of the school is extremely dangerous the county

104report itself said a hospital in this area could increase the traffic up to a thousand percent second how are our teachers expected to teach and our kids to learn with sirens blaring and helicopters hovering overhead think about the children with special needs or high anxiety being exposed to that kind of stimulation on a daily basis third our children's safety just last week there were two attempted abductions of children on their way home from school near 5 48 with the increased foot traffic a hospital would bring situations like this would be more likely this property sits slightly higher than valley view and overlooks the grounds where our children play and has direct line of sight and access to school entrances off of harold's nursery road in this world where elementary school shootings and human trafficking are

105a real issue the visibility of our kids at school is something we should not take lightly these are only a few of the concerns that will directly affect valley view and as people entrusted with the well-being of our school your voice matters according to the county's own codes for school citing and planning policy 3.604 a7 polk county shall protect schools from the intrusion of incompatible land uses by providing the school board representatives the opportunity to participate in the review process for all proposed developments adjacent and in proximity to schools the time to act is now before the zoning is changed not after i'm working with others to organize awareness and community response at the october 5th hearing we also have a petition that at this point is over a thousand signatures most of whom are

106parents concerned for our school please sign the petition email our county officials your concern and show up to speak at the hearing more information can be found on our facebook page along with the counter reports at no hospital on 540a we would appreciate your support and thank you for considering our request thank you great next is laura coyle and on deck will be bob nicol madam chair just a quick because it was brought up we do have a representative that sits on that committee ms usher has assigned that individual so we're very much at the table for those discussions it's our understanding that the initial hearing is only for the land use that they'll have to be a subsequent application that's submitted to actually build true petition to build a hospital unfortunately the state of

107florida they did away with regulations previous that previously existed that required hospitals to justify based off density need and and other factors the reasoning for a hospital and that that is no longer the case so we only have so much we can contribute to that conversation but i wanted to clarify we do have a representative who sits on that committee thank you superintendent hyde miss coyle well this goes along with miss butler my name is laura coyle and i live on high ridge drive in lakeland and i'm one over the one of over 850 members of the no hospital on 540a group my two sons went to valley view and graduated from george jenkins high school and along the way they had the privilege of learning from some extraordinary teachers they were able to walk

108to school every day and when they were old enough it was safe enough for them to do so on their own their valley view and jenkins friends lived up and down both sides of harrell's nursery and peterson road and the general atmosphere of the area was one of family and neighborhood as educators i think that you will agree there is more to an education than simply what takes place in the classroom the environment and community around and within a school is a large part of a student's success or failure i am saddened that the next generation of students coming through valley view will not have these same experiences if a hospital moves in across the street it is a safe community and excellent schools which are the reasons why many parents have moved to the

109highlands area polk county is the fastest growing county in florida so development is inevitable however as a hospital placed in a residential area within walking distance of two schools really the best place for it for the school board as a whole i understand that you may have some reservations about speaking out against the hospital but at the end of the day it's the parents of the school children that elect the board members to your positions and from what they have written to me and i believe to you guys as well i think it's pretty clear that the vast majority are strongly against the hospital at this particular location due to its proximity to the school i have heard many times from parents that they wish the school board would take an active role in the

110situation it's my hope that at a minimum the school board will provide at least one representative at the october 5th zoning hearing and any further hearings regarding this land and that they will provide commissioners at each meeting with their concerns and those that they have received from the public regarding the proposed zoning change the school board has the right to be involved in the process even at this early point the polk county comprehensive plan under policy 3.062-a6 states polk county shall seek and consider school board comments on relevant comprehensive plan amendments and other land use decisions which may impact schools as provided for florida statutes these would be very easy items to comply with and will make it known to all parties involved that the school board is actively monitoring the situation and will do

111what they can to ensure that their voice is heard in the matter and that they are acting in the best interests of their students i believe the time is now to come off the sidelines and speak up for the families you were chosen to represent waiting until a zoning change occurs before getting evolves a mistake because once that door is open big business is going to do what they want without regards for our children we ask that you address this situation potentially at your september 6th agenda and i thank you for your time thank you thank you [Applause] bob nichol and on deck is carolyn holton good evening miss miller i love your heart and i'm disgusted disgusted at the slurs that have been hurled at you by the book banners i just wanted to

