School Board Meeting | June 14, 2022

001[Music] if you could please stand for the invocation [Music] lord jesus we come to you we thank you uh for this occasion that you have brought us to lord we thank you so much for the men and women that uh serve on this school board we pray lord that you would give them wisdom to make wise decisions realizing that they impact thousands upon thousands of kids lord we also pray for our teachers and we pray lord that you would give them what they need it seems to be so much harder these days to to be a teacher now than it certainly was years ago lord we pray for wisdom in the classroom we pray that you would give those men and women the ability to teach and instruct lord we also pray for parents and

002guardians that are overseeing these children that come to our schools lord there is a lot of brokenness here in this community as there is all across our land and lord we pray that you would give wisdom to teachers as they spend so much more time probably managing than actually teaching and lord we pray that you would once again give them wisdom and lord we also pray for our students they generally get one shot and an education in life and we pray that that they would get an incredible education here within our school system lord there's other things other people that would vie for attention uh and time within the classroom but lord we pray that those that are over our schools would uh make sure that we are primarily and ultimately focused on academic excellence

003for our students since lord we pray for wisdom this evening in jesus name amen amen and next will be the pledge and it is going to be led by chloe simmons whenever you're ready i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all awesome you may all be seated except for you chloe how's it going i'm good thanks for coming to our school board meeting and leading us in the pledge you're welcome can you tell us a little bit about yourself so what school do you go to i go to polk county elementary school yes and what grade are you in fourth grade fourth grade so are you going into fourth grade or did

004you just finish fourth grade i just finished with you so you're you're basically a fifth grader now is what i'm hearing awesome so what do you like to do for fun um i like to maybe play with my dogs play with your dogs i see here that you're a cheerleader do you enjoy cheerleading yeah yes ma'am what all right and what is your favorite subject in school probably math math very nice what do you want to be when you grow up a scientist or a marine biologist very nice i like that so i take it you like animals then yeah like well awesome and i whoever wrote this says her smile and positive attitude can brighten anyone's day and i think you are exactly they're exactly right so thank you so much for sharing your

005beautiful smile with us and thanks for coming to our board meeting to do the pledge you're welcome have a great day [Applause] all right and we will now call this board meeting to order for june 14th our first order of business is to accept the school board agenda do we have any revisions or deletions madam chair members of the board we do have revisions this evening item b4 b is in boy for lincoln's cdc donation recognition that item item's been removed from the seasonings agenda item d2 dog 2 approved minutes for the may 31 2022 work session meeting an attachment was added item f1 new administrators there was an update to descriptions item f2 administrative moves an updated attachment was provided item g4 resolution to amend district school budget 2021 2022 had an added attachment

006for february item g5 resolution to amend the district school budget for 2122 for march of 22 had an attachment added item g6 resolution to amend the school district budget 2021 2022 for april of 22. an attachment was added and finally item q7 the school staffing allocation plan that item has been removed and will be revisited in july thank you superintendent hyde i believe we also moved do we say the polk state move we move that to the consent to the okay move that to q7 all right and i will now see a motion to approve the agenda motion to approve second miss fortney and miss miller any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries we will now move into our special recognitions portion of our

007agenda and i will hand it over to superintendent hyde ma'am good evening again madam chair members of the board members of the staff and community thanks for being here this evening at this time i'd like to ask school board member ms sarah fortney to step down for special recognitions and at this time i'd like to ask diane taylor senior director for exceptional student education to please come forward for recognition of our special olympics athletes students um [Applause] thank you mr superintendent and to the board i'd like to present to you today our athletes that participated in our usa games with the special olympics today we have with us our representative danielle hogan that is from our area for special olympics and she is going to talk to us about the festivities that took place from

008june 5th through the 12th and how our athletes that you see before you today were there and they represented polk county well [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello everyone first off thank you so much for having us today and recognizing our amazing athletes coaches and unified partners my name is danielle hogan i am our community engagement manager for polk county as well as the central region i'm very very proud to say we have a lot of metals and decorative hardware on this evening so if you do not know the 2020 usa games was hosted here in orlando in the state of florida last week so our again athletes coaches and unified partners are very exhausted it was a very very long week a very intense competition and with that it was aired on espn this event only

009happens every four years so it really is a huge upbringing for all of our athletes that do compete in it team florida brought over 600 coaches unified partners and athletes to this competition we were the largest delegation with that in the central region we had uh close to 225 and then here from polk county we had 25. so really awesome that all of them could come out and participate this past week i want to give a quick shout out to some of them that are here today so first we have nevaeh novel wave really quick nevaeh is one of our equestrian writers she plays gold and trail and then she got second in equitation huge congrats and then we have angel angel you want to wave your hand no it's okay it's okay angel got

010seventh in singles and then fourth in her team competition so shout out to engle and then i'm going to hand it over to sheena she is going to describe the basketball team with malika makai hello thank you guys for allowing us to come here today i have the twin towers as i call them malika makai we played on the masters team uh i as well the you know um the art is the unified partner for special olympics and the coach and also the assistant principal for language and literacy academy so i want to thank dr collins for allowing me and the boys to go out and spend these eight days eight long days in orlando to compete at the usa games and we came out with the gold so we're excited and hopefully we are

011chosen to go to berlin in next year 2023. wow yes so thank you again for having us we're very excited and proud of our polk county athletes and quick if anyone does want to get involved with special olympics on the county level or state level however um please feel free to reach out to me again my name is danielle hogan my phone number is 407-242-2938 or you can reach me via email at danielle hogan at sofl.org thank you everyone [Music] oh [Applause] um the clinking of the medals is what always gets me it's like graduation all over again that's fantastic at this time i'd like to ask scott is it ghira jira i want to make sure i pronounce it right pardon me president of polk pride to come forward for the polk pride month

012recognition and will school board member miss k fields please please read the proclamation aloud proclamation school board of polk county bartow florida whereas polk county florida is part of a global community in which people of diverse cultures races creeds genders and sexual identities must work together towards peace and understanding and whereas the lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer parenthesis lgbtq students within polk county contribute to this vibrant innovative culturally inclusive world-class community and to its diversity and whereas various advancements have been made with respect to equal rights and protection for all people including the lgbtq community throughout the state of florida and the united states and whereas members of the lgbtq plus communities still face ongoing discrimination based on their inner status resulting in immeasurable human tragedy loss of life community isolation and abuse and

013whereas parents families and friends of lesbian and gays of polk county envisions a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected valued and affirmed inclusive of their sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression and whereas the lakeland youth alliance provides a safe space for lg ptq youth and their straight allies of polk county and whereas to celebrate the richness and diversity of polk county p-f-l-a-g of polk county and the lakeland youth alliance along with various community organizations businesses and individuals will conduct various cultural educational and entertainment activities june the 13th to the 16th of 2022 to focus attention on the importance of acceptance and respect for diversity among us now therefore by the authority vested in the school board of polk county hereby proclaim june 2022 as lgbtq pride month in polk county

014florida in honor of freedom from prejudice and bias in any form and in recognition and praise of those members of our community who constantly fight the battle for equal treatment for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation gender identity gender expression race color creed ethnic origin or religion dated this 14th day of june 2022 by the school board of polk county florida [Music] hi my name is kerry mccoy and i am vice president of polk pride and i'm hopeful that the people who are here on behalf of the lgbtq plus community are standing in solidarity to thank you superintendent hyde and the school board members for this proclamation and for letting our lgbtq plus kids and their families know that they are accepted here at polk county schools good evening board my name is scott guerra

015and i'm the president of polk pride and i'm also the vice president of the lakeland youth alliance i started pride uh because i was working with the lakeland youth alliance and part of our mission is to provide a safe space for lgbt young people what i found was more important than a safe space is a safe community and i appreciate you all making a declaration today that polk county schools is a safe community for all young people thank you for that i'd also like to thank you all for uh for taking the time and investing in our young people and i look forward to hopefully seeing each one of you also this saturday at polk pride in the park it's a june 18th saturday and it's 10 until three and uh stop by the pride

