001[Music] i think [Music] this event is really unique because it's a really special time for us to celebrate new teachers we throw them this party to celebrate them actually making the decision to not only be a teacher but to be a teacher here in polk county public schools we get all dressed up we have a sparkling cider toast at the end we're hearing from our superintendent it's just really great time for teachers to network with each other and then get to experience some local restaurants as well i am incredibly excited about the fact that new teachers get an opportunity and just really feel like they're celebrated i think oftentimes we get into the initial start of school and things are overwhelming and they don't really have that opportunity to say hey i'm here i'm officially
002hired with polk county public schools and i'm a part of the family and so to be able to have that feeling and to be joined by a lot of different individuals in the district it kind of really feels like the support is surrounding them physically and literally so i'm really excited for them just to feel celebrated supported and valued before the start of the year what's really powerful about them getting to make these connections early on is that we know that teachers feel isolated especially new teachers so for them to get the opportunity not only to be able to meet other new teachers but to be able to meet district staff that they're getting to put a face to a name it really just makes it all come together for them and let them know
003you're not in here alone we're here to support you and celebrate you [Music] when you look at a parent involvement paraprofessional and you would xerox that you would put lisa gill's picture underneath that caption and i don't say that lightly because in times like these you need to have that one um face that one person that parents can look to and that's what she does and i'm proud to say that lisa gill is jessie keene elementary school-related employee of the year i love ms gill because she's um nice like she gives us stuff it just makes me feel good my passion is about i remember when the friend next to me in the classroom didn't have but yet they lived up the street and i didn't realize they were sleeping on the floor you know
004things like that so i remember that i want to bring that to my kids the students here the most important thing for me is for them to understand you're not alone and i want them to know that oh my god wow how many of you have gone to the beach [Music] some of my troubles of not being the best teacher i could be with maybe planning or lesson plans all these things for me it was almost like uh i guess a lot of nba players they call it like a revenge tour where they go against their own team but for me yeah like i'm coming back um my comeback tour but yeah for me it was just to come back and continue to improve my craft like you said uh you know although we're here
005and we're talking about our journey we're still very new and every day a matter of fact i'm still learning something new you would all stand with me and we'll have mr allen give the invocation let's pray father god you came to this earth and intentionally took upon the form of a servant so as we seek to serve today help us to not only see but to perceive help us to not only hear but to understand so we may serve with excellence we are humbled by the opportunity to serve in this capacity this evening in your son's name amen and if you could stay standing i'll now call kamoira whitaker to the front to lead us in the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for
006which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice [Music] you're with me how are you doing tonight good that is a beautiful dress and i love the bow and you're here you look like you're ready for christmas so tell me what school are you from chandler blake's elementary and how old are you eight eight and what grade are you in third grade third grade so do you know what you want to be when you grow up yep an engineer an engineer man we are missing miss cunningham tonight she would love that that is awesome so what's your favorite subject in school math math very nice now did you bring any special guests with you tonight yeah but miss nelson my principal was supposed to come but since she could not make it
007my mom's old principal mr duncan was coming mr duncan came on here awesome so we've got mr duncan do you have anybody else here with you yep my mom and my dad your mom and your dad mom and dad can we at least wave well thank you so much for leading us in the pledge tonight we are excited to see all that you do we can't wait until you're an engineer you know we hire engineers at the school district so you could always come back and work as an engineer for polk county public schools right so but thank you so much and we hope you have a very merry christmas yeah you too and have a good night everybody have a good night thank you all right and i will now call the december 14th
008meeting of the school board to order the first order of business is to accept the agenda for the december 14 2021 school board meeting superintendent hyde do we have any revisions we do madam chair members of the board members and community staff there are six revisions to the board meeting or updates item d1 approval of the minutes for november 9th 2021 school board meeting there was an attachment update item l2 administrative and instructional personnel actions there was an attachment update item k-1 lakeland employee clinic the new addition to clinic project increase of 840 thousand dollars there was an attachment update item k5 gauze academy partial roof replacement on building one south end project increase of 87 000 there was an attachment included for item case seven the middle school addition to bellisita elementary school that
009item will be pulled and deferred till january to allow for further community engagement prior to bringing that back for the board for final approval authorization to move forward with architects and engineers and an item p2 nearpod nearpod is a supplemental curriculum support to assist staff with lesson plan access and developmental tools to utilize with their current lessons however we will delay this item to allow us additional time to address recent questions or concerns should prior to its purchase as such the item is being pulled to allow for additional review and time the item will be brought back on january 9th as part of the superintendent's board workshop where we provide further information as to its use and content we will also have representatives from the vendor here present and then that item will be addressed
010potentially at the second meeting in january excuse me it's not january 9th january 11th excuse me as part of the board workshop where we provide further information and then subsequent to that there'll be a second opportunity to revisit this before committing to a purchase thank you thank you superintendent hyde do i have a motion to accept the agenda so second and all those in favor please signify by saying aye hi all right and any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 we will now move on to our special recognitions superintendent hyde yes ma'am madam chair members of the board this time i'd like to ask school board member lisa miller to step down to assist us with special recognitions also i'd like to ask john miller curriculum specialist and accelerated program accelerated programs to come forward
011to recognize the 2022 presidential scholars district finalists nice it's a good thing when there's not enough room in the room that's right well we have you guys sneak around this way a little bit too good evening thank you superintendent hyde school board members and district staff for this opportunity to recognize some of our outstanding academic high school seniors as part of the united states department of education presidential scholars program along with several other criteria one student was to be selected based largely on high academic achievement including standardized assessments such as the sat or act and one student was to be selected on the basis of academic achievement in the area of career and technical education in polk county we asked all of the high school leadership staff to select the students from their school that
012they felt were most worthy of consideration high schools submitted names to the district in late september we received 37 names of students from our schools a committee of district curriculum staff reviewed the submissions and academic histories of the applicants to determine the two names that we would provide to the florida department of education we appreciate this opportunity to publicly recognize all 37 students and the fact that leadership at your schools specifically identified you so congratulations to the students we want to thank all of the school administrators as well this takes time and the administrators are obviously very busy with other things for them to go through the process of sending us the names so we would like to call the names of all 37 district finalists they received their certificate i think mr miller is
013very efficient and announced the two names that go on to the state so i'm going to call their names and students if you could turn around and wave to your parents or administrators who are here the audience if you can hold your applause till we get through the names that would be appreciated from travis technical college in the category of excellence in career technical education juan avalos from fort meade middle senior in the category of high standardized assessment scores timothy bearden from bartow senior in the category of high standardized assessment scores robert belcher from ridge community senior in the category of excellence in career technical education allison ben says from summerlin academy in the category of high standardized assessments stephanie benged from lake gibson senior in the category of high standardized assessments hilaya brooks from
014lake gibson senior in the category of high standardized assessment nathan calzat from harrison school of the arts in the area of excellence in career technical education andrew chaney from mulberry senior in the category of excellence and career technical education chandler crawshaw from auburndale senior in the category of high standardized assessments anthony debasey from winterhaven senior in the category of high standardized assessments anderson garner from winterhaven high school in the category of excellence in career technical education jonathan gutierrez from tenorock senior in the category of excellence in career technical education jazlyn gregory from summerlin academy in the area of high standardized assessments morgan grubb from lake gibson senior in the category of excellence in career technical education bianca gutierrez from lakeland high school in the category of high standardized assessments hunter hitchcock from frost proof middle
015senior in the category of high standardized assessments corey mendes from bartow ib in the category of excellence in career technical education judd parker from mckeel academy in the category of excellence in career technical education jacob plemmons from haines city ib in the category of high standardized assessments jasmine pruthy from auburndale senior in the category of excellence in career technical education phillip shaskey from maine city ib in the area of excellence in career technical education sullen schultz from barto ib in the category of high standardized assessments shashin civic kumar from tenorock senior in the category of high standardized assessment casey smith from george jenkins senior in the area of high standardized assessment kaylee sweet from fort meade middle senior in the category of excellence in career technical education trevor towne from frost proof middle senior in
016the category of excellence and career technical education yurizi palacios vargas from lakeland senior in the category of excellence in career technical education nysha vasquez from harrison school of the arts in the category of high standardized assessment kim tien vaux and from lake region high school in the category of excellence in career technical education sam weldon let's give all these students a round of applause again we do appreciate the opportunity to publicly recognize all of these students for their effort it was very difficult i do appreciate the curriculum specialists to narrow it down to two to give to our friends in tallahassee but the two state finalists who will be representing polk county are nathan calzat from lake gibson high school in the area of high standardized assessment and sam weldon from lake region high school
017in the area of career technical education congratulations thank you so much and congratulations to all of you i think miss miller is corralling for a picture we need bleachers we do fantastic job congratulations everyone [Applause] and at this time i'd like to invite susan copeland the executive director for the polk education foundation to please come forward for her donor recognition this evening good afternoon board members and superintendent hyde today i have with me cindy helton she's the executive director of suncoast credit unions foundation and their foundation and their credit union have been involved with the foundation since about and various initiatives they've worked to help support our free teacher market our americorps polk reads tutoring program our school district's hall of fame and teacher of the year and their largest area of support has been
018to teacher and school grants so over the past four years they've donated just over a hundred and ten thousand dollars to the education foundation so i wanted to recognize them for that cindy added as we were seated that they've also contributed another 25 000 to other district things and i knew they were involved in others and so they just continue to be a great partner for us but they are not done with just the money i had the opportunity to nominate them last year for a national philanthropy day award and they ended up being the recipient of the large business category for polk county and i remember doing that nomination video and one of the things i said about them as a partner was that they were all in that they didn't stop when they
019wrote the check that they really continued to support us so i remember explicitly cindy sitting beside me in our free teacher market sorting supplies and stocking the shelf and then i believe she met you miss miller when she was there and you visited as well she's visited schools with us to make grant presentations and give them the big fund checks she's also visited after the funding has been implemented to see what's going on in classrooms and schools they call when we have teach free teacher market supplies gently used office supplies at their warehouse in tampa and they invite us to come over and get those they supply the free teacher market with well it's been thousands of bags to date now for all of our shoppers in the market to have something to put their
020goods in and their employees were so kind they also collected supplies within the office they got with their own vendors and raised money for our free teacher market and the employees themselves gave so as i said all in really describes suncoast credit unions foundation and the credit union and cindy's just a super partner to work with so i wanted to bring her here to meet you today to thank her publicly and to have a certificate of appreciation presented to you cindy they're going to want a picture picture which way thank you would you like to share anything you're not required to just don't ask see there there is a problem right there no i i truly um appreciate susan she is a great leader i love working with her i consider her my friend as