112say that tony morrison belongs on a library shelf not hidden behind a desk books are to be read not banned parents should have the right to decide what their child reads and i want to applaud super and support superintendent hyde and this board for standing up for those parents and the overwhelming majority of residents in polk county i also want to thank my fellow teachers and media specialists we've been threatened but we stand tall and if i could ask for just a few things this school year they'd be stop yelling at us stop saying we groom students and stop saying that we indoctrinate thank you carolyn holton and on deck is christy mccullough hi my name is carolyn halton um when my son was in fourth grade he was reading above grade level so his

113teacher wanted him to read independently some material that i didn't consider was age appropriate even though the books were right for his reading level i opted him out of several of the teacher selections as he got older the same books caused me no concern at all for him i don't feel the need to restrict the choices of other parents for their own children recognizing that kids have different backgrounds and levels of maturity i'm grateful that the opt out system we have worked for my child and i want to thank the district for keeping opt out alive i'd also like to reassure parents who have had opt out available but haven't used it yet that the policy worked as it should to let me limit my child to the books i felt were appropriate for him

114and it gives other parents the freedom to choose differently for their own kids keeping this policy in place isn't taking away our rights but we're making more people aware of rights we already had like mrs miller said so we can exercise them as individual families see fit i appreciate that mrs miller and mr hyde provided some additional information on this topic this evening thank you thank you [Applause] christy mccullough and on deck is joellen mcpeek christy mccullough 20-year teacher winter haven i first spoke to the board in 1998 my first year teaching it was kind of like speaking to statues i remember i actually spoke against using fund balance to fund teacher raises and i felt like it had no effect and ironically i just left a career as a cpa and i felt like

115i was now a math and physics teacher i felt like if i had said hey i'm a cpa i would have gotten more attention but i was just a teacher so i commented to somebody nothing ever seemed to happen at the meetings and i was told well the work sessions when things happened but the work sessions were during the day and i was in the classroom so kudos to all the district staff that have allowed us to now see the work session i watched from 2 30 on today and it's really informative just really see the discussions go on there thank you for making those available online board members seem to also know a lot about day-to-day operations i was seated with a former board member at a table at a charity dinner he asked

116why i wasn't teaching we needed physics teachers i said i had a daughter i wanted to say home i teach part-time didn't have that he said oh yeah we do we do no you don't not anymore his wife had to back me up she worked for the district she didn't by the way that might be a great idea to explore your pool of teachers for those people that want to work part-time not full-time i'm fortunate to be a teacher now in one of polk county's more than a hundred career academies very glad about that i teach a whole different set of skills florida standard crp04 tells me to teach students to demonstrate agribusiness employability and human relations skills including sub-standard .0301a demonstrate good listening skills 0.0303 b demonstrate interpersonal communication skills standard crp 090301 tells

117me to demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively employers tell us that rather than raw knowledge they need employees with the ability to work hard and work together i want to commend you guys the current board members the current superintendent the current executive staff you guys have an environment of cooperation and working together that i have not seen in many many years of watching these things webster defines teamwork is the combined action of a group of people especially when they are effective and efficient i want to commend the board members that recognize they are paid a full teacher salary and put in the hours to justify that salary i believe a student's work ethic is far more important to their future success than any state test score webster defines work ethic as the principle that hard

118work is intrinsically virtuous and worthy of reward many of you are available to parents teachers community members and will work to find solutions thank you i also want to thank pea and the district for working together instead of being two teams going to war in a time where everyone in education seems to be constantly criticized i wanted to take a minute or three to say thank you for what you do and for modeling the behavior the state says we should be teaching our students thank you thank you miss michael joellen mcpeek and on deck is robert goodman i am joella mcpeak i'm with lakeland florida a teacher at lake region high school a parent community member and back again and superintendent hi with your full explanation you've taken up many of my remarks i don't

119need to say half the stuff i need to say um the respon the remarks are repetitive that i had planned they've been very recovered the thoughtful and intentional process that we did for the book review was very good i came here tonight though specifically to thank you and i'm going to tag on to the speaker before me and the fact that that is what i notice that the air of cooperation collaborative work from all the board members from all the staff pea and working together for the betterment of our students and our schools and it is a breath of fresh air i know many members of the community parents and teachers contacted board members to express their opposition to the opt-in policy and as a result you took those concerns to superintendent hein who based