016i'd love to talk to you thank you so much [Applause] thank you next will the polk county supervisor of elections ms lori edwards please come forward to recognize high school voter registration [Applause] good evening boy this mike's high or i'm low i'm not sure which so the supervisor of elections office staff visited 20 high schools between february and april of this year in polk county to offer students the opportunity to register to vote by the way although many of you know to vote in florida or in the u.s you must be 18 but you can pre-register to vote when you're 16 or 17 years old and then we will automatically activate you at the supervisor of elections office on your 18th birthday well during our visit to those 20 high schools 516 polk county students

017took us up on this offer so today we're here to recognize the schools that registered the most new voters and we have two awards one for the most total new voters and that's winterhaven high school is the winner assistant principal dr robert holby is here to accept that award congratulations thank you thank you very much wait wait [Applause] members of my team um wanted me to also recognize that their the teacher ms saab or sam went above and beyond to make sure that all the students got the opportunity to register to vote our second award goes to the school with the highest percentage of eligible eligible students who register because obviously that kind of uh equalizes the situation and summerlin academy won that award with 11 of their eligible students [Applause] assistant principal todd simmers

018did i get that right thank you so much and congratulations thank you very much and mr simmers is here um to to represent summerlin and also i was told that uh the teacher mrs barthel was unable to attend today she did say she'd be watching on tv though so we want to thank her and apparently also truvy the dogs so i wasn't there for the truvi the dog thing but i'm sure it means something to mrs barthel as well as others at summerlin academy academy and of course thank you for the school board for the opportunity to reach out to your students thank you fantastic got three more at this time with susan copeland the executive director of the polk education foundation please come forward for donor recognition good evening everyone tonight i have here

019with me diane o'dell diane is the executive director of the universal orlando foundation and she's always also the vice president of diversity and community relations for orlando universal so at the beginning of 2020 we found out that universal was gifting us with 26 000 and it was to go toward fine arts so just about the time we had gotten out grant applications and teachers received their funds we all know what happened coveted and so we closed unfortunately but the good thing was that we still had dedicated and excited teachers still in the same positions they had had in been in that wanted to start and finish their projects this next school year so they did things like laser engravers to produce art pieces making scribble bots which was new to me and those actually will

020draw for you they composed their own music and they also paid to have professional composers compose music for their bands to perform which i thought was really neat too so this year uh universal orlando offered us the opportunity to apply for a 64 000 grant and this time it needed to be put towards helping families of students in our polk county public schools who did not have permanent housing and so i learned a lot through this process that's not my normal work but i partnered with ben in the hearth program and hart for winterhaven who actually works county-wide not just in winterhaven and really found out more about the need and there were some processes in place that we could piggyback on so now we are able when a student's family is identified as being

021one of our own polk county public school students then ben verifies that for us hearth program verifies that hartford winner haven verifies their income to make sure what bracket they'll fit in for rent and then they help them find housing and we are able to pay through this grant the first and last month's rent something i found out was that many families can afford the rent but they can't afford that initial down payment so we're happy to be able to do that and really appreciate that universal has come on board to allow us to do that so i wanted to thank diane for coming over she now goes home to cocoa beach y'all she came from orlando and now we'll drive to cocoa beach which is amazing but just thank you for allowing us to

022help teachers and students the way that universal orlando foundation has done so thank you very much so i have a certificate of appreciation for you as this is fortnite to present to you for the 89 000 that they've given us over the last two years i'll just quickly say thank you so much susan appreciate the recognition but we do it because it's important and we have many team members as i'm sure aware who live in polk county so we're happy to support causes such as polk county public schools that are important to them so thank you so much thank you [Applause] almost there at this time with jeanette crowley senior coordinator of strategic partnerships please come forward for the focus on excellence business partnership recognition thank you so much for the opportunity to share more

023about the focus on excellence campaign that was created to shine a spotlight on the hard-working and dedicated employees at polk county public schools with over 13 000 employees we're a big complicated fast-moving system and it can be easy to forget that we need to stop and take the time to simply tell our employees that we appreciate the work that they do putting students first also means building up our own employees thanking them and celebrating the work that they do so they can feel ready to get up and put students first the very next day our employees are hungry even for the smallest thanks and recognition in 2020 we piloted the focus on excellence campaign it was so successful that we transitioned the campaign into a standing employee recognition program a nomination form and selection committee

024process was created when i shared the program with superintendent hyde he loved it and he's been super supportive from the beginning and i can't thank you enough each quarter this year we honor a select group of employees group one was our clerical custodial maintenance and warehouse group two are paraprofessionals professional technical and administrators group 3 transportation school nutrition and non-classroom teachers and group 4 were classroom teachers and 12 month teachers thanks to the support of our generous sponsors we're able to provide gifts to every employee who was nominated through this program and each winner received a very nice prize package valued at over six hundred dollars along with a custom created award made by students in addition to the tangible gifts winners received recognition at a school board meeting an appreciation luncheon in their honor

025and recognition in an announcement posted to the district's website the district's employee intranet and social media and included in pcps first news the district's electronic newsletter it's wonderful to be able to give our employees who rarely if ever receive any public recognition a few moments in the spotlight when i asked our winners about the recognition efforts and what they like best in addition to their gifts and they said this in no particular order they enjoyed coming to the school board meetings and meeting our school board members they enjoyed our appreciation luncheons because they had an opportunity to speak with district staff and sponsors they also enjoyed the opportunity to relax and enjoy a day at hand in stone massage and facial spa which is one of our sponsors so that's enough about me talking about

026the program now i'd like to share a little bit about the highlight from our video that we produce within the public relations department that can speak more to the program [Music] the 2021 through 2022 school year our focus on excellence employee recognition campaign was the biggest yet we celebrated almost 500 staff members from all over our district [Music] i want to say thank you sincerely to everyone involved from our employees who are serving to nominate their colleagues and bringing honor and recognition to all that they do each day across the various roles and i think that's what oftentimes gets missed in educational settings is how many different roles have to be played or fulfilled each day in order for us to accomplish our goal of putting students first i think the focus on excellence campaign

027is great because it gives not just the parents and students of the district but also the general public as well a better view of the kind of things that happen in the school system it was very rewarding you know just solidifying that you know when you come in and you try to do your best that you possibly do and you have that passion that other people are going to notice it whether you're doing it for recognition or not this program really is like a shining star for us you know i mean everyone knows that i'm a bus driver but they don't know the things that we do behind the scenes i just felt humbled and honored i was like wow i've done something that people are noticing and they're appreciating what i do and it

028just made me feel very special i also want to say thank you to all of our business partners we've had some amazing partners really come forward and support our staff in through the donation of time donation of resources gifts and really just to stand by us and honor and recognize these individuals thanks to our many generous business partners we were able to give prizes to our winners as well as any employee that was nominated i think the focus on excellence campaign is great because it rewards those who are doing some of the most important work in our community and recognizes individuals who are too often overlooked when you give back to something like this that has the ability to touch really everyone and realizing the impact that it has on them when they're recognized it's

029pretty humbling our future depends on children and education and it's very impactful whatever can be done to help them do a better job and everyone appreciates getting a pat on the back and knowing that other people see them doing a good job and are dedicated to what they're trying to accomplish every day the strength of our community is by and large a direct result of how efficient and how effective and how strong our school system is and we have some amazing employees across our school district we had the opportunity to highlight just a few this year we hope to expand this program going into the future but with that we're going to need additional supports polk county public school employees to nominate a co-worker for recognition visit the hub homepage and if you are interested

030in becoming a sponsor of the focus on excellence campaign just visit our website at polkschoolsfl.com excellence to learn more [Music] so in conclusion i just want to say thank you to the public relations and strategic partnerships team members who worked alongside me to make this campaign successful along with many of our other projects that we overtake i also wanted to thank the assessment accountability and evaluation department specifically david bustos and andre powder in addition i'd like to give a huge shout out to marcus wright in special projects if you don't know marcus you really need to know him he is super smart very helpful and he always has a smile on his face and other quarterly luncheons he was always there to help me so i could always count on marcus to be there and