021well i would like to thank rochelle middle school i want you to know that my granddaughter goes there and for some reason she has blossomed as an artist and if you haven't been to the pulp museum maybe you should because her artwork is actually there at the very beginning introducing the whole middle school program i'm so proud of her and i'm just want you to know that they're doing a great job over there and i really appreciate it so thank you for letting me help you and as i've said in the past give me a chance to say no so if you have a need give me a call give me a chance to say no all right have a merry merry christmas and a great holiday and thank you again for the recognition and
022next i'd like to ask jeanette crowley senior coordinator for public relations and strategic partnerships to come forward for our focus on excellent goodness for our focus on excellence employee recognition campaign thank you so much for the opportunity to be here and share more about our great employees so focus on excellence is a year-long campaign to spotlight the important contributions of all polk county public school employees each quarter the program will accept nominations for a different group of employees a committee will select five employees per quarter as winners to receive prizes from our generous sponsors as well as attend a special luncheon in addition to being recognized at a school board meeting they will also be highlighted on the school district's social media channels over the course of the year we will recognize and highlight a
023total of 20 employees the first group of honorees that we recognized in september were within our clerical custodial maintenance and warehouse positions today it's my honor to recognize our employee group two winners who are in our following positions paraeducator professional technical and administrator nominations for employee group 2 were submitted in mid-october we had a total of 379 from 379 they went to 115 from 115 it was narrowed down to 15 and then eventually to our five last week we hosted an appreciation luncheon for the winners along with that also included district leadership and program sponsors each winner received a prize package valued at over 600 courtesy of our generous partners with polk county public schools i'd like to thank the following businesses who have partnered with us for this specific program chick-fil-a cp investment advisors
024fleet feet formerly fitness running and fitness hand in stone massage and facial spa field insurance and financial group geico insurance image depot express lakeland magic logo out loud public supermarkets inc and rhino sauce company tonight each winner will receive a plaque that was produced by the students in the fabrication lab at daniel jenkins academy all right are you ready to hear about our amazing winners before i begin i'd like to mention that each of the winners received a nominee so each each employee that's nominated has to be nominated from fellow employees so it's other employees seeing the great work that are nominating other employees on the nomination form the nominator has to share how the employee exemplifies excellence illustrates teamwork and how they put students first in their everyday work the narrative or the story
025is the most important piece after the final five winners were notified i asked them to answer the following question what do you love most about your job and working for polk county public schools representing our paraeducator group is sandra rivera who is a para educator at inwood elementary sandra will you please come forward as sandra comes forward i'm going to let you know what she loves most about her job in working for polk county public schools sandra says that success is what motivates and excites her about going to work every day because it gives her the opportunity to help her students teaching is a calling and a passion for her the main reason for her love of teaching are the students she loves interacting and learning from them and especially gets excited when she sees
026them finally understand the content of a subject she's teaching her students success is what motivates her most about her work if her method of teaching has a positive influence on her students then that pushes her to work harder and persevere through the tough moments aligning the school's vision and values with her own is one way in achieving greater personal and professional success sandra rivera [Applause] okay good evening i want the opportunity to say thank you to the amazing two persons right here and the polk county schools i want to say thank you to to miss camp and miss honorary those two persons are my principals in the school thank you congratulations representing our professional technical group is audrey kelly fritz senior manager of prevention education on the nomination form the nominator on how does she
027how does the employee exemplify excellence this is what they said about audrey is an exceptional person who demonstrates professional excellence she is a very hard worker that works tirelessly to behind the scenes at different times of the day and night that go unnoticed to most of us during the coveted call center season she spent time missing out on family events including weekends and holidays in order to assist her employees until the list of calls were made they watched her go above and beyond doing the job right she's an excellent listener who provides time to her employees and assists in any way she can to help offering continued support as everyone learned new roles she's a great mentor and boss to have and this has been a very trained time for everyone both personally and professionally
028but she has been able to keep merle up and our team together congratulations audrey i would like to say thank you thank you to the board thank you to mr hyde i'd like to say a special thank you to mr hill and sherry scott and dr lutz they've always been supportive of me um if we needed something for covid they made sure we had it and i appreciate that i would like to thank my team at mark wilcox center it's not my team we just are a team and i thank them so much they are the reason i go to work and the reason i can go to work is because of my wonderful husband rob and my daughter holly they're in the audience right now and um and i thank them so much as
029well and i thank my mother for being a school teacher in polk county schools for 30 some odd years who gave me the love of education thank you all all right next we have jason carroll he's also representing our professional technical group and he is senior manager of web applications when asked how does the employee illustrate teamwork this is what the nominator said about jason the software development department is internally structured with different teams and each of these teams have a leader jason leads the web applications team and he was made aware that a developer on a different team had an interest in working on projects in his area the developer had expressed interest of strong technical skills but was new to the main programming languages used by the web applications team in spite of
030the fact that jason always has a heavy workload he assigned a project to the developer and then scheduled daily one-hour training sessions for the individual he made the training available to his team members jason is never too busy to invest time and not only his team but anyone in the department who wants to learn because he is committed to teamwork given his teaching background he is an excellent educator and very approachable he always wants the overall team to succeed because that means excellent customer service has been provided congratulations jason i'd like to thank mr hyde i'd like to thank my supervisor diane rivera and my other supervisor dr tina barrios um this is humbling and it's also a little embarrassing for myself because i can only get as far as i get because of the
031great team that i have working with me not just on my team but on all developer teams that we have they they do fantastic work day in day out and i would also like to say definitely although she's not here with me tonight thank you to my wife jennifer who's put up with many a night of me working till midnight or 1 am on projects that probably didn't have to be worked on that night but i felt like needed to get done to help everybody else out whether it was students teachers or administrators so thank you all [Applause] thank you [Applause] our next employee that we have representing our administrators group is tracy nelson who is principal at bartow elementary academy the nominator when asked how does the employee put students first in their everyday
032work said i've had the pleasure of working with dr nelson at two different schools when we worked together at rochelle school of the arts dr nelson seemed to seek out the students that needed an extra little love and understanding she watched her tame the wildest middle school boys the ones that everyone just had enough of the ones that other teachers may just ignore dr nelson sought out those kids she spoke their names when she saw them in the halls she hugged them and told them she was so glad to see them there was one child in particular that seemed to stay in trouble but instead of treating him like he was a bad kid she would go out of her way to find the good in him dr nelson is the master of creating relationships
033with children all children not just the cute easy ones to love if you were to ask her today about the little middle school boy she could tell you his name and i guarantee you if you ask him about her he would immediately smile congratulations [Applause] i'd like to start off by thanking mr hyde the board sarah fortney who has been a big supporter of me throughout the years in 25 years with polk county school board it has not been a job for me it's been a calling i truly believe in children and building leaders and relationships with these with these kids and it's actually so important to have a good team and i find that in polk county we are a family we do work together and that's why our kids benefit so much even
034in the administrative pool and there is a lot of us but we we have a support team there and i know several of my colleagues are out here mr duncan who's been my supervisor and i've known for 25 years he's very supportive as well but i want to point out two people that i work very closely with and that's ms nikki jones she's my assistant principal and stan [Laughter] [Music] she helps me keep my sanity sometimes and my wonderful twin sister dr stacy nelson who's also an administrator and does a great job of supporting me so thank you all very much all right our um next employee is um nadalis cara lapa a principal at juanita elementary representing our administrator group is it no crime when asked how does the employee exemplify excellence mrs caraballo
035has been the principal at juanita elementary for six years she has developed such a positive culture at juanita our students love and respect her she has data chats with individual students and encourages them to do better she models this and teaches in turn and teachers in turn do the same every month she recognizes a top ar class in each grade level but what stands out about this is that she will post an update data each week and when a class is falling short you will find her visiting that class to find out why and encourage and support them to read more in order to support the math gaps that exist due to covid she has opened ipad lab time in the morning for fourth and fifth graders before school and the students show up most
036mornings you will find her in the labs supporting them she is in the process of doing the same for third graders in addition parents are very supportive to the decisions that she makes because they know that what she is doing is for the children's best interest in mind her motto is we will always do what is best for students she supports teachers with instruction and you will find often find her teaching and modeling for teachers teachers embrace the support and are comfortable asking for help the juanita staff is truly a family that starts with her we all love and admire her for her dedication to student learning congratulations good evening thank you mr hyde and the board very much for everything um this is not only for me but this is for all of our
037administrators who work tirelessly every day to do what's best for kids i can't do this without my school team without my amazing principal and most of all my amazing mom who came here today to support me um i love her dearly but um just you know to know that you know we we are always the higher you get in a field the less opportunities you have to be recognized and i'm okay with that but um there's always great leaders behind us i have mr duncan here i have some of the girls who help me lead here my two sister friends over there but um i'm just wanting to know letting you know that without the support from the district and our teachers and our families this is impossible it's an impossible task and we just
038i'm just so grateful to be here thank you very much for this recognition congratulations [Applause] congratulations again to each winner enjoy the spotlight as you certainly are deserving of this recognition and we will continue to put the focus on you keep being the amazing people and employees of pcps in the coming weeks we will be highlighting each of you on our social media challenge channels it's our hope that this program will inspire others within our organization to stop and simply say thank you to one another for the job they do we all need to hear it and when we do we're better equipped to give back to our students the nomination window for our next group is january 10th through 21st and the employee group consists of our transportation school nutrition and non-classroom teachers i
039can't thank the employees enough who have taken the time to fill out the nomination forms to recognize our fellow employees without these nominations we don't have applications to review and winners to recognize so i'll be back here in march to honor our next group of five winners thank you so much thank you madam chair members of the board this concludes our special recognitions for this evening thank you superintendent hyde next on the agenda is public comment for agenda items and i will call the first one down to the front and for standby and then while i do that if mr bridges you'll go over the information for public comment i'd be delighted so first up will be donna andrakio and then on deck will be rocky andrakio ladies and gentlemen as a reminder to all
040speakers addressing the board this evening there will be three opportunities to address the board at the beginning of the meeting before any official action is taken on the agenda for any speakers wishing to address items that are on the agenda for action again at the end of the meeting for any speakers wishing to address matters that are not on the agenda for action and today there are public hearings scheduled so comments addressing the subjects of the public hearings may be delivered at that time persons wishing to speak who have filled out a speaker card which was available at the entrance will be allotted three minutes to speak when you're recognized by the chair please step forward and stand in the green chair in the green square i'm sorry stand in the green square so your