120on the voices of our family and community pulled the opt-in policy as you know i was opposed to opt-in and saw it as censoring material and fundamentally allowing others to impose their beliefs but you took that due diligence and looked at it from every angle before acting and i would have been happy with your decision if it had been against mine having done that same thing up that allows every parent to decide what is right for their child every voice is heard our parents are respected in their ability to parent speaking of every voice being heard i did catch the end of the work session today after hours and i wanted to highlight the story of sporks that story embodies the respect that this board shows to hear every voice in polk county public schools

121abu 9 a benign conversation overheard from a group of students led to action those students i bet feel respected they feel heard and that's very important and i like to commend every board member for collaborating with your many different perspectives coming to make decisions for the best of all of our students and families in every respect it has built a community that we're all proud to be part of thank you thank you robert goodman and on deck is joanne rube cahoon good evening i'm robert goodman from lakeland i represent a large group of parents and citizens who are disappointed with the accusations that were leveled here tonight the opt-in opt-out pro option that mr hyde had on the agenda for the workshop on july 26 was actually also recommended by our good sheriff grady judd

122what was recommended in that policy was not book banning it was not limiting parents options it was really nothing more than mirroring what is in place for movies that has been in place for 50 years children that do not have parents to look out for them and we fully believe in parents choice but many students don't have parents monitoring what they're doing this policy would have protected them just like those students couldn't go to an r or an x-rated movie if they were 13 or 14 years old investigative journalist kimberly moore identified that three of the four people who opposed the policy were up for re-election which is really suspect as to why the board did not take a vote that irresponsible move of putting these back books back on the shelf without parental consent

123is a blatant violation of florida statute it's not about what people feel it's about the law and it leaves polk school employees susceptible to being charged with a third degree felony superintendent hyde presented a resolution that protected children and it was a fair and it was a fair decision and we suggested it a lot of people wanted the books pulled from schools we did not want that you reversed the decision and it changed the constitutional duty to protect our kids then to hear the audacity tonight that someone was selecting violence against people we're not selecting violence we're selecting legal action the backtracking is unfortunate and we are going to be filing police reports against the board the superintendent and anyone that is distributing material in question because it violates the law and state statutes anyone

124distributing content that violates 827.012 will have a criminal complaint filed against them let me remind you governor desantis just removed the state attorney for not following the law and we are only asking you to follow the law nothing more we will protect the children of polk county even if you won't thank you joanne rube cahoon [Applause] thanks my name is joanne ruby cahoon and i'm an occupational therapist i have been an occupational therapist for 29 years and i'm starting my 23rd year with polk county schools i want to thank everybody for the opportunity to speak today mr hyde madam chair and and the rest of the board thank you for continuing to work towards the best interests of our students also i'd like to specifically applaud mr hyde for what it sounds like kind of

125going uh back from what he had originally talked about maybe the plan that he thought was best i honestly feel that listening to other people despite the fact they might not agree with the original plan is the sign of a true leader and that was very impressive to me so i i really appreciate that quality in in you mr hyde currently there's a ton of hot button topics we can talk about but right now i'm going to talk about immigration and i know that's surprising and you're like making a face what like one more hot topic but um i want to tell you that i am an immigrant to the united states i worked here for 15 years on a work visa and then i worked here for about six years on a green card

126and two years ago in january i got my american citizenship so how is it relevant well i'm college educated english is my first language i'm pretty good at paperwork and i thought i can do this green card stuff i can get my citizenship no problem but i'm gonna tell you that is not what happened i was not even in the ballpark of being able to do that because that is not my experience my expertise my area i'm not an immigration attorney i couldn't do it so i'm leaving that to the experts when i hear people talk about immigration i think everyone has an opinion they think it's very easy and i'm here to tell you it's not it costs a lot of money time it's a complicated it's expensive it is just unbelievable but i

127think a lot of people have opinions and they've never be immigrated had anything to do with immigration and i feel this is the relevance this is where we're going with education lots of people have opinions about teachers they're not teachers they don't have an education degree they haven't been in the classroom they want to dictate book choices curriculum choices click on materials topics and i'm here to tell you please leave it to the experts this is what they do i've been in a classroom for 23 years i've worked with three-year-olds up to 22 year olds i could not be a teacher not my area of expertise i couldn't do it so i would like to say i'm not saying don't be in the classroom i'm saying support your teacher be engaged be helpful like my

128mom who was a teacher always said if you're not if you are not uh sorry she reminds me if you're not part of the solution i mean if you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem so i'm going to here to implore you please anyone complain anyone can have an opinion but please be the solution thank you thank you so much and with no further business to come before the board this meeting is adjourned [Music] you