031help me get set up and he's just a great help and i really appreciate him lastly this initiative would not have been possible without our generous business partners like you heard in the video um as well as like with the the sponsor the gifts and stuff so with us tonight we have some of our top level sponsors that i'd like for them to come forward so we can recognize them we have public supermarkets brian west lakeland magic owen facilis in hand in stone massage and facial spa we have miss stephanie with us [Applause] uh thank you jeanette superintendent hyde um everyone associated with polk county public schools um that works for and with uh the district we are honored to be a partner for this uh this great program and we really uh value the

032the chance to show our appreciation to the teachers and everybody who works for polk county public schools so thank you very much now he's going to make me look bad if i don't say anything so listen it takes a village to pull off something like this we are very thankful for everything that everyone involved with polk county schools does to ensure that our children are getting a great education and we encourage the rest of the business community to get involved if at all possible it definitely takes a village and we're happy to be a small part of it [Applause] and now miss crowley will recognize support to our schools from the junior league of greater lakeland thank you again i have the honor of recognizing one of our business partners the junior league of greater

033lakeland for more than 40 years the junior league has been a value partner with polk county public schools the junior league is an organization of women committed to promoting volunteerism developing the potential of women and improving the community through their effective action and leadership of trained volunteers the league is comprised of more than 500 members from the greater lakeland area the league will be preparing to celebrate their 90th anniversary next spring and through the years has evolved to focus the majority of their outreach efforts on the clothing of our community and meeting the literacy needs of our children through their programming and community partnerships across polk county this past year alone they are proud to have directed more than 150 thousand dollars worth of donated books school supplies backpacks and brand new books to support

034the heads hearts and homes of the children in polk county at this time i would love to introduce to you public affairs committee chair of the league kate wallace to join me to share more specifics on the direct impact this organization is making in our schools [Applause] hi superintendent hyde board members jeanette thank you all for the opportunity here and to be recognized a few of our members have joined me today just as the public affairs committee chair within the league one of our functions as our mission states is we do train women and one of our functions is to promote civic awareness and action and advocacy and at the statewide level we also are one of 27 florida leagues that focuses on women's and children's issues in our halls in the capital but we

035also are just by being here today or are working on our activism here locally so thank you for the opportunity again and to be recognized and i'm going to have our president-elect mrs barb kitties share a few words on behalf of the league thank you all i just want to tell you how much the league appreciates the partnership with polk county public schools and also sorry i get a little emotional when i start talking about things that hit my heart i also want to thank those current and former members of our educating staff and league members that are a part of the polk county school system and then also let you know that we look forward that week if we can remove a burden sometimes just by offering the kids a book or just taking

036one thing away that will help their daily lives then we feel like we've made a difference in the community and we are proud to do that we look forward to coming back and giving a more detailed presentation at your july 26th work session on how we can better serve our students and i just want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve and a special thanks to superintendent hyde and the staff for all your support and what you've done for the league and our future thank you [Applause] look at this madam chair members of the board staff and community members that concludes special recognitions for this evening thank you superintendent hyde next up is public public comment for items on the agenda to be voted upon this evening as adopted at the start

037of the meeting before we begin i would like to welcome the public and go over our public comment process and opportunities for this evening there are three different opportunities for public comment the first will be for items on this evening agenda to be voted upon the second will be during our public hearing for public hearing topics and at the end of the meeting we will have an additional opportunity for public comments on items that are not on this evening's agenda for a vote 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

038record 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 and it is not a question and answer session if you are seeking additional information i encourage you to contact any of us or the superintendent's office outside of board meetings and we would be happy to have deeper conversations all right and so tonight we do not have any on any agenda items we do though have several for the end of the meeting so the next section will be approval of the minutes our first set of minutes is from the may 31st 2022 school board meeting and i will seek a motion move to approve miss fortney and miss fields any discussion all those in favor please signify by

039saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries the next set of minutes will be from the may 31 2022 work session and i will seek a motion for approval move to approve second miss fortney and dr alan any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be approval of our consent agenda and i will seek emotion for the consent approval of the consent agenda move to approve second miss fortney and mr wilson any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries superintendent hyde would you like to introduce some of our new administrators yes ma'am madam chair members of the board it's my pleasure at this time to introduce new administrators and if

040they're president we would ask them to please come forward please feel free to say a few words and be greeted by our board miss nicole bennett is currently previously was a principal in hillsborough county public school district she's a new hire to pcps as the senior director for school improvement thank you superintendent hyde school board members i am very excited for this opportunity and to continue the work that is happening here in polk county and i'm ready to get started are you joined this evening by anyone yes my husband charles please have them stand there he is you can't miss it and my kids london and miles are back there as well congratulations [Applause] at this time i'd like to introduce katrina burst acting principal at edgar edgar pageant elementary she's now been permitted promoted

041to acting principal at your pageant elementary school [Applause] sorry i think i said acting twice she was previously the acting she is now the permanent principal or assigned principal at paget elementary thank you i just want to thank god my family my pageant family um district administration and the school board for this opportunity i look forward to this year are you joined katrina are you joined by any family here this evening not well just my fat pageant family okay we have miss moody and dr sands in the back fantastic i'd like to introduce miss tammy castles director for exceptional student education from sarasota county who's been newly hired for pcps as the assistant superintendent of learning support [Applause] hi i'm looking forward to joining the team i want to say that i was most impressed

042with polk county because of the student-centered approach so thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your team looking forward to it thank you tammy were you joined by anybody tonight okay next is candace clark assistant principal at southwest middle who's now been promoted to principal at sleepy hill middle school and if you have family and attendance please make sure to acknowledge them as well i come with a speech so i'm not gonna um this is my my first time doing this and so i'm super excited about it i do have a lot of people to acknowledge as you can hear i have lots of loved ones friends family and extended family but uh superintendent high deputy superintendent greene and polk county public school remembers i want to thank you for

043the opportunity to stand before you this evening and i'm honored to have been chosen to serve as the principal of sleepy hill middle school um so i do have a lot of thank you so i apologize but i want to first uh extend sincere gratitude to tai bruno for acknowledging my leadership aspirations providing me with my first assistant principalship at southwest nearly seven years ago i will forever be grateful to him for taking a chance on me to serve in such an appointment role thank you to my current principal mrs sybil oldham jackson and regional superintendent mrs pat barnes for your continued leadership during my time at southwest thank you to shane runyan and mrs cheryl joe for your leadership throughout the principal internship cohort and to tilley kendrick for providing invaluable guidance as my

044principal mentor my gratitude also extends to my new regional superintendent rebecca rollerson for taking the opportunity to get to know me and for recognizing and encouraging the leadership potential that she saw within me to my family and friends who have become my family thank you for always having my back and being my rock to my closest family my husband rashawn he's saying he's sitting back there but stand up they won't miss you they won't miss you go ahead and stand up yes and and to my two beautiful babies uh kimari and kylea [Music] um also say a little prayer because he's now on children duty in the morning so pray for their hair sincerely we're just going to pray for that so there have been so many people along this journey in education who have

045impacted both my professional and personal life but there's one individual in particular who if it weren't for him and the example that he said as a student and then later on as a teacher i wouldn't be standing here in this capacity today so mr ernest joe is in the back and i wanted to especially recognize him if you do not know um mr ernest joe he is one of the most dynamic leaders i've ever had the opportunity to know so i'm i'm thankful for him um his servant leadership and his concern and dedication to his students and staff helped make our school campus a home and i hope to do the same at sleepy hill middle school so again family and friends i love you thank you so much for your for your loyalty and