041voice will be picked up by the microphone and do not cross the red line please give your name and address and if you're affiliated with a group you may announce that as well please direct all comments to the chair and refrain from making personal attacks or using profanity also please do not stand or otherwise block the vision of those behind you merry christmas thank you miss andracchio hi everyone my name is donna andrakio and i live at 1020 spirit lake road in winter haven can't hear me can you hear me now okay i'm going to address the item t2 of the reproductive and health corrupt curriculum for seventh graders concerning male and female reproductive systems by show of hands who here has read through the health curriculum discussed in the work session again who here
042has read through it one person okay thank you in reviewing the information that is prevented to the seventh graders something that jumped out to me is that the word anus was with well the word anus was part of the reproductive system and i looked it up and it isn't part of the reproductive system babies don't come from there please turn the microphone up i can't be heard they are working in the back to get the microphone working properly all right are we working to continue is it working yet yes are you working that please continue i'm going to continue thank you [Music] excuse me we will have order in this meeting please continue further further on the information defines the word abstinence the root word is abstain and the definition in my dictionary says to
043refrain from something by one's own choice to hold oneself back notice the definition does not have words like sex drugs alcohol and tobacco sounds like it's feeding back there's somebody not on the switch where it needs to be on the switch your definition includes these words this is the definition it says abstinence means to refrain from something by one refrain from not taking part in high-risk behavior such as sexual activity or drug abuse including alcohol or tobacco not in the dictionary not truthful information keeping it true and simple they can learn discernment telling a 12 year old student to seek medical treatment and testing and tell their partner you're assuming you're assuming a 12 year old has a sexual partner if they think they have an sdd they tell the partner they don't tell the
044parents this is a violation of parents bill of rights hb 241 there should be more emphasis on abstinence also in teaching [Music] can you please in the back add 15 seconds to her microphone thank you which 15 seconds do you want the first or the last please finish all right you all here and you're not all seven here but you have been elected to protect as well as of approve information to education for our children over the last few days concerned citizens have rece have reviewed information included the curriculum and found it to be dangerous untruthful and illegal i urge you to reject this curriculum for all ages and then thoroughly review it before bringing it back again doing a great job assures a great clear conscience and a good night's sleep and a merry
045christmas i hope that you all do your better your job better because i expect you to thank you thank you ma'am next up is rocky andrakio and on deck will be david cooper rocky androcchio 1020 spirit lake road winterhaven 3380-1272 by show of hands who has read the healthcare curriculum discussed in this session a few back there okay my topic is on t2 is the fourth grade who decided that hiv aids is appropriate for nine-year-olds according to the florida statute one zero zero three point one four point four six for the fourth grade and one zero zero three point four two grades 6 through 12. each school district school board may provide instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome syndrome education as a specific area of health education now here's a page that seems to be
046age appropriate here's one on hiv that does not seem to be up to date we're in school year 2122 and the information on here is from 2016 2017. that needs to be updated workbook questions in the in the workbook hiv aids question four lists two ways that hiv can be transmitted and they give you two out of three the three are dirty needles infected blood hiv uh infected mother to a baby why aren't we teaching pool safety and car safety when more children 13 and under die from these things than hiv aids illegal drug use explaining dirty needles which is on slide or page 10 teaching children to avoid sharp objects is fine but illegal drug content is not age or great grade appropriate at age nine kids are inquisitive you talk about it they're
047inclined to uh try it you seven who u5 plus lori and kay that aren't here were elected to oversee the education and protect our children in the last few days concerned citizens were able to review the information included in this curriculum and found that not only does this endanger the innocence of our children but there are multiple violations of florida statutes this can this curriculum cannot be approved as it stands because of these violations if you don't have to abide by our laws why should we this is rocky and i approve this message but not this curriculum [Applause] thank you mr andrapio david cooper is next and on deck will be maureen miller good afternoon i'm david cooper of winterhaven by show of hands how many of the school board have actually read the curriculum
048from the sex ed we'll see can you correct that we've all read the curriculum in the work session today it was reviewed page by page but thank you but thank you for asking well i i i want to know that because i want to know if you're actually reading what you're approving see in the 1988 school year at denison middle school i was fortunate enough to have a teacher named sarah fortney i always believed her to be genuinely concerned with my well-being as a student and i'm sure most of you who have spent time in the classroom were equally vested in your students as well i believe that is why you are on the school board today i'm here with concerns about the subject matter of the health curriculum statute 1003.42 section n subsection 3
049states the health education curriculum for students in grades 6 through 12 shall include an awareness and of the excuse me shall i include an awareness of the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard having read the curriculum and looked through its content i was amazed to find the only mention of abstinence was a definition no mention of the benefits and certainly not taught as the expected standard i also was appalled to find the anus listed as the reproductive system spelling word list when clearly anal intercourse has nothing to do with reproduction obviously there are portions of this curriculum that are not following the law and are not following science i would like to point out that you have been entrusted with the sacred duty to guard the education of our children this curriculum falls
050well short of meeting our standards i do not believe you would take your responsibility so lightly as to let this substandard material continue to be taught to our children this nation was founded as a moral nation that looked to god as the author of our liberty and his laws as the foundation of our own as john adams put it our constitution was made for only or made only for a moral and religious people it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other popular culture has waged war on our children sexualizing them at every turn our school should not perpetuate this assault you now have the ability to put morality and truth back in our education system over the last week i've been able to review this curriculum and found that not only does it
051violate several florida statutes but it also endangers the innocence of our children please don't approve this curriculum review it thank you and good to see you next on deck is maureen sorry next up is maureen miller and on deck will be bobby d's maureen miller 693 glendora in solovita a review of the curriculum i'm talking about t2 reveals problems in meeting florida statute 1003.42 n3 which states as the previous speaker said that the health education curriculum for students in grades 6 through 12 shall include an awareness of the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy in the curriculum there is one slide in the fertilization and growth section that illustrates the physical and mental health characteristics of abstinence but there is no mention of the many problems stemming
052from teenage pregnancy case files in the 8th grade curriculum normalize sexually active scenarios in school-aged children when abstinence is supposed to be taught as the expected standard in order to avoid the consequences of teenage pregnancy the curriculum for high school students goes against the curriculum statute for 6th through 12th grades instead of teaching abstinence there is an entire presentation on family planning including discussions on emergency and regular contraception over-the-counter medications the patch condoms iuds and vasectomies this is being taught to sixth through twelfth graders a review of the curriculum has found that not only does it endanger the innocence of our children but that there are also violations of the florida statutes i am urging you not to approve the curriculum as it stands and instead institute a thorough review of the materials before proceeding
053with a vote or public comment thank you next up will be bobby d's and then on deck is jack zelsman hello folks my name is bobby dees i live at 813 avenue g northeast winter haven according to florida statue [Music] 1003.40 42 into the health education curriculum for students in grades 7 through 12 shall include a teen dating violence and abuse component your curriculum gives a list of five agencies students who think they are victims of relationship violence including dating abuse and human trafficking can seek help from but not one word about asking their parents for help why aren't parents listed we should be included as well your family planning piece related to prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases features questions to ask your health care provider but nothing about asking parents or their
054advice or their guidance why are parents left out of family planning the vocabulary for reproductive systems at every grade level includes anus and bladder as part of the reproductive system these body parts and anal sex have nothing to do with reproductive systems so why are they included is this done to recognize homosexual behavior the teen pregnancy section of understanding pregnancy and high school de-emphasizes pregnancy rates in polk county citing in 2013 polk county had its lowest rate in 10 years of birth to girls under 18 at 212 and then quoting dr joy jackson the director of pope florida department of health as stating the perception that teen pregnancies are getting worse is absolutely false while they fell from 2017 stats of pregnancies at 522 births compared to 560 in 2016 and 577 in 2015 this
055is far higher than a reported in 2013. the correct message should have been emphasizing a goal of zero pregnancies for unwed teenage girls an increase of 310 pregnancies from 2013 to 2017 was not good and should have been the emphasis rather than a ball of 55 over three years from 2015 to 2017. thank you sir thank you sir your time your three minutes is up next is jack zellsman and then on deck will be robert goodman yeah i rise to speak against the teaching of the human growth and development reproductive health and disease education curriculum that's been presented my name is jack zelsman 210 lake howard dr i am the son of a mother that taught for 33 years same grade she loved the third grade hugged every teacher every student and every student hugged
056her back what happened with that by the way as a show of hands i know you've gone through this secret exercise and he's actually read this dumb thing okay you read it i thought i saw your hand earlier already okay well then good you can own it i say this by saying for the record in in a court case brought by one person in america madeleine murray o'hare you heard of her on behalf of her son bill had to join in a prayer in his school in the school school prayer was ten words almighty god we ask for your blessings for us our teachers and our parents amen i hope you didn't find that offensive as a result prayer has come out of our schools god has allowed his hand to come off our great
057country in place rather than that and teaching abstinence we must now now consider health sex health plus the how to's the whys and the what for's of sex when a plain no was originally sufficient florida statute 103. public health for k-12 education adopted the basis of math science reading history etc etc etc and now the state wants to suggest that you take that valuable time and teach sex education that hasn't even been circulated yet for the parents there's only a group of us that knows what this is and what's in this thing so with all the graphics of what a penis looks like and a vagina and an anus and the disease that come from sex practices like aids and syphilis and genital warts this incest training our god warned us about for those who
058have not read his word and reject the notion that a simple no is not sufficient so now we stand against this statute in the optional subjects pertaining to stds and pregnancies and what you've provided in the way of information you five to seven people that are elected to protect our children this curriculum goes against the health education its curriculum for grades six through twelve because that was abstinence it's a little bit further this curriculum cannot be approved as it stands because these violations i've been married nearly 60 60 years neither my wife nor myself were ever schooled in these matters of the teaching in the home my wife's mom emphasized that good girls do not have sex until they're married thank you sir i'm teaching note and don't please use this information for the parental
059side thank you very much thank you sir next up is robert goodman and on deck is lisa cooper good evening i know it's been asked before so i'm going to rephrase the question and ask you a little bit different how many of you have read each and every one of the 801 pages of the health curriculum that's what i thought from the 2021 florida statutes title 48 section 1003 it states the following shall be taught comprehensive age-appropriate and developmental appropriate k-12 health education that addresses concept of community health consumer health invent environmental health and family life i studied the curriculum for fifth grade boys and i want you to remember fifth grade boys are 10 years old so focus on that age as i read some of what's in your curriculum here's some fifth grade
060vocabulary words from the male reproductive system and their definitions they might make you uncomfortable they're being taught to 10 year olds ejaculation the release of semen from the penis erection the stiffening of the penis foreskin skin that covers most of the glands glands the tip of the penis nocturnal emission the release of semen during sleep sperm the male sex cell why on earth would we be teaching 10 year olds this other words include circumcision scrotum semen and testicles i passed off some pictures there's a picture from one of the videos that is a graphic of a picture of a penis and it's superimposed over two men one man is looking directly through the penis and the other man is off to the side watching what the other man is doing i don't know what it's
061doing it looks like it's a screenshot from a video have you seen the video i hope somebody can review that and see what that is later in the lesson the children are given an example where they're speaking to someone named dear leon and they're asking questions about puberty and some of the changes their bodies are going through they're asking through an internet in 2021 are we telling our children that they need to ask a stranger on the internet what to do when they have sexual questions why on earth wouldn't it say ask your parents how dangerous is that the last question in the module is the most important thing the lasting question last question in the module is what is the most important thing you learned today about puberty is the trained classroom teacher or