046for being with me tonight and again school members thank you so much and i look forward to serving the students and staff and the community of sleepy hill middle school thank you [Applause] i wish the board were privy to the conversations i had when we were talking to finalists that was her primary concern we talked about was her children's hair in the morning because she'll no longer be able to get them off to school in the morning so very nice next is miss jeanette crowley senior coordinator for strategic partnerships who's being promoted to director of strategic partnerships and planning [Applause] i just want to say thank you for the opportunity and i thank you for the confidence that you have in me to take on this next role i'm super excited i lead with passion

047and i love what i do for polk county public schools and i love the community we work in and i'm thankful for the opportunity to get to do this each and every day so um i would like to thank my husband who's very supportive of everything that i do whether that be personally or professionally he's um truly an inspiration for me and he's alongside with me every step of the way so i couldn't do some of the things that i do without him and the support that he gives me as well all of you are very supportive and i appreciate the friendships i appreciate your guidance i appreciate your love and your commitment to our school district that you give each and every day you are so very loyal and dedicated and i see that

048every day in our community superintendent i'm thankful for your leadership your confidence your guidance and support that you give to our entire school district and our community um and our students and staff so thank you thank you so much to all the leaders that have instilled within me the servant leadership heart and the opportunity to um allow me to grow and develop i'm really really appreciative and i do really really value every relationship that i have and that i've made um also i have a few people watching online that can be here with us today so i want to say thank you to my family that's always supportive for me as well so if you're watching i appreciate you and i love you and i'm really grateful for the opportunity so thank you so much

049[Applause] i i was asked the same thing we're not taking a picture miss crowley rod if mr crowley if you're in the audience you do need to come up front there you go and just i'll throw this out there because they they won't necessarily always toot their own horn but they just got back from san francisco where they they completed the alcatraz triathlon so very impressive and they did that for their wedding anniversary i don't understand that but okay robert loback it was a robert lawback excuse me senior manager for it lead erp erp is being promoted to to director for business process support and was it law back or low back yep close enough over the years it's gotten it's oh my name's high trust me i've heard everything but good evening everyone uh

050it's a pleasure and an honor to be here i'd like to take a moment to thank the board members mr hyde mr pitts and mrs jenkins so thank you very much thank you sir pleasure having you thank you and a man who needs no real introduction mr dwight marsh senior coordinator for maintenance is being promoted to director of maintenance [Applause] well i'm not a talker but i want to appreciate mr hyde miss usher mr rob mr pitts mr warner all the people but i appreciate y'all we uh i want to appreciate the don't look at me but we have 188 men that work out there every day and they work and we have a great group of men so i'm just proud to be over them and i hope we do better i hope we

051get more people if you tell somebody we need help and i appreciate all y'all and thank the board thank you [Applause] and is it tara or tara mcdowell senior manager for payrolls being promoted to director of payroll hello everyone i just want to say thank you for superintendent high the board and cabinet i want to thank mr pitts and um miss heather for everything and my boss dana torres for just pushing me towards my goal i want to be also thankful to my mom my dad and also my son tyler in the back love them as my support team and i really do appreciate the great opportunity please wave where are they okay thank you so much thank you does your family want to join you for the photo yes sir okay your son was

052a little reluctant there initially but that's okay i have a teenager myself thank you so much congratulations next is miss ann pascoe she comes to us from a previous position of the assistant superintendent of innovation with cusd 300 in illinois she's now new to pcps as the assistant superintendent for information systems hi y'all i know i sound like i'm from illinois i was in illinois from north carolina i'm super excited to be able to serve all the wonderful people i have met today here in florida i'm very excited about the upcoming technology opportunities we have and i just appreciate everything so thank you much thanks passport [Applause] next is danielle rossen assistant administrative assistant george jenkins senior has now been promoted to assistant director for community outreach and learning support [Applause] he's the one that

053keeps my son in line no i don't have to do that sir good evening thank you uh mr hyde and school board members for this opportunity um just a couple thank yous i want to thank you to my family in the back they can all stand up the whole back row all right um to my to my family back in bermuda that's online support right now i love you uh i appreciate all the support and getting me here so i look forward to opportunity look for the ground running i look forward to getting after it thank you sir is your family going to come down come home you know i gotta get your kids and last on the new administrators list is ms lindsey sharp executive director for curriculum for 612 community school district 301

054she is newly hired in pcps as a senior director for digital learning and innovation i do not believe she's in attendance this evening because she is actually transitioning her family she's moving into her home later this week so i don't believe she's with us today that concludes new administrators administrative moves um if any of you are present please come forward and be recognized miss laurie allen her old position was director of mtss she's been promoted to senior director of educational systems and foundational learning miss wanda aponte previously principal at lochman oaks elementary school is being renamed and reassigned as principal at lake marion creek middle school carrie barkin senior coordinator for preschool is being promoted to director of pre-k she was with us earlier at the workshop do not see her matt blankenship principal at

055stambaugh middle school is being promoted to fort meade middle senior high school as the principal ava brown principal winston academy is being promoted to principal at blake academy matthew campisi acting director for mtss is being promoted to senior director for school improvement tracy collins regional assistant for middle schools is being transferred to regional assistant for high schools we have a lot of shy administrators mary jo costine principal at lake region high school is being transferred to print the principal at gauze academy dj dynes director for information services being promoted to senior director for information services jay default director for finance is being promoted to senior director for finance carol griffin principal oscar j pope elementary school is being promoted to principal at rochelle school of the arts amy hardy principal at fort meade middle high

056is being transferred laterally to as principal at lake region high school john hill regional assistant superintendent for high schools is being transferred to take on the earth bowlers and responsibilities as director for leadership development joanna joswiak principal at lake marion creek middle school is being transferred as principal at socram elementary school taleah kendrick principal at lot child's middle school is being promoted to take on a role as senior director for school improvement linda king director for risk management and benefits is being promoted to senior director for risk management and benefits we are not doing well they're out there why are we not oh here we go if i have acknowledged anyone else please feel free to come forward at least we'll acknowledge all of you simultaneously [Applause] you were not that shy when i toured

057your building rebecca rollerson i'm sorry michael cray director for purchasing and printing services being promoted to senior director for purchasing and printing services rebecca rollerson assistant director for multiple pathways is being promoted to regional assistant superintendent for middle schools myra richardson principal blake academy k-8 is being transferred and is now the principal at purcell elementary school kevin robertson principal at gauze academy is being transferred and is taking on the role and responsibility as principal at stambaugh middle school mr shane runyan director for leadership development is taking on the roles and responsibilities as assistant director for multiple pathways perry suanetta principal at crystal lake elementary school is being promoted to principal oscar j pope elementary school dan talbot director for athletics is being promoted to senior director for athletics dana torres director for payroll is being

058promoted to senior director of payroll and last but certainly not least leon williams principal at soccer elementary school is being promoted to now be the principal at jewett academy please join me in congratulating all of our movements [Applause] especially our three brave individuals who came to the meeting this evening thank you so much for being here madam chair members of the board that concludes new administrators thank you superintendent hyde the next order of business we have is our action agenda so first on our action agenda will be to approve both the fsba advocacy committee representatives and the fsba board of directors representatives we'll do that in two separate votes and so the first vote i will look for a motion to approve our fsba advocacy committee representatives as lisa miller with myself as the alternate

059as discussed earlier seek emotion mr wilson and miss fortney any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and then the second vote will be i'll look for a motion to approve the fsba board of directors committee member representatives dr william allen as the representative and ms sarah fortney as the alternates yep switched i apologize sarah fortney as the committee member and dr william allen is the alternate move approval second miss fields and miss fortney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying i any a post and the motion carries next on the agenda will be kathleen high school's naming of the freshman building and i will seek a motion to approve the kathleen high school naming of the freshman building after

060mr johnny jackson so move second miss fields and miss miller any discussion i would like to help okay i wanted to share some highlights of mr jackson's accomplishments while he was principal of kathleen high school during his tenure as principal many accomplishments were made under his leadership just to name a few increased and maintain a school grade of c increased the high school graduation rate from 79.7 percent to 91.5 percent decreased the school's discipline rate significantly implemented the whole school transformational grant kaplan high school was the only high school in polk county and one of 25 schools statewide to receive the grant kaplan was awarded 4.4 million dollars to implement a school transformation implemented from the grant the partnership with usf for kaplan staff to pursue advanced degrees in education this partnership was later replicated

061in several other schools implemented an additional partnership with usf guaranteed admissions program this program was designed to create a well-educated and skilled diverse student body and recruit from an underserved population mr jackson was a true asset to kaplan high school he is sorely missed by the student staff families and our community and it is with much respect and gratefulness that we request that the freshman academy building be named in mr johnny jackson's honor on today thank you miss fields any other discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries and i believe we have some guests in the audience if you would like to come forward from the family i know mr jackson's mom is here too we'd love to offer you an opportunity to

062say a couple words and get your picture for i just want to say thank you to the board for this opportunity thank you to kathleen high school's principal mr jones and the kathleen high school family and friends and the community it is certainly an honor that they would take this opportunity to name the freshman academy after johnny kathleen high school was certainly johnny's heart i have his mother here and i have my family i'm only gonna my family is standing so if my family and friends would please stand thank you so much so it does it definitely does take a village and um we both believed in education we still believe in education and thank you to superintendent hyde and everyone for this honor thank you next on our agenda is the achievement academy contract

063renewal and i will seek a motion for approval 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 next will be the public review for math instructional materials and i'll seek a motion to approve the public review for math instruction materials as presented move approval second miss fields and miss fortney any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye a post and the motion carries next up is the davis digital online textbook we're looking for a motion to approve the davis digital online textbook licenses for visual arts this is a three-year contract valued at two hundred fifty six thousand two hundred and forty eight dollars and twenty cents move to approve a second miss fortney and dr

064alan any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next is our invo healthcare associates contract and i will seek a motion to approve the contract with invo healthcare associates in the amount of one million eighteen thousand eight hundred and seventy five dollars approval second miss fields and miss fortney any discussion miss miller madam chair i was asking the superintendent and the work session if you give a brief description of what this contract covers superintendent so this contract covers positions that we currently cannot fill um due to the limited number of individuals who have the appropriate certifications but however with that keeping keeping that in mind we still have an obligation to support our students and our staff and so this this contract provides

065staffing specific to address and support our students with behavioral needs and behavioral disorder supports for esc students exhibiting extreme and aggressive behaviors in classrooms or the school environment the purpose and the function of these rbts and bcbas is to provide a cognitive behavioral therapeutic approach to help our students not only learn to de-escalate appropriately but also to develop the internal mechanisms and tools that they need to avoid conflicts and to basically be functional within a regular classroom environment so this is staff this is not um afton times and i know miss miss miller you were asking me to clarify to this or create a distinction between invo staffing and the invo program that we have right now in some of our behavioral units this is not that this is the staff associated to support our

066schools in our dis district-wide thank you superintendent hyde any other discussion the exact one that i asked to be removed last time that is not this is not okay i just want to make sure there were three contracts on the last board meeting i just wanted that's what i want to clear correct superintendent hi can you just give a brief description of what what we've discussed in the past about training our own staff or having invo provide trainings so there are some limitations on what we can do as far as training our own staff because of the certification limitations rbts would be appropriate for us to provide some intense training and supports for that would be appropriate to do um however they still are required to function under the direct supervision of a bcba and

067that's the difficulty that we face um so to the extent that we can provide training and supports for for rbts yes this this could provide some of that however outside of that we do they do not have the appropriate licensure to train bcbas that's done through the collegiate university system and florida licensing and national licensing so this is limited in the scope of what they can do the the third contract going back to miss fortney's question there were three contracts as you recall one was an expansion or extension excuse me of the current contract for the behavioral units that we utilize across the district the second contract which is before you today is this for additional staffing to be assigned as needed and the third contract was to support our center schools and that contract

068was pulled until i could have further discussion with those schools directly as well as involve miss castles in and her team uh miss taylor and others in that discussion as to how to best drive supports for those to address the student needs and behaviors that they were concerned with thank you you're welcome miss fields superintendent from memory this is nothing new for us we've had to contract out services for a long window of time because of the shortage correct me if no ma'am you're absolutely correct and invo provides everything from nursing support all the way through to this point to to behavioral supports for our schools we have a long history of contracting with with info and with other providers because we have found unfortunately if you recall three months ago we actually brought i

069believe four contracts for the same positions but none of those staffing agencies was able to address the comprehensive nature of our need so we've had to go out to multiple entities but this is not uncommon thank you any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries last on our action item agenda is our contract with polk state dual enrollment articulation agreement and the recommendation is to approve and acquire necessary signatures for so i'll seek a motion to approve and require necessary acquire necessary signatures for the dual enrollment articulation agreement 2022-2023 motion to approve second and i believe that was miss fortney and dr alan any discussion mr wilson madam chair will be abstaining from voting on this item due to my relationship with polk

070state college and i think we're working on the paperwork for that now thank you thank you so much mr wilson any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries next up is our policy updates we do have a public comment section for policy updates however i have not received any cards so we have several to update this afternoon so the first motion i will seek is for approval of updates to policy number 3215 smoking and tobacco-free environment with identical updates to be made in policies one two one five and four two one five seek a motion miss miller second and miss fortney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next is

071i'll seek a motion for approval of the updates to policy number 5215 smoking and tobacco-free environment so moved second miss miller and miss fortney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next i will seek a motion for approval of updates to policy number 5780 student and parent rights move approval second i believe it was mr wilson and then dr allen any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries next will be move motion for the approval of new policy number 5780.0 parents bill of rights move approval second mr wilson and miss miller any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries our

072next policy will i'll seek a motion to approve the updates to policy number smoking and tobacco-free environment second miss fields and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries i'll now see commotion to approve the updates to policy number 6322 for construction contracting so moved second miss miller and miss fortney any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries the next policy i'll seek a motion to approve the updates to policy number 8405 school safety and security 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 got two more left the next one

073is i'll seek a motion to approve the updates of policy number safe school officers somo second dr allen and miss miller any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries the last one is i'll seek a motion to approve the updates to policy number 8500 school nutrition any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying you're sorry motion get emotional you did not get a motion i'll seek emotion motion miss fortney second and miss fields any discussion too many seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries that is the end of our policy updates we'll now move to our superintendent's report superintendent hyde madam chair the next work session and board

074meeting will be held on july 26 2022 the work session will begin at 12 30 pm and the board meeting will begin at 5 pm both meetings will be held at jim miles professional development center located at 4270 wallace road in lakeland that concludes the superintendent's report thank you sir and next we will have our attorneys report and we have mr murphy here today filling in for mr burgess and i promise if you stay much longer we'll get you a name tag that sounds great thank you madam chair and school board members superintendent hyde i would request authority to advertise for public hearings for the adoption of school boundary for the new elementary school 21c we are looking at a first reading of july 26 2022 an adoption hearing on august 16th of 2022. i

075have some background if you want it but essentially looking for a motion to approve the advertising of those public hearings thank you i'll hear a motion motion to approve miss fields and i believe the second was miss fortney any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries madam chair uh that is uh concludes the attorney's report this evening thank you thank you so much and we have no auditors report this evening and let's go backwards for board members reports so we will start with miss miller thank you madam chair um just a quick report summer school's in session so i know a lot of our staff is there and we appreciate that students are still moving around campuses just to be aware of that with traffic

076and things um very short report this evening i look forward to um hearing from our community and it looks like we have a lot in the audience so i that is in my report madam chair thank you miss miller and we will go to lynn wilson mr wilson thank you madam chair i have no report but i would like to request a very short recess before we hear public comments please yes sir we can do that and miss fields thank you i just have a couple of items uh i was able to go to winston academy last evening for the community meetings for the input from the community for the new principal to come at winston and they were very engaged and very thankful for the opportunity to actually have input so we look forward