062nurse that's teaching this fully prepared to answer the last question because it could have a broad variety of implications from 10 year olds we're also teaching 10 year olds about aids as members of the school board we elected you to protect our children you need to do that we depend on you we put you in this position so that you could protect our children this curriculum cannot be approved as stated because it votes several florida statutes i ask you to vote against this curriculum [Applause] thank you [Applause] next up is lisa cooper and on deck is john friedt good afternoon my name is lisa cooper and i'm from winterhaven it should be on now they just started the timer good afternoon my name is lisa cooper and i'm from winterhaven i won't ask y'all again
063the same question that a lot of people's asked because it's clear that this this has not been read through i've read through this curriculum and i'm very concerned about many things one of which is the sixth grade girls puberty section as a mother and grandmother i'm appalled at and asked why would a 6th grade 11 year old little girl need to know about the male reproductive system at all nor does an 11 year old little girl need to be shown a graphic picture of a male penis and his reproductive system such as this or should she have to do a crossword puzzle that asks her what is the sex organ located outside the male's body called these are things which is in this current curriculum that is being taught in our public schools that no
06411 year old little girl should have to answer parents should have a say and the opportunity to know what is being taught in our to our children well ahead of it ever being put into schools curriculum there are many issues with things in this current curriculum so i ask each one of you seven school board members that have been elected and trusted to do the best for our children to not review or not renew this current curriculum as it stands now but that it be reevaluated with parents given the opportunity to have their say and to review it before it's passed and put into our schools because these are our children and subjects such as what is in this curriculum is very concerning to our moral and christian beliefs and also there are multiple violations
065to our florida statutes so i ask you to please do not renew this curriculum until it can be reevaluated with parents input thank you [Applause] up next is john free and on deck is patty zellsman you're on deck miss ellsman good evening everyone my name is john freed i'm a pastor at believer's fellowship church in north lakeland and i also have students in the polk county system i've had a student in the polk county system for about 19 years now and i have a few years to go i also have a mother who has taught in this system well has been a teacher for 46 years and retiring friday leaves and then i have two sisters that teach in this system and a brother-in-law that's an administrator in this system so i'm very well invested
066in the polk county school system and in polk county and in lakeland which is where i live oh i didn't say my address 7805 fox squirrel circle lakeland um i i suppose many times you guys uh feel like your chair sits in the middle of an intersection and uh you're in the crosshairs of a variety of different views a variety of different opinions and you hear a lot of frustration and i think it's uh very clear and well understood that that people are frustrated all across the the country school systems have pushed agendas that parents are not appreciative of we've been put in the dark over many issues and and then you have other school systems school boards uh that are just kind of ignorant to what's going on um they don't invest the time
067and they make decisions so to speak from from ivory towers and i'm not i'm not claiming that accusation against y'all i'm just simply saying um we as a community respect your position and expect great things from you guys many of you have stood strong on certain issues that we do agree with and so now you are hearing a lot of public comment and i think it's very obvious to note that um i'll say it this way i have run a radio program for about 16 years now and they tell me if they're accurate they tell me for every phone call that we have come in there's at least 5 000 people listening and so for every person who stands here and addresses this board today i'm number 10 so far there may be several thousand
068people that are in agreement with what they're saying not everyone comes and speaks so i i hope very much that you respect what's being said to you and i would wish that you could almost just settle the issue now by someone making a motion to say you know what this sexual reproduction uh curriculum agenda we ain't ready for this yet let's table it put it off to the side let parents have a good look in this thing let's have a little more community uh comment a little more community discussion a little more board discussion um and and discussion with the committees that have reviewed these things and um you know so you're you're hearing and feeling potentially a lot of heat and i guess that's on purpose i i hope you respond well to the
069to the statements that are being said today thank you thank you next up is patty zellsman and on deck is cheryl rubin i just before miss ellsman before you speak i just want to make sure that it's clear that this is not something being voted on today this is something in our attorney's report that will be advertised for a public hearing in january so i just want to make sure that all of our speakers know that that is the case this is not being voted on today thank you miss ellsman my name is patty zellsman i live at 210 lake howard drive northwest winter haven i am a grandmother of 15 children eight of whom attend polk county schools i have taught high school and college level i am here to ask that the polk
070county agenda item t2 reproductive health curriculum as many others have mentioned should be canceled until further review what i read was inappropriate for any age i found the high school packet was not written for boys as a separate packet and then girls having a separate packet it was a packet at the high school level for both girls and boys i don't agree with that i have a friend who worked for the fbi and now homeland security she assured me that the students need much of what has been put in these packets that we are in a different time than i grew up in however how they are handed out makes the difference it would be best if after review and rewording the packets if they could be mailed to the home and the parent and
071the parent and child could view the material and the parent decide what they want their child to know let's help the parents to take responsibility for the educating of the child especially in dealing with sex have the child bring back the packet back to school with the parent having signed that they have read it let's encourage the parents to be involved having read the statistics for this county and the state dealing with high school sex why do we need a family planning component that includes all kinds of contraception graphic pictures included otc meds the patch condoms iuds and vasectomies are these age appropriate instead of family planning go in the direction of basic biology and anatomy the understanding pregnancy component normalizes teen pregnancy so that teens are desensitized to this incredible miracle providing students who
072think they have an std with hotline information and encouraging them to seek medical treatment without seeking information from their parents is a violation of hb241 not a good idea which is by the way you should know the parents bill of rights hiv should not be dealt with based on the statistics of polk county schools [Music] ma'am your time is up thank you cheryl rubin [Applause] and then on deck will be jim taggett and on your card it says p2 and the t2 p2 nearpod has been pulled off of the agenda so that is not an agenda item any longer okay well i'm actually filling in for someone who couldn't be here tonight so i'm going to okay read her okay i just wanted to make sure you were aware thank you okay thank you sheryl
073rubin 2485 laurel glenn drive concerning the health curriculum the fifth grade boys curriculum has inappropriate material for fifth grade health education title 48 chapter 1003 of the early learning code for k-12 public education states that instruction material will be appropriate for the grade and age of the student the lessons regarding puberty look appropriate for 10 year old boys however the hiv aids lesson is out of place multiple cdc studies show that almost no children under the age of 13 are diagnosed with hiv aids since hiv aids is not a chemical disease that the average 10 year old encounters this lesson should be eliminated you have been elected to ensure appropriate education and protect our children for the last five days concerned citizens have reviewed health curriculum now being considered for renewal there are multiple violations
074to florida statutes this curriculum cannot be approved as it stands i urge you to reject it for all grades until a thorough review has been completed with concerned citizens assisting to assure appropriate health education for our kids now my personal opinion is that sex education should be taught by the parents when the school takes over teaching sex education it sounds like the school is taking responsibility away from the parents and taking over that responsibility it is not the state's job to take over responsibility that should belong to the parents i'm extremely concerned about the proposed acquisition of nearpod software this software and critical contains critical race theory instruction which this nearly one million dollar purchase should be rejected it violates the state rule banning crt instruction of florida schools the acquisition of this software is
075an attempt to introduce crt materials under the guise of catching up to losses experienced during the supposed covet pandemic last school year there are solutions to the problems created by government reaction to a false threat that costs much less the security policy enacted in september is outrageous restricting the size of tiny of handbags for women to this size is an insult how many of you could put everything you need into a bag of this size [Applause] according to the sheriff's office as school board employees there is no threat to the school board officials this measure is an insult to law-abiding citizens exercising their right to express concerns with their local government if you are afraid of these people taking take defensive measures such as erecting bulletproof shields rather than using an unfounded excuse of a
076threat to usurp the rights of peaceful citizens this measure is an insult to law-abiding citizens like i said and to add insult to injury taxpayers are paying for it if you are so afraid of these people you should pay for your own security out of your own pockets furthermore furthermore if the curriculum focused on legitimate instruction instead of marxism [Music] thank you ma'am [Applause] jim taggett and then on deck will be brittany devore yeah i'm jim tag at lake wales florida and i know you've all been asked this before but i was sitting way in the back i couldn't see the hands how many of y'all have actually read the reproductive health curriculum show of hands i see i see i see two hands i see okay the reason i'm asking asking this is because
077my review of the sixth grade boys and girls puberty section leads me to question the age-appropriateness for an eleven-year-old boy or girl to learn what happens to the opposite sex during puberty such as girls breasts and hips growing menstruation starting information on boys penises and testicles in relationship to fertilization and birth okay also in the workbook on the opposite sex it states that a person or the student should for number one be able to list three physical changes boys and girls go through during puberty number two name the male and female sex glands and number three name the male and female sex cells now the question is is this subject matter age appropriate for sixth grade boys and girls or does this curriculum provide opportunities for bullying the opposite sex or teasing okay and then
078uh it's been mentioned before they have the anus anus and bladder listed as reproductive parts of the anatomy i'm i'm confused i worked in the medical field for many years i'm confused on that one okay now is the quote trained classroom teacher fully prepared to answer the questions that that the children may have about this instruction who decided that hiv aids is age appropriate for 11 year olds including the fact that it is transmitted by sexual contact okay according to statute 1002.46 each school district may provide instruction on hiv aids as a specific area of health education and such instruction may include but it's not limited to the known modes of transmission signs and symptoms and risk factors okay the question is why aren't we teaching more water sports and pool safety or maybe seat
079belt use in the car since drowning and car accidents are much more dangerous health hazards to this age group than aids okay okay more more kids die from these accidents than hiv aids okay now you folks here were elected to protect our children okay and in the last 24 in the last 24 hours we were able to review all this information contained in the reproductive health curriculum and found it does endanger the innocence of our children you and you should reject this curriculum and turn this this whole subject back to the parents it's their job it's not the state it's not the government it's not this it's not the school teachers that teach this stuff it's the parents leave it to them thank you and look up matthew 18 6. look up matthew 18 [Applause]
080[Music] next up is brittany devore and on deck is melissa houlin i'm at eastlake cartridge drive in winter haven florida mrs miller you appear to be highly agitated by all these questions and you did say earlier that page by page you all went through it during the work session i watched every minute of that work session and it was not gone through page by page so i would love to have a conversation but you're supposed to direct your comments to the chair i was saying that we have read it individually you said that you went through it page by page this is my minutes i'll take my minutes thank you okay so during the work session you did go through this and so i would invite each of you to ask yourself is it appropriate
081if you've read it okay check mark is it appropriate i would hope that every each and every one of you would say no miss fortney shared a very logical question earlier where she shared that she was a science teacher and she was very um showed a lot of gratitude towards the nurses that were there to answer those very complex um complicated answers that those students have into being able to rely on that professional so i i thank you for expressing that i appreciate that um so statute one zero zero three point four six it uses the word may it never uses the word must or required so then that would be my next question and hopefully the attorney would agree with that that this it is during the work session it was implied by mrs
082fritz that this is a required curriculum and it is not from my understanding again let the attorney be the one to decipher that section a states further teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as an expected standard for all school age students while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage why then do we have an entire presentation on family planning which includes tubal ligation which is tying your tubes or a vasectomy as ways to prevent teen pregnancy again these are major surgeries and possibly irreversible that we're providing to our students as a way to prevent teen pregnancy um as you know the parents bill of rights puts in informing the parents as a highest priority however i this is just high school this was just the high school curriculum and here's where it talks
083about tying your tubes and getting a vasectomy and it even shares with you the the rates the effective rates one of the resources shared is love is respect.org two things are listed the very first one is talking about lgbtq relationships which again goes against what section a states and then the second thing it talks about how to how to hide it and in fact if you go to this website the very first thing that pops up is a pop-up window that reminds you to clear your search history how to hide it from your parents things like that so again there are and i just i had 24 hours to go through this and in 24 hours i saw numerous violations so does it need to be taught yes but i'm highly promoting or inviting you
084guys to please look through it and reevaluate the things that are violating and the things that are good that need to stay thank you for your time melissa hullen and i apologize if i'm butchering your name and then on deck is john fazzini my name is melissa hulin i live at 1107 vancil street in lake wales given the magnitude of the impact that these topics and curriculum have on the children of polk county i would assume and trust that you all had reviewed this page by page i have looked through the eighth grade curriculum which i hold here and in this eighth grade curriculum students are given several mock patients and a list of very graphic symptoms in which they are to quote be the doctor and diagnose the std that that patient has one
085of the patients is a 24 year old sexually active male again this is for 13 year olds another is a 21 year old male who denies intercourse but says he has engaged in oral sex again is this age appropriate for 13 year olds i don't think so these scenarios normalize sexually active being sexually active at 13 when abstinence is supposed to be the expected standard per florida statute within this curriculum students are taught to seek medical treatment and testing and tell their partner if they have an std included is a picture of a cell phone where the student is encouraged to call their boo and let them know that they have an std not their parents their boo in the 8th grade dating abuse and human trafficking curriculum students are directed to the love and
086respect website which the lady before me talked about and it's true i visited myself as soon as you go to that website there's a pop-up that teaches you how to delete your browsing history and if that's not enough if you still aren't sure how to do that there's even conveniently a 1-800 number that you can call and they will walk you through how to hide what you're searching on the web from your parents and your family i urge you all to thoroughly review this curriculum it cannot stand as it is as there are multiple violations to florida state statutes but also endangers the family unit it endangers our children and you all are entrusted to protect them thank you and on deck will be emmett purvis my name is john fassini my address is 101
087east stuart avenue lake wales florida can y'all hear me yes sir all right good um i i would like to thank you all for being here you you represent district one you represent district seven and you represent district three how many uh um how many members are they you're six so you got one two or seven there's seven so there's only three missing so i went i'm from frost proof ma'am so anyway was it three three missing okay all right well thank you for coming and i know uh what it's like to sit on board i've sit on many boards and uh and i've made a lot of decisions with board members but so thank you for being here we don't know where the other members are but i'm sure they have a good excuse
088let me ask you a question since it's public information anyway are they i don't know how much uh council members are paid that uh do you all how much are they paid is it an annual on an annual basis sir as as stated at the beginning of public comments this is not a time for question and answers it's a time for the public to come and make comments before the board in other words y'all are supposed to be here to listen to us so this is our time to listen to you yes okay well let me make a suggestion i've served on a lot of boards i've served uh i'm an old man so i served on the national security council foundation which was uh under reagan for the peace strength movement we were the
089largest lobby on the hill at one time we usually showed up for our meetings and we were not paid i anyway i've also served on boards listed on the uh new york stock exchange and uh we showed up and if we didn't show up we zoomed in so and if you've ever been to a stockholders meeting where they're shareholders they like to be satisfied well anyway i run out to run out all my time i'm down to a few seconds but the salaries are public information i'll get that i hope that uh uh superintendent hyde you may not remember me but i'm the fella from frost brief you were gonna call some time back about the farming and i'm still waiting on your call [Applause] and then on deck will be will wood emmitt purvis
090emmett purvis 655 east stuart street and bartow i came up here tonight to say a lot and i changed my mind this is garbage this whole uh topic is garbage and i don't see us spending as much time and wasting the time of the public to have to come up here and address what we're addressing tonight what i want to know i'm not going to ask you who read it what i want to know is who is pushing it because statute 103 .46 states that it may provide instruction in hiv and aids can somebody answer me who is pushing this it's not mandatory sarah sir as we mentioned earlier this is not a time for q a this is a time frame i can't hear you this is not a time for question and answers
091this is a time for the board to listen to your comments i still i still can't hear you and i don't want to waste any more of your time and i appreciate you mr allen mr wilson i appreciate you being here and and i hope when it comes time to vote on this and i want to remind you of something else these people sitting out here are the people of polk county every one of you are public servants to the people of polk county we pay your salaries do you understand that and we elect the school board and sooner or later we're going back to electing the school superintendent [Applause] thank you will wood good evening thank you all for your public service i know you have a very tough job both my parents were
092teachers in polk county and i feel for a lot of the discipline issues especially that you have to deal with on occasion i agree with most people here concerning the appropriateness of some of our sexual education programs i was looking through some of the ones for seventh grade one of my biggest concerns is i understand we as we develop we have questions and things of that nature but should we when i was went through sexual education we did it you know boys on one side girls on the other and it was you know some of these questions that just make you cringe you know some of even the definitions and i realize they've been medicalized you know and that kind of thing there are a few bright spots at least the one i can't speak
093for everyone else's curriculum that they got but i would like to commend the slide presentation at least if you're going to do it it says right here in multiple places avoid risky situations go to public places what it's trying to do here is what can you do describe ways these young people can resist pressures to have sex so thank you that's i think what many of us are after maybe it needs to be in the other grades i'm not sure why i didn't make it to their grades it talks about have parents or other adults around you or group dates or discuss and set boundaries respect yourself and and your date say no to say no do others other activities talk to trusted adults think about your future and think about the consequences of your
094actions spend time with people who respect your decisions not to have sex so thank you there is some bright spots in in what you're doing and i think we would just like to have more of that um there's a one of your crossword um deals the the answer to number 10 on the questionnaire after you fill in the blanks was um basically in big bold letters say no to sex thank you i mean these are young children that we shouldn't be um putting things in in their minds that that are going to haunt them the rest of their lives we see the proliferation of sex trafficking and and sex slavery and things of that nature that we need to be all opposed to jesus said if we cause one of these little ones to stumble
095it's better for us to have a millstone wrapped around our neck and thrown into the depths of the sea i realize people say oh that's religion that has no place in public life then why did congress on the very first meeting fast and pray and open in prayer for three hours before they did anything because they needed god's wisdom thank you very much for opening in prayer just because we pray to a god does not mean that we're endorsing any one particular religion however the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge thank you [Applause] and i have one more i have one more card left for comments on the agenda however it's no longer an agenda item p2 royal brown did you have comments on an agenda item or would you
096like me to move it to end of the agenda okay that is no longer an agenda item but i can move it so you can speak at the end of the meeting on that it is no longer we are not voting on it today so the items that are on the agenda are what we can speak to at the beginning of the meeting and then at the end of the meeting you'll be the first one sir you're welcome to come speak to it but we it is not going to be on the agenda today thank you okay the next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes for the november 9th 2021 school board meeting i will hear a motion so moved second all those in favor please signify by saying i any opposed
097and the motion carries five to zero next on our agenda is the approval of the minutes for the november 9th 2021 work session so move second all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed pop up and the motion carries 5-0 next on our agenda is approval of the consent agenda i'll hear a motion so move second all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 mr hyde we have some new administrators would you like to introduce them for us we do madam chair members of the board at this time i'd like to bring up to the front and please if you are joined by a family member or loved one please feel free to bring them with you or at least acknowledge
098them so at this time if i could please have mr brian warren warren senior director of off from the office of acceleration innovation he is being promoted to the associate superintendent of human resource services which is a role he served in previously also i'd like to bring up allison dort senior coordinator for t for the tti program who is now being promoted to director of federal programs and grants management also we have jennifer ralston ralph rollerson previously executive director for duval county public schools is being hired as assistant director for multiple pathways of education arnon pay did i pronounce that correctly okay school based coach from carlton park palmore elementary is being promoted to assistant principal of horizons elementary school so if you'll please join me in congratulating each of our administrators this evening and
099their families superintendent hyde would any of them like to say if you i was going to call them one at a time to see if they had anything they'd like to say mr warren superintendent hyde and school board i appreciate the vote of confidence and the opportunity to serve in this capacity again with human resource services i look very forward to the great days ahead and i'm excited about making polk county public schools one of the best employers and places to work in polk county thanks very much thank you sir one more recognition i'm sorry joining me this evening i'm blessed to have my mom and her husband carl from kentucky joining us and my daughter lily and my wife carol thanks very much fantastic miss dork miss rollerson wait somebody's got a big contingency
100this evening miss hunter mr hyde and board members thank you all for the opportunity to serve in a different capacity i've been working in polk county for the past five years and have developed a wonderful relationship with the lochman community and i thank you for the opportunity to serve and lead in a different capacity today i have with me my husband vincent hunter army veteran retiree my sister also we're army family well armed force family air force my mother is also retired i'm the only working person in my family everybody else went a different route and they they retire early and youthful but um i don't think i'm the type that we'll retire at any time i'll just find something else to do and i have my son who has been the busybody uh throughout
101the meeting thank you again he's been great congratulations mr rios i just want to say a quick thank you to you uh superintendent hyde on the board and from somebody who was not born and raised in polk county i found a home in polk county for the last 10 years so i'm very honored to be able to continue to serve the students and the community and i want to thank my current administrator my new administrator my family away from home my family that's watching online and i just i'm grateful to work in a county where there are multiple pathways to leadership and i think that's very important so thank you congratulations and miss pay i also want to thank you superintendent hyde for the opportunity the board mr duncan for allowing me the opportunity my
102current administrator mrs madonna dardis who is unable to attend tonight my new administrator miss amy heisermeyer my husband john my son austin my daughter emerson i couldn't have done it without them congratulations [Applause] that concludes our new administrators appointments thank you to all of you did you get a picture or do you need he will arrange you for a picture big smile thank you one great thank you madam chair thank you all right next on our agenda is the achievement academy charter renewal and i will hear a motion to approve the charter renewal for achievement academy for 15 years so i moved second all those in favor please signify by saying aye we did not hi sorry do we have do we have discussion miss milly thank you madam chair i just want to say
103achievement academy does great work in this community if you've not volunteered or helped students or donated to their school i suggest you you can look them up online achievement academy helps the most medically fragile disabled children up until the age of six where they come into the school system they do phenomenal work so i very much support renewing their charter for 15 years thank you miss miller any other discussion miss fortney chair white yes uh having toured the school they they do amazing work amazing and uh we we are fortunate to have their hearts within our uh polk county public schools thank you thank you miss fortney any other discussion saying none now all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries five zero next on the agenda