077to what they will have shared and implementing that as a part of the process and we go to lawton childs tomorrow night so it's a busy week but it's all good thank you miss fields miss fortney thank you uh chair wyatt uh i want to say congratulations to our recent retirees some had to stay a few extra weeks to get it all to work out and exactly what miss miller said about summer school being in session for those of you willing and able to work summer school i i appreciate you dr alan myself um uh mrs dodge um and superintendent hyde we're over in tampa for the fsba joint conference and uh if you're interested in what happened there it's in the work session but i want to thank the board for allowing us to

078go because i did learn a lot and um you know it's it's better to be involved in leadership than to just sit by and let it happen without you um and i'm going to end with my normal pre-k through 12 public schools just do it better because we know every student is protected and every family is respected and i appreciate those that showed up tonight thank you miss bortney and dr alan oh mancher thank you mr marsh just came up um recently here this evening he's our new director of maintenance he said we need help right and we are doing that and just wanted to say thank you to travis technical college lakeland police department they just wrapped up a 10-day summer trades camp on our campus and some of the areas that they focused

079on was masonry carpentry electrical welding plumbing and so many others so we are working on on that to really bring some nice career readiness to our students it's a pretty large group of middle school high school students pretty impressive the work that they were doing there on campus a lot of sponsors that came around to support that initiative a lot of our local contractors as well so um hats off to them for that great work and training our students to really fill that gap that we need actually in our district and in some of the high skill areas around our county then also wanted to say thanks to state representative melanie bell she's just really working hard to partner with our school board as well as community leaders to bring forward junior achievement biztown of

080finance park to polk county my fifth grader just had a chance to go visit probably three months ago and i had a chance to serve as well in a small capacity and it's really a really fascinating simulation and really really thankful for that initiative maybe some opportunities around appropriation with that and then yes as ms forney was talking about the florida school board association had a chance to to come alongside our my peer really appreciate the board for supporting that as well um it it's great to sort of get a different glimpse too um superintendent hyde i'm i'm watching you man you know this right but what i did notice was previous staff members from duvall i believe it was that came along and just to see that long-term relationship that you had with previous

081staff members and i see you building that um with with our cabinet so and and staff so i really appreciate that um and then on top of that mr warren uh came out head of our human resources to share some of the best practices it's a pretty pretty packed room in that earlier session i know miss fortney did the later session i believe but to know that you know we've got some standards that we're creating in regards to best practices to to enhance teacher retention and and so forth so i really appreciate what you did there and and sharing what we're doing uh with individuals around the state um miss dodge she's just really working hard and and helping and guiding us but from a lobbying effort just the work that she's doing is pretty

082cool and pretty amazing to watch that as well i i said this earlier in the work session and this is just a really appreciative um you know words here to our staff members superintendent hyde had a chance to sit in a session that was a round table of large districts from around the state and i really just wanted to listen to see what what they were struggling with what what kind of things that they're working on and on multiple occasions i heard hey did you hear that polk county was doing this and just wanted to read reiterate that this evening publicly and just say thanks to superintendent hyde our board uh as well for creating some nice high standards around the state and some great things as well as our cabinet so thank you and

083that's all i have madam chair thank you dr allen and i'll be brief i just want to start by thanking you and miss fortney both for attending fsba and bringing back some of that knowledge i know i've had some other commitments last week and couldn't get away so i greatly appreciate that both of you take the time to to go and bring back some of the good stuff so that we can all learn from it um i also just want to highlight i got to spend all day wednesday last week with youth leadership polk and the kids are all right the future's gonna be just fine um there were a couple students in the class that like do you have google like pulled up on your phone when you go to ask questions and i

084know superintendent hyde got some experience with them too but they'll give you you know four or five statistics about the topic before they ask the question and i'm not talking about like it wasn't like it was education day we talked to medical professionals we talked to hr we talked to a small business owner everything they had statistics out the wazoo and they were all right because we started fact checking some of them but the kids are all right and it's it was a great group it was a great time to really get to know some of our students so i appreciated the opportunity um and lastly i just want to give a shout out to superintendent hyde because you hear of people following great bosses to wherever their new location takes them that's typically when

085they're going you know to a new school or a new district within the same region but to have a couple employees that have followed you from illinois is pretty impressive i think and speaks volumes too i don't you know i've had great bosses better weather i don't know if i would move across the country for them um so but i really do think it speaks volumes to your leadership um because to dr allen's point when we were at the state board of education meeting everybody there had to come and say hello because they've all worked with him and had nothing but great things to say so thank you for your leadership and with that we will take a brief recess for about five minutes and then we will be back for a public comment [Music]

086you will now reconvene the meeting hello all right lisa all right so before we go into public comment hey guys if i could ask everybody to get seated again thank you before we go into public comment superintendent hyde has one more administrator that we forgot to review or to announce earlier so i'm going to allow him to do that yes ma'am and i will beg her and her entire family and everyone else's forgiveness unfortunately it was missed on my list but i'm more than pleased to announce and bring this poinsettia tillman forward she's currently the senior manager for fiddlers and she's moving to a director-level position for fiddlers for our district i would like to thank the lord and i would also like to thank the board members and superintendent hyde thank you for calling

087me um and giving me this opportunity i am blessed and fortunate and i look forward to continuing to support the district in whatever way i can thank you very much do you have family or friends with you my son is in the hospital so my family could not be here the board knows that he's always in and out so they couldn't be here but you know i thank them for you know their support as well we'll keep him in your prayers thank you madam chair thank you superintendent hyde so we will now begin with our public comments 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

088clock 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 com public comment portion of the meeting if follow-up board action is required then the matter may be placed on the agenda at a subsequent meeting in accordance with school board policy right so first on in sorry we also have this fun little box up here for all of our on deck people so if when you are on deck if you'll come stand up here just that way you're close and then we can move through these quickly so first will be shayna fox and then on deck will be bella fox great job bella the prime example

089of where the on deck box is thank you and gina whenever you're ready okay my name is shawna fox and i am speaking as an ally in support of the lgbtq plus community and tonight's pride proclamation this is not a moral or political issue these are people beautiful kind brave humans who have gathered here tonight to celebrate their individual unique identities as a teacher for 20 years i had a front row seat to see change growth and progress each and every year the students i taught broke down walls of division that previous generations had laid they taught me so much to question the things i had learned the assumptions i made and the beliefs i held they challenged me to push the boundaries of what i thought i knew and consider a different perspective i

090am forever grateful to my students for that challenge and i continue to pursue it history supports the truth that positive change has come to this country and to the world through the actions and words of young people although often overlooked children were a large part of the civil rights movement and many other societal changes throughout history in fact i assert that these movements may not have even succeeded without those young activists they are our greatest hope unfortunately there are people working hard to build back the divisive walls brick by brick by questioning shaming and denying the identity and humanity of lgbtq plus community members that's why listening to the voices of love kindness acceptance and celebration are so important this evening i am here to be one of these voices i want to make sure

091that every student and every individual in this room tonight hears this message of love i am proud of their courage and strength i am grateful for their existence and their presence they bring me hope thank you for including the pride proclamation tonight i encourage encourage each and every one of you as school board members to continue forward as allies who affirm and support the uniqueness that makes this world such a beautiful and hopeful place thank you thank you and next is bella and then on deck is going to be ashy reed whenever you're ready hello my name is bella fox i am speaking in support of the pride proclamation because i have friends family and neighbors who are lgbt i love them all so much they're kind people who do good things for the community

092and world i am an ally being an ally means that i support and appreciate my friends and family being an ally means i celebrate all loving kindness being an ally means i stand with people who are hurt by others mean words being an ally means that i know everyone is unique and i'm glad about that being an ally means i honor all different kinds of families being an ally means i am standing with pride support and love for lgbtq plus people here and everywhere thank you for including the pride proclamation today so that me and all my friends feel welcome at school thank you bella how old are you hey bella bella you are an incredible public speaker all right next is going to be ashy reed and on deck is alexander lee mobertz whenever

093you're ready hello my name is ash reed and i am a part of the haines city high school gsa officer team i am here today because i have some concerns about the house bill that will end up going effect on july 1st as a member of the lgbtq plus community i have experience with feeling unsafe in my home and my school environment it was only until my 11th grade year i became fortunate enough to have teachers that cared and supported me because of my teachers i was able to have a safe and learning environment at in school and with having a safe learning environment i was able to perform well or at least better academically students are able to learn and perform better academically when they feel safe and comfortable with stating that i worry

094that policies and procedures that will be implemented in accordance to house bill 1557 will lead to that safe environment being destroyed teachers are what make school worth it the relationship that students have with the teacher is special students should be able to trust and be comfortable with their teachers i am concerned that students privacy will be threatened sure kids should be able to trust their parents but that isn't always the case when students can't trust their parents they should be able to just trust their teachers i ask that when you come to your decisions on the policies and procedures that school will end up having to follow that you consider the impact that it will have on the students i asked you be specific and clear in your decisions thank you for your time alexander

095lee mobert alexander and then on deck on deck is abigail workman whenever you're ready alexander okay hello my name is alexander lee roberts i'm representing haines city high school's gsa club and i'm here to express my comments and concerns for the lgbtq plus community and students as a person part of the lgbtq plus community i can say that being seen different is something that has followed me through my whole public school experience starting from elementary school and following me to high school i was either shamed or made fun of for simply being different or more feminine than other boys in my grade well that was a problem for me i have had safe places groups of supportive friends and a stable and supportive household that however is not the case for all students that are

096part of the lgbt lgbt q plus community i'm concerned for those that don't have safe environments at school or at home i am concerned how that single difference can affect their well-being and academic future i'm lucky to have an accepting household supportive friends and mostly accepting or at the very least tolerant teachers while i was lucky it still wasn't always the case classrooms should be safe places for all students and i hope that with the policies that will be concerning the house bill 1557 that there will be safe spaces my concern is that a lack of safe environments for students in the lgbt plus community can hinder the education of the upcoming generations just because their sexual orientation or gender identity i'm very comfortable with who i am and the way that i present myself

097but i am also very aware that not many students have the same opportunities as me i've had countless students come out to me in private simply due to the fact that they are worried about how their peers will see them and how this will affect their life in the long run with the new legislation of house bill 1557 students face even more obstacles when it comes to facing their identity and sharing it with others many policies and legislation that people look forward to don't provide needed reaffirmation to students that need that support when creating new policies i request that new policies are passed to be in agreement with this new bill and have specific guidelines so that we as students are able to be more aware of how these policies will affect us not only

098can this help students but also keep our our parents informed about what is going on at school i believe these policies should help create those safer or at least tolerant spaces to allow students to prosper academically and thank you abigail please don't touch the mic i promise it'll pick you up okay they've got superpowers back there that i don't even understand but i promise um so abigail workman and then on deck is bob nichol whenever you're ready superintendent hyde members of the school board and those in attendance my name is abigail workman i'm a former polk county public school board employee current child advocate and an extremely proud member of the lgbtqia plus community in polk county harvey milk a gay rights activist once said it takes no compromise to give people rights it takes

099no money to respect the individual it takes no political deal to give people freedom it takes no survey to remove repression so when you think about inclusion in your schools what comes to mind inclusion itself is defined as the practice or process of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who may not otherwise be included oftentimes there's a very important population that while recognized here today is under scrutiny and fails time and time again to be recognized that population is the lgbtqia plus population while today's proclamation is considered to be progress there's still a long way to go until inclusion by definition is met for these students and teachers within polk county public schools within the policies and procedures for polk county schools there is language pertaining to students and teachers but it

100is more of a gray area in a 2017 supreme court case known as grimm v gloucester county school board gavin graham sued the school board for excluding him from utilizing the restrooms any other boy in his school would use simply because he was transgender he started out with meetings using the clinic bathroom and then being outright denied equal access to facilities because of his identity 69 percent of students like him have been harassed verbally due to their sexuality gender expression or gender over 50 percent have been prevented from utilizing proper pronouns and over 50 percent are unable to utilize the restroom appropriate to their gender so when you think about it a pride proclamation an acknowledgement of pride is in fact a step in the right direction and i'm grateful but individuals who are truly

101prideful and value the entire community would be on board with safe spaces in schools sensitivity trainings and creating clear policies and procedures in regards to inclusivity of all students and teachers thank you [Applause] good evening my name is bob nichol i'm an esc inclusion teacher at boone middle school i live at 1054 medina drive in winter haven and as you all know i'm an inclusion teacher so i want to give a big shout out to polk county's special olympians what a thrill it was for me to share their journey with them a gold medal how about that i also want to give a huge shout out to superintendent hyde and this board for honoring the gay pride proclamation a founding member of one of the groups that tried to ban books in polk county wrote

102on that group's website that homosexuality is quote a lifestyle choice and a psychological disorder end quote being gay is not a choice and it's certainly not a psychological disorder the founding member of the book banners also wrote that he is depending on quote teachers administrators and school board members to educate not indoctrinate end quote well we don't indoctrinate we teach kids to get along when kids get along they're happier when they're happier they don't try to harm themselves the trevor project is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lgbtq youth suicide is the leading cause of death among young people it's the second leading cause of death among young people according to trevor lgbtq youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers we must continue to strive for

103everyone to get along students who have different colors of skin different exceptionalities different genders that's why i am so proud of this superintendent and this board for leading the way by showing love and tolerance not hate and bigotry thank you next up is dr joy scott and then on deck is going to be taylor shook i'm here today to bring an awareness about a situation that is occurring with our charter school distinguished members of the board and the superintendent my name is dr joyce scott and i'm a seventh generation floridian and a fierce advocate for children my childhood was embattled with multiple incidents of abuse that left me feeling hopeless i went through my younger years with no one in my corner there were many days when i thought of ending my life because i

104felt there was no hope for me all children need to have hope that's why i'm here today somehow through the pain i was able to survive those difficult years and finally i pulled myself together vowing not to become a victim of my circumstances but to become a fighter who stood in the doorway for each student that crossed my path i went into education because i knew that each student i encountered needed something to hope for and a reason to continue today's parents are worried about how they're going to pay for gasoline to get to work putting food on the table amidst the 14 increase in grocery costs they shouldn't have to worry about finding a school that would afford students the opportunity to work towards their futures ppca provides that chance for the students of

105polk county today i'm the principal of pre-collegiate academy otherwise known as ppca located in auburndale since receiving our charter 11 years ago we have attained the following distinctions state of florida high performing charter state of florida a school state of florida school of excellence ranked as number 10 out of 148 charter high schools in florida ranked as number 27 of 673 schools for the best public high school teachers in florida ranked 51st of 693 public high schools in the state this year's valedictorian of polk state college is a previous student that attended our program just two years ago at this time our school is threatened to lose their charter because we no longer have a place to call home the school from whom release space for the past 11 years gave us no notice and

106gave us notice in december and we've been furiously trying to find another location we've kept continuous communication with our district sponsor when time began to close in we contacted adam emerson director charter schools for doe and he stated i would find it difficult to believe that a school district wouldn't do everything in their power to keep a charter such as yours on june the 8th i emailed the district with my concerns and was told that i could meet with someone at the end of june there simply is not enough time to wait and that is why i stand before you today we've made our situation known to all polk county commissioners polk state college our state representatives and senators to make the necessary changes needed to continue students of today are concerned about their futures

107getting a job being able to afford a car they need a school like ppca where they can work towards their college degrees in the hope of moving on to the collegiate high school programs thank you taylor shook [Applause] and then on deck will be nivea owens whenever you're ready thank you so much for listening today i'm taylor shook and i'm one of the governing board members for polk pre-collegiate academy ppca which you just heard from our administrator dr scott i'm here today because we are facing this challenge trying to open a school on a new location outside of the middle school i went to the school and i spoke with the students several times asking them what they wanted what could i do as a board member to support them and they said we want