104is the approval of berkeley accelerated middle schools charter renewal so the motion would be to approve the charter school renewal for berkeley element accelerated middle school for 15 years so moved second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 the next will be a motion to approve the demolition of seven portables over 20 years of age which are in poor condition seek emotion so move second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 next on the agenda is the agreement between school board of polk county and polk state college and the motion would be to approve the articulation agreement between the school board of polk county and polk state college no cost i seek
105a motion so moved second any discussion mr wilson madam chair will be abstaining from voting on this matter due to my relationship with polk state college and i have completed the required paperwork for the state of florida thank you any further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries four to zero with one abstaining right i will now recess the meeting of the polk county school board and adjourn and call to order the meeting of the finance committee and the order of business for the finance committee is to approve the resolution 2021 2022-07 and 2021-2022-08 this is the refunding cops series 2021-a as in medicare to approve resolution seven as the finance corporation then you'll reconvene the school board meeting to approve resolution number eight yes
106ma'am okay so we will just be approving resolution resolution 2021 2022 2022-07 as a school board as the as the finance corporation thank you so moved second any discussion dr allen madam chair just uh just as a point of clarification on this i would love to have ms jenkins if you could come up and maybe speak to that just for transparency i think this is a great thing that we're about to vote on when we think about cost efficiency and saving dollars to uh for our general public just a brief summary if possible good evening i'd like to introduce you all to mike weiner he's with holland and knight he's our bond council so he's also here if you have any questions for him as as you approve the refunding this evening the important things
107to note is it is at point seven three percent um your net present value savings is two hundred and forty four thousand three hundred forty dollars so those are funds that can go back into deferred maintenance and and other things that we do here at the district so every now and then um there were changes in the laws a few years ago so refundings aren't as frequent as they used to be but as the opportunities come along our bond council and financial financial advisors help us to identify those to save the district money great thank you thank you any further discussion okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 i will now adjourn the meeting of the finance corporation and reconvene the meeting of the
108school board and now we will look to approve resolution 2021-2022-08 so move second any further discussion all right all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 and i'd just like to make a comment say thank you for your work on this uh both to our to your organization mr weiner as well as to mrs jenkins did a wonderful job on it and we you know i personally appreciate it because we talked earlier today about the deferred maintenance around the county and this is going to be very very helpful to that uh effort in in generally just uh saving his money saving our taxpayers money so thank you thank you mr wilson and thank you both thank you thank you all right next on the agenda is
109the appointment to the polk vision board of directors i will seek a motion we discuss these the next two items both in work session today and so a motion for the board of directors for polk vision motion to appoint sarah beth wyatt as district's liaison second vision board of directors all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 next is the appointment to the polk county value adjustment board again we discussed this earlier with the motion to appoint lynn wilson as the district's liaison and sarah fortney as the district's alternate do mr bridges do we need to do that this is separate or can we do those together i'd recommend that you do them one of the time separately so the first motion will be to appoint
110lynn wilson as the district's liaison to the polk county value adjustment board so moved exactly any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 and then the second motion will be to appoint sarah fortney as the district's alternate to the polk county value adjustment board so moved second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 next we will move into our policy updates and we've asked miss dodge to be prepared to speak briefly to each of our policy updates yes so we'll be moving into our public hearing and ms dodge if you could briefly go over our four policy updates that would be great thank you and good evening today is a final hearing
111and you're being asked to vote on four policy updates that were brought forward by staff the first is policy 1430.03 sick leave in the administrative staff section of your policy manual this is updated to remove the language capping termination payouts for administrators at 50 so we're removing that language the associated policy is 14 20 benefits in the administrative staff section of your policy manual and that language is being removed to align with what you've done in the sick leave policy for administrators policy 43 excuse me 4430.03 is a policy for the sick leave for your support staff in their section of the policy manual and we are doing the same thing there we are updating the language to remove capping termination payouts for non-union and professional technical employees and then the associated policy is policy
112number 4420 benefits in the support staff section of your policy manual and again we are aligning that language with what you've done what you will do when you vote with the sick leave policy to remove the language capping any termination payouts at salary thank you so much miss great and i have one comment card uh mr kyle windham good evening and put my eyes on so i can see what i'm looking at madam chair distinguished board members mr hyde my name is kyle windham and i'm the principal at frostbrook middle senior high school 1000 north palm avenue frostproof florida 33853 best school this out of heaven i also represent the association a school-based administrator administrators also known as asba asthma represents 240 school-based administrators in the polk county school district on the agenda is this
113evening is the policy update for terminal leave for administrators and professional technical employees for these groups we have discussed over the last 14 months that we have an equitable terminal leave for all employee groups so i just want to say thank you that you have listened and because this will reward all the employee groups with terminal payout so i'm not discussing just on the school-based administrators that i represent but the professional technical as well and so for and all the rest of those employees as mentioned previously in the works the work session this morning this policy will assist us in recruiting and retaining highly qualified administrators professional technical staff in our district thank you mr hyde mr pitts mr jenkins miss dodge miss yoakum to all of those for having this for passing this and
114creating an equitable umbrella for all our employees i'm going to change the hat as principal frostburg from middle senior high school thank you for the allocation for a new roof you see our building was built in 1977 in the last several years we've had a leak to the point where the buckle of the floor tiles in our in our school now with the delivery of materials coming this week and the work beginning later on this week we'll have a complete working roof on our campus so our kids don't have to sit next to buckling floor tiles finally thank you for the allocation of funds and approval for our baseball field house our baseball team has never had a place to store their equipment and a locker room to dress or prepare for games and practices
115we've always had to use a portable or a classroom thank you to miss usher and her staff as we have worked over the last two and a half years to make this happen with a sizable donation from miss deej dinani she is the widow of coach john donati coach donati was a teacher and a coach in frost proof back in the early to mid 70s miss donati heard a lot about frost proof coach donati made a big impact on frost proof frostburg made a big impact on him he passed away a couple years ago she gifted our school with a monetary donation to start this process for this field house so i just want to say thank you that we have that opportunity thank you mr windham merry christmas happy new year all right so
116we will we will now be approving the four um new before updated policies so we'll start with policy 1420 benefits administrative staff i'll seek a motion so move second those in any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries five zero next we'll move on to policy 4420 which is benefits support staff i'll seek a motion motion to accept second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 next policy will be sick leave administrative staff i'll hear a motion so move second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 and finally policy 4430.03 sick leave support staff motion to approve second any discussion all
117those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 that will conclude our policy updates and next up will be our superintendent's report madam chair members of the board uh the superintendent's report for this evening the next work session will be held on january 11 2022 the work session will begin at 9 30 a.m work session will be held at the jim miles professional development center located at 5204 u.s highway 98 south in lakeland immediately following this meeting will be a special meeting as we discussed earlier today i will try to get it scheduled within the constraints of your current time frame commitments of 9 30 to 12 noon and that special meeting will be will allow the board to review and potentially take action to ratify if pea
118is successful in ratifying their contract that we have successfully negotiated to date i think you see a number of individuals in the audience that would support that transition authorizing at that time and while we've tried to limit special meetings of this nature authorizing that time as we did previously would allow the payroll team adequate time to process all pay including retro pay by the end of the month of january thank you thank you superintendent hyde and now we'll move to our school board attorneys report mr bridges thank you madam chair request authority to advertise a public hearing for january 25th 2022 during the school board meeting to consider the proposed reproductive health curriculum thank you mr bridges and we will now seek a motion this is just to advertise that we will be having the
119public meeting on january 25th correct so move check it any discussion madam chair absolutely yes mr wilson um for the members of our of the general public in the audience this is the only vehicle we have to get your input on our curriculum so that's all we're doing we're simply advertising this so that we can solicit your input we had a rather in-depth discussion about this earlier today and i heard abstinence abstinence abstinence ev every third word so it's not all bad there's some good things here we heard one of our speakers say that we need to know what those good things are but we also need to know what those things are that that our community is not happy with and so that's what this does it provides that vehicle i'm going to be
120reaching out to members of our community and listening to you and i suspect that superintendent hyde will be doing so as well so that's how we we find a path forward on this matter so for that reason i will be voting to have the public to advertise public notice for this curriculum thank you mr wilson miss miller i just want to add that um you know legislative in the doe rains down on us heavily on all curriculum that that's done here and i think we want to make the point that not only mr bridges but other attorneys and people are involved in creating curriculum in the doe or recruiting the requirements for a curriculum follow what all districts do as an advocate for 15 years for students with disabilities and following curriculum it's about collaboration
121it's about having conversation it's about creating relationships with people in your community so the very few that i've talked to already that have concerns have sat down with me and we've had those conversations and i think that's very important no matter what the subject matter is to really create those relationships i sat in the audience for 10 years and watched a board that didn't know about students in wheelchairs and feeding tubes and kids with autism and they weren't malicious people as none of this none of the people are here they just did not know and it took creating relationships with those people to talk about how to meet the needs of that student population so i would encourage you to reach out if you haven't had conversations with your board members and start creating relationships
122with them so no matter what the subject matter is that you're the go-to person for them to be able to get information from that works for me in tallahassee um wendy dodge can tell you that having relationships with our delegation all of our representatives and our senators in the in the tallahassee level in the congress at the federal level has helped us make changes or suggest new ways of doing things they have to hear from their community but they do it by creating relationships and collaboration and working on solutions so i hope that's what we can do here thank you miss miller miss courtney yes i i just uh want everyone to know that uh having uh been the teacher where i had to sit in these lessons there are some hard topics that come
123out that made my face turn red and uh i would readily admit that i am all about parent input parent opt-out because they are your children and the other part of that though is we have some parents that aren't involved so when we all come to the table i hope that and and thank you mr hyde for doing that i took copious notes i even marked down how many concerns you had for each of these sections because uh you know the bottom line is we want what's best for kids just like you do and we have to work together to have that happen thank you thank you miss fortney dr alan madam chair thank you so much yeah just uh again uh dittoing what's been said i think uh lynn wilson said it well uh
124we're here to listen and i think that's been critical i think the parental rights bill was noted hb 241. we've definitely been tracking and listening and you know being up to speed on that uh superintendent hyde mentioned today that the public links would be accessible probably by the end of the week so you know general public please share that have dialogue around it and bring it back to us and communicate with us i think what sarah fortney said was is quite valuable we have to consider those that don't have the opportunity to have conversations in the home you know i know we have some faith-based leaders in the audience and i value you i'm glad you're here and i'm speaking from the experience as you know a single mom raising me um she you know