108our own campus we do not want to be treated like middle schoolers we are doing more we have academic rigor and we want our own location and so the board is doing that we have worked tirelessly before we were even asked to leave in december we have been looking for that growth opportunity to support the students of polk county as a parent of four sons two of them being in mid middle school right now i'm concerned for our future for our children i want them to have these opportunities to go through a non-traditional high school like polk pre-collegiate academy i graduated from polk state college through chain of lakes collegiate high school before that i went to haines city ib in its first year i now work in higher education and i work with first

109year students who struggle with that transition from high school to college i support them through tutoring through courses and i know that what ppca is doing is important and i know that this school is not a traditional high school we offer certification courses we offer our own pert test so that students can go to polk state college we offer dual enrollment we offer ap we offer honors courses and we are growing so that all polk county students have a home here we want students to continue to receive the best education tonight we've talked all about inclusion and i'm ready to see it will you help us grow our school will you help us continue to educate our polk county students through this exceptional school i ask you that as a board member and as a

110parent and as an educator thank you so much thank you [Applause] and i'm going to ask you to say your name for me because i don't want to butcher it again naive night it is naive okay neither owens and then on deck is katina owens whatever you're ready good evening i am a proud student of ppca also known as polk pre-collision academy who has been blessed with amazing opportunities and education to do to the amazing teachers and staff members sadly due to our school having to be relocated we may not have a school anymore the property that has been found is not in the zone for our school we need your help as a charter school that's been graded as an a school since the beginning and we cannot let it go help save ppca

111thank you very much for your time thank you that's my kid so i'm a little emotional hello board members hold on a second hi my name is katina owens and i personally need your help my husband and i are the proud parents of two ppca pope pre-collegiate academy students one is here with me tonight she is also a current student at florida polytech university majoring in computer engineering and my 10th grader who just was here speaking she has chosen to be a pediatric registered nurse then i am the proud member of ppca board i'm a board member as well this school had granted my daughters opportunities and a high level of education and has given them so many things to be proud of i apologize i could stand here and tell you all the wonderful

112students that i personally know that have that are products of ppca but i won't do that because this school speaks for itself just google our principal dr scott just stood here and gave you so many points to think about as far as our school is concerned we have zoning issues we found a building but we have zoning issues and we don't want a handout we just need support we need help with our zoning we're a school that can survive on our own so if someone here tonight is able to help us because we have when i tell you we've knocked on doors we have knocked on doors when i tell you we have almost begged we've done it all so right now what we need is someone to help us with zoning we have a

113location um dr scott would be happy to speak with any anyone that can help us with the situation please don't turn your head nor close your eyes on the school of this magnitude that have so much to offer and so much to give we love our students we love our parents and more so we love our polk county community thank you thank you next up is christine pease and then on deck is ellen jones christine whenever you're ready okay i'm christine pease i'm a grandparent of grandchildren here in polk county school system and uh i'm thank you for this uh privilege to bear with uh speak and here to speak god's truth in love and um in the first chapter of genesis we're told that god created mankind in his own image in the image

114of god he created mankind and he created them male and female and i'm here to to recommend a book written for elementary school children i would like to see it it's my desire to see in the libraries and classrooms of our elementary schools here in polk county it's god made boys and girls helping it's helping children to understand the gift god's gift of gender and it's by marty and i'm just going to read one page of it that explains god's truth it's a it's a teacher talking to his elementary school students did you know if you are a boy then boy is in your blood and if you are a girl the girl is in your blood too what did you mean boy is in my blood tommy blurted out he thought that sounded cool

115boy is in your fingers your toes your eyes your hair god gives each of us a special code that is found in every tiny little cell in your body there is a code for the color of your skin hair and eyes and there is a code that says you are a boy and a code that says you are a girl girls have a double x gender code that makes them female and boys have an xy gender code that makes them and i think that we all know that this is truth and science has been proven and i just want to express my desire for my children to be my grandchildren be learning the truth and the truth will knowing the truth will set us free thank you [Music] next is ellen jones and on deck

116is anita carson whenever you're ready hello my name is ellen jones i'm a student at haines city high school i'm also a member of the officers for the gender and sexualities alliance at our school so we have come today to speak about the for asking for clear communication surrounding house bill 1557 we found the language in this bill is aggravatingly vague we want to know how this bill will be implemented and what it means for students and teachers to support this we've gone over some of our personal experience as queer students and the importance the in the communities that we've created one of the topics in house bill 1557 is the necessity of disclosing information about a student to their parents unless a reasonably prudent person does not suspect it will lead to abuse abandonment

117or neglect one of the things that my parents have stressed to me for as long as i can remember is that whenever i felt uncomfortable telling them something i would have trusted adults who i could turn to instead be that family members or teachers this now seems to not be a reality for myself or classmates teachers may now feel compelled to inform parents of details students thought important to confide in to a trusted adult who was not their parents building a sense of community is vital to all students we're working to unite ourselves while recognizing our differences the ways we do this are potentially threatened by this bill having teachers administrators and the school board in support of these endeavors is incredibly important to us so i have some data from the trevor project to

118outline the importance of creating spaces that are safe for lgbtq students so 40 of lgbtq plus youth seriously consider suicide 46 wanted but did not receive psychological or emotional counseling of these 44 cite concerns of parent permission as reasons 60 of lgbtq plus youth said that someone attempted to convince them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity 29 have been kicked out experienced homelessness or have run away affirming gender identity is consistently associated with lowered rates of suicide attempts i hope that we have impressed upon you the importance of supporting lgbtq plus students please be open and clear with what you expect from students and teachers thank you anita carson and on deck is willy mincy whenever you're ready um thank you so much for having me today and thank you so much for

119all of the people that showed up i have been a polk teacher since 2013 i resigned at the end of this year partially because of this i have had tons of students come out to me over the years i've led them through conversations about how they can come out to their parents this bill threatens that for a lot of teachers and i fear that it will harm the mental health of our students but i thoroughly appreciate that the pride proclamation went through today and that this board and our superintendent are showing that all students are welcome here because every student deserves to be respected they deserve to be protected they deserve to have a safe place to live and to learn and every family deserves to have respect so thank you so much for the

120pride population today hopefully we can build on that going forward [Applause] tabernacle church been in ministry in this county 60 years started when i was a young boy and i've been preaching all my life i'm here tonight and i'm saddened because of the condition of the world our country is so sad our county is sad our state is sad we need god but we don't want him we are proven that america have proven that they don't want god so since you don't want god then you have chose another god and i'm going to say to the board miss wyatt i have purpose in my heart that i will not come and stand behind this mic and pray again for this district i will come to the board meetings i will pray for you in my

121own private prayer time i will pray for the district i will pray for every student and every teacher and every principal and everybody that comes into this city because that is my assignment i chose to come nobody forced me nobody paid me i come because i love the children i started coming to these board meetings and uh i didn't see all of the stuff that i see until i started coming to work session when i come to work sessions i've seen the whole deal so that's why i come and i'm going to continue to come because i know that there is something that is going to happen amen in polk county i may not be around but somebody going to live to tell the story so all i'm going to say to you all is

122this it's time to get it right it's time to get it together because our children really are at stake and somebody keeps saying it's our future we just say that that's words but these are the young people going to take care of you one day some way or another and if you got the wrong one taking care of you you're going to be in trouble we see all of the violence we see all of the violence and we'll put it on everything but the main thing i think that no preacher no preacher no pastor you all don't where y'all preachers i ask you all this once before where you preach it they don't come they are not really concerned about the district they're concerned about their own thing they stay at home when a crisis

123comes they run in here and act like they're on fire for what's going on i'm gonna do what i'm supposed to do until my time is up and when my time is up i will be gone i might come through and i might not thank you bishop mincy and with no further business to come before the board this meeting is adjourned [Music] you