125there's a lot of experiences that we could speak to this as well my dad leaving when i was three so those conversations were not present in my home um so i know that i speak to that i'm sure you all have had these experiences around you as well so again i value that you're here speaking about this and it's meant to be a transparent conversation so we're here we're listening and again so i'm speaking in favor of this to um public notices tonight and i think that's the process and that's what we're trying to do thank you dr alan sorry may i add a comment yes sir superintendent hyde thank you ma'am so as we began the workshop this morning and for those of you in the audience who spoke this evening as to your
126concerns a few things not only am i familiar with the curriculum i taught the curriculum as a science teacher here in the state of florida for numerous years in particular middle school part of that includes ensuring that parents are informed of the topics that are going to be addressed to allow them to make an informed decision as to their interest in their child participating additionally this topic ordinarily would not have been provided or presented in the manner it was today i chose to do that well over a week ago when the agenda was posted to move it to a workshop for open discussion and transparency because otherwise it would have been put into as an informational item and you can look historically at how the curriculum has been approved in the past so your comments
127are not falling on deaf ears i've been in communication with several of our community members who came very politely met with me shared their concerns and they've already received a written response from me as to our shared commitment to review in particular at least three separate areas the inclusion of hiv at grades four and five that's that was initiated back in 2013 when the state policy required the inclusion of hiv at those grade levels so we're very open to reviewing those that content and considering the potential for its removal additionally there the uh the section in high school in regards to family planning that is also currently under review by our curriculum staff and then finally the last piece which you've heard comments about this evening i think it's important to note that the team
128has actually moved very quickly since i moved since i last met with those representatives from the community and actually the website right now will probably be up as of tomorrow all of the content is there it is explicitly linked to our curriculum page you can sort it by grade level it also includes all of the parent information allowing you to opt out please keep in mind there's one aspect of that website in the curriculum if and when the curriculum is fully adopted we will also provide a calendar it is important for parents again from our my position as a superintendent and as a parent to ensure that we're providing with information you can make important decisions on allowing you to opt out or just simply saying if you opt out of human growth development you
129opt out of every aspect of it may not suit your needs or your child's needs or your interests there are topics such as personal hygiene that can and should be addressed with your children as part of the overall health curriculum but you can't make that decision if wholesale you're opting out of the entire curriculum so the goal is to provide you a calendar it says on monday here are the topics they're going to be addressed on tuesday here are the topics can be addressed on wednesday so you can make an informed decision about their daily participation if you so choose to exclude them completely we completely respect that that has been in state statute for any number of years but it is important for you to understand as many of you spoke tonight i have
130been in communication with your organization and it's been a very fruitful dialogue thus far we are very open we're very receptive and we're trying to work collaboratively towards a common goal however they're going to have to be concessions and understandings on both sides so i agree this curriculum was first developed by a committee that consisted of local health experts medical practitioners parents and teachers and others and it has continued to evolve each year this evening it was brought forward because there were potentially some changes in statute that would have required for it to come forward but again we did so openly and i shared at the beginning of the meeting that we would bring this topic back in january so as was stated before the public notice does not mean it will be voted it's
131simply saying that we will continue the dialogue through the month of january at least two additional meetings and we will continue to work to revise until we get to a place where we feel like we can adopt a curriculum that satisfies our interests our needs and so that's my sincere commitment to all of you so i appreciate the time this evening [Applause] thank you superintendent hyde so we have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the authority to advertise the public notice for january 25th 2022 school board meeting for reproductive health curriculum all those in favor please signify by saying aye hi any opposed and the motion carries 5-0 thank you madam chair and and i would like to to wish for each of you and for each of you have elected
132to spend your evening with us today the joy of the season in accordance with the tradition of your families and i look forward to a hopeful 2022. thank you mr bridges and we have no report by the auditor tonight and next will be board members reports from dr allen district one okay uh i had several comments but i'm gonna keep them short actually just want to read a brief email that i received and if you notice the my fellow board members they have like these little pieces of artwork and so forth out there to display so i was gonna put that there for a moment and actually read this that i received actually from assistant principal alonzo thompson at southwest middle school i would like to send the most deserved shout out ever to mrs
133jessica jorgensen on friday december 10 2021 there was a medical emergency on our campus that by my opinion was life or death mrs jorgensen our school nurse displayed the true value of her training as she jumped into action to save a life her composure and leadership was integral in directing others who assisted her during this medical crisis her actions and efforts were heroic and commendable so thank you to everyone who assisted during this crisis and a special thank you to nurse jorgensen you literally are a lifesaver so that's why i have my life savers in front of me tonight if you want one i'll share them after the meeting merry christmas to all and to all a good night thank you dr alan miss fortney uh well i learned at fsba conference uh that people
134don't care where i've been so i'm gonna move on um thank you for the donations to polk county public schools from our community oh my goodness page after page after page uh we uh so appreciate your involvement um of course well wishes to all our retirees a special shout out to maddie and richard they know who they are they spent many many years uh making this district a better place a big shout out to dr barrios and the i.t department for the successful kitty christmas if you did not get a chance you talking about lighting up kids lives they did it working with our head start program um uh if you look at uh the instructional and non-instructional uh resignations uh i just want everybody to be mindful that we are bleeding staff and a
135lot of times things are not running like we are accustomed to because we are all hands on deck trying to do what is best for our students i just need you to be aware um between retirement and resignations uh you know it's just amazing speaking of staff i want to thank all our hard-working staff and all the school visits for everything you do i want you to enjoy your family yes family uh the next couple of weeks recharge because we need you to continue to make pre-k through 12 public schools just do it better that's it merry christmas thank you miss fortney and mr wilson uh no report this evening thank you madam chair thank you mr wilson and ms miller thank you madam chair i want to mention real quick what the art is
136up here there was a winterfest in auburndale of lots of students across polk county this happens to be and the one that miss wyatt has from an artist that lake gibson high school named shaheed issa i hope i have her name right if you have not been in our schools i urge you to volunteer and see what kind of talent we have we have a we have some kids that just will blow you away i'm not an artist i just learned to appreciate other people's art and the kids really um showed that out at winterfest so sherry ross and the staff of auburndale that made that happen i appreciate that and speaking of auburndale because that entire city is my district i want to just make mention of someone that we celebrated there deretha taylor
137bogert her her dad worked in the city for a long time but in 108 years of the of the city of auburndale um miss taylor booger will be your first female mayor and i know that her dad who's no longer with her and you know her family are very much joyous in that and she does a lot of work in that city the tassel open house tassel is a program you know we talk about parent engagement we have a lot of parents not engaged we have a lot of parents missing we have students in foster homes we have students in group homes we have students living with relatives on their couches and so the tassel program is a program that steps in to help with christmas presents they help with shoes and they help with
138clothing it's located in winterhaven so you can look it up it's on our district website if you want to help or volunteer there it works just by volunteers it's another great opportunity our social workers work there but the volunteers really make things happen and there's lots of opportunity to help out families and even even our staff with supplies and things that they host there i stopped in at weber college to see the growth that's happening at weber i'd never been there before they're adding nursing and things to bring more opportunities to people in polk county so i appreciate what's webber's doing and the opportunities they're going to bring our students so i with that i'll end madam chair it is going to be a great holiday season and merry christmas to everyone that's attendance thank
139you thank you so much and i just for my report want to quickly thank afscme for inviting us to their christmas party again you guys know how to throw a party and it is always so much fun so thank you for inviting us and i hope that we were well behaved enough to get to stay on the guest list for next year because it's one of my favorite things um i had tassel on my list to talk about but i think miss miller has done it justice but i know shannon was here earlier but if you have not been out there to see all that they're doing they literally grew out of a filing cabinet from a social worker that was trying to help her kiddos and it is half a warehouse now i know
140we're trying to get them more space right superintendent hyde but it it really is an incredible program so please email shane and glibsee to go schedule a tour to see how you can get involved and then finally i just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped in the westwood gymnasium ribbon cutting i know that westwood in the whole inwood area is so excited to have that gymnasium and i'm thrilled that dennison was approved tonight so i can't wait for that ribbon cutting later hopefully next year so and bart is on the list um so thank you to all of our staff and to just want to wish a happy holidays and a happy new year and to all of our staff and students and families so next we will move on
141to public comment for non-agenda items and first on the list will be royal brown and next on deck will be stephanie yoakam good evening my name is royal brown iii i live in the county i doubt any of you read through the near pod teaching and training system which you are about to approve eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars to purchase my review of the nearpod software revealed that it has a rating of only 2.9 out of with 6 500 people having reviewed it furthermore it also has at least two apps that teach critical race theory one of them is teaching tolerance and the other one is eye civics teaching tolerance has been changed by the way to learning for justice according to their website the teaching tolerance curriculum used in near pod is a
142product of the far left southern poverty law center which has changed the curriculum's name as i said to learning for justice a quote from this program states in this moment with ongoing racial injustice and blatant white supremacy on display we're digging in our heels even more to work for justice and support for our democracy last time i checked the united states is a constitutional republic that not a democracy [Applause] the difference is the rule of law versus the rule of the mob to quote the national review the i-civics curriculum which is also embedded in near pod is cloaking progressive political activism and critical race theory under the soothing and popular heading of civics a bill sb 146 on such action civics was actually detained by governor desantis during the 2021 legislative session at the urging
143of the florida citizens alliance winterhaven 912 and other groups the executive director of i civics louise dube stated that ice civics is committed to pointing out institutional systemic racism and teaching about our institutions and our coalition was was held has held that illinois use of icivics is the model for the nation as you know the governor and the department of education of florida have banned the teaching of crt in florida public schools which reflects on your oversight responsibilities in regard to approving the neopod software program for use in the polk county school district you've been elected to protect our children including not exposing them to hatred for their country and themselves based on false charges of systemic racism oppression and no ultimate truth however your planned use of neopod for its use in teaching and
144learning in polk county school district would be violations of the governor and the state department of education on critical race theory therefore this software cannot be approved as it stands because of these violations thank you [Applause] [Music] stephanie yoakam and then on deck will be bill olson stephanie uh stephanie yoakam president of the polk education association 730 east davidson street bartow as the 7 000 teachers are in the midst of ratifying the tentative agreement put to them from our bargaining team and yours i bring a message of hope tonight uh hope and the true partnership that we are forging with mr hyden his staff through this partnership management in our union have settled two support staff contracts with the teacher contract out right now before the holiday season has started support staff realize a five
145percent raise with an automatic level increase in july all teachers are realizing at least 12 10 with many benefiting from increase in added supplements across the supplemental schedule a few of these uh probably more broadly uh the supplements i'm really excited about that we're really excited about 500 for teaching in a title 1 school for teaching an assignment uh for a teaching assignment that's in a critical shortage area from the doe list um honoring our highly effective grandfather teachers with a 500 supplement middle school coaches are now going to get paid for what they do with our middle school sports teams instead of splitting up a thousand dollars between them we have significant improvements with our advanced degrees that bring us in line with what other central florida districts are paying now these negotiations have
146given staff hope that with genuine collaboration between our union district staff our school board we can work together to improve salaries and working conditions for staff in polk county public schools ultimately this gives us hope for the future when our district and our board and our union commit to and work with as partners in a true partnership in bargaining in legislative policy in teaching and learning and more not only do staff benefit but so does our community at large and the students we're charged to educate every day thank you so much thank you bill olson and then on deck is going to be huey chumney good evening my name is bill olson and i live at 242 kendall way in davenport 33837 i'm bill olson for congress 2022 so good evening i'm bill olson full
147disclosure i'm a candidate seeking to become your representative here in florida's 9th congressional district in i am also not coincidentally a substitute teacher here in polk county public schools as a person who spends nearly oh gosh every one day a week in front of a classroom here in polk county let me first say there's a lot right going on here in the county i have the utmost respect yes for those that administrate and teach to in our schools now that being said i'm quite disappointed that it appears the school district diversity program does not appear to meet the standards set forth by the florida state school board it's plain to see for anyone that takes a look that the district's equity and diversion program is rooted in critical race theory one needs to go no
148further than the district website in order to see this disturbing fact links from the district website go directly to the national association of school psychologists which is clearly based on crt here's a small sample quote for many members of the majority culture i.e those who identify as white in the united states being made aware of one's classification as linked to privilege is likely not a common or welcomed experience indeed many people have never been asked or required to reflect on their own privilege status now for example white americans may attack the concepts of progress toward equality or being colorblind as mitigating privilege as a result many white americans neither may not be aware or may avoid considering how simply being white confers special status on experiences potentially to the detriment of others now i'm wondering
149is this the philosophy being espoused by our district psychologists and their staffs this is not the time nor the place in order to debate crt quite frankly that debate has already been addressed and governor desantis and the florida state school board have spoken crt is not to be taught in our schools it's my position in the position of a great many others that there is no such thing as white privilege white privilege is a construct of using pseudo marxist concepts in order to divide and not bring us together our constitution of the united states clearly sets forth that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights which among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness this is the standard which we should aspire thank you mr olsen all right next will
150be huey chumney and on deck will be will wood hey my name is hughie sumner iii i live at 2293 crofton avenue davenport um this is an email that was sent to the seven board members on my behalf from kevin moran on october 25th uh my name is hughie tommy i'm a pe teacher at citrus ridge academy on october 25th i was instructed to go to the principal's office where i was greeted by my principal daughter leatherwood ms collins dan talbott and jason pitts there was a letter on the table they were sitting at and they informed me they had some misfortune news to tell me i was told that i've been mistakenly overpaid as the athletic director at my school there was no such position at any middle school in polk county not only
151with my supplement pay that i've been receiving since 19 stopped immediately but i was also responsible to pay back the amount of 4783.38 and a payment plan of 113.89 every month until april of 2025. after taxes are taken out of the 340 monthly supplement i average a direct payment of approximately 225. so in total my paycheck will be short approximately 339 dollars a month of what i've been accustomed to for the next four years to say i was devastated and speechless as an understatement i had no idea that i was not supposed to get paid for being an athletic director for my school i did not sign any contract or documentation agreeing to any terms of payment since my boss appointed me the position in 2019. our second principal of the school mr donnelly came
152to us from ridge community high school and he signed off on a form that he was used to signing off on at his high school at the beginning of the year for deans admin and athletic directors our previous athletic director from 2016 and 19 received this monthly payment for three years until she decided to move to a different school when dr leatherwood took over at our school mr donnelly showed her the form and then she signed off on it every july or august for the payroll to handle it at the beginning of each school year the one-time payment of a thousand dollars is given one time a month or one time a year and what i've had my coaches do is we've agreed to donate that to our athletic fund because if not we've got
153nine sports that'll be about 90 bucks a piece for an entire three months or four months of work of each individual sport so we have put that money towards our athletic foot how did somebody in not in payroll catch this mistake back in 2016 when our first ad was getting paid how in the world am i responsible for something that i had nothing to do with understand that i'm not going to get paid for my work as the aed anymore but to punish me for an oversight committed by someone else repeatedly isn't right i'm already losing roughly 240 in income each month losing an additional 4783 over the next four years is detrimental to my family that's pennies to the district that's 10 percent of my pay okay i want to put 10 percent of
154my pay in the tithing not 10 of pay and it's something that i shouldn't have to pay back um my boss mr hyde do you have staff that you would like to have him speak with he has we've addressed the issue with mr pitts and others there has never been a middle school stipend and this he's he is partially correct there's an error that should have been caught by payroll and precluded from even taking place however the team has indicated to me that they they are incredibly flexible if we were to underpay an employee there is language within the contract that stipulates the time frame in which we must fully we must make the employee fully whole in this case we are not establishing that expectation that within 72 hours or a week we get
155reimbursed fully while it's a partially an error on our part i believe that mr pitts and the team have met with this gentleman and offered him multiple opportunities and avenues in which he could approach reimbursing us for overpainting so not one time i offered to pay them half of it as a supplement settle and he said you're already getting a good deal that uh no pretty much you good luck i'm sorry then i would then i would ask you respectfully go back to mr pitts you will follow up with this gentleman and see what we can find what we can arrive at that's it can you if you'll speak with mr pitts he'll step outside and speak with you thank you next is will wood [Applause] will wood and then on deck is george bennett
156thanks you guys for the will wood from frost proof again tonight um i want to thank my teachers growing up for telling me about people like paul revere and our founding fathers for the freedoms that we have in this country and uh i joined the air force i've got a background in pharmacy because i felt like i want to give something back to my country today unfortunately we are being a lot of people don't understand what i'm trying to speak about here is a secret cabal of men that have the coven 19 is is a world population a deep depopulation agenda and i i can't sum up over a thousand hours worth of research in two minutes so what i'm going to ask you guys to do is look at some of the quotations from
157bill gates david rockefeller henry kissinger ted turner concerning world depopulation here in georgia elbert county georgia is a georgia guide stones it's called the stonehenge of north america it says maintain world population under 500 million people in perpetual balance with nature okay this has been their program for many years and into the 70s henry kissinger once said it should be u.s foreign policy highest priority is to depopulate the third world this is why we fund birth control around the world while we fund abortions around the world klaus schwab is one of our biggest enemies with the world economic forum many of our world leaders especially in the former uk dominated countries like uk australia ireland scotland etcetera are going by his playbook including joe biden this transcends politics it's uh coven 19 a great reset
158you can buy this book on amazon this is what the world leaders are using right now to take over our world klaus schwab comes from a nazi family and we fought two wars against the nazir against the germans specifically but one against the nazis they're using kova 19 as a pretext to take over the world if you don't believe this look at what's going on in australia look look on what's going on on new zealand look on look what's going on in the uk right now if they would have had their guns in fact the uk or australia was disarmed about two or three years ago but they're locked down in the entire country over basically the cold okay there are tens of thousands of reputable doctors including dr zelenko and the america's frontline doctors
159that basically debunk fauci completely they have successfully treated thousands of patients without a single death dr fitzgerald joseph fitzgerald in florida has successfully treated more cases of covet than anyone else in florida not a single death and it's the the medicines that they are banning ivermectin hydroxychloroquine um vitamin d three zinc and vitamin c so just wake up i can't i can't stress enough do your homework please thank you thank you george bennett bennett and on deck is scott young yes my name is george bennett congress is 11 kenyan court winter haven um i wasn't going to speak tonight he's going to come to come to the meeting night but i'm going to speak to about three hours ago but i wrote something up i'm here to tell you about the the incident that happened
160at um uh it came out on the news lately about a substitute teacher at lakeland high school she's being charged with sexual battery on a student my question is to the board why are you not doing a better job of vetting substitutes are you performing adequate background checks and should you be adding on your application questions concerning ethics and morality okay and when it comes to hiring procedures with these substitutes to be absolutely sure you're getting good qualified replacements to fill these vacancies um evidently you're having problems with your staffing and um and this is something you need to address because you know this just recently happened this just came out in the news today so i think you need to do a better job in uh hiring substitutes you know because this this this
161if you uh check your news you'll find this was in the news today that's all i have to say thank you sir [Applause] scott young and then on deck is lola smith hello everybody i'm a native here at polk county born in bartow raised in alturas i now live at 50 69 sweet leaf court here in bartow i come to praise cesar not to bury him i want to thank you guys for coming out to al tourists the other night to take part in what we felt was very important you're gracious to us i think you came out there with one idea you left with another one but you listened we are grateful we look forward to working with you all in the future and once again i didn't know we were running campaign speeches
162tonight or maybe i'd have prepared one but seriously you guys can have politics but thank you again and i just want to say i think you guys do a great job and this is democracy at its best thank you sir [Applause] and lula smith my name is ola smith i'm 10 years old i'm from baldwin elementary they're adjusting the volume as soon as this person starts speaking thank you the other day we were out running errands we happened upon some tourists they didn't have to say they were tourists it was obvious from the shorts and flip-flops on a cold florida morning one of them saw me in my code and asked if i was crazy clearly he was a crazy one it was below 70 degrees my mom explained we both had acclimated that means
163we got used to the environment we lived in cold to me was hot to him acclimating is a form of adoption a way to survive in a dangerous or uncomfortable place that got me thinking especially after the recent school shooting in michigan over 180 school shootings have happened in the us in my lifetime i'm only 10 years old but i've acclimated that is why i know it takes the whiff of two standard textbooks to stop a bullet there are new strains of covet emerging every day but we seem to have acclimated to that too much like school shootings the public speaks in sadness when students and teachers die and much like school shootings everyone quickly returns to normal and nothing changes all because we believe in those life we believe those lives are a price
164we play for freedom freedom to carry an ar-15 into starbucks the freedom to send your sick child into school mathletes in most of the world innocent lives are not seen as tokens to be traded but here in america we have acclimated we are numb to death i beg you all for months to mandate max in our school now 17 polk county school employees are dead because you refused we need to do better not just about mass but in all areas where life are priced being paid people all people are priceless and politics should reflect that thank you for your time have a happy holiday thank you lola and bishop mincy [Applause] kind father in jesus name we thank you tonight for this privilege and opportunity you've given unto us today to be gathered together in
165this room we thank you oh god for this board we thank you for the superintendent and all of his staff today we thank you for all of these men and women that have come tonight and have voiced their opinions and shared their thoughts lord jesus we're in this season of joy and peace and we ask the night that your blessings will go with us and bless us and i was going out and i was coming in out down sitting in our uprising bless our families bless our loved ones god there's so many people that are don't have an uh a misfortune and we just ask that you restore your love and your gracious power upon all of us tonight as we leave this place looking forward to that we will come together with new thoughts
166new ideas a new heart and ask for your forgiveness for all of our evilness and bless us oh god to go forth to accomplish and be a blessing to all of our children and our children's children do this this night and we will give you glory we will give you honor and we will give you praise and we will tell you thank you lord because of you that it is so and it is done in jesus name we pray amen amen seeing no further business to come before the board that will adjourn our meeting [Music